Langdon Bay, Moor Sands & the Erme Estuary Prehistoric Wreck Sites

English Heritage MRTM summaries. 2005/2006

Bournemouth University, in partnership with the British Museum and St. Andrews University, has been commissioned by English Heritage to undertake the completion of publication text for an archaeological monograph detailing the results of work undertaken on the Langdon Bay and Moor Sands protected wreck sites.

The overall aim of the project is to complete the archaeological analysis of each site and allow the knowledge gained though such work to be disseminated by publication.

The final deliverable of the work on both sites will take the form of a single monograph that will also include details of other comparative finds of potential Bronze Age shipwreck material from the southern coast of the UK (defined as from the Humber to the Mersey).

The sites’ location on the south coast of England, their Continental nature, and the size of the Langdon Bay assemblage (the largest group of metalwork in north-west Europe for this phase of the Bronze Age) make the assemblages from the Langdon Bay and Moor Sands sites unique. Provisional interpretation has seen both sites as shipwreck deposits, although this is by no means certain. However, the location of this material is tangible evidence of cross-Channel connections that, either from shipwreck or a hoard deposited soon after arrival provides a rare chance to view trade in action, rather than trade as inferred from redistributed material.

This page was published on 15/08/2006