The wooden stakes of a prehistoric enclosure at Must Farm, Cambridgeshire, preserved by waterlogging.
Section showing wooden stakes from a Late Bronze Age palisade at Must Farm Platform, Cambridgeshire. © Cambridge Archaeological Unit.
Section showing wooden stakes from a Late Bronze Age palisade at Must Farm Platform, Cambridgeshire. © Cambridge Archaeological Unit.

Water and Wetland Heritage Strategy

Wetlands are landscape features valued for their habitat and cultural heritage characteristics. They comprise fragile, biodiverse environments such as mires, ponds, rivers and their floodplains and estuaries.

Their deposits may be predominantly organic (i.e. peat) or mineral (i.e. alluvium) but the characteristic common to all is that they are seasonally or permanently waterlogged. This is excellent for the preservation of organic and some inorganic remains, which is why they are of special value to archaeologists.

Key themes in the strategy

  1. Understanding the distribution, character and value of wetland and waterlogged archaeology.
  2. Prospection and evaluation of wetland and waterlogged archaeology.
  3. Understanding the value and significance of assets designed to exploit and manage water.
  4. Research into the viability, sustainability and implementation of in situ preservation for water dependent archaeology.
  5. Long-term ecology: developing knowledge transfer from palaeoecology.
  6. Understanding threat from climate change and environmental management.
  7. Improving protection for water management and water-dependent assets.

If you have any queries about oor approaches to research, please email using the contact details below.

Research

Also of interest

Peat Database
Waves over Woodlands
Peatlands
Progress for Peatlands
Historic Watercourses and Climate Change: Mapping the History of Rivers and Floodplains