CITiZAN (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.
Launched in 2015, CITiZAN is hosted by MOLA 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.
Over the past three years, the CITiZAN team has delivered over 350 free community-based training sessions and public events and trained 583 citizen scientists, building a dedicated network of volunteers equipped with the skills and systems needed to survey and monitor threatened sites. The project has trained 583 citizen scientists, rediscovered the Bronze Age shaft at Belle Tout in East Sussex, discovered a Roman coastal trackway in Calshot, Hampshire and crucially preserved England’s rich coastal heritage by record.
The innovative project has crowd sourced data for over 1500 new archaeological features and mapped them on an interactive coastal map and submitted 2300 condition surveys monitoring coastal erosion of our island heritage. The resulting database holds valuable new knowledge and is a unique and valuable resource providing new opportunities for research.
The Charity Awards is Civil Society Media’s annual awards programme held to identify, recognise and reward those organisations doing exceptional work in all areas of charitable activity.
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. ”
Images are available here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cv2cv46ofutfsub/AADrJvvKJDBAHn6qMZw-E8Hua?dl=0
To find out more about CITiZAN visit www.citizan.org.uk or to get involved visit www.citizan.org.uk/get-involved. To find out more about the CITiZAN app please visit www. citizan.org.uk/app. For press enquiries, please contact media [at] mola.org.uk. For general enquiries please contact citizan [at] mola.org.uk.
Notes to editors
1. About CITiZAN
CITiZAN (Coastal and Intertidal Zone Archaeological Network) delivers community-based training to create an infrastructure and network of volunteers with the skills and systems to be able to record, monitor and celebrate the highly significant, but fragile and threatened intertidal archaeological sites across England. CITiZAN is funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, The Crown Estate and National Trust with further support from Historic England. MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) is leading the project with project partners the Council for British Archaeology and the Nautical Archaeology Society.
2. About MOLA
MOLA provides independent archaeology and built heritage advice and professional services. With offices in London, Northampton, Basingstoke and Birmingham, MOLA’s 300 staff helps to discharge planning conditions expertly and swiftly. MOLA works in partnership to develop far-reaching research and community programmes. Find out more at mola.org.uk, on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.
