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Planarch 1
The first Planarch project (1999 - 2002) demonstrated clearly the advantage of a transnational approach to management of the archaeological resource. Based firstly on developing an understanding of the legal and organisational frameworks for dealing with archaeology and then working together on specific issues relating to the integration of archaeology within the planning process, including:
• Improving field techniques for detecting and establishing the nature, extent, date and quality of archaeological remains potentially affected by development and other activity - this has to underpin effective decision-making relating to management of the archaeological resource at successive stages of knowledge.
• Developing best practices in managing heritage records
• Sharing experience about the story of the Planarch region as told by archaeology
• Improving best practice in reducing the impact of development on archaeology
• Strengthening the links between archaeology and spatial planning
• Promoting awareness of the rich heritage of the Planarch region
It is felt that the project achieved far more than originally envisaged, in two areas in particular. Firstly the opportunity to see at first hand how archaeology interacted with spatial planning in different regions was particularly valuable in Belgium and the Netherlands as structures for archaeology went through a process of change. Secondly by the end of the project there was a true feeling of working together in a transnational sense rather than as a loose amalgam of separate regions.
Background to the Planarch project
North West Europe has an immensely rich cultural heritage which stretches from the appearance of man here some 2 million years ago right up to the present day. This is a transnational heritage which for the most part does not recognise the boundaries of modern political geography but rather is a 'source of European collective memory' (Valetta Convention). In recent years the increasing pressure of development, the modernisation of farming techniques and the impact of natural processes (heightened by global warming and the lack of integrated management of our coasts, rivers and estuaries) have substantially accelerated the threat to this heritage. The threats are very real to all the partners of the Planarch 2 project and the Planarch 2 partnership is thought to be unique among European transnational partnerships in seeking to tackle the problems at a practical level faced by the threats to the collective cultural heritage of NWE. Planarch 2 seeks to find practical solutions to practical problems.
Our heritage has been passed down to us by those that came before, even if they did not always realise its value. For ourselves, who can now appreciate its significance, there is a very real duty of care, a duty to safeguard this same heritage and hand it on to future generations as a witness of ourselves and our achievements over the centuries. In an increasingly materialistic world our shared European heritage is a powerful tool in helping us to realise our collective and common identity.
A rich transnational archaeological heritage
The Southern North Sea has very much been a link as well as a barrier. The surrounding regions with their great rivers, the Thames, the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt, can be seen to have an archaeological and historical coherence connecting Central and Atlantic Europe. At various times during our earliest prehistory Britain was part of mainland Europe, becoming most recently separated by water only some 8000 years ago.
Our earliest Palaeolithic heritage was truly common. During the Mesolithic, rising sea levels flooded the formerly occupied land on both sides of what is now the Southern North Sea. With the arrival of the first farmers some 7300 years ago, broadly similar cultures can be recognised on either side of the Southern North Sea. Similarities in certain monument types and funeral practices can be seen (e.g. Bronze Age barrows), artefacts (English and Irish imports to the continent e.g. gold torcs in N France). During prehistory and much of the historical period the sea and the rivers acting as a series of highways would often have offered an easier means of communication than overland routes.
The Roman Empire is clearly a unifying force across much of the region and the migrations of the Early Middle Ages showed that modern frontiers were very much a later creation. With the formation of nation states, frontiers were still in flux but North West Europe still formed a single social and economic grouping within which the political framework of modern Europe evolved.
The Southern North Sea has been more a crossroads than a border or a frontier. Areas on both sides of the sea were connected, allowing a fertile interplay of cultural influences which reveal the complexity and richness of the North-West European area.
Find out more - go to Monument Search and Timeline.
Cultural Heritage embraces all those remains and remembrances which link us to our past, whether in the landscape around us and its components or in the arts, in languages or in traditions. The historic environment essentially comprises the historic landscape (a natural environment shaped through the course of time by human influence), the built heritage set within it and also the archaeological heritage which overlaps with historic landscape and the built heritage. All partners have a major responsibility at a regional or national level for the archaeological heritage, with a greater or lesser involvement in historic buildings and landscape issues. While, therefore, the main focus of the project is the archaeological heritage many aspects of the project consider the more general historic environment.
The historic environment is an essential part of sustainability and there is a need to identify what is important about the historic environment and manage it in a sustainable manner for the benefit of present and future generations. In a European context this means establishing value at a local, regional, national and transnational level. The Planarch partners have as a major aim the development of effective methodologies and systems of value which will lead to the more effective management of the historic environment both in the individual regions and across the partnership area as a whole.
Understanding, whether at an academic level or rather in terms of a sensitive feeling of attachment or ownership, is the key to developing and applying appropriate approaches to our historic environment. While understanding informs all our actions there is a cycle of identifying, evaluating, managing and promoting which must underpin any strategy.
• Identify means detecting and inventorising all aspects of the historic environment in a systematic way.
• Evaluate means defining the value of the various components of the heritage. Because much of archaeology is buried, intrusive and non-intrusive investigative techniques may need to be used in the field to establish extent, date, character and importance.
• Manage means effectively safeguarding the historic environment, either through preservation or investigation, in accordance with an agreed policy framework. Spatial planning has a key role here.
• Promote means making the historic environment and the information it contains accessible to all interested parties, from specialists to the general public. |
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Planarch has been co-funded by ERDF through the Interreg IIIB Programme
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