National Occupational Standards in
Archaeological Practice

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AE1 Characterise the archaeological resource and recommend action

AE1.1 Describe the archaeological resource

Performance Required

This will involve:

1. assembling, collating and reviewing all relevant data which defines the archaeological resource
2. clarifying the purpose for which a description of the resource is required
3. selecting methods for describing the resource which are appropriate
4. describing the resource accurately and presenting information in a format that will facilitate further action and decision making

Occupational Context

1. Archaeological resource
   • Sites / landscapes
   • artefact assemblages / structures
   • databases
   • research literature / publications
   • professional resource e.g. consultancy
2. Purpose
   • to instruct users
   • to log
   • to inform supervisors
   • to design protection and preservation
   • to develop an application for future research/ analysis/ interpretation
3. Describing the resource
   • Reconstruct the history of the resource
   • Detail composition of resource
   • Detail application of resource in its own context
   • Describe research already carried out on this type of resource/ Describe what research still needs to be carried out

Knowledge Requirements

You need to know about:

The Resource

• Types of archaeological resource
• Significance of resource
• Ways of analysing/ approaching resource
• Different values and functional capacity of different resources

Required Skills

You should demonstrate:

• Presentation skills
• Observation skills

Evidence Required

You should provide evidence that you can describe the archaeological resource

The candidate should be questioned, based upon Resource Report documentation. This will provide detailed compositional and contextual information on the resource, offering statistical and qualitative data.

Evidence Rules

N/A

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Today's date: 21/11/2008
This page last updated: 6/8/2007 10:58