Wessex Archaeology is a British company that provides archaeological and heritage services, as well as being an educational charity. Apart from advice and consultancy, it also does fieldwork and publishes research on the sites it surveys. The company has had a long association with the archaeological television programme ''

Time Team ''Time Team'' is a British television programme that originally aired on Channel 4 from 16 January 1994 to 7 September 2014. It returned online in 2022 for two episodes released on YouTube. Created by television producer Tim ...

''. Wessex Archaeology is a Chartered Institute for Archaeologists Registered Organisation.

History

Founded in 1979 as the Wessex Archaeological Committee, its name was changed in 1983 to the Trust for Wessex Archaeology. It was one of the first

rescue archaeology Rescue archaeology, sometimes called commercial archaeology, preventive archaeology, salvage archaeology, contract archaeology, developer-funded archaeology or compliance archaeology, is state-sanctioned, archaeological survey and excavation car ...

units in the country, focussing on the numerous sites in and around

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wi ...

. In 2005, it was renamed Wessex Archaeology Limited, trading as "Wessex Archaeology". Since the advent of developer-funded archaeology with PPG 16 and its successor, PPS5, it has expanded its commercial operations across the UK with offices in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest Town status in the United Kingdom, town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the c ...

and Sheffield. WA opened its Scottish office in Edinburgh in 2010. It includes a large

marine archaeology Maritime archaeology (also known as marine archaeology) is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, s ...

department. Further regional offices were opened in Welshpool and Bristol in 2014.

Charitable aims

Wessex Archaeology is a registered charity with stated aims: "to promote the advancement of the education of the public in the subjects of culture, arts, heritage and science through the pursuit of archaeology". The results of its archaeological investigations are lodged with local authorities via the

Archaeology Data Service The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) is an open access digital archive for archaeological research outputs. It is located in The King's Manor, at the University of York. Originally intended to curate digital outputs from archaeological researchers ...

's OASIS system and reports can be accessed online through their online library.

Notable people

Phil Harding, who appeared on the archaeological television programme ''

'', works for Wessex Archaeology.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Archaeological organizations Charities based in Wiltshire Wessex 1979 establishments in England Organizations established in 1979