Scottish Wetlands Archaeology Programme
Scotland is renowned for its large wetland resource of bogs, fens, lochs, rivers, floodplains and estuaries. Some of the earliest archaeological investigations in Scotland revealed the potential wealth of the archaeological resource that they contained. However, archaeological investigation since the 19th century has been unsystematic and piecemeal and along with modern threats to the preservation of wetland archaeology, particularly from afforestation, agricultural run-off and pollution, substantial archaeological deposits have already been lost without record.
SWAP (the Scottish Wetlands Archaeology Programme) was born out of the 1998 international conference of Wetland Archaeology Research Projects in Dublin. The Scottish delegates there, drawn from AOC Archaeology Group, CFA Archaeology Ltd, RCAHMS, National Museums of Scotland and Glasgow and Nottingham Universities agreed that a coherent programme of investigation, preservation and management of the archaeology within the Scottish Wetlands was required. Thus, SWAP was launched.
AOC Archaeology Group members of SWAP have been involved in a number of field projects, such as programmes of work at Moine Mhor and Moss of Achnacree in Argyll and Bute, to explore methods of detecting buried archaeological remains in peatland environments, which was a key aim of SWAP from the outset. AOC Archaeology Group SWAP members have also carried out the South West Scotland Crannog Survey, to monitor the condition and stability of waterlogged deposits encountered on Scottish lake dwellings or crannogs. A year-long pilot programme involving the use of a range of monitoring systems has been undertaken in partnership with the Wetland Archaeology and Environments Research Centre, the University of Hull. SWAP has also launched a leaflet to raise the public profile of Scottish wetland archaeology and members have contributed to a variety of academic publications including Archaeology from the Wetlands: Recent Perspectives. See the most recent SWAP Project.
AOC SWAP members: Anne Crone, Ciara Clarke & John Barber
Research Grants: Historic Scotland