Publications
We publish the results of our projects and research in a variety of formats, including multi-site monographs, articles in county archaeological society journals, and notes in popular magazines.
- View and download all our open access publications on UCL Discovery
- See grey literature reports on the Archaeology Data Service
Our books
We publish major sites and research as peer-reviewed monographs and in occasional papers under the SpoilHeap publications imprint. See a full list of our books below.
Tom Munnery (2025)
From shifting shorelines to rich pastures, the long-running archaeological excavations at Lydd Quarry on the Dungeness Peninsula (1991–2018) made discoveries that trace the dramatic evolution of this coastal landscape, from its Bronze Age origins through Roman industry and medieval revival, through to the post-medieval period.
THE HONOUR AND SAFETY OF THE REALM: The Elizabethan and later harbour works at Dover Western Docks, Kent
Andrew Margetts, Giles Dawkes, Alice Dowsett and Damian Goodburn (2024)
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.
Alice Dowsett, Damian Goodburn, Katya Harrow, Andrew Margetts and Chris Russel (2024)
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. The fortunes of Sandwich and its environs have been inextricably linked to the river throughout the town’s history. This volume details the findings of the investigations, which revealed evidence for the management of the river both within and outside the town.
BETWEEN THE TWITTENS: From Iron Age origins to burh and borough. Excavations in Lewes, East Sussex
Dan Swift (2023)
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.
TWO MILLENNIA OF MARSHSIDE SETTLEMENT: Excavations at Pocock’s Field, Eastbourne, East Sussex
Giles Dawkes, Anna Doherty, Alice Dowsett and Trista Clifford (2023)
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.
OUT OF THE WEALD, THE SECRET WEALD
Andrew Margetts, Anna Doherty, Catherine Douglas, Hayley Nicholls and Simon Stevens (2023)
This volume details the results of archaeological work conducted by Archaeology South-East (UCL Institute of Archaeology) across four sites within the Sussex Weald. Among the findings presented here are some regionally important remains, including one of just a handful of known Palaeolithic finds with a Wealden provenance, perhaps some of the earliest land division so far excavated in the Wealden region, a Roman shrine and what could possibly constitute the remains of an Iron Age fort, one of the hill-slope type.
Matt Pope, Simon Parfitt and Mark Roberts (2020)
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 MEDIEVAL HOSPITAL OF ST MARY’S AND OTHER FEATURES: excavations at Friary Place, Strood, Kent
Giles Dawkes (2020)
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.
BEYOND THE WANTSUM: Archaeological investigations in South Thanet, Kent
Giles Dawkes, Diccon Hart, Kathryn Grant and Dan Swift (2019)
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.
LIVING BY THE CREEK: Excavations at Kemsley, Sittingbourne, Kent
Giles Dawkes (2019)
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.
Pip Stephenson and Kristina Krawiec (2019)
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.
HOW HOUSES EVOLVED: Houses of the Eastern High Weald of Sussex 1350–1750
Jane Briscoe, Barbara Martin, David Martin and Christopher Whittick (2018)
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.
Andrew Margetts (2018)
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.
IN LIFE AND DEATH: Archaeological Excavations at The Queen’s Chapel Savoy, London
Lucy Sibun and Paola Ponce (2018)
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.
M. B. Roberts and M. I. Pope (2018)
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.
BESIDE THE RIVER TRENT: Archaeological Investigations at Shardlow Quarry, Derbyshire
K. Krawiec, A. J. Howard and B. R. Greary (2017)
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.
BETWEEN THAMES AND MEDWAY: Archaeological Excavations on The Hoo Peninsula & Its Environs
Giles Dawkes (2017)
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.
Late Quaternary Human Activity in the Darent Valley at Lullingstone Country Park, Eynsford, Kent
Hugo Anderson-Whymark and Matt Pope (2016)
Between 2009 and 2011, Archaeology South-East carried out a series of excavations and watching briefs in advance of development at the Lullingstone Country Park, near Eynsford, Kent. The work, commissioned by Kent County Council, revealed a deep sequence of Pleistocene and Holocene slope deposits in the Darent river valley. In the upper part of this sequence high-resolution and apparently in situ stone artefacts were recovered which spanned the end of the last glacial period and into the Early Holocene.
Key findings include a rich cluster of refitting Terminal Upper Palaeolithic flint artefacts characteristic of Lateglacial hunter-gatherer ‘longblade’cultures and a more diffuse spread of Early Mesolithic flintwork, including microliths, as part of a preserved land surface. In addition later Neolithic and Bronze Age flintwork was found within and on the surface of Holocene colluvial deposits. Deeper geoarchaeological survey revealed these archaeologically-rich surface deposits were only the upper part of a deep sequence of sediments which spanned a period in excess of 100,000 years. At the base of this sequence, at 4m depth, organic deposits likely to date to the last interglacial period were recovered. These were overlain by cold climate solifluction deposits and in turn Holocene deposits which include Bronze Age bank and ditch features. Stone artefact refitting was targeted at the Terminal Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic material, giving insights into the technology and behaviour of hunter-gatherers occupying southern Britain at the transition between the last ice age and the emerging world of the Holocene.
This volume is currently out of print, please download a digital copy below.
Anna Doherty and Christopher Greatorex (2016)
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.
USING ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARCHIVES: A case study of finds from Roman Essex
Anna Doherty (2015)
This case study is the second publication to result from the English Heritage funded project, originally known as ‘Town and Country in Roman Essex’. This project was conceived as a large-scale regional study based on the comparative analysis of assemblages, focusing on pottery, coins, registered finds, vessel glass and animal bone. Utilising the unusually rich databases generated by rescue excavations in the region dominated by Colchester and London, the project examined how the creation of these cities affected rural landscapes and communities in the first 200 years of Roman administration and control. The results of the research were published in the 2013 volume Alien Cities: consumption and the origins of urbanism in Roman Britain.
It was always an aim of the project to produce a separate publication that would explore in more detail the issues associated with conducting major regional research projects, making use of data from published or archive sources. This case study covers the process of collecting and using data and makes some recommendations addressing specific methodological problems in order to improve both the quality and the quantity of data available to future researchers. It is not intended to be a final word on such issues but to contribute to the discussion on how best to utilise these important archaeological resources.
This publication is available to download and for FREE as a hard copy. Email ase@ucl.ac.uk for a hardcopy.
Diccon Hart (2015)
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.
FLAVIAN AND LATER BUILDINGS AT SNODLAND ROMAN VILLA: excavations at Cantium Way, Snodland, Kent
Giles Dawkes (2015)
Following the discovery of a hoard of 3600 Roman coins, a large-scale excavation was undertaken to the west of the main Snodland villa, at the interface between outer buildings and agricultural land. A series of field systems and pits, as well as a distinctive concentric building with masonry foundations, timber buildings, and a small cemetery were uncovered. The large assemblages of material culture and ecofacts are presented including significant Neronian building material from an unlocated bath house.
Printed versions of this volume are no longer available, please download a digital version below.
ALIEN CITIES: Consumption and the origins of urbanism in Roman Britain
Dominic Perring and Martin Pitts (2013)
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.
LIVING BY THE SWORD: the archaeology of Brisley Farm, Ashford, Kent
Jim Stevenson (2013)
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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