Historic England has published Museums Collecting Archaeology (England) the first of a series of reports to be produced over three years. The reports are intended to provide data to quantify the challenges that museums collecting archaeology are facing; will monitor the rate of change, and provide evidence on which future discussions, focused lobbying and targeted solutions can be based.
Summary of findings:
- 22.7% of respondents that have previously collected archaeological archives have stopped collecting. 60% of those respondents that have stopped collecting archaeological archives are provided by local authorities;
- Lack of space was the most cited reason for ceasing to collect archaeological archives, referenced by 91.4% of respondents, followed by shortage of expertise and staff resource (51.4%).
- 71%museums have 20m³ of storage space available or less. 63.5% of museums that provided estimates for available storage space (and which are actively continuing to collect) believe they will run out of space in 5 years or less at their current rate of collecting; and
- 29.2% of museums with responsibility for the care of archaeological archives reported a drop in staff numbers.