Publications

Of the publications in the archaeological reports series this year, two were the first of paired volumes of which both second titles are in preparation.

Ships of the port of London: first to eleventh centuries AD (vol 1)

by Peter Marsden is an extensive study, the result of more than 30 years' research. The author examines the structure of major and fragmentary vessels sunk in the Thames, their contexts, and associated finds. From this evidence he draws conclusions about the pattern of use of shipping in the Thames, and about shipbuilding techniques in Northern Europe in this period. The second volume (to be published in 1995-96) studies material of the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries.

Bodmin Moor: an archaeological survey - volume 1: the human landscape to c 1800

by Nicholas Johnson and Peter Rose and other contributors from the Cornwall Archaeological Unit, the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, and English Heritage. The six-year survey is the most extensive ever undertaken of the Moor. It recorded surface evidence of the pastoral, arable, and domestic use of the Moor almost to the present day, with a particular study of its prehistoric funerary and other monuments. The collaborating organisations developed major innovations in survey method in response to the nature of the task. Many previously unknown monuments were discovered in the course of the survey. The second volume will discuss the industrial monuments of the Moor.

Prehistoric land divisions on Salisbury Plain

Richard Bradley, Roy Entwistle, and Frances Raymond collaborated in a report on the work of the Wessex Linear Ditches Project, .By integrating specialist studies on artefacts and environmental material with field survey and past and recent excavation, the authors were able to propose a chronology of the stage-by-stage development of the ditch system, which changed in function as demographic factors altered the landscape. The area studied is paradoxically both threatened (by tracked vehicle and similar damage) and protected (from agriculture) by its location within a military training area. The authors recommend international recognition of the importance of the linear ditch system in order to restrict further damage and enhance selective protection of at least part of the system.

Colliery landscapes

In 1985 130 deep mines were still producing coal: only a tenth of that number are still working ten years later. English Heritage asked the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England to carry out an aerial photographic survey of the surviving buildings and machinery of the deep mines in the English coalfields. Colliery landscapes by Shane Gould and Ian Ayris presents the survey in gazetteer form, arranged within the administrative areas of the former National Coal Board.