Issue 85

November/December 2005

Contents

news

Archaeologists find trowel - and other stories

Bid to list first commercial nuclear power station

Model views - arial photography on the cheap

Return to Gwithian, Cornwall

Cave archaeologists find human remains

In Brief

features

From Ashes to Dust: who cares about sports heritage?
Jason Wood thinks the historic environment is losing out to sport in government spending - and this will worsen as the London Olympics approach. He has a solution

Coast Survey special
Archaeology on the shores of Norfolk and the Isle of Wight

White Badges
Mike Pitts visits poignant wartime field art asking 'Will we remember them?'

Roads to the past: Ireland's archaeological revolution
It's a long road: Dàire O'Rourke reveals extraordinary Irish archaeology in danger from the expanding road network.

on the web

Recommended websites

letters

Views and responses

CBA news

Headlines from the CBA office.

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

features

Coast Survey Special

Archaeologists and others have put considerable resources into exploring coastal and maritime heritage, which until recently had received little institutional attention compared to dry land remains. In July the government published Protecting our Marine Historic Environment - Making the System Work Better: Analysis of Responses (Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government and Department of the Environment Northern Ireland). The report considers last year's consultation on proposals for managing the marine historic environment, with legislation that protects yet, it says, offers flexibility. The focus is on underwater remains, especially but not exclusively shipwrecks. The survey found strong support for protecting marine heritage, but current legislation was said to be narrow, confusing and inconsistent. Improved designations were supported, as in principlewere management agreements. The extension of historic environment records (HERs) to cover marine sites was strongly favoured, as were measures to increase public access to sites and records. Obligatory reporting of all historic marine discoveries was approved. Working groups will soon report on developing these ideas. It is hoped that proposals will be included in the heritage protection reviewwhite paper, due in spring 2006. The analysis can be downloaded from www.culture.gov.uk/historic_environment/heritage_protection_review

We like to be beside the sea: Coast, a 13-part series broadcast July 22-September 2, attracted up to 5m viewers, BBC2's largest factual audience of the year. The five presenters included three archaeologists, Mark Horton, Neil Oliver and Alice Roberts. Part of its success was due to the real star being the shoreline itself. "People like the presenters because they are experts", said series producer Gill Tierney. "They have proper jobs". English Heritage has been active in considering the future of shipwrecks in English territorial waters, which it says has a wreck density amongst the highest in the world. Their spring 2005 Conservation Bulletin was devoted to maritime and coastal heritage.

• Settlements, Shipwrecks & Shellfish - The Norfolk Coast
• Going Out With the Tide - The Isle of White

Settlements, Shipwrecks & Shellfish

BBC television's Coast series was the unexpected success of the summer schedules: Britain's shores are key to her identity. English Heritage has taken a strong interest in coastal archaeology, funding several surveys. In this major feature, we visit two regions, East Anglia and the Isle of Wight. First, David Robertson reports from the Norfolk coast.

Most of us are aware of the impact that coastal erosion can have on buildings, property and communities. A few years ago the dramatic scenes of a hotel at Scarborough succumbing to cliff falls made national news. Visit any coastal area and you will see defence features such as groynes, sea walls and banks.

What is less obvious is the effect that coastal processes have on archaeological remains. It has long been recognised that the English intertidal zone contains a wide variety of ancient and historic sites. In order to establish exactly what is there, and the impact of coastal processes, English Heritage commissioned a series of rapid coastal zone assessment surveys.

Since the late 1990s these walking and recording surveys have been undertaken in Dorset, Kent, the Isles of Scilly, Essex and Suffolk. Discoveries have been made in each area ranging from submerged prehistoric landscapes to second world war anti-invasion features. The projects have established that some sites are being rapidly eroded, that the stability of others fluctuates and that some previously recorded examples have been buried and are protected.

In 2001 English Heritage commissioned the Norfolk Archaeological Unit to carry out such a survey of the Norfolk coast. Once methodologies and timetables had been agreed, preparation for the fieldwork began early last year. Every landowner, land manager and leaseholder along the 160 or so kilometres of the Norfolk inter-tidal zone was contacted. All were supportive and all granted access to their land. Special agreements were secured with English Nature, the RSPB and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust, and promises were made not to visit sensitive wildlife sites during the birdbreeding season. Records of known archaeological sites were consulted, including the Norfolk Historic Environment Record (NHER) and the work of the Norfolk national mapping programme on aerial photographs. Safety equipment was bought, including portable mini-flares and a vhf marine radio.

Fieldwork took place between May and December 2004. Over 110 days, three team members surveyed the entire length of the Norfolk coast. Every beach, cliff face, and saltmarsh was visited, as were Norfolk's two major estuaries (the river Great Ouse and Breydon Water). The beaches were surveyed using parallel linear transects, with adjacent cliff faces often treated as one transect.

Before survey work began it was thought trying to walk transects through the saltmarshes would be dangerous, with hidden hollows, creeks and soft ground providing hazardous obstacles. On the first day in the saltmarshes transects were walked to test this theory. Unsurprisingly, it was found to be valid and all subsequent areas of saltmarshes were examined from sea banks, creek edges and bases and footpaths. As the sloping banks and bases of the estuaries were very soft and could not be walked on, they were also surveyed from sea banks and footpaths.

To ensure the widest inter-tidal zone was visible, work was conducted in the few hours either side of low tide. As the tide times varied considerably throughout the summer and autumn, survey hours were variable. Lots of early mornings, often followed by late evenings, played havoc with all the team's body clocks - though seeing stunning landscapes, sunrises and sunsets made up for any sleep problems!

In theory, working around low tide should have meant that the greatest amount of archaeology was visible. At many places this was the case, with visibility good and sites, features or finds relatively easy to see. However, factors such as poor weather conditions, sediment deposition and cliff falls meant that at some locations archaeology was concealed from the team. As the project allowed for each stretch of beach, saltmarsh or estuary to be visited once only, the results represent a snapshot of the sites present on the Norfolk coast in this particular year.

We recorded all the archaeological sites encountered with written records, drawings and photographs. We assessed the effect of coastal processes on each one, judging condition, vulnerability and potential. We then located them on an Ordnance Survey map using a hand-held global positioning satellite (GPS) unit. This had an accuracy of 5-10m, providing detailed enough coordinates to allow each site to be relocated in the future.

We recorded over 1,000 archaeological structures, findspots, monuments and other features of potential interest. Of these, 104 were already noted on the nher and the information collected is useful as monitoring and management data. For 272, new NHER records were created. These are very important additions to Norfolk's 500 or so previously recorded inter-tidal sites.

The earliest find recovered was a crested flint blade from Titchwell beach. Since the 1970s numerous late palaeolithic and mesolithic flint artefacts (13,000-4,000BC) have been collected from the inter-tidal zone at Titchwell. In 1986 13 worked flints were found in situ on a land surface dating to c10,000-8,000BC.At this time, the coast would have been 60-70km further to the north than today, with much of the North Sea a wide, open plain. The coastal survey artefact compares well with those collected previously: it may originally have come from the relict land surface (which was concealed by the sea at the time we were there).

Neolithic and bronze age flint artefacts (4,000-700BC) were found at a number of locations all along the Norfolk coast. Perhaps the most interesting is proving to be the most enigmatic. This is a "handaxe", found loose on a cliff face at Hopton-on-Sea. Initially the survey team thought it was palaeolithic in date, but once it went to specialists it became apparent it was not. Not only was it discovered at levels stratigraphically higher than palaeolithic deposits, but it is very fresh in appearance and has not been damaged by time in ice age gravels. At the moment, it is thought either to be a neolithic axe rough-out or the work of a modern flint knapper.

The only evidence of Roman activity was a part of a 1st or 2nd century AD copper alloy bracelet discovered on a cliff face at Weybourne. We had hoped to find evidence associated with the known shore forts at Brancaster, Caister-on-Sea and Burgh Castle but did not, possibly due to changes in sea level and coastline since the Roman period. As the Essex and Suffolk coastal surveys recorded "red hills", it was thought the Norfolk survey would. Unfortunately, none of these saltmaking sites (where deposits were scorched red during the heating of saltwater) was found.

Saxon and medieval sites also proved elusive. Two as yet undated alignments of timber posts found near Brancaster could be Anglo-Saxon fish-traps, similar to examples found in the Blackwater estuary in Essex. However, they could easily be post-medieval structures linked to shellfish farming. Features associated with a deserted medieval village at Eccles were excavated in the 1980s. Unfortunately during the survey any surviving archaeology there was buried by at least 2m of sand.

Most sites encountered were postmedieval in date, many connected to Norfolk's small coastal ports. At this time ports at Brancaster, Burnham Overy, Wells-next-the-Sea, Blakeney and Cley-next-the-Sea thrived, with successful fishing industries, commercial shellfishing and coastal and international trade providing economic prosperity. Harbour facilities, such as timber quays, jetties and revetments were recorded at many of the ports. Although most are undated at present, at least one quay and jetty structure at Wells-next-the-Sea appears on a map dated 1782. A piece of 17th or 18th century north Italian slipware pottery was found close to a quay and could provide a date for its use.

Two groups of timber-lined pits were recorded close to Brancaster harbour. These were used for storing shellfish after they had been collected from nearby saltmarsh creeks and before they were taken to markets. The pit groups are marked on an Ordnance Survey map from 1906 as "mussel pits".

Post-medieval wrecks were encountered at locations all around the coast. Some were definitely sea-going vessels and could have been used in coastal and international trade. Others were smaller and may have been used just to travel short distances along the coast or saltmarsh creeks. Individual wreck timbers found loose on the north coast beaches testify to the many wrecks that are not presently visible, either because they are buried, offshore or have been destroyed by the sea.

During the late 17th and early 18th centuries many large coastal landowners were keen to acquire more land by draining saltmarshes, and built large stretches of sea defence banks. Post-medieval examples were recorded throughout Norfolk's saltmarshes. The most visually dramatic was one north of Wells-next-the-Sea harbour. A saltmarsh creek cut straight through it, revealing its internal timber and flint structure.

In the early 1950s a set of earthworks in saltmarshes north of Cley-next-the-Sea were recorded. It was suggested that these were "Black Joy forte", an Armada defence shown on a map of 1588. After the east coast floods of 1953, it was thought the earthworks had been destroyed. The survey team rediscovered the earthworks, reviving the possibility that a 16th century fort may still exist on the Norfolk coast. Other 16th century defences, such as at Great Yarmouth and Weybourne, are known to have existed, but none is thought to survive.

One first world war pillbox was monitored, as were over 40 second world war examples. Other second world war anti-invasion defences were encountered, including four coastal batteries, numerous anti-tank blocks, spigot mortar emplacements, remains of beach scaffolding and pieces of barbed wire. Most of the sites had been recorded during the Defence of Britain project (Fortress Britain, British Archaeology June 2002).

The Norfolk rapid coastal zone assessment survey has proved an incredibly valuable exercise. Alongside the information gathered from Dorset, the Isles of Scilly, Kent, Essex, Suffolk and now the Isle of Wight, the survey contributes to a broad overview of inter-tidal archaeology in southern and eastern England. The results will inform management decisions made at local, regional and national levels.

The techniques used were based on those employed by the earlier surveys, and team members will join debates concerning rapid survey methodologies. Areport has been submitted to English Heritage and selected follow-up work is planned. This would include more detailed recording and radiocarbon dating of specific sites, and raising the public profile of Norfolk's valuable coastal archaeology.

The Norfolk Archaeological Unit conducted the rapid coastal survey. David Robertson works at Norfolk Landscape Archaeology

Going Out With the Tide

On the Isle of Wight severe coastal erosion is revealing, and destroying, a rich heritage. As Rebecca Loader reports, it seems the best way to record it is through repeated long term surveys.

The archaeological value of the coastal zone has long been recognised on the Isle of Wight. The varied geomorphology means that a wide range of archaeological sites is present, but this same factor also contributes to an equally diverse range of threats. Coastal archaeology is subject to pressure from both nature and people. As the coast is developed and increasingly used, erosion is likely to be exacerbated by rising sea levels and climate change.

On the island's northern coast, organic materials are preserved within the intertidal and estuarine silts, and features such as fish traps, trackways and submerged forests are being revealed - and then destroyed by falling beach levels. The south-west coast has crumbling cliffs which are retreating at an alarming rate in places, exposing features such as prehistoric hearths, palaeoenvironmental deposits and bronze age urn cemeteries in the cliff face.

Much of the island's coastline falls within an area of natural beauty, and approximately half of its length is designated as heritage coast. Large areas important for their nature conservation value are variously nominated as Ramsar sites, SPAS, SACS and SSSIS. Consequently long stretches of the coast have policies of nonintervention in the shoreline management plan.

The intertidal survey, conducted 1990-97, produced more than 150 individual sites, from findspots of palaeolithic handaxes to post-medieval sea defences. An important aspect of the survey was the integration of archaeological and palaeoenvironmental data, and a wide range of specialists contributed to the project.

A preliminary historic sea level curve for the Solent was produced. Dendrochronological dating of samples from 58 fallen oaks in the intertidal zone produced a 770-year sequence dating from 3463 to 2694BC. Lithic scatters of late mesolithic/early neolithic date were recorded (8500-3000BC), including more than 100 flint and chert picks, microliths, arrowheads and several thousand other worked flints. These were often associated with concentrations of firecracked flints, evidence of human activity along the margins of old channels recorded across the intertidal zone by several hundred hand-augered cores. The same palaeochannels were traced offshore using marine geophysical techniques.

Radiocarbon analysis showed timber structures dated from most periods from the early neolithic to postmedieval. The function of many of these is unclear because no analogies have been found for them. Amongst the earliest structures revealed during the survey were trackways from the 4th millennium BC, visible only very rarely at extreme low water. These displayed different methods of construction using both hurdles and brushwood and larger split timbers, but the fact that they were so rarely accessible, and then not always during daylight hours, made detailed recording virtually impossible. In addition to timber structures dating from the bronze age, iron age and Roman periods (2050BC-AD410), artefact scatters including ceramics, briquetage (salt-working pottery), leather, bone and metalwork were recorded. The ceramics included a high proportion of imported material, both from the English south coast and from much further afield.

The largest timber structure identified at Wootton-Quarr was a post alignment dating from the 7th-9th centuries AD, stretching in fragmentary form for more than 1km at present mean low water. The erection of these posts represents a considerable expenditure of time and effort, but their function is unclear. They seem unlikely to have operated as a fish trap, and alternative suggestions include coastal revetment, marking land boundaries or perhaps a defensive role.

Large numbers of medieval ceramics were recovered from the intertidal zone, including a significant number of imported goods. These were probably related to trade with the Cistercian abbey of Quarr, which was founded in AD1132 and is located some 250m from the coast in the survey area.

After the completion of the Wootton-Quarr survey it was evident that there was still a need to assess how sites were eroding, and to record new features being exposed on this particularly rich but vulnerable stretch of coast. A five-year programme of less intensive monitoring was undertaken, throughout which time new sites continued to be revealed. This monitoring led to an improved understanding of the nature of erosion on the island's north-east coast, and produced some alarming results.

Whilst in the upper part of the intertidal zone it was evident that mobile sediments were alternately revealing then masking sites, in the lower intertidal zone as much as 30cm of silt had been stripped, destroying some features and exposing others. This is the zone which, arguably, contains the most important sites for understanding responses to coastal processes in the more remote past, but which is the most difficult to protect or manage.

In addition to the intertidal zone, the cliff line was repeatedly surveyed in an area where a monastic tile kiln of the late 13th to early 14th centuries had been excavated during the Wootton-Quarr project, before its destruction by coastal erosion. Here, the cliff was shown to have receded by 10m during 12 years of recording.

Throughout the 1990s, it became increasingly evident as a result of the Wootton-Quarr project and similar surveys around the country, that the archaeological resource in the coastal zone was extremely important. Meanwhile an English Heritage survey published in 1997 showed that a lack of systematic coastal survey meant that such sites were under-represented in local authority historic environment records (HERS). This meant that coastal heritage data could not be considered adequately in shoreline management plans, development control, and national and local research strategies.

Consequently English Heritage provided support for a survey of the island's entire coast and estuaries, which comprised documentary and cartographic research, interrogation of aerial photographs, and fieldwork. The survey was undertaken by the same staff and drew on expertise developed during the Wootton-Quarr survey. The result was to increase the number of coastal sites recorded in the HER by 186%. The survey highlighted areas which held particular potential and which were the most vulnerable to coastal erosion, but was not resourced to record and date individual sites.

Coastal survey on the island has been particularly successful because it has been carried out by workers familiar with the local coastal zone. The surveys were undertaken over a longer period of time than many rapid coastal surveys, in tandem with other work, meaning that areas could be visited on more than one occasion and at the optimum time for identifying features which are ephemeral and barely visible. The lowest tides on the Isle of Wight occur in the early spring and autumn, which do not coincide with the best weather conditions or longest hours of light, and so would not necessarily be the time of year chosen to carry out fieldwork had it been necessary to complete it within a continuous block of time. At these times of year, also, the intertidal zone is less likely to be masked by weed and algal growth which can reduce visibility in summer.

Coastal erosion is unremitting and, without the resources to monitor the coastal zone continuously, we are reliant on the vigilance of the general public to notify us of new finds. There have been two recent instances of important prehistoric finds eroding from the Isle of Wight's cliffs that have been reported by beach walkers. In 2000, a bronze age inverted cremation urn was noted about a metre down in the cliff face. Subsequent excavation revealed two further urns containing cremations. Two years later, a fragment of woven hurdle was reported to have fallen from the eroding face of an incised channel adjacent to the cliff edge on the southwest coast of the island. These finds were made on National Trust land and with help from the trust and the finders, we were able to successfully recover both. The National Trust also provided funding for radiocarbon dating of the hurdle that turned out to date from the early bronze age (2027-1887BC).

It is indisputable that important archaeological and palaeoenvironmental material will continue to erode from the cliffs and intertidal sediments around the whole of the country. The question of whether such sites can be protected, and how limited resources can be best used to record those sites and landscapes under threat may be more difficult to answer.

See R Loader, I Westmore & D Tomalin 1997 Time & Tide: an Archaeological Survey of the Wootton-Quarr Coast (Isle of Wight Council & English Heritage) and P Murphy & S Trow 2004 in Preserving Archaeological Remains in Situ? (Museum of London Archaeology Service), 209-18. Rebecca Loader is SMR and Archaeological Projects Officer, Isle of Wight Council County Archaeology Service

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