ABSTRACT
Government archaeology in Northern Ireland has developed quite differently from elsewhere in the UK, and this has led to a very tightly integrated operation in which all government archaeological functions, except museums, are concentrated within the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. Ireland enjoys a high rate of survival of field monuments compared with many other countries. The legislative basis is the Historic Monuments Act 1971, a fairly short piece of legislation which emphasizes the protection of monuments, an aim which can be said to underlie all the Department’s archaeological work. Northern Ireland forms a manageable unit in which to respond to emergencies, and each year the Department’s workforce caps several newly discovered souterrains. Statutory protection of monuments takes two main forms: scheduling and state care.
