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Archaeology South East (F31)

Archaeology South-East started life as the Institute of Archaeology’s Field Archaeology Unit in the early 1970s. The first purpose of the Field Unit was to train students during the Institute’s field schools in Sussex whilst working on staff research projects in the area.

The unit soon became involved in publicly funded ‘Rescue’ archaeology, becoming the regional unit responsible for the archaeology of Sussex. As the 'Sussex Archaeological Field Unit' it undertook a series of important field projects in the 1980s (including work at Boxgrove Quarry, Roman villas at Bignor and Barcombe, and on the Brighton By-pass).

In the 1990s the unit became increasingly involved in commercially funded projects. Operating as 'Archaeology South-East', and re-structured to meet the exacting standards of the private-sector we have become one of the largest and most effective contract archaeology teams working in Southern England. By 2012 the team had completed nearly 3000 commercial projects for a wide variety of clients.

In May 2013 Archaeology South-East was expanded to absorb the former Essex County Council Field Archaeology Unit, involving the transfer of all staff, projects and facilities. The Essex County Unit had, like its Sussex counterpart, been involved in rescue and contract archaeology since the 1970s. The transferring staff had been responsible for a string of major archaeological projects throughout East Anglia, such as the excavation of the Roman towns at Heybridge and Chelmsford.

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Archaeology South East (F31)

F31 A View From The Edge

F31 A View From The Edge

Description

A View From The Edge: Archaeological Investigation on the Manhood Peninsula, Selsey for the Medmerry Managed Realignment Scheme.

Between 2010-2013, the Environment Agency undertook the managed realignment of the coastline at Medmerry. The project is the largest open-coast flood relief scheme undertaken in Europe and impacted on upwards of 60ha of landscape with rich archaeological potential. The opportunity for archaeological research offered by the scheme has provided a window into the evolution of this distinctive coastal landscape from the earliest period of archaeologically visible human settlement in the Bronze Age through to the modern era.

The geoarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental programme produced a significant sediment archive, an important contribution to the study of the Manhood Peninsula. Important prehistoric archaeology was uncovered including a Mesolithic flint assemblage, partly from an in situ knapping site, and five burnt mounds, radiocarbon dated to the Early-Middle Bronze Age tranisition, recorded in probable lagoon-edge locations. These are succeeded by Middle Bronze Age settlement and more widepsread Late Bronze Age activity, with two settlements within a localised co-axial field system. Historic period remains include Saxon settlement, with boundaries of possible building plots, and a series of wooden structures within the estuarine or lagoon silts, including major conserved wooden structures of 13-14th century date, interpreted as several phases of large fish weir. Detailed recording of six pillboxes and two gunnery range buildings, together with a large assemblage of expended ordnance, allowed for a detailed consideration of the coastal defences installed during World War II.

 

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F31 Between The Twittens: From Iron Age Origins To Burh & Borough. Excavations in Lewes, East Sussex

F31 Between The Twittens: From Iron Age Origins To Burh & Borough. Excavations in Lewes, East Sussex

Description

This volume presents the findings from four urban excavations undertaken within the historic core of Lewes in East Sussex, between 2004 and 2008. It charts Lewes’ evolution from a Late Saxon burh (fortress) to a thriving high medieval urban centre at the head of the newly formed Rape of Lewes, and on through late medieval and early post-medieval times as County Town of Sussex, placing the archaeology of Lewes within the wider historical context of English settlements and towns.

This volume presents the findings from four urban excavations undertaken within the historic core of Lewes in East Sussex, between 2004 and 2008. It charts Lewes’ evolution from a Late Saxon burh (fortress) to a thriving high medieval urban centre at the head of the newly formed Rape of Lewes, and on through late medieval and early post-medieval times as County Town of Sussex, placing the archaeology of Lewes within the wider historical context of English settlements and towns.        

The earliest activity was of a developing Middle to Late Iron Age riverside and upland agricultural settlement, with evidence for its subsistence economy, metalworking and infant burial practices. The settlement began with curvilinear enclosures and expanded uphill ending with a more formalised, linear division of the landscape.

A large Late Saxon feature recorded on the western side of St Nicholas Lane is interpreted as a possible element of the burh fortifications and if so, presents the first archaeological remains of the fortress thought to occupy the uppermost part of the town, and provides the location of the eastern limits of the burh.

Insights into the lives of Lewes’ Late Saxon and medieval inhabitants, their diet, agriculture and economy has come from numerous deep quarry and refuse pits which yielded huge assemblages of finds including pottery, animal and fish bones, plant remains and artefacts. The remains of several medieval buildings were recorded, alongside ex situ finds of clay and stone building materials. 

By the late 18th- to 19th-century, significant development and expansion was underway in Lewes, reflected on two of the sites by an abundance of brick-built remains

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F31 The Honour & Safety Of The Realm: The Elizabethan & Later Harbour Works At Dover Western Docks Kent

F31 The Honour & Safety Of The Realm: The Elizabethan & Later Harbour Works At Dover Western Docks Kent

Description

Between 2015 and 2018 Archaeology South-East conducted archaeological and geoarchaeological investigations at Dover Western Docks on behalf of Dover Harbour Board. This monograph marks the culmination of over seven years of post-excavation work and details the evolution of Dover’s inner harbour during the post-medieval and modern periods. Remains encountered at the site included two woolly mammoth teeth, deposits probably dating to the early to late medieval periods, high medieval to post-medieval mudflats and part of the nationally important Elizabethan harbour works attributed to Thomas Digges. Later remains at the site included piling works designed by the famous military engineer Bernard de Gomme, an 18th-century timber groyne, evidence of the 19th- and 20th-century promenade with housing and dockyards as well as features related to World War II.

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F31 The Horse Butchery Site

F31 The Horse Butchery Site

Description

The Horse Butchery Site: A high resolution record of Lower Palaeolithic hominin behaviour at Boxgrove, UK.

The Boxgrove Horse Butchery Site represents a significant discovery, preserving a single landsurface associated with tight clusters of flint artefacts and the butchered remains of a large female horse, sealed under intertidal silts. This volume presents the first integrated analysis of this exceptional site. It documents the evidence used to reconstruct activities including biface manufacture, defleshing of bones, marrow extraction and the production of bone tools. 

The Boxgrove Horse Butchery Site began as a small test pit, designated GTP17, excavated in 1988. It quickly became clear that the site represented a significant discovery, preserving a single landsurface associated with tight clusters of flint artefacts sealed under intertidal silts. As excavations continued during the summers of 1989–91, it became apparent that this landsurface also preserved the butchered remains of a large female horse. It provided the first well-preserved and combined accumulation of artefacts and faunal remains from Boxgrove, representing an opportunity to study what appeared to be a hominin group working together to butcher a single animal.

This volume presents the first integrated analysis of this exceptional site. It documents the evidence used to reconstruct activities including biface manufacture, defleshing of bones, marrow extraction and the production of bone tools. Detailed analysis of site formation processes suggest the entire episode possibly occurred within a single day, with the scatters of flint and bone sealed quickly within fine intertidal silts. These silts not only preserved the spatial integrity of the activity at the site, but also sealed a record allowing behaviour of an entire hominin group, including social interactions, to be brought under direct study.

While the sediments at Boxgrove are renowned for their preservation of hominin behaviour at landscape scale, the Horse Butchery Site represents a vivid and intimate picture of group activity at human scales of time and space. With the publication of this volume we present an important case study for Palaeolithic archaeology, one through which aspects of Middle Pleistocene hominin subsistence, ecology, technology and social behaviour can be explored.

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F31 The Management Of the River Stour From The Medieval To Modern Periods: Its Waterfronts & The Development Of Sandwich

F31 The Management Of the River Stour From The Medieval To Modern Periods: Its Waterfronts & The Development Of Sandwich

Description

The fortunes of Sandwich and its environs have been inextricably linked to the river throughout the town’s history. During the medieval and post-medieval periods there were remarkable changes within the landscape. This was influenced by the evolution of coastal shingle barriers and lead to the decline of Sandwich as a port. By the 15th century the River Stour, and consequently Sandwich itself, was deteriorating rapidly.  Archaeology South-East was commissioned by the Environment Agency to undertake an archaeological watching brief, targeted investigations and historic building recording during the Sandwich Town Tidal Defence Scheme, both in and around the town. The scheme involved the construction off 14km of floodwalls and embankments along the Stour, from Richborough to Broad Salts. This volume details the findings of the investigations, which revealed evidence for the management of the river both within and outside the town. Evidence for the progression of the town’s waterfront further into the river corroborates earlier archaeological findings, and palaeoenvironmental data contributes to the wider body of evidence for the evolution of the Stour, which is currently sparse for the medieval and post-medieval periods. Finds included artefacts of Dutch origins, which might hint at trade with Low Countries or Dutch people within the settled population, and evidence giving insights into Sandwich’s local fishing economy.  The results demonstrate that, while the new flood barriers comprise the most recent attempt at flood defence, they are part of a long history of human management of the Rover Stour, stretching back at last as far as the 12th century.

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F31 Two Millennia Of Marshside Settlement: Excavations At Pocock’s Field, Eastbourne, East Sussex

F31 Two Millennia Of Marshside Settlement: Excavations At Pocock’s Field, Eastbourne, East Sussex

Description

This marshside excavation, at the juncture of the South Downs and Willingdon Levels, revealed evidence that it was home to communities that exploited and interacted with these two different landscapes from the early prehistoric to the post-medieval period.

 

The earliest activity was a probable Bronze Age inhumation burial, interred on a conspicuous chalk promontory, with further cremation burials added in the Middle Bronze Age. The first sustained settlement was a substantial Early/Middle Iron Age enclosure, where large-scale saltworking was undertaken as a specialist activity. A subsequent Middle/Late Iron Age settlement, occupied with alteration until the Late Roman period, acquired a specialist crop-processing function, probably when a villa was located to the immediate north in the Early Roman period.

 

In the later 6th–7th centuries, sunken-featured buildings and a post-built hall were constructed. This is the long-anticipated, first identification of Early Anglo-Saxon settlement at Eastbourne, and represents the second largest settlement of the period identified in East Sussex. By the 8th century, this was abandoned, and the site was bisected by a new holloway, re-establishing the connection between the South Downs and the marsh of the Willingdon Levels.

 

A small ‘croft and toft’ type farmstead occupied the site in the high medieval period, before a substantial masonry farmhouse was built in the mid 15th century. In the 16th century, this was converted from an open hall to a fully floored building.

 

The considerable artefact assemblage recovered included over 29,000 sherds of Iron Age pottery, one of the largest fired clay assemblages associated with prehistoric saltworking in southern England, and sufficient post-Roman pottery to establish a fabric type-series for the wider local area.

 

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Around the open track

F31 Around the Ancient Track

£35.00

Description

Around the Ancient Track: Archaeological Excavations for the Brighton and Hove Waste Water Treatment Works and adjacent housing at Peacehaven, East Sussex

This volume presents the findings of a series of large-scale excavations to the north-east of Peacehaven, East Sussex. The excavations amounted to some 36.2 hectares and provided a rare opportunity to examine prehistoric and Roman land-use in the South Downs on an unprecedented scale. Key findings include a large group of Early Neolithic pits, an extensive Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age monumental landscape, Middle Bronze Age settlement, Later Bronze Age field systems and a rare D-shaped building, Iron Age buildings and enclosure system, and an early Roman farmstead.
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Alien Cities

F31 Alien Cities: Consumption and the origins of urbanism in Roman Britain

£35.00

Description

This book examines the economic and social impact of early Roman towns on the landscape of south-east Britain. Utilising the unusually rich database generated by rescue excavations in the region dominated by Colchester and London, it asks how the creation of these cities affected rural landscapes and communities in the first 200 years of Roman administration and control. In addressing these questions the authors hope to give impulse to improvements in the ways that archaeological data are collected, described and disseminated. The methodological focus of the volume involves comparing the evidence for past patterns of consumption, as represented by archaeological finds assemblages from urban and rural sites – comprising coins, pottery, animal bones and other artefacts.
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Excavations on St Anne's Hill

F31 Excavations on St Anne’s Hill.

£35.00

Description

A Middle/Late Iron Age site and Anglo-Saxon cemetery at St Anne’s Road, Eastbourne, East Sussex.

Archaeological investigations, undertaken in 1997 and 1998, revealed further evidence of an important multi-period site located on the crest and south-east-facing slope of St Anne’s Hill, Eastbourne, East Sussex
Around 100 Middle/Late Iron Age storage pits were uncovered: many more than any other non-hillfort site in Sussex and with evidence that grain processing as well as storage may have been carried out at the site. Almost certainly connected are secondary religious offerings deposited within the pits. Soon after the Roman conquest there was a major reorganisation of the landscape with a new field-system and trackway, perhaps as a result of the foundation of villa estates in the area. In the 5th century an Early Anglo-Saxon cemetery was established on the hill, with 193 graves and 11 urned cremations recorded during these excavations. These ranged in date from the 5th and 6th centuries to the 7th century and the accompanying grave goods suggest a community mixed in character.

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Living by the Sword

F31 Living by the sword: the archaeology of Brisley Farm, Ashford, Kent

£35.00

Description

This volume presents the findings of ten archaeological sites investigated at Brisley Farm, Chilmington Green and nearby site, ChristChurch CE High School, Ashford, Kent, excavated between 1998 and 2009. Evidence for activity ranges from the Mesolithic through to the early post-medieval periods, with a focus on the development from a Bronze Age through to medieval landscape. At its height, in the Late Iron Age, Brisley Farm was the focus for an exceptional settlement including ritual elements and two internationally significant warrior burials, which are the latest known from Britain.
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Besides The River Trent.

F31 Beside The River Trent: Archaeological Investigations at Shardlow Quarry, Derbyshire.

£30.00

Description

Between 1998 and 2009 archaeological investigations at Shardlow Quarry, Derbyshire were carried out by Birmingham Archaeology, Trent and Peak Archaeology and Northamptonshire Archaeology. These investigations revealed the complex fluvial and archaeological context of the River Trent. In particular the discovery of two Bronze Age logboats and associated metalwork, including swords and axes, demonstrated that far from being a marginal area the site was an important focus for a range of activities in the prehistoric period.
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Between Thames & Medway

F31 Between Thames & Medway: Archaeological Excavations on The Hoo Peninsula & Its Environs.

£35.00

Description

Three large-scale excavations in north-west Kent - two on the Hoo peninsula and one south of Gravesend – uncovered evidence of human activity from the Mesolithic through to the 20th century. The two former, Damhead Creek power station and Isle of Grain–Shorne gas transmission pipeline, are the largest archaeological investigations undertaken to date on the Hoo peninsula, affording a unique opportunity to challenge previous assumptions and broaden the archaeological narrative.
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In Life & Death

F31 In Life & death: Archaeological Excavations at The Queen's Chapel Savoy, London

£30.00

Description

Excavations carried out within the burial ground of the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy, City of Westminster, London in 2011 provided a unique opportunity to examine the archaeological and historical development of this fascinating location.

This was the site of Henry VII’s 16th century hospital for the poor, which was converted into a military hospital in the 17th century, the barracks and prison of the Foot Guards in the 18th century and redeveloped for civilian use in the 19th century. The associated burial ground was utilised throughout the life of the buildings and beyond, until the final burial in 1854.
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The Boxgrove

F31 The Boxgrove Wider Area Project

£30.00

Description

The Boxgrove Wider Area Project: Mapping the early Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Slindon Formation across the coastal plain of West Sussex and eastern Hampshire.

The Boxgrove site is one of the most important localities in the world for studying the archaeology, geology and palaeoenvironments of the Lower Palaeolithic, during the early Middle Pleistocene. The Boxgrove Wider Area Project recorded the surviving marine and terrestrial sediments of the Slindon Formation, which contain the Palaeolithic in situ landsurfaces, over an east-west distance of 26km between Westbourne and Arundel, 15.5km of which has the potential to preserve archaeological material in a sedimentary sequence similar to that at the Boxgrove site.
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How Houses Evolved

F31 How Houses Evolved: Houses of the Eastern High Weald of Sussex 1350–1750

£30.00

Description

A synthetic analysis of the plan-form and design features of the houses of eastern Sussex. Based on 50 years of study, comparing and contrasting them through time, across different settlement types, and throughout the entire social spectrum, with the aim of understanding the evolution of the house as a home in this region.
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Excavations at Wickhurst Green

F31 Excavations at Wickhurst Green, Broadbridge Heath & The Landscape of The West Central Weald

£35.00

Description

Extensive excavations, carried out between 2007 and 2015, uncovered important remains dating from the Mesolithic to post-medieval periods at Wickhurst Green, Broadbridge Heath, providing the first real opportunity to archaeologically explore the Weald on a landscape scale. The site was home to hunter-gatherers, Iron Age pastoralists, funerary monuments, Roman agriculture and industry. The work aims to set the results of this developer-funded site within its broader landscape context.
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Living By The Creedk

F31 Living by the creek: Excavations at Kemsley, Sittingbourne, Kent

£10.00

Description

A series of archaeological investigations carried out along the route of the Sittingbourne Northern Relief Road identified a multi-period site dating from the earlier prehistoric to the Roman periods. The earliest features were Neolithic/Early Bronze Age pits, waterlogged alluvial deposits and an occupation horizon. A Middle Bronze Age ring-ditch with central cremation burial was found on Kemsley Down. In the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period a field system and possible enclosed settlement were established on Kemsley Down. By the 2nd century AD, the settlement was abandoned and the area by the ring-ditch used as a small cremation cemetery. In addition, a salt-evaporation hearth or saltern was identified on the edge of the marsh.
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Beyond the Wantsum

F31 Beyond The Wantsum: Archaeological investigations in South Thanet, Kent

£20.00

Description

Between 2005 and 2013, Archaeology South-East undertook four excavations on the southern part of the Isle of Thanet, Kent. The sites fall broadly into two divisions, along geographic and thematic lines: the Bradstow School and Hereson School sites in Broadstairs were located on prehistoric round barrows and their associated features; and the Manston Road and St Lawrence College sites in Ramsgate largely had evidence of prehistoric to medieval rural land use, including burial and settlement.
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The Medieval Hospital of St Mary’s

F31 The Medieval Hospital of St Mary’s & Other Features: Excavations at Friary Place

£10.00

Description

The archaeological investigations at Friary Place, Strood, Kent, identified four main periods of archaeological activity from the Late Bronze Age to the 19th century. The most significant findings were evidence of Bronze Age and Roman salt working, a Roman and early medieval palaeochannel and saltmarsh deposits, the remains of the medieval hospital of St Mary, and 17th-century and later post-medieval buildings. In addition, a moderate assemblage of finds and environmental evidence was recovered.

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The Horse Butchery Site

F31 The Horse Butchery Site

£25.00

Description

The Horse Butchery Site: A high resolution record of Lower Palaeolithic hominin behaviour at Boxgrove, UK.

The Boxgrove Horse Butchery Site represents a significant discovery, preserving a single landsurface associated with tight clusters of flint artefacts and the butchered remains of a large female horse, sealed under intertidal silts. This volume presents the first integrated analysis of this exceptional site. It documents the evidence used to reconstruct activities including biface manufacture, defleshing of bones, marrow extraction and the production of bone tools.
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F31 Out of the Weald

F31 Out Of The Weald, The Secret Weald

£15.00

Description

This volume details the results of archaeological work conducted across four sites within the Sussex Weald. Among the findings presented here are some regionally important remains including a Palaeolithic handaxe, perhaps some of the earliest land division so far excavated in the Wealden region dating to the Late Bronze Age, a Roman shrine and what could possibly constitute the remains of an Iron Age fort, one of the hill-slope type.
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