I would have thought the term DBA just denotes that it was desk based rather than a survey and is neutral in relation to whether of or not built heritage is involved or just archaeology. However the Events thesaurus says a DBA is "A programme of assessment of the known or potential archaeological resource within a specified area or site on land, inter-tidal zone or underwater by the consultation and collation of existing written, graphic, photographic and electronic data." Does this need updating? Should the term be updated to 'Heritage Desk Based Assessment' or 'Desk Based Heritage Assessment'?
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Winfield, Hugh
Sent: 30 October 2014 10:58
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HERFORUM] DBA's and HERs
I would agree wholeheartedly with this. Although I don't feel entirely comfortable admitting it, when wearing my DC/DM hat I have told various developers and contractors quite a few times that there is no point in carrying out a DBA for a particular site because I know that nothing new will be turned up and I don't see the point in wasting their time/money in writing it, and my time reading it. Our industrial belt is an area where DBAs are most frequently pointless, as the land was largely reclaimed in the 18th-19th centuries (without written record) - there is so little to write about that it can be covered in the "Archaeological and historic background" section of the evaluation/AP/Geophys report.
I don't have many DBAs in the HER here, partly because of the above but also because I will only add them to the database when they add information or compile large amounts of data. I see plenty of DBAs and DBA type reports held within other documents, such as EIAs, but haven't really ever felt the need to clutter up the HER with them as they are just reformats of my own data.
Also, on a slight tangent and to bring up an old subject, shouldn't we be calling them Heritage Assessments now? I have a few building oriented Heritage Assessments in the HER as they have found a lot of information which either wasn't in the HER or is beyond the scope of the HER.
Hugh Winfield | Archaeologist |
North East Lincolnshire Regeneration Partnership Origin 1, Europarc, Grimsby, DN37 9TZ W 01472323586 | M 07825125964 North East Lincolnshire Council and Cofely, working in partnership to deliver a stronger economy and stronger communities Access Historic Environment Mapping on our iShare Mapping System - http://isharemaps.nelincs.gov.uk/mynelc.aspx
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-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Newman, Martin
Sent: 30 October 2014 10:21
To: Winfield, Hugh
Subject: Re: DBA's and HERs
I have been following this discussion with some interest. Good DBAs are a piece of research which should add to the knowledge of the sites held in the HER as they should include all the research for desk based enhancement of an area that busy HEROs just don’t have the time to do. Those that just repeat what's already in the HER aren't a DBA they are merely the results of an HER enquiry repackaged. There is an IfA Standard for DBAs http://www.archaeologists.net/sites/default/files/node-files/DBA2012-New_Format.pdf
Sources or Events, I'd say both. Just as with a piece of fieldwork the result is a grey literature report, with a DBA a piece of research leads to a grey literature report, the research is the event the report is the source.
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Issues related to Historic Environment Records [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jason Dodds
Sent: 28 October 2014 15:32
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [HERFORUM] DBA's and HERs
Hi,
Here at West Yorkshire we are looking at the way which we record desk-based assessments on the HER database. We feel that it is not advantageous to create a record which just recycles the findings of a DBA and in some cases is just a list of sites recorded on the HER. How do others deal with the recording of DBA's on the HER?
Many Thanks
Jason
[log in to unmask]
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