Training in geophysical survey in the Channel Islands
The third largest of the Channel Islands, Alderney lies just short of 60 miles off the south coast of England, and only eight miles from France. Alderney has a rich and diverse history of settlement. A handful of archaeological investigations on the island, many of which were undertaken in the early 1900s, revealed the existence of material culture dating from the Late Palaeolithic onwards.
Each summer, a team of staff and students from Staffordshire University and its Centre of Archaeology visit Alderney to undertake a range of archaeological heritage projects.
Instigated in 2010, with the aim to preserve the sites by way of digital record and to develop alternative forms of heritage presentation, the visits have allowed the physical remnants to be recorded and enabled further information to be added to the archaeological Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) for the Channel Islands. The key sites investigated to-date have included The Nunnery, an important Roman Fortlet site at Longy Bay, and Les Huguettes, a prehistoric site located within the island’s golf course.
New opportunities for increasing academic and public knowledge of the sites are being realised through GIS analysis, 3D reconstructions and digital presentation of data.