University
of
Essex Colchester Archaeological Trust
Report Library
A joint project between
The Colchester Archaeological Trust
and
The University of Essex
Colchester
Archaeological
Trust

Report Descriptions

The reports and publications are organised into groups according to date of fieldwork and whether or not they were produced by the Colchester Archaeological Trust (CAT). If you click on the report type name, you will go the start of the list of those reports in the full report list webpage. Remember for all the reports types, the reports are listed in reverse chronological order i.e. newest first, oldest last. The groups are as follows: Colchester Archaeological Trust: CAT, AR, CAR, MAG, CNL (Catalogue newsletter), MISCAT Others: RN, OR, MISCO.

The Trust fieldwork reports break down into four distinct groups according to date and director (Ros Niblett for 1963-1970, Philip Crummy 1971 onwards). 1963-1970 (Category RN: Ros Niblett). Most of Ros Niblett's work appeared as by B R K Dunnett in the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society. Subject to permission from the publishers, reports which appeared elsewhere will also be made available here in due course.

1971-1985 (Category CAR). All of the fieldwork for this period is covered in the Colchester Archaeological Reports, nos 1-12. The sixth volume in the series includes summaries of all the projects involved.

1985-1998 (Category AR: CAT archive reports listed according to year/month). This was a relatively quiet period archaeologically. Archival accounts for all the projects for this period (about 400 of them) will appear here under AR. Investigations published in Essex Archaeology and History and elsewhere will eventually appear here as well, subject to the approval of publishers. An important omission, though, is the detailed account of the Stanway excavation (Stanway: an élite burial site at Camulodunum) which was published by the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies and is available for sale.

1997-present (Category CAT: Colchester Archaeological Trust archive report series). Nearly every project undertaken since 1999 has or will have its own report in the Colchester Archaeological Trust report series. Desktop studies are not being made available for download because they are re-workings of existing data.

Older fieldwork reports and publications are grouped under OR (pre-1963 publications). Various non-fieldwork publications by the Trust are to found under the MAG (The Colchester Archaeologist), CNL (Catalogue newsletter), and MISCAT (other publications), and category MISCO will act as a catch-all for material which does not fit any of the other groups. The most important of all of the older publications is Roman Colchester by M R Hull. This publication is the bedrock of all modern archaeological work in the town centre, since it provides a comprehensive summary (with overview) of all the archaeological investigations there (the Roman town effectively) prior to 1958. Work by C F C Hawkes and others on the pre-Roman settlement of Camulodunum was published in Camulodunum (OR) and Colchester Archaeological Report 11 (CAR). There are also many valuable articles in the pages of the Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society (OR) which we hope to make available later. Philip Morant's History and Antiquities of Colchester (published in 1748; OR) was a milestone publication which is still an essential source book today for those interested in the history of Colchester. An important omission in OR is the modern version of Morant, the Victoria County History of Essex, 9 (Borough of Colchester) published in 1994.

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