HMS Archaeology Committee

The Archaeology Committee of the Historical Metallurgy Society was set up to improve communication between archaeologists and metallurgists. It meets three times a year and initiates projects on a range of topics of interest to both groups. Recent and current projects of the archaeology committee include:

Archaeometallurgy Datasheets
The Archaeology Committee has produced a highly successful range of datasheets to help archaeologists recognise and understand archaeological evidence for metallurgical activities. The datasheets served as a starting point for the Archaeometallurgy Guidelines produced in 2001 by English Heritage. Members of the committee were also closely involved in the development of the English Heritage guidelines on Science for Historic Industries. The committee has recently started to revise the existing datasheets and add new datasheets on topics not previously covered.

Archaeometallurgy Research Framework
English Heritage has initiated the production of research frameworks for archaeology. There are nine regional research frameworks and several period-based research frameworks. The treatment of metallurgical issues in these research frameworks varies and the archaeology committee has produced its own research framework covering metallurgy at a national scale and covering all periods. The HMS Research Framework on Archaeometallurgy was published in the summer of 2008. Printed copies of the research framework are available at £6.50 per copy (download order form). The electronic version of the research framework can be downloaded as a single document (31MB) or as six separate sections;

• section 1 (2.3MB)
• section 2 (8.5MB)
• section 3 (7.4MB)
• section 4 (12.7MB)
• section 5 (0.1MB)
• section 6 (0.3MB)