Dealing with Unprecedented Scale and Complexity: Lessons from Archiving HS2 Digital Archaeological Data

Construction of High Speed 2, the UK's largest linear infrastructure project, brought the need to undertake the most extensive archaeological programme the country had ever seen. Huge challenges to how its archaeological outcome would be recorded and preserved derived from the monumental geographic and temporal scale of the project. As specific government-mandated requirements were imposed on the overall scheme, this created a complex regulatory environment for the large number of parties involved. Discrepancies between companies with distinct methodologies and individual reporting standards posed a threat for the consistency of the records and therefore their preservation, access and reuse. The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) was tasked with setting standards for data deposition, digital preservation, and access to all archaeological data created by HS2. With over 31 terabytes of data in an array of formats, the project shone a light on the limitations of existing frameworks when managing large-scale, heterogeneous datasets while presenting a significant opportunity for innovation in archiving practice, infrastructure, and rationale. The scale and complexity of HS2 introduced both technical and epistemological risks to how we provide long-term digital preservation to the data entrusted in our care while ensuring it remains findable, accessible, interoperable, and re-usable. This paper analyses and reflects upon how the ADS has been transformed by the demands of HS2, not only in its technical capacity but in its understanding of the infrastructural, organisational, and ethical dimensions of large-scale digital curation. Challenges offered a proving ground in which future approaches to archaeological data management and archiving could be tested. This led to new tools, adaptable procedures, better workflows, and more nuanced perspectives on the value of curated data. Our capacity to ensure data integrity and accessibility in perpetuity has expanded, demonstrating the project’s long-term infrastructural benefit to the sector on a wider level.