We’re delighted to announce our CITiZAN project (the Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network) has won the Arts, Culture and Heritage award at the Charity Awards 2018!
The award recognises three years of successfully mobilising local communities and training them to monitor and record Britain’s rich but at-risk archaeological sites along over 6000 miles of coastline and tidal foreshore.
We have hosted CITiZAN since 2015 with generous support of the Heritage Lottery Fund, National Trust, The Crown Estate and Historic England and project partners Council for British Archaeology and Nautical Archaeology Society. It is the first national community-led project to tackle the alarming threat to our coastal heritage posed by extreme weather, rising sea levels and tidal scour in England.
By using a web-based recording system and app to create standardised records of exposed archaeological sites and plot them on an interactive map, the project facilitates the crowd-sourcing of data which can be shared and kept forever, creating an accessible, permanent record of archaeology that is at risk of being washed away.
We are so proud that CITiZAN and their fantastic team of volunteers have:
-
Mobilised 583 new volunteer citizen scientists with the skills and systems needed to survey and monitor threatened sites
-
Delivered 350 free community-based training sessions and public events
-
Enabled 1500 new archaeological features to be added to an interactive coastal map by citizen scientists
-
Submitted 2300 condition surveys, monitoring coastal erosion of our island heritage
-
Rediscovered a 40m Bronze Age shaft at Belle Tout in East Sussex, as well as 35 vertical timbers of a Roman coastal trackway in Calshot, and a 6ft-long mammoth tusk!
-
Created 1 database of valuable new knowledge, a unique and valuable resource providing new opportunities for research
Stephanie Ostrich, CITiZAN Project Officer said:
“We’re so proud to have won this prestigious award. It’s an amazing recognition of the work that our incredible volunteers have done so far and the impact that innovative thinking can have on tackling the challenge of recording our threatened coastal heritage and creating best practice."
Congratulations to the CITiZAN team, and thank you again to our wonderful volunteers, project partners and supporters! If you want to find out more about CITiZAN or get involved in the project, visit the CITiZAN website or download the app.
