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Stop ground-disturbing work around the discovery, keep people and machinery out, leave the material exactly where it is, and notify your supervisor and the responsible local authority. If the material could be human remains, treat it as an emergency and contact police or the locally designated authority immediately. Do not restart affected work until an authorized archaeologist, heritage authority, police service, or project representative gives the required clearance.
There is no single worldwide reporting rule. Duties depend on the country, state or province, local authority, project consent and the type of discovery. The procedures below combine common emergency practice with documented examples from Oxfordshire in England, Queensland in Australia, British Columbia in Canada and French public-works contracts. Use them as a response framework, then follow your approved chance-find plan and current local instructions.
Immediate actions in the first minutes
- Stop work in the affected area. Shut down excavation, grading, drilling, trenching or other ground disturbance close to the material. Do not keep operating while someone makes a quick inspection. The purpose is to prevent machinery, vibration, weather or people from damaging the find or its surrounding soil.
- Keep people and equipment away. Tell nearby crew members what has happened and establish a safe exclusion area. Follow the site safety plan for barriers, plant isolation and public protection. Barrier tape may help mark a perimeter if your procedure permits it, but tape is not a substitute for physical barriers, traffic controls, confined-space protection or other controls required by the safety plan.
- Leave the discovery in place. Do not pick it up, brush it clean, wash it, turn it over, expose more of it or dig around it. Archaeological meaning often depends on the object’s exact position and relationship to surrounding layers. If it has already become detached, place it somewhere secure only when the applicable authority or project procedure directs you to do so; otherwise do not move it.
- Notify the site chain of command. Contact the foreperson, site supervisor, project manager or the person named in the chance-find procedure. Give a factual account rather than guessing the object’s age or value.
- Contact the responsible authority. The supervisor or designated heritage professional should use the local reporting route. If the project procedure allows a worker to report directly, provide the same location and discovery details to the relevant council, heritage department, archaeology branch or other authority.
- Wait for instructions before resuming. An authorized professional may need to inspect the find, document it, set a buffer, recover material or change the work method. A verbal assurance from an unqualified person is not necessarily clearance.
Stop only the work that could affect the discovery unless the authority or site safety lead directs a wider shutdown. Keep normal safety, environmental and security controls operating around the exclusion area.
Protect the discovery without disturbing it
Set a controlled perimeter
Use the smallest practical area that keeps workers, vehicles, spoil, water runoff and vibration away from the find. Keep excavated soil, tools and spoil heaps from collapsing into the exposed area. Record who established the perimeter and when, so the next supervisor understands what has been protected.
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Record from a safe distance
If the project procedure permits, photograph the exposure and record its location without touching anything. A site grid reference, coordinates, drawing, chainage, level or nearby fixed feature can be more useful than a photograph alone. Note whether the material is still embedded, whether machinery has already disturbed it and whether anyone has removed anything.
Do not clean or improve the find
Cleaning can destroy residues, tool marks, paint, human tissue or other evidence. Excavating farther to “see what it is” can remove the very context an archaeologist needs. Weather protection should be used only when it is part of the approved procedure and will not contact or damage the material.
What to tell the supervisor or authority
Prepare a concise report using facts that another person can verify. Oxfordshire County Council’s guidance asks for what was found, where it was found and how it was found; other systems require additional information.
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- Project identification: site name, address, work package, contractor and the person making the report.
- Exact location: coordinates or grid reference, excavation or structure number, depth, level and a nearby permanent landmark.
- Time: when the material was first seen and when work stopped.
- Discovery circumstances: the equipment and task in progress, such as trenching, piling, grading or utility installation.
- Description: visible material, shape, colour, construction, inscriptions, bones, pottery, metal, stone, timber or other features. Describe what is visible; do not identify it as a particular culture or period unless a qualified person has done so.
- Condition and position: whether it remains embedded, was accidentally detached, is wet, unstable, damaged or threatened by weather or collapse.
- Possible human remains: say clearly if bones or a burial-like feature could be involved. Do not wait for certainty.
- Actions already taken: machinery stopped, people moved, photographs made, material touched or moved, and any safety hazard present.
- Contact details: supervisor, project manager, landowner or client representative, and the authority or police service notified.
Keep copies of emails, forms, photographs and call records in the project file. Use the authority’s current form when one exists; the information requested and the order of notification can change by jurisdiction.
Possible human remains require urgent handling
Do not touch, lift, expose further or relocate suspected human remains. Stop work around them, prevent access and notify police or the locally designated authority immediately. Heritage officials may also need to be informed, but they do not replace the emergency reporting route for a possible death or crime scene.
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Workers should not decide in the field whether bones are ancient, modern, animal or human. Report the uncertainty and preserve the scene until the competent authority assesses it. Queensland requires immediate notification to Queensland Police when human remains are discovered during development. British Columbia’s mining-exploration procedure distinguishes suspected current remains and directs police contact when the operator representative is unavailable. French public-works contract conditions require immediate notification to the mayor. Those examples illustrate why the correct contact depends on location and project type.
How requirements differ by jurisdiction
The following examples are not a universal code. They show the kinds of differences a crew must check before acting.
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| Jurisdiction or setting | Initial response | Who is notified | Movement, waiting or special rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oxfordshire, England | If possible, stop work in the area. | Contact Oxfordshire County Council with what was found, where it was found and how it was found. | The council advises on next steps and may visit. Planned development may require professional evaluation and contractor-led archaeological work. |
| Queensland, Australia: non-Indigenous historical archaeological artefacts | Stop works and protect the discovery. | Contact the responsible Queensland department and submit its notification form. | Do not disturb the find for 20 working days unless the government gives written permission. This period is specific to the Queensland procedure. |
| Queensland: First Nations cultural heritage or fossils | Use the relevant category-specific procedure rather than assuming the historical-artefact route applies. | Follow the separate reporting route for Indigenous cultural heritage or fossil and palaeontological discoveries. | Requirements and contacts differ from the non-Indigenous historical-artefact process. |
| British Columbia, mining exploration | Stop nearby work, keep people away and record the location. | Notify the project team, the Archaeology Branch and Indigenous groups with an interest, as directed by the chance-find procedure. | Human-remains instructions include police contact for suspected current remains, including when the operator representative cannot be reached. |
| France, cited public-works contract conditions | Do not move potentially artistic, archaeological or historical objects without authorization. | The contractor reports to the project manager; the contractor and client jointly declare the discovery to the mayor. | Accidentally detached objects should be secured. Human remains are reported immediately to the mayor. These are contract conditions, not a statement about every French project. |
Oxfordshire’s service is a county-level example, the Queensland instructions were last reviewed on 6 June 2025, and the British Columbia procedure page reported an update on 11 February 2026. Confirm that the version, authority and contact details in your project plan are current.
Identify the type of discovery before choosing the reporting route
Archaeological artefacts or structures
Pottery, worked stone, metal objects, walls, floors, postholes, burials, timber features and unusual layers may all have archaeological significance. Preserve the whole exposure, including surrounding soil, and use the general chance-find process unless the project plan assigns a more specific route.
Indigenous or First Nations cultural heritage
A discovery may have cultural significance even when it is not an obvious artefact. In British Columbia, the procedure includes notifying Indigenous groups with an interest. Queensland has a separate First Nations cultural-heritage route. Do not assume that a general archaeology notification satisfies those obligations.
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Fossils and palaeontological material
Fossils can be regulated through a different department and form. Queensland specifically separates fossil and palaeontological discoveries from non-Indigenous historical archaeological artefacts. Keep the material in place and ask the authority which procedure applies.
Human remains
Use the urgent police or locally designated authority route described above. A heritage assessment can follow, but it should not delay emergency notification.
What happens after the report
The authorized response may include a site visit, photographs and measured drawings, specialist identification, a larger exclusion buffer, consultation with Indigenous or community representatives, or a decision that the material is not significant. The authority may require controlled excavation, recovery, reburial, preservation in place, redesign or monitoring.
For planned development, Oxfordshire describes professional evaluation that can include desk-based assessment, non-invasive survey and trial trenches. A locally qualified archaeological company may be needed to carry out that work under the authority’s direction. Do not appoint a contractor to excavate the discovery independently unless the responsible authority and project consent allow it.
Queensland’s 20-working-day no-disturbance period is a formal example of a written waiting rule. Other places may use a shorter or longer period, a permit, a written release, a police decision or a project-specific instruction. Never transfer that Queensland period to another country or state.
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When can affected work restart?
Resume only when the person or authority empowered by the project and local law has cleared the affected area. Ask what form the clearance takes: an email, signed field record, permit, revised method statement, archaeological completion note or police release. Keep the clearance with the daily records and brief every shift that could enter the area.
The authorization may cover only a defined grid, depth, trench or task. Mark its limits on drawings and in the field. If excavation exposes additional material outside the cleared area, treat that as a new discovery and follow the procedure again.
Plan before excavation to reduce delay and confusion
- Include a chance-find procedure in the construction environmental or heritage management plan.
- List current contacts for the supervisor, client, archaeologist, heritage authority, Indigenous or First Nations representatives, police and emergency services.
- Show workers photographs or descriptions of likely finds and explain that they must report uncertainty rather than make their own identification.
- Define who can stop work, who can establish a buffer and who can authorize restart.
- Map known heritage constraints and complete any required survey or assessment before ground disturbance.
- Include discovery response, recording, security, consultation and schedule allowances in method statements and subcontractor briefings.
- Review the plan when permits, contacts, site boundaries or the governing authority change.
The UK Environment Agency notes that heritage is finite and non-renewable and that discoveries can delay capital or maintenance projects. Anticipating how archaeology will be managed can reduce delay risk, but official guidance reviewed for this topic does not provide a general statistic that can predict the length or cost of a particular stop-work event.
Common mistakes and how to recover
Someone already picked up or cleaned the object
Stop further handling, keep the item and any displaced soil secure, record who moved it and where it came from, and tell the authority exactly what happened. Do not return it to the ground or attempt restoration unless instructed.
No one answers the listed contact
Keep the area protected, escalate through the project’s backup contacts and use the authority’s emergency or police route when human remains or an immediate safety threat may be involved. Record each attempted call and the time.
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The crew is unsure whether it is archaeology
Uncertainty is a reason to report, not a reason to continue. Describe the visible facts and let the responsible professional classify the material.
A manager pressures the crew to continue
Refer to the approved chance-find procedure, safety plan, permit conditions and the authority’s instructions. Continuing through an unassessed discovery can cause irreversible damage and create a larger compliance problem than a controlled pause.
The discovery is outside the planned excavation footprint
Protect the exposed material and notify the same chain of command. The fact that it lies outside the original work area does not remove reporting duties if construction has exposed it.
Practical rule for every crew
Remember the sequence as stop, secure, preserve, report, wait. Stop the disturbance; secure people and equipment away from the area; preserve the find and its context; report through the project and local authority route; and wait for documented direction before restarting. The specific authority, form, waiting period and treatment of human remains must come from the country and locality governing your site.
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