This week I’d like to highlight an amazing website which has endless potential to provide both a fun passtime and contribute towards archaeology: Beacons of the Past.
The project builds on a massive set of LiDAR data, covering 1400 km2 across the Chilterns. The issue is, this is a HUGE amount of data, and it’s incredibly difficult to spot the subtle signs of historic occupation with only a few people. That’s where you come in – the website asks members of the public to look through the area, and identify possible sights of archaeological interest. There’s a very real chance that, if you find one, it will be completely unknown to the modern world.
Here you can see an example of the LiDAR scan of a modern village.
You can find the website here, and a little more about the project here. To access the data all you have to do is create an account on the site (which just requires an email), and there is an easy to follow step-by-step guide on how to access the data and spot possible archaeological features. When you spot something, there’s a nice and easy system of reporting it
Happy hunting!
Interested in learning a little more about archaeological mapping? I’ve written an article here on the amazing free online resource that is the Aerial Archaeology Mapping Explorer.