Publications, Monographs & Journal Articles
This section contains the list of PCA's publications, monographs & journal Articles,
including some abstracts.
PCA prides itself in producing publications, which stand up to academic scrutiny as well as reports and Journal articles, which are accessible to a broad spectrum of people.
PCA is committed to publishing the results of excavation and we are currently involved in producing a new and exciting series of monographs. This series of books aims to present the reader with clear and comprehensive accounts of some of our large and important excavations, as well as groups of sites with common thematic or regional connections.
Our latest Publications:
Pegswood Moor, Morpeth
A Later Iron Age and Romano-British Farmstead Settlement
By Jennifer Proctor
 PCA
Monograph No. 11
Lying 8km inland on the Northumberland Coastal Plain Pegswood Moor
seems to have attracted its first permanent settlers around the
4th century BC. Initially a small and apparently isolated farmstead,
by the 2nd century BC this had expanded into an organized enclosed
settlement with areas set aside for stock-keeping, habitation, manufacturing
and processing activities, including pottery production. Evidence
suggests a mixed agricultural economy, whilst a droveway leading
towards the coast and field systems extending away from the focus
of habitation point to extensive exploitation of the wider landscape.
Towards the end of the 1st century AD there was a fundamental change
in the management of this landscape, with new boundaries established
on different alignments. Most striking was the construction of a
substantial timber enclosure built through the line of several roundhouse
dwellings - a seemingly deliberate and pointed statement. Tantalizingly,
no associated focus of habitation was found within the area of excavation
and, as with the majority of other excavated settlements in the
area, evidence for occupation after the 2nd century was absent.
The impetus for this sudden yet short-lived change can only be speculated
on - but the arrival of vast numbers of Roman troops in the region
with all their attendant requirements must surely be in part responsible.
Little artefactual evidence to indicate the influence of Rome was
recovered. However, the site did produce one of the largest assemblages
of native tradition pottery from the region, along with fragments
of briquetage suggesting connections with the coast. The presence
of whole quernstones, quern rubbers and mortars emphasises the importance
of crop processing to this community – that these were found
whole in boundary features suggests they held a symbolic significance.
As this publication shows, the extensive archaeological investigations
at Pegswood Moor have contributed greatly to our developing understanding
of settlement patterns in the Northumberland Coastal Plain during
the Later Iron Age.
PCA monograph 11 ‘Pegswood Moor, Morpeth’, 115 pp colour
throughout, price £14.95 is available from PCA (download
order form) or from Oxbow Books www.oxbowbooks.com
Secrets of the Gardens: Archaeologists Unearth the Lives of Roman
Londoners at Drapers' Gardens
 Beneath
Drapers’ Gardens, on Throgmorton Avenue, in what was once
a damp and uninviting quarter of the Roman city of Londinium lies
a buried valley, the Walbrook. Excavations by Pre-Construct Archaeology
between 2006 and 2007 provided further confirmation that this area
was home to some of the more unpleasant industries of the town,
as well as producing some remarkable and unexpected finds, including
a hoard of metal objects buried in a fourth century well.
Buried along with the rest of the settlement under centuries of
detritus the land was bought from Henry VIII in 1543 by the Drapers’
Company, regulators of the cloth trade in the City of London. The
Company’s ‘Great Garden’ remained largely undisturbed
for over 400 years, an oasis of calm in the thriving and bustling
financial centre. This resulted in fantastic preservation of the
Roman remains buried beneath, despite the construction of one of
the tallest buildings in the City here in the 1960s. These conditions,
combined with the particular soil conditions of the Walbrook Valley
and the sheer size of the area excavated, led to the remarkable
survival of a near complete urban street with associated buildings
spanning many years of the Roman occupation.
Illustrated in full colour throughout Secrets of the Gardens is
aimed at the general reader and presents a picture of the site as
revealed by a selection of the structures, watercourses, outstanding
finds and environmental evidence uncovered. It includes the story
of the excavations themselves and the problems inherent in excavating
a site whilst simultaneously demolishing one of the tallest towers
in London, a history of the Draper’s company and the planning
and design that has gone into the new building.
80 + viii pages in full colour, includes DVD showing the excavations
in progress, Secrets of the Gardens is available from PCA or from
Oxbow Books www.oxbowbooks.com price £9.95
|
