The Construction of the Saxon Shore Forts

The author has undertaken a study of the construction of the Saxon Shore Forts, a series of late Roman coastal installations built on the south and east coasts of Britain during the 3rd century AD. It takes the reader through the generating process involved in the creation of these monuments, from design, through the extraction and transport of the raw materials, to the actual building of the fort defences. Geoarchaeology plays a major part in the study. The 11 forts considered were but a small part of a much larger phenomenon of building in Britain and the Continent during the late Roman period, both of a military and civilian nature, but they constituted a crucial part of the coastal infrastructure, and the imposing ruins of some of their ancient defences still persist in the present landscape – from Brancaster to Portchester.