Reference document for the valuatio

Reference document for the valuation of a site
The valuation process
The following is a short and diagrammatic portrayal of the process that leads to a valuation, first as text and then in a flow diagram (for an earlier publication of this process, see J. Deeben et.al., Proposals for a practical system of significance evaluation in archaeological heritage management, European Journal of Archaeology 2.2, 1999, p. 177-199).
In the first place, an assessment is made as to whether monuments can be typified as worth preserving due to their perception value, on the basis of their aesthetic value or historical value.
The physical quality of the monuments is then assessed. A monument is, in principle, designated worth preserving on the basis of physical quality if the criteria of integrity and preservation together produce an above-average score (five or six points).
The assessment of physical quality is related to the archaeo-region in which the site is located, so that the preservation condition can be examined in relation to other relevant sites. For example, an inhumation grave in the Pleistocene part of the Netherlands which does not contain any bone material but in which a corpse silhouette is present will be assigned a high score, while the absence of bone material in such graves in the Holocene part of the Netherlands - where the presence of bone material is to be expected - will result in a low valuation.
In the case of a medium to low score (four points or less), the intrinsic quality criteria will be examined in order to determine whether the plot is worth preserving. If it is expected that a high score will be assigned to one of the intrinsic criteria, the monument will also, in principle, be regarded as being worth preserving. This ‘safety net’ is intended to ensure that plots with limited physical quality, but which are nevertheless important from the research point of view, score too low and are dropped from further assessment.
Monuments which are designated as worth preserving on the basis of their physical quality are then valued according to their intrinsic quality.
• First of all, an assessment is made on the basis of the first three intrinsic quality criteria; rarity, research potential and group value. In the event of an above-average score of seven points or more, the monument will be designated as worth preserving.
• Once this assessment has been made, a decision will be taken in the case of monuments with a lower intrinsic value (less than seven points) as to whether the criterion of representativeness applies. If so, a proposal will be submitted for a selection of monuments worth preserving to be made per category.
• The other monuments have no preservation value.