The Sussex School of Archaeology and History
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0
Malcolm’s Life and Contribution:
a Vignette
Dr Steve Willis
Malcolm led a very full and active life, with multiple interests, stories and endeavours, and his wide and frequent travels enriched his life, his stories, his friendships and his research. There were many facets to Malcolm - 'many Malcolms' one might say - as doubtless we will learn through the course of the day. His greatest contribution was in identifying, dating and reporting Roman and other pottery (in huge quantity!), which provided a great service to colleagues and the subject. He was sharp in drawing the main significance from the ceramic evidence and its meaning. Yet he also had a much wider hinterland, and published his research on coins, Roman military equipment, historiography, etc. and was at home with the remains of many eras. Malcolm was fascinating company, up with the news, and always with a theory of what lay behind the headlines. He was drawn to matters of intrigue and politics. His physical adventures (sometimes surprisingly exotic), often dynamic thinking, warm and generous spirit and sheer distinctiveness made for a unique personality that many of us have reason to celebrate and be grateful for.
Dr Steve Willis
Originally from Sussex, Steve was fortunate to begin studying archaeology when Caroline Dudley, then Keeper of Archaeology at Brighton Museum, ran evening classes at his school. His interest was enduring leading to an MA and PhD in the subject at Durham University. Always driven to excavation, fieldwork survey work and pottery study, Steve has been a lecturer at the University of Kent for over twenty years. He first got to know Malcolm when a student, and whilst his only digging in Sussex was at a single site (mainly backfilling as he recalls) it was at the evocatively named Thundersbarrow Hill, which gives its name to one of Malcolm's favourite Late Roman pottery coarse wares.
Dr Anna Doherty
Anna Doherty works as a Prehistoric and Roman Pottery Specialist at Archaeology South-East, the contracts division of the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.
Malcolm's contribution to Roman ceramic studies in Sussex
Dr Anna Doherty
Having started working on ceramics from the Alice Holt industry in Surrey/Hampshire, Malcolm became the leading Roman pottery specialist in Sussex from the 1990s onwards. This paper looks at his important work in the county, including on villa sites excavated by the Institute of Archaeology Field Unit and later, on a myriad of commercial and other archaeological projects. It celebrates his major contribution to our understanding of Roman ceramics in the region.
Malcolm and the Hassocks Roman & Saxon cemetery and the Wickham Barn Roman pottery kilns
Chris Butler
When I started out as an amateur archaeologist I was soon introduced to Malcolm, and he became an enthusiastic supporter of my projects, providing advice and support. I will run through some of those projects including the Roman settlement at Hassocks, the Wickham Barn Roman pottery kilns, and Barcombe Roman Villa, highlighting Malcolm’s involvement and the important contribution he made to the work of amateur and professional archaeological projects in Sussex.
Chris Butler
Chris Butler has been an archaeologist since 1985 and formed the Mid Sussex Field Archaeological Team in 1987. He was a part-time lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Sussex, and taught A-Level Archaeology at Bexhill 6th Form College having qualified (Cert. Ed.) as a teacher in 2006. Chris formed Chris Butler Archaeological Services Ltd c. 20 years ago. Chris is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. Chris specialises in prehistoric flintwork analysis, and his publications include Prehistoric Flintwork, East Sussex Under Attack and West Sussex Under Attack as well as many articles and reports.
Jerry Evans
Jerry Evans is a Birmingham based freelance Roman pottery specialist and a Director of Barbican Research Associates.
Roman pottery from Wingham villa and an outsider’s view of Roman pottery in East Kent
Jerry Evans
The paper aims to look at some aspects of the pottery from the Wingham villa and comparative data generated from the work of Malcoln Lyne to suggest there are some interesting regional trends in the pottery of (East) Kent and to offer a possible explanation for some of them.
'The quantified distribution of North Kent fine greyware
in the Flavian-Trajanic period'
The South-East Dorset Black Burnished Ware Industry - Malcolm's legacy
Lilian Ladle
Malcolm was the Late Iron Age and Roman pottery specialist for the Bestwall Quarry project and subsequent excavations. At Bestwall Quarry, the production of Black Burnished ware from 32 kilns, over a two and a half century period, was phenomenal. Malcolm’s identification of the pottery, its fabrics and dates, culminated in a new vessel corpus, based on kiln outputs over this time period. He also provided an insightful analysis of the associated kiln technology. Subsequent work on a rural site at Worth Matravers confirmed that the Late Iron Age and Roman pottery was in the local Black Burnished ware tradition. Malcolm’s well-established pottery sequences were used to date the phases and development of the Druce Farm Roman villa (c. 60-650 CE). The Bestwall Quarry information formed the basis for one of his final publications ‘Late Roman Dorset Black Burnished Ware (BB1)’.
illustration copyright Jane Brayne
Lilian with Malcolm at Druce villa
Lilian Ladle
Lilian is an Independent archaeologist and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bournemouth University. She has led major excavations in Dorset at the multi-period sites of Bestwall Quarry, Wareham and at Worth Matravers, and latterly at the Roman Villa and Neolithic site at Druce Farm, near Dorchester. The sites are notable for the quality of excavations carried out by volunteers, involvement of specialists, and prompt publication of the results. Lilian was awarded the MBE for services to archaeology in 2008 and elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2021
Thomas Martin
Thomas is a freelance Roman pottery specialist with a particular interest in the late Roman period. Having previously worked for Essex County Council until 2003, he took on freelance work for the next five years before leaving pottery studies to pursue different career opportunities and returning to pottery studies three years ago
Roman is Roman, Saxon is Saxon and never the twain shall meet?
Malcolm's bossed dishes & other hybrid pots in southern Britain
Thomas Martin
The presence of pottery which Rodwell labeled 'Saxo-Roman' at the Rivenhall (Essex) villa site, where the vessel form is reminiscent of, or copies Roman forms but occurs in Anglo-Saxon fabrics can be shown to be widespread and in a variety of forms, including jars, dishes, lids, colanders and mortaria. Malcolm identified a bossed dish which he dated to the period c. 400-450 and occurs in late grog-tempered fabrics but also Anglo-Saxon fabrics at Dorchester (Oxon) which also falls into this grouping. But, how do we date this material? For how long into the 5th century was Roman pottery used? Are we applying accurate dates to late Roman pottery?
“Rutupine Reviver”: Malcolm’s impact on the Richborough Archive
Dr Philip Smither
The Roman site at Richborough has been of academic interest since the 16th century and archaeological interest since the late 18th century. In the early 1990s it grabbed the attention of Malcolm Lyne while studying for his PhD. Far from just studying the pottery, Malcolm took it upon himself to reorganise an aging collection and make it more accessible for research. Out of this he produced three small finds papers, in which, perhaps unknowingly, he began to unlock the story of the site. Over 20 years later, his study of the collection and these insights were the starting point for my own research.
Richborough from the air
Dr Philip Smither
Philip Smither studied for his BA and MRes at Reading before moving to Kent for a PhD on Roman Richborough, where he first met Malcolm. He is a finds specialist, particularly of Roman small finds, and is the current Finds Liaison Officer for Berkshire.
Professor Mike Fulford
Mike is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Reading since 1988. He began his career in archaeology with research on Roman pottery. His PhD published in 1975 was on the New Forest pottery industry though his first ever publication in 1973 (in Sussex Archaeological Collections) was on a previously unrecognised late Roman fine ware discovered while searching for New Forest pottery amongst the material excavated by Salzmann at Pevensey, hence its name ‘Pevensey Ware’. Appointed Lecturer in Archaeology at Reading in 1974, he began excavating at Silchester in the same year. Silchester has been a major focus of his research ever since with excavations on the amphitheatre, forum basilica, Insula IX and, most recently, the public bath house. He excavated at Pevensey Castle for English Heritage in the 1990s. More recently at Reading he directed the Rural Settlement of Roman Britain project since published by the Roman Society in three volumes with an extensive digital resource hosted by the Archaeology Data Service.
Malcolm: Pots, PhD and Pevensey
Professor Mike Fulford
Malcolm graduated from the University of Reading with a PhD in 1994. I will talk about the research he did for his PhD and then the work he did for English Heritage to publish the excavations of Frank Cottrill and others at Pevensey Castle, 1936-64.
Was Pevensey Castle the site of the Norman base in 1066? Revisiting the work of Malcolm and Pam Combes on Hastings, Haestingaceaster and Haestingaport
Dr Rebecca Welshman and Simon Coleman
Following the recent identification of ‘Heathfield Down’, near Heathfield, in East Sussex as a possible location for the battlefield of Hastings (Welshman and Coleman, 2024), this paper revisits the pioneering work of Pamela Combes and Malcolm Lyne (1995), which identified Pevensey, rather than Hastings, to be the more likely burh of Haestingaceastre mentioned in the 9th-century Burghal Hideage.
Although the names Hestenga and Hestenga ceastre in the Bayeux Tapestry have almost always been assumed to refer to Hastings, the names are consistent with the Roman fortified town Haestingaceastre that Combes and Lyne identified as Pevensey. We look again at the evidence in favour of Pevensey as this burh, including its status as a ‘ceastre’ (commonly meaning Roman fortress or fortified town) - a status that Hastings cannot definitively claim - and the sequence of events and names given in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle texts in the lead up to the battle.
The theory of a battlefield at Heathfield Down, north of Pevensey, naturally leads to a careful reconsideration of Combes and Lyne’s identification of Pevensey as Haestingaceastre, thus challenging the view that has resulted in their hypothesis being ‘roundly and rightly discounted’ (Harris, 2010).
In light of the fact that no archaeological evidence for a pre-1066 fort at Hastings has been uncovered to date, apart from the Iron Age hill-fort on the cliffs at West Hill, we question why the Normans, having landed at Pevensey, would have marched 12 miles to Hastings when they already occupied a significant port and Roman castle at Pevensey. We analyse possible routes north from Pevensey, including a Roman road that ran through Heathfield Down and Cade Street, to London, and also consider the pattern of destruction by the Norman army west of Pevensey.
Looking afresh at Combes and Lyne’s analysis of the identity of Haestingaport and Haestingaceastre, and related research concerning the identity of the site of the Norman base, we suggest that Pevensey, rather than Hastings, was the more likely location - offering the Normans a fortified base of operations with strategic advantage. Contemporary archaeological work at Pevensey (Historic England, 2019), could also lend support to this thesis.
Dr Rebecca Welshman and Simon Coleman
Dr. Rebecca Welshman is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Liverpool. She works on projects concerning ‘the literary archaeology of place’ – the study of texts in the context of geography, history and environment. Her PhD (University of Exeter, 2010–13) titled ‘Imagining Archaeology’ focused on nature and landscape in 19th century literature. She has presented papers at the World Archaeological Congress, Archaeology in Conflict (Vienna, 2010), and ‘Theatres of War: The British Commission for Military History’s New Researchers’ Conference’ (Lancaster, 2019) where she presented a new interpretation of ‘The Hoar Apple Tree’ of the Battle of Hastings. She has published in historical, cultural, and literary studies. Her latest essay, which highlights military associations in the works of Shakespeare, will appear in Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain (2024).
Mr. Simon Coleman obtained a BA degree in Ancient History and then qualified as an archivist. He has worked in various academic institutions, including the British Library and the universities of Bath and Sussex, and is now at West Dean College in West Sussex. His work has largely focused on archives from the 19th and 20th centuries covering subjects such as literature, art and political history. Outside work he has written articles for the Richard Jefferies Society. Before attending university, he developed an interest in medieval and ancient battles and investigated theories regarding the locations of some Anglo-Saxon battlefields. On moving to East Sussex in 2014 he started to explore the question of the site of the Battle of Hastings, looking at issues around interpretation of sources, landscape changes, and the influence of ‘official’ narratives of events on current debate.
Works cited in abstract
Bowden, Mark., Brodie, Allan. and Small, Fiona. (2019). Pevensey Castle, Pevensey, East Sussex: Architectural, Archaeological and Aerial Investigation. Fort Cumberland: Historic England. https://doi.org/10.5284/1056483
Combes, Pamela, and Malcolm Lyne. “Hastings, Haestingaceaster and Haestingaport: A question of identity.” Sussex Archaeological Collections 133 (1995), 213–224, doi.org/10.5284/1086680.
“Hastings, Historic Character Assessment Report”, compiled by Roland B. Harris (2010). Sussex Extensive Urban Survey (EUS), 15.
Welshman, Rebecca, and Simon Coleman. “Heathfield Down: An Alternative Location for the Battlefield of Hastings, 1066”. International Journal of Military History and Historiography (published online ahead of print 2024). doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/24683302-bja10061
Dr Sam Moorhead
Dr Sam Moorhead was the National Finds Adviser, for ancient coins, for the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the British Museum until his retirement in 2023. He is currently seeing his Roman Imperial Coinage volume on Carausius and Allectus through press, a volume which has drawn enormously on the collection and expertise of Malcolm Lyne.
Finds of Carausian and Allectan coins from the Saxon Shore
Dr Sam Moorhead
As part of the work for the forthcoming RIC V.5 on the coinage of Carausius and Allectus, the author has studied coins from sites across Britain. This talk will look at the finds of Carausian and Allectan coins, notably from the Shore Forts of Portchester, Pevensey and Richborough, placing them in a regional and national context.
Portchester Shore Fort from the air
(c) Graham Barker and Sam Moorhead
coin of Allectus from Pevensey
Roman and early Saxon place names around the Solent
Dr Anthony Durham
The geography of ancient south-central England is full of surprises, because so much that is now widely repeated is wrong. I will show the most likely meanings and locations of about 60 settlement and river names that have survived from before AD 600. These are best guesses based on looking at all the evidence from early documents, the landscape and its changes over time, and historical linguistics. Perhaps most novel is how much better we can now understand post-Roman events described in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
Dr Anthony Durham
I spent 15 years as a research scientist, working in 5 countries on the molecular biology of virus structures and cell movements. Then 25 years running a computer software business, to control machine tools and new light sources. Since retirement I have studied the geography of Roman Britain, applying a lifetime’s experience in data handling and foreign languages to the analysis of ancient place and river names. As a scientist I am incorrigibly curious, for ever asking why and where. What does the evidence show? That is often not what books currently repeat.
Arthur Franklin
Arthur Franklin is Chairman of the Lewes Priory Trust. As a lecturer in History and Archaeology for over 30 years he is author of the guidebook ‘The Priory of St Pancras’ and continues to do research into Lewes Priory on behalf of the Trust.
Malcolm and Lewes Priory
Arthur Franklin
Malcolm Lyne’s report in 1997 of the excavations undertaken between 1969 and 1983 was based on the unpublished archive left by the late Richard Lewis. It revealed the deficiencies in St. John Hope’s investigations between 1899 and 1901 to uncover the remains of the first monastic church. Malcolm has inspired a new generation of historians and archaeologists to investigate the history of Lewes Priory through further excavation and research and Lewes Priory is now a candidate for UNESCO World Heritage Status.
Excavating Malcolm's Archives
Kevin Trott
How do we deal with someone’s lifetime archives once they have passed? This paper will discuss how Kevin and others dealt with various types of archives (folders of pottery recording sheets, photographs, drawings, bags of sherds, other artefacts, and books), deciding which sites the archives relate to (often based on minimal site codes), establishing to whom the archives now belong and then finding out if, and how, they want them returned, considering the archaeological value of various types of paperwork and single or groups of unassigned finds, and deciding on the retention or disposal of material that we cannot process any further. The talk will also discuss the value of the long-term curation of primary recording forms.
Malcolm's archive shed
Kevin Trott
Kevin started in archaeology as a volunteer on an excavation on the Isle of Wight at Newbarn Combe. Subsequently he
graduated in archaeology at Leicester University, and then undertook a large parish survey on the Isle of Wight that culminated in the examination of several Iron Age and Romano-British settlements, and a Deserted Medieval Village. Later Kevin worked with numerous archaeological establishments that had contract work on the Island, and also assisted them on a number of sites in southern England. Subsequently he moved to the mainland and worked for various companies in Wales, the East-Midlands and the South-West, later being appointed as a Regional Manager for PCA, before undertaking consultancy work in the South-West. During this time, Kevin established himself as a finds specialist and joined Wessex Archaeology as such, now mainly working on Late Iron Age and Romano-British ceramics in southern Britain and the East Midlands.