A COMPUTER system that will enhance the preservation of major archeological sites uncovered by developers was put on show at the University of Durham yesterday.

Robert Allison, professor of physical geography, said that the £200,000 project evolved during research on 15 historical sites in Central London: “This instrument will enable experts to determine accurately whether leaving historic artefacts in situ at sites where building work is taking place will see them preserved or lost. This will enable everyone involved to determine whether leaving the artefacts in the ground while work continues will result in them being just stirred, shaken or completely destroyed.”

Among the sites where the “Dynamic Loading Test Rig” has been tested is the hospital and priory of St Mary Spital, where 10,500 skeletons from a “catastrophe cemetery” were unearthed. Jane Sidell, of the University College London, said: “Some of the graves had 54 bodies in. Human bone has been extracted for analysis with the new instrument. We shall now be able to judge when more is found, what can safely be left in the ground when the next development takes place at the site” Up until now, because of the hit-and-miss nature of determining whether historic materials would survive, English Heritage sometimes opted for the developer to pour concrete over the remains. However, this has not been suitable at every site.

The 2ft-long instrument into which examples of finds such as bone, wood, glass or sediment are fed is able to determine whether construction work will destroy them if they are left in situ, taking account of the soil in which they are found.

Mr Allison said: “This is important as a cost-effective way of preserving the nation’s heritage at a time when English Heritage is increasingly in favour of leaving major archeological finds in the ground, rather than carting them away to museums.”

The researchers said that they had been awarded their first commercial contract to analyse a site in Yorkshire.

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