Introduction

This chapter provides an overview of the way in which archaeology has been presented, interpreted and made available to the wider public in Great Britain — England, Scotland and Wales — over the past few years. The chapter begins by examining briefly the phenomenon of ‘community archaeology’ in Great Britain; a term which in recent decades has, arguably, become synonymous with public participation in British archaeological heritage. What this means in the British context is explored below. Some examples are given of participation, both community-led and organisation-initiated; recent changes to the landscape of archaeology in Great Britain are presented, and the challenges as well as opportunities that lie ahead are discussed.

‘Community Archaeology’: What Does This Mean Exactly?

Community archaeology seems first to have emerged as a term in the 1970s with the pioneering work of Peter Liddle, still actively supporting community archaeology in Leicestershire since that time and widely regarded as a key founder of community archaeology as a movement. There are parallels in its evolution to be found with discussions of the related term ‘public archaeology’ initiated in the USA, also in the 1970s (McGimsey 1972); this term is still popular and, as noted elsewhere, is even the namesake for an international journal (Smith and Waterton 2009, 16).

The actual definition of ‘community archaeology’ has been at times problematic to capture. Such definitions as do exist are fairly broad. Corbishley (2011, 104) offers that: ‘community archaeology is the term most often used to describe any outreach aspect of an archaeological project but it can mean a number of different types of project and involve a range of “publics”‘.