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Institute of Archaeology

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Guide to Completing the Proforma

SITE IDENTIFIERS

Site The name by which the location of the hundred meeting-place is most commonly known or as used in the excavation report
Hundred Use hundred name as recorded in Domesday Book [Excel file: 85kb]
Parish Modern (post 1974) parish within which the site is located
County Use the pre-1974 historic county division
ID no. / Class For Project use only
Checklist from written sources Yes/No tickboxes, and 'Details' field. Enter relevant Domesday Book entries. Other useful resources are the Gazetteer of Markets and Fairs in England and Wales to 1516 and 'locations' listing of the Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England

LOCATION AND DESCRIPTION

E/N O.S. Easting and Northing - always provide a 12-figure grid reference, refer to plan / survey. Provide in metres an assessment of the accuracy of the location; in many cases the meeting-place may only be defined to a locale, or field
SCR
(Site Certainty Rating)
Enter a number between 0-5, where:
5 - Strong, contemporary evidence supporting location at a particular place
4 - Identified from place-name evidence, convincingly supported by a number of earlier forms
3 - Identified from place-name evidence and post-Conquest sources
2 - Local tradition and post-Conquest sources
1 - Modern scholarly guess based on topographical attributes of the site
0 - Site lost
LCR
(Locational Certainty Rating)
Enter a number between 0-5, where:
5 - Can be located precisely, i.e. within 20m
4 - Can be located closely (within 100m) to a field on the basis of field-names or the convergence of archaeological features
3 - Can be located to a spread of place-names over a wide area
2 - Can be located to a settlement name
1 - Can be located to a parish
0 - Site lost
Is the site spatially central / peripheral to the hundred? Give an assessment of the location of the meeting-place relative to its territory, e.g. "centrally-located"; "near hundred boundary"; "central, on parish boundary"
Is the site located at a communications hub? Yes/No tickboxes. Provide a description of the crossing, e.g. crossroads of Margary 27 and 116
Comments Discuss the locale in general terms, and list any other potentially meaningful landscape associations or evidence

FIELD ASSESSMENT

Sound-shed recorded Yes/No tickbox
Sound-shed spindle Annotate the shape of the area of audibility, making note of clarity of observations at set points/orientations (e.g. can you hear all the detail/ hear some/none of words spoken at the meeting-place)
Schematic panorama Sketch of 360º horizon showing major landforms and routeway approaches
Modern Setting Yes/No tickboxes most closely describing the modern setting
Can be located within Define in metres how closely the site can be identified in the modern landscape
Aspect Descriptive text field, e.g. South-facing slope; hilltop; etc
Conditions e.g. overcast, poor visibility
Wind direction e.g. "north-westerly", "south-easterly"
Are there distinctive landscape markers (natural or artificial) in the vicinity? Yes/No tickboxes
Discussion Additional thoughts on the potential significance of the site. Discuss the area of visibility. List any potentially significant topographical features (e.g. barrows, watercourses, rock formations) and their inter-visibility from the site. Identify any topographical simulacra (the likeness of natural features to cultural forms) which you think may be significant
Checklist Yes/No tickboxes of additional observations
Initial and date  
Continuation Sheet Use this to draw a sketch plan of principle features, or attach a print-out of an annotated OS map of the area