While working as Senior Archaeologist ins the Assessments Team at Museum of London Archaeology I developed the funding proposal for and completed the Assessment of archaeological resource in aggregate areas on the Isle of Wight from 2009-2011. This English Heritage (now Historic England) and Aggregates Levy Sustainability funded project identified and quantified the archaeological assets within aggregate-producing areas of the Isle of Wight, to facilitate more informed advice concerning the impacts and mitigation of present and future aggregates extraction on the Island.

I developed the funding proposal with other MOLA specialists, undertook much of the assessment work and wrote the report. I isolated the aggregate producing geologies on the island and received the Historic Environment Record data for those areas. This was supplemented by a ‘Backlogs Project’, where I identified all archaeological invesitgations prompted by past aggregates extraction; and a separate National Mapping Programme survey of two areas of the island. The resulting project report included a clear description of the nature and density of archaeological assets in aggregate areas, research strategy and agenda that is broadly applicable to any archaeological investigation of the aggregates resource; suggestions of the most appropriate types of archaeological investigation for archaeological assets under threat from aggregates extraction, reflecting the type and density of known assets across the island.

Outputs

• A 27.5% increase in archaeological assets of known date, and a 22% increase in total assets.
• Asset density figures with clear patterns in the asset densities of particular periods.
• A research strategy and agenda with general research piorities applicable to any investigation of the archaeology of the aggregates resource:
  • Research into unmapped River Terrace Deposits;
  • Extension of the NMP survey across the Island;
  • Re-assessment of assets recovered by antiquarians (where possible);
  • Targeted investigation of assets of uncertain date or nature. 
• Proposed archaeological mitigation strategies reflecting the type and denisty of archaeological assets across the island.
• A peer reviewed technical report:
  • Pethen, H. Chandler, J. Bowsher, D. and Waller, R. 2011. Assessment of archaeological resource in aggregate areas on the Isle of Wight. English Heritage project no. 4769. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000178 Report completed for Museum of London Archaeology and available online at the Archaeological Data Service (http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/iofwaggs_eh_2011/).