Mucking - Prehistoric and Roman

Cambridge Archaeological Unit, 2008. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000060. How to cite using this DOI

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000060
Sample Citation for this DOI

Cambridge Archaeological Unit (2008) Mucking - Prehistoric and Roman [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000060

Data copyright © Cambridge Archaeological Unit unless otherwise stated

This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Creative Commons License


Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund logo
English Heritage logo

Primary contact

Christopher Evans
Cambridge Archaeological Unit
Downing Street
Cambridge
CB2 3DZ
England

Resource identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000060
Sample Citation for this DOI

Cambridge Archaeological Unit (2008) Mucking - Prehistoric and Roman [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000060

Cambridge Archaeological Unit logo

Overview

Background to Project

Intensively excavated between 1965 and 1978, the Mucking, Essex campaigns led to open-area excavations across 18ha, and the site was renowned in its time as the largest excavation to date in Europe. What it revealed was a dense, multi-period landscape palimpsest ranging from Neolithic to Medieval times, but primarily involving later Bronze and Iron Age, Roman and Saxon settlement; in total, more than 44,000 features were excavated. Directed by M. and T. Jones, the excavations were financed by the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments in the Department of the Environment (i.e. English Heritage) and were undertaken in advance of gravel extraction. During the first half of the 1980s, AMHB provided £254,000.00 towards its post-excavation. From 1986-92 English Heritage contributed a further £372,515.00 to this end and, as administered by the Mucking Management Committee, this was implemented through the British Museum, where the site's archives were then stored (A. Clark, Team Leader). Although it was anticipated that separate volumes were to be published concerned with the site's prehistoric and Roman phases, in the end only two volumes were completed (with Hirst & Clark's Anglo-Saxon cemetery volume expected shortly):

In the course of the English Heritage/British Museum post-excavation project, most of the site's archives were ordered and phased, with its archaeology and finds respectively reported upon by period-specialists: C. Going (Iron Age & Roman), and J. Ette (Bronze Age; with separate area analysis undertake by S. Trow); an enormous colour phased plan of the site today hangs on a wall of the British Museum's London out-station, Blythe Road.

ALSF project

In 2006, at the behest of Dr JD Hill of the British Museum, the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) agreed to progress the publication of the prehistoric and Roman aspects of the settlement sequence, for which initial funding was granted by English Heritage via the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF).

The initial objectives of this most recent programme of work were to (a) consolidate the existing data and post-excavation research from the excavations of the prehistoric and Roman phases at Mucking, and (b) to conduct a limited amount of further archival work on the prehistoric pottery assemblages. The first element to this involved the digitization of the (1993) Site Atlas plans and the compilation of full gazetteers of key feature series (such as the roundhouses, the kilns and the burials etc.). It was intended that initial phased site plans, feature gazetteers, prehistoric pottery reports and assessment of the archive would be made available via the ADS website at this stage, and these are presented here. The completion of this stage of the project, together with the British Museum-funded rescue of the MPX data, thereby brings the available information up to a standard such that it will now be possible to fully analyse, publish and make available the results of this great, 'landscape-scale' site. It should be noted that a draft Romano-British Cemeteries text has been produced (Lucy et al. forthcoming), and this assessment therefore focuses on the prehistoric burials and settlements, and on the Romano-British settlement.

The Digital Archive

The Digital archive currently consists of the following documents; please note that the data is provisional and will change in light of the analysis being conducted for the publication stage.

Mucking overview and assessment document:

  • Evans,C. and Lucy,S. 2008: Mucking Excavations, Essex. Archive and Publication Project - Prehistoric and Roman - Overview and Assessment. Cambridge Archaeological Unit unpublished report.

Initial phase plans (based on the Jones' dyelines):

Bronze Age Mucking
Iron Age Mucking
Romano-British Mucking including kilns
Romano-British cemeteries at Mucking
Mucking: all digitised

Prehistoric data:

Prehistoric feature summary
4-9 post building gazetteers
Roundhouse gazetteer
Bronze Age burial gazetteer
Prehistoric burial gazetteer
Iron Age burial gazetteer
Pits gazetteer
Middle-Late Bronze Age enclosures gazetteer
Banjo enclosures gazetteer
Iron Age enclosures gazetteer
LBA pottery analysis and report
MIA-LIA pottery analysis and report

Roman data:

Kilns gazetteer (including sub-kilns)
Roman enclosure descriptions
Roman structures gazetteer
Roman wells gazetteer

Mucking interim reports summaries

Non-digital Archive and Publications

In addition, the project also produced the following outputs:

Meetings / Technical Forums
Short presentation by Sam Lucy, Rescuing an archive: The Romano-British settlement at Mucking, Essex, given at the Study Group for Roman Pottery conference, Cambridge, July 2008.
Lectures / academic papers
Paper (given by Christopher Evans and Sam Lucy) at 'The Historic Environment of Essex: from earliest humans to the 20th century' conference, September 2008.
Guided tours
Informal visits to the CAU to view the progress on Mucking by: Prof Martin Carver, Dr Catherine Hills, Dr Niall Sharples, Dr Mike Parker Pearson, Prof Ed Harris.
Monograph
Lucy, S. J., Jefferies, R., Going, C. and Taylor, N. (forthcoming) Mucking, Essex. Excavations by Margaret and Tom Jones (1965-1978): The Roman Cemeteries. CAU Landscape Archives Series: Historiography and Fieldwork (No. 3).

The Archaeology Data Service (ADS) do not hold any further information regarding these non-digital outputs, any queries should be directed to the depositor.


ADS logo
Data Org logo
University of York logo