Peter Murphy’s review of coastal archaeology in England is – like the coastal zone itself – packed with archaeological information. The book is beautifully-produced with numerous full colour images, and its scope is ambitious. The narrative recounts the advances in knowledge that have occurred in coastal archaeology in England in the course of the Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment Surveys (RCZAS) commissioned by English Heritage, which were carried out as a result of the original England’s Coastal Heritage assessment published by Fulford et al. in 1997. As the book makes clear, many of the advances occurred through initiatives unrelated to the RCZAS, including major steps forward in the marine sphere. However, the RCZAS that have systematically covered almost the entire coastal zone of England with both desk- and field-based investigations have had a quantum effect on what is now known compared to the mid-1990s. The regional RCZAS investigations and their reports (of which 52 are listed, with web addresses) form the principal dataset upon which this publication draws, but there is also a good bibliography of other published material.
Murphy outlines a broad typology of different forms of coast and their archaeological characteristics in the introduction before setting out the basic methods of the RCZAS and advances that have occurred in their course. Coastal change – predominantly as a result of sea-level change in prehistory and then as a result of shoreline erosion and accretion – are discussed as key drivers for the presence, survival and visibility of archaeological material at the coast. The variety and distribution of sites making up the coastal historic environment is set out chronologically from the Palaeolithic to the Medieval period, and thematically in the Early Modern and Modern periods. Periods and themes are also used to frame research priorities for the coastal historic environment, supplemented by regional priorities in an appendix. The final chapter discusses issues of management, dominated by the prospect of future erosion and flooding arising from climate change, and by the limitations on public heritage funding relative to attrition of the historic environment on such a scale.
The book is subtitled as ‘a review’, which is accurate in that the volume does not really seek to synthesise. Indeed such a synthesis may not be possible across all periods and all themes given the diversity of England’s coast. The narrative recounts sites and discoveries at a terrific pace and serves best, therefore, as a starting point from which to burrow into the RCZAS reports and other references. The glossy finish of the volume – although welcoming – may be slightly misleading, because this is not a coffee table book. It struck me that the reader would require a reasonable familiarity with the subject – and the geography of England’s coast – to work their way through the mass of information here. Although well illustrated, a few period-based maps showing the locations being discussed might have been helpful. Overall, the volume has a great deal to recommend it as an attractive way in to a branch of archaeology that has seen a very substantial increase in knowledge within the last 20 years.