Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging), which has recently come into use for airborne environmental monitoring, is now beginning to find success in archaeological survey. Liaison between the Environment Agency and English Heritage has led to a lidar survey of the Stonehenge landscape, where new sites have been discovered, known ones extended and its potential as an important new tool for the management of archaeological landscapes is discussed for the first time. Lidar has the potential to radically transform our future understanding and management of the historic environment. The article by Devereux et al. (pages 648-660 of this volume) shows the technique applied to woodland.

Airborne light detection and ranging (lidar) allows the identification and accurate recording of upstanding features on the ground to sub-metre accuracy.The technique has previously been tested in areas of known high monument density such as the Stonehenge World Heritage Site with exciting results, but it is also proving usefulin less spectacular areas.This paper willlook at some recent work carried out by the Aerial SurveyTeam at English Heritage concentrating on an area in the WithamValley, east of Lincoln in the east of England.The area has recently been covered by an archaeological aerial survey project as part of the National Mapping Programme; examining the lidar data for the same area has revealed some interesting results. Lidar clearly has potential for recording certain site types and especially in highlighting relationships between sites in the broader landscape, but there are limitations with the standard off the shelf data due to issues of spatial resolution. The study also makes clear the importance of not using lidar data alone, but ensuring that it is part of an examination of all readily available sources.

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