On Eccles, Archives and Publication in General
In the last issue of the Kent Archaeological Society Newsletter Michael Ocock drew attention to the continuing absence of a final report on the Eccles villa excavations undertaken by Alec Detsicas. Perhaps I can take the opportunity to clarify the Eccles situation and also to draw attention to some wider initiatives relating to Kent's archaeological heritage.
As Michael Ocock indicates, Eccles is an immensely important site, not only for Kent but for Roman Britain as a whole. While not of the same grandeur as the Fishbourne palace, nonetheless it is a substantial structure of high status, which goes back to soon after the Roman Conquest. We have to ask the reason why. John Creighton has developed further the hypothesis of Claudius entering an already, at least partially, Romanised Britain (Coins and Power in Late Iron Age Britain and Britannia; see also David Mattingly, An Imperial Possession: Britain in the Roman Empire). Some areas of South East England, notably the Catuvellauni and the Atrebates, were perhaps client kingdoms. So where does Kent come into the argument? The work of David Holman and others in looking at Kent's late Iron Age coinage will hopefully help to elucidate the hundred years before the Conquest, as will the growing corpus of detectorists' other finds and, importantly, the ongoing body of development-led archaeological work in the County. But Eccles must surely be a key to understanding this still somewhat enigmatic period in Kent and its full analysis and publication is demanded.
Towards the end of his life Alec Detsicas, concerned about the need to try to secure a future for the Eccles archive and bring the work to publication, approached myself and Peter Kendall of English Heritage and we then brought Paul Bennett of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust into the discussions. Michael Ocock refers to a transfer of responsibility for publication to myself, but the three of us, very much concerned about the future of the Eccles project, undertook to do our best to try to take things forward. The finds archive (two lorry loads) was collected by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust and placed in a specially racked-out part of its store. The small finds were placed in their environmental store and the film and paper archive was deposited with Rachel Shaw, Alec's former research assistant. The trust utilised the remaining funding available to Eccles to put the film and paper archive into good order and to catalogue the finds archive. It has subsequently maintained the finds archive and provided access to it to specialists seeking to study aspects of it.
All three of us have investigated funding avenues for completing the publication of the project but without success. It must be emphasised that substantial resources are still needed and that it is not just a matter of a few thousand pounds. The search will continue and any constructive suggestions will be very welcome.
The case highlights something that I think Sir Mortimer Wheeler once wrote, that an excavation project is not complete until it is published, and we need to continue to address this issue in the world of development-led archaeology. An 'indicator' related to Kent's Environment Strategy records the number of excavations undertaken each year that significantly contribute to our understanding of the past. This hopefully demonstrates that PPG 16 is working but also provides information on the ongoing loss of the heritage. For 2004 the figure was 120 investigations. Extrapolated over a number of years one can see the archaeological resource being substantially reduced, so it is most important that fieldwork is translated into knowledge through publication. In this respect Canterbury Archaeological Trust's recent volume on the excavations in Townwall Street, Dover, is most welcome and I am looking forward to the publication of the archaeological work undertaken in advance of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link archaeology, which has made a really major contribution to understanding Kent's archaeology. Again 2007 should see the latest volume of the County Council's Kent History Project, The Archaeology of Kent to AD 800, with contributions from Francis Wenban-Smith, Tim Champion, Martin Millett and Martin Welch, who relate the latest findings from development-led archaeology to our inherited views of Kent's past.
There is another general problem in seeking to ensure that the archaeological archives from excavations in Kent, both written records and finds, are retained in Kent, for display and access and to be available for future generations of students and researchers. We have been striving for some time to develop the concept of an Archaeological Resource Centre. Much remains to be done but progress is being made.
I started this piece with Eccles and perhaps I can finish with it. Certainly the site deserves further research and publication and we all need to give consideration to how this might be achieved.
John Williams
Head of Heritage Conservation, Kent County Council
