As usual we try to balance the quantity of new records being produced in the course of fieldwork with that which leaves the building. This year a concerted effort by the fieldwork team, in particular David Perry, has seen off a vanload of boxes, destined for the national archive at NMRS in Edinburgh. SUAT is now trying, we hope successfully, to implement the RCAHMS digital archiving policy which was introduced in response to the growing quantity of digital information produced by archaeological units.

Finds archiving has met with mixed success this year. We have now successfully transferred a number of assemblages from excavations funded by Historic Scotland to their store at Croft an Righ. These included a collection from a series of excavations carried out in 1981 in Inverkeithing which were allocated to NMS. In total, some 29 boxes of finds were transferred to HS.

As in previous years, the rate at which boxes of finds leave our offices and Brackens store fails to keep pace with the accumulation rate from new excavations. This problem is not unique to SUAT: other archaeological units are finding that it has become extremely difficult to find a permanent storage space for excavation material from developer-funded interventions. Local museums are in their turn affected by a lack of space and have become more selective in their bids for archaeological assemblages. While we have made every effort to find homes for finds, it may be that we in future we will have to make the decision to dispose of material which has been disclaimed by the Crown, unpalatable though this may be.