IDENTIFYING AND PROTECTING HISTORIC LANDSCAPES

Six years ago, Darvill and colleagues reported (ANTIQUITY 61: 393-408) on the Monuments Protection Programme, a new English initiative to bu ild, from a century of haphazard acts of site protection, a set of bal anced judgements and priorities by which to recognize ancient places t hat are more precious, genuinely of a national importance. The Program me, they tell ANTIQUITY, has now completed the first-stage review of i nformation in local sites and monuments records and is proceeding with the identification of nationally important monuments in every English county. This further paper reports on how the Monuments Protection Pr ogramme is addressing landscapes, as distinct from 'spot sites' with c lear limits, where the matters of defining a 'relict cultural landscap e' and judging relative value are harder.