Keeping up to date with Scotland’s Archaeology using ScARF

11 June 2013

As a quick glance through the latest Discovery and Excavation Scotland volume shows, the amount of fieldwork and research relating to Scotland’s heritage is very healthy and exciting. Many of these results take a long time to become mainstream, either in books or articles, as does a synthesis of their importance. It is often also hard to see the woods from the trees, how to know what are the areas we need more research on.

A relatively new website is helping to place many of these finds in context, allowing people to assess the larger picture. The Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF) has been developed by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in partnership with Historic Scotland. Panels of experts have summarised the state of knowledge using a chronological framework, identifying current research strengths in our knowledge and future research themes. Current research panels include: the Palaeolithic & Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age (including Roman), Medieval, Marine & Maritime, and Science in Archaeology panels. They are also looking at how to approach archaeological research into the Modern period.

This synthesis has been published deliberately on a website which invites contributions and discussion, in the hopes that it will remain vibrant, up-to-date and topical. There is an enormous amount of information, and it’s easy to get lost navigating through it. Nevertheless, it is a marvellous resource and well worth spending some time working through the sections.