Who we are

About Field Archaeology

Field Archaeology is a research atlas for England, made by Gitwix Limited, a software company in Manchester. It brings LiDAR, historic maps and the recorded past into one spatial research environment, where the evidence for a place can be questioned together and every source is cited.

Last updated 25 October 2026

Our aim

We want the evidence for England's past to be quicker to assemble, easier to question and exact to cite. A student starting a dissertation, a lecturer setting a practical, a field archaeologist beginning a desk-based assessment and a Historic Environment Record officer answering an enquiry all begin in the same way: by gathering what is already known about a piece of ground. Field Archaeology exists to make that stage shorter and more rigorous, so that more of the work goes into the question itself.

Three commitments follow from that. Every record keeps its source, its licence and its own number. What the evidence means is left to the person using it. And we will say that the atlas saves time, or improves a piece of work, only once we have measured it and published how.

Why we built it

The evidence for England's past already exists, but it is held in pieces. The LiDAR is on one service and the historic Ordnance Survey maps on another. The national list of protected sites, the aerial mapping, the finds data, the place names and the Domesday and tithe records each sit on their own website, in their own format, under their own licence, and every part of the country has its own Historic Environment Record.

Our own list of sources shows how far that goes. Field Archaeology draws on 32 datasets: 28 for England, and four more for where the map crosses into Wales and Scotland. On the England side they come from 19 organisations and communities, from the Environment Agency and Historic England to the Archaeology Data Service, the National Library of Scotland, Wikidata and OpenStreetMap. Seventeen are under the Open Government Licence, and most of the rest come under nine further sets of terms, from Creative Commons licences to the map and imagery providers' own. Data and licences lists every one.

That is only what one map holds. The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists' standard for desk-based assessment lists six kinds of source for a study of this sort: archaeological databases, historical documents, maps and pictures, aerial photographs, geotechnical information, and secondary and statutory sources, kept between them by national bodies, Historic Environment Records, archives, libraries, museums, universities and the Ordnance Survey. Bringing them together for one landscape question means finding each, reconciling their formats and coordinates, often in a GIS, and citing each one properly. It takes time, and GIS skills that not every student or researcher has been taught.

What Field Archaeology does

Field Archaeology is one spatial research environment for England. Its datasets sit together on one map, where they can be read against each other around a research question: an earthwork on the LiDAR, the same field on the Ordnance Survey maps from 1885 onwards, the list entry that protects it, the features mapped from the air around it and the nearest place in Domesday Book. Search works by National Grid reference, postcode or place.

Every record cites itself. Its card ends with its source, the record's own number, linked to the original entry where the publisher has one, its National Grid reference, and Cite, which copies a Harvard reference with the date. Exported rows carry the dataset, publisher and licence of each record, and every report ends with its sources and licences, so the terms travel with the evidence.

How research is done in it

The atlas follows the stages of a landscape study. The table gives each stage, what the atlas does for it today, and what the academic release, now in development, adds, using the names the tools have in the atlas.

The stages of an investigation in Field Archaeology.
Stage	In the atlas today	In development
Start an investigation and set the question	My marks keep pins, lines, areas and circles, each with a note and the layers that were on.	Research projects, each with a research question that everyone it is shared with sees.
Select the evidence	The Layers menu: LiDAR relief and eleven further LiDAR views, eight Ordnance Survey editions from 1885 to 1961, and the national and local records.	Ask about an area: every record from the open datasets in an area, counted by period and by site type in Historic England's FISH terms, with distance and bearing. Records in view, a list to read with a keyboard or a screen reader.
Analyse the landscape	Swipe & compare, Elevation profile, Hybrid LiDAR 3D and dated satellite imagery.	Compare views, with two or three maps side by side; Map regression, every old map edition at a point, oldest first; My maps, to place your own scans, geophysics plots and plans on the ground.
Record observations	My marks.	Project items with a site type and period, the kinds of evidence, a confidence and a status; Field recording, which saves even with no signal, and the Fieldwalking grid.
Attach sources	Cite on every record card, and Sources and licences, with a citation for every dataset.	References on every project item, import from a file such as an HER extract, and Export references as RIS or BibTeX.
Work with colleagues	Marks and files are private to the person who made them.	Sharing a project as editor or viewer; Classes, with five ready-made practicals; Your institution, for an institution's lead.
Write it up	Area report, and Print a map to scale from 1:1,250 to 1:25,000 with the National Grid, a scale bar and a north arrow.	Desk-based assessment, in five steps to a print-ready report, and the Map regression figure sheet.
Export or share	Export this view as CSV, shapefile or GeoJSON on the British National Grid; LiDAR heights as GeoTIFF; Your files.	GeoPackage; LiDAR picture for GIS; Saved views, with a link that opens the map again as it was and a reference to cite it.

What each tool means for teaching and research is set out on For universities.

Speed and rigour

Two things decide whether this is worth a researcher's time: how long it takes to assemble and cite the evidence for a landscape, and whether the result is better documented than it would otherwise be. We have not measured either yet, so we make no claim about them here. They are the first things the research programme below will measure.

For rigour, the standard is already written. The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists asks a desk-based assessment for ‘a confidence rating or statement on the reliability of sources used’, and for a list of ‘all primary and secondary sources used, as well as potentially relevant sources not consulted’. The atlas is built around both. Every record carries its source and licence. Every area report ends with what it does not include and with its sources and licences, and says that it is no substitute for a search of the Historic Environment Record. In the academic release, each item in a research project carries a confidence, from certain to doubtful.

From the field to the record

One of the features we are developing would add evidence that none of those 32 datasets holds: where people searched, as well as what they found. It is in development: none of it is built, and no detectorist's finds or walks reach the people using the atlas today.

What it would do

Metal detectorists would record their digs and finds at source, in the recording app Gitwix Limited makes for them: the walk, and every find with a photograph, its exact findspot and its depth, in the Portable Antiquities Scheme's own terms, on solo digs, group digs and rallies. ‘Ready for PAS’ would prepare each find for the finder submission tool the Scheme opened in its new database in 2026, for the finder to submit from their own account. The app would never report anything on its own, and a find that may be Treasure would go to the Finds Liaison Officer, not through the submission tool, which the Scheme says is not for Treasure.

The recorded digs and finds would then join Field Archaeology de-identified: never public, with exact findspots shown only to verified research bodies and never with a finder's name. The walks would come with them, labelled for what they are: opportunistic search with measured effort, not systematic survey. What researchers learn would go back to the finder. Detectorists would be told plainly, before they first record, how their records would be used. How the landowner's agreement is recorded is still being settled, and before any of it is switched on we will publish a privacy notice and terms for Field Archaeology and complete a data protection impact assessment.

Why it matters for research

Detectorists find most of what the Portable Antiquities Scheme records: 94 per cent of the finds it recorded in 2024 were found by metal detectorists. Researchers already use that record widely, and the Scheme's report for 2023 counts 993 research projects that have used its data.

What a map of finds cannot show is where nobody looked. Historic England's guidance on portable antiquities, writing of detector surveys on battlefields, puts it plainly: ‘It is not enough to GPS record each find location as part of a “random wander”.’ The survey must be consistent, it goes on, so that the gaps in the record reflect what is in the ground, ‘not how much time was spent in any area’. Detectorists' walks are not systematic survey, but each would carry its path, its duration and the finds made along it, so that a researcher could tell a field that was searched from a field that nobody walked. An empty walk would still not prove the ground is empty, and the data would say so. We found no published equivalent: no study of hobby detectorists' search tracks at scale.

From the field to the record sets out the feature in full: what it is to record, who would see what, and how it works with the Portable Antiquities Scheme.

The research programme, 2026 to 2027

Field Archaeology is being piloted through 2026 and 2027, and we will judge it on what it does for the people using it. The programme below is planned. Nothing in it has been agreed with any organisation yet, and there are no results to report. We will publish the method, the consent model and the results openly.

An evaluation with Finds Liaison Officers. Whether a find prepared in the field reaches the Scheme in better shape than by the usual route. The measures include the officer's minutes per record, the fields complete on arrival, the precision of the findspot, photographs usable as they are, records accepted without a further visit and the days taken to report potential Treasure. Finds Liaison Officers look at finders' own submissions at their discretion and have no duty to review them, so the evaluation asks for their time and assumes nothing.
University pilots. With one or two departments, each after an ethics review and under a data agreement, measuring the time it takes to assemble the evidence for a landscape question, the sources consulted, the datasets used, the researcher's confidence in the result, whether people carry on using the atlas, and whether search coverage changed an interpretation.
Case Study 001, Boroughbridge. A real landscape question at Boroughbridge in North Yorkshire, beside Aldborough, where the Roman town of Isurium Brigantum lies beneath the village, worked through in the atlas from the question to the report, drawing on a dig recorded there. It would go ahead only with written consent from the landowner and from every finder, only if no part of the dig falls within the scheduled monument at Aldborough, and with anything published given at parish level or coarser. The planned outputs are an OASIS record, a short report, and an aggregate release of the data with a DOI.
Independent review. We plan to ask specialists with no stake in the company to review the method and the findings. No one has been approached yet.

Each strand, what it measures and how to take part are on Research programme 2026 to 2027.

What it is not

It is not a Historic Environment Record (HER), and it does not replace a search of one. Most of England's HERs are not published as open data, so the Cornwall and Scilly HER is the only one on the map. Find the HER, in the atlas, says which of England's 83 HERs covers a place and how to ask it for a search.
It is not a replacement for a desktop GIS. It works beside QGIS and ArcGIS: its exports open in both, and it reads your own CSV, GeoJSON, KML, GPX and shapefiles.
It is not run with, or endorsed by, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the British Museum, Historic England or any university.
It is not a journal, a society or an archaeological unit, and it is not connected with any of a similar name.

Whose data is it?

The records, the LiDAR heights and the historic maps come from the bodies that publish them, and Field Archaeology shows each under its publisher's licence. A record keeps its publisher's own number and, where the publisher has a page for it, links back to the original entry, which is the authoritative one. Data and licences lists every dataset with its publisher and licence. Naming a publisher does not mean it endorses Field Archaeology.

Some layers are our own analysis, made from those sources. They include the LiDAR views we draw from the Environment Agency's heights; the channels and springs traced from the LiDAR; heritage heat, a density map made from the records; and the place-name origins, which sort names into Roman, Celtic, Viking and Anglo-Saxon. How to cite shows how to cite them, with the date you used them.

Maiden Castle hillfort in Dorset in grey relief: its ramparts ring the hilltop, with fields, tracks and a farm around it. — Maiden Castle, Dorset, in LiDAR relief: the Environment Agency's own hillshade, as the Agency serves it. Environment Agency one metre LiDAR, Open Government Licence v3.0.

The same frame of Maiden Castle lit from six directions, its ramparts drawn as dark bands on a mid grey ground. — Maiden Castle, Dorset, in Multi-light relief: our view of the same heights, lit from six directions. Environment Agency one metre LiDAR, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Who makes Field Archaeology?

Field Archaeology is made by Gitwix Limited, a private limited company registered in England and Wales. Gitwix Limited also makes FieldFinders, a mapping and recording app for metal detectorists and landowners, and Field Archaeology grew out of the map we first built for it.

Company number 15817715, on the Companies House register
Incorporated on 3 July 2024
Registered office: 9 Owen Street, Manchester M15 4UA
Registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller, number ZC211025

Who can use it now?

Field Archaeology opened as a private pilot on 23 October 2026. It covers England: the map runs a little past the coast and the borders, and some national records carry on into Wales and Scotland.

Places are by invitation. We invite some people directly, and anyone can ask for a place with Request access on the sign-in page, saying who they are and what they would use it for. We read every request ourselves and reply by email.

Field Archaeology is free while the pilot runs. Licences for departments and whole institutions are priced on request, as Licences explains. We are building it with the people using it, so their feedback shapes what comes next.

What we keep about you

Your account holds your name, email address, university or organisation, department and role. The marks you save and the files you add are private to you, and anything you bring onto the map from your own files stays on your device unless you choose to save it. If you asked for access, we also keep your request: what you told us on the form, with a scrambled form of your network address and the name of your browser, to stop abuse of it. We do not sell or share personal data.

With the academic release, now in development, we will also count what each account uses, such as sign-ins, reports, exports and prints, with the date and the institution, and never what was looked at. An institution's lead will see the name, email, last sign-in and counts of each person in their institution.

The database, sign-in and Your files are held in Frankfurt, Germany. The atlas's server functions run in Washington DC, in the United States, and some of the other services it uses are also outside the United Kingdom. Field Archaeology does not yet have a privacy notice of its own: the atlas links to our company's privacy policy, and we will answer any question it leaves open.

From Your account you can download your account details, marks and list of files in one file, or delete your account. Questions sets out what each one covers, and how to ask us for the rest.

How to reach us

Email admin@fieldfinders.co.uk with a question, a correction, a dataset you would like to see added, or a licence for a department or institution. Members can also write to us from Send feedback in the atlas. Our registered office is at 9 Owen Street, Manchester M15 4UA. Short answers to common questions are on Questions.

Questions and answers

Is Field Archaeology run with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, Historic England or a university?

No. Field Archaeology is made and run by Gitwix Limited. It has no partnership with the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the British Museum, Historic England or any university, and showing a publisher's data does not mean the publisher endorses it.

Do detectorists' finds reach Field Archaeology today?

No. From the field to the record is in development, and none of it is built. No detectorist's finds or walks reach the people using the atlas.

Has the research programme produced any results yet?

No. It is planned for 2026 and 2027, and nothing in it has been agreed with any organisation yet. Until there are results we make no claim about time saved or outcomes, and when there are, we will publish the method and the results openly.

Who is the data controller?

Gitwix Limited, which is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office as a data controller under number ZC211025. Write to admin@fieldfinders.co.uk with any question about your data.

How much does a licence cost?

Places in the pilot are free. Licences for departments and institutions are priced on request: write to admin@fieldfinders.co.uk with the department or institution and how you would use the atlas.

Sources

British Museum (2026) 2024 was a record-breaking year for archaeological finds and Treasure in Britain [press release]. Available at: https://www.britishmuseum.org/about-us/press/press-releases/2024-was-record-breaking-year-archaeological-finds-and-treasure-britain (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (2020) Standard and guidance for historic environment desk-based assessment. Reading: CIfA. Available at: https://www.archaeologists.net/sites/default/files/2023-11/CIfA-SandG-DBA-2020.pdf (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Companies House (no date) GITWIX LIMITED, company number 15817715. Available at: https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/15817715 (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Environment Agency (2022) LIDAR Composite Digital Terrain Model (DTM), 1m. Available at: https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/01b3ee39-da3f-47b6-83da-dc98e73a461f/lidar-composite-digital-terrain-model-dtm-1m (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
English Heritage (no date) Aldborough Roman Site. Available at: https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/aldborough-roman-site/ (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Historic England (2018) Our Portable Past. Swindon: Historic England. Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/publications/ourportablepast/heag177-our-portable-past/ (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Information Commissioner's Office (no date) Register of fee payers, registration reference ZC211025: Gitwix Limited. Available at: https://ico.org.uk/ESDWebPages/Entry/ZC211025 (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Portable Antiquities Scheme (2024) The Portable Antiquities Scheme Annual Report 2023. Available at: https://www.ncmd.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/PAS-Annual-Report-2023.pdf (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Portable Antiquities Scheme (2026) FAQs about the new database. Available at: https://finds.org.uk/faqs-about-the-new-database (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Portable Antiquities Scheme (2026) Finder submissions guide. Available at: https://finds.org.uk/guides/detecting-guidance/finder-submissions-guide (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
Stephens, S. (2026) ‘PAS report highlights public engagement in museums’, Museums Journal, 21 January. Available at: https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2026/01/pas-report-highlights-public-engagement-in-museums/ (Accessed: 25 October 2026).
The National Archives (no date) Open Government Licence for public sector information, version 3.0. Available at: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/ (Accessed: 25 October 2026).