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The remit of SAFU and the beginning of a South-East legacy

As we explained in our first anniversary news piece, the proposal for the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit (SAFU) came about through discussions between the Department of Environment and Institute of Archaeology, with a specific remit to work on rescue archaeology projects in Sussex. Progress reports on the first 10 years of the SAFU were published annually in the , nowadays available to read online. These provide an invaluable insight into not only the projects worked on during those early years, but how and why particular sites were chosen ‘from the mass of sites destined for destruction’ (Drewett et al. 1975, 14).

Looking back over those annual progress reports, it’s clear that despite the rescue context, sites were selected with a developing research framework in mind. Projects had both chronological and geographical spread, selected with potential to address ‘specific outstanding questions in Sussex’. Within the first few years, this approach was refined further and four research projects were established to frame the work of SAFU and selection of sites. These research projects were: 1) Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements and their territories, 2) Pre-Roman Iron Age settlement in relation to environment and economy, 3) A multi-period settlement project at Bullock Down, and 4) The origin of Sussex towns.

Many of the archaeological sites worked on in this first decade are now enshrined within SAFU history due to the significant research contribution made, for example at Bullock Down, Black Patch, Belle Tout, North Bersted and Oving, Boxgrove, Lewes, and Seaford. The benefit of our longevity working in this region means that we continue to explore these places and landscapes, as seen through recent work at Seaford Head and in our

By 1981, many of these research projects had been completed and published and others were being expanded or developed in different directions, including a focus on the settlement of the Coastal Plain 1000 BC to 1000 AD, another landscape zone that remains firmly at the core of ASE’s research.

From SAFU to FAU

In 1984, a mere 10 years after its establishment, the unit was evolving. It published its tenth and final SAFU Progress Report, deciding the annual round up seemed superfluous now site reports were appearing with little delay. Whilst that is to be commended, it strikes me that the discontinuation of these summaries in the IoA Bulletin was a real loss, as this publication served a different, broader audience than that reached by the site reports, and even those published in the county journal. The loss of visibility of the Field Unit in subsequent volumes is striking and I fear was possibly detrimental to the link between academic and commercial archaeology.

You may have clocked the use of Field Unit in that last sentence. The 1984 Progress Report also records the first name change: to the Institute of Archaeology Field Archaeology Unit (IoA FAU) due to the broadening scope of the unit and undertaking of work outside of East and West Sussex.  This name remained in use for many decades and even now many staff within the IoA still refer to us as the Field Unit.

…and from FAU to ASE!

However, alongside the FAU, new trading names were established. In 1991 South Eastern Archaeological Services (SEAS) was launched as a division of FAU in response to the developing nature of commercial archaeology. The basis of and 1990 saw the formal integration of the provision for archaeology within UK government planning policy, with the release of Planning Policy Guidance 16 (PPG16). The requirement for developers to provide funding for archaeological investigations to mitigate their impact remains the basis on which we undertake the majority of our projects, although now under the evolved guidance of the National Planning Policy Framework.

But the name SEAS proved relatively short lived and the snappier, more concise Archaeology South-East was adopted in 1996 - in an evolving competitive market such things mattered!

We’ve remained ASE ever since, with no plans to change our name again! And we’re still very much part of the UCL Institute of Archaeology. We may have grown from our Sussex base and handful of staff, to a multi-office organisation with over 100+ strong team, but we remain as committed to our core values and purpose of research and training as we did on day one.

References

Drewett, P, Bedwin, O, Bell, M, Freke, D, Gibson-Hill, J, Gregory, V, King, A, & Tatton-Brown, T, 1975 Rescue archaeology in Sussex, 1974. A Progress Report on the Sussex Archaeological Field Unit. , 13-70

Cover image photo cut out copyright Chip Creative.