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Collecting Information and Developing Narratives: the use of data on HS2 Phase One, UKOpen Data

John Halsted

Cite this as: Halsted, J. 2024 Collecting Information and Developing Narratives: the use of data on HS2 Phase One, UK, Internet Archaeology 65. https://doi.org/10.11141/ia.65.4

Summary

A visual representation of the stones from the recently unearthed Roman road at Blackgrounds, Northamptonshire, being recorded with modern technology. Image credit: HS2 Ltd
A visual representation of the stones from the recently unearthed Roman road at Blackgrounds, Northamptonshire, being recorded with modern technology. Image credit: HS2 Ltd

Large Infrastructure projects create vast amounts of data during the course of programmes of archaeological investigation, from the description of an archaeological deposit to complex three-dimensional survey data. It is key for future research and the completion of the archaeological programme that the data support the questions we wish to answer.

This paper will consider the range of data generated from HS2 Phase One, and the potential of those data in the process of analysis and interpretation and their broader spatial and research context . The paper will also consider which data are key for different stages of the project lifecycle, and the extent to which the process of data capture may influence the narratives that are developed.

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  • Keywords: archaeology, HS2, infrastructure project, project lifecycle, data capture
  • Accepted: 6 Sept 2023. Published: 7 February 2024
  • Funding: The publication of this issue is funded by HS2 Limited, as part of the HS2 Historic Environment Digital Archive.
  • Related digital archive: High Speed Two Ltd. (2023) HS2 Historic Environment Digital Archive [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1113008
  • PDF download (main article text only)

Corresponding author: John Halsted
John.Halsted1@hs2.org.uk
HS2 Ltd

Full text

Figure 1: HS2 GIS data:  colour-coded Romano-British features with an object selected, near Ryknild Street, Staffordshire. Image credit: HS2 Ltd

Figure 2: Park Street and Freeman Street, Birmingham, archaeological feature data displayed in GIS. Image credit: HS2 Ltd

Figure 3: St James’s Gardens, London, burial ground excavation and distribution points for depositum plates within GIS. Image credit: HS2 Ltd

Figure 4: Fleet Marston, Bucks, selecting Archaeological Object data with trial trenching locations and geophysical survey results in GIS. Image credit: HS2 Ltd

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