What is Archaeology Otherwise: New Forest?
Archaeology Otherwise: New Forest partners with people who live near, work around, or are otherwise connected to the New Forest to try a different approach to archaeology.
More than a typical excavation, we want to:
- Join with locals to design a method to record the New Forest on local terms – as they experience it.
- Test the method together, in combination with usual archaeological methods, at a real site near Lyndhurst.
Who and when?
Our project is led by UCL (University College London) with Forestry England, MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) and the University of Bristol.
With paid community contributors recruited from the local area, we will,
- Conduct design workshops in November and December 2026 at Brockenhurst Community Centre
- Do fieldwork together in February 2027 at the archaeological site near Lyndhurst.
- Host a policy event in March 2027 to wrap up our findings.
Why?
Archaeology’s methods have stayed mostly the same in the UK for decades. Archaeologists excavate and record a limited set of technical data, such as geographic coordinates, material and soil type, dimensions, and the spatial orientation of different features.
This information is useful, but it only shows part of the story. Gathering a limited set of data produces a limited version of the past.
Research has shown that the story is richer when other types of information are recorded, especially information about present-day people’s
- Senses
- Emotions
- Atmospheres
- Memories
- Observations (about plants and animals that live in the site, etc.)
Our project, Archaeology Otherwise: New Forest, builds on this past research, particularly the findings of Transforming Data Reuse in Archaeology.
With locals, we can learn new ways to collect archaeological data and build fuller understandings of the area and its histories. This approach supports our long-term goal of making archaeology equally available to and beneficial for those living, working, and most affected by it, including the local environment, plants, and animals.
What are our goals?
We aim to,
- Design and create new, alternative ways of collecting archaeological information through workshops with paid local community participants.
- Apply these methods together with communities in the field at a Forestry England site near Lyndhurst in the New Forest.
- Speak to officials in archaeology and government about what we’re learning at two events: an open day at the archaeological site in February 2027, and a policy day in London in March 2027.
But Archaeology Otherwise is just the start.
We are building relationships and developing ways of working that we hope will carry on into the future. We want to show that archaeology can produce more nuanced interpretations when a broader group of people, using diverse methods, create it together.
