Three Thousand Years of Rubbish and Ritual in the Thames: A Long Durée Investigation of Riverine Deposition Powered by Collaborative Partnerships.

这一开创性的研究项目将解释从青铜时代到中世纪时期(约公元前2200年到公元1500年)漫长的杜雷时期的河流沉积的实践和意义，并通过跨部门合作得到加强。河流作为沟通的重要轴心、丰富的资源蓄水池和超凡脱俗的崇拜场所，对人类历史进程产生了深远的影响(Edgeworth，2011)。一些河流，如泰晤士河和莱茵河，特别受到重视，在许多世纪，甚至在某些情况下，数千年来接收物体的沉积。因此，这些物品提供了一个独特的档案，用于解开人类在广阔的时间尺度上依附于水的地方不断变化的意义和信念。这种做法的长期持续性在以前的研究中得到了强调，但只是笼统地说，或者只是在特定时期的研究中作为一个临时参考。我的项目将是第一个实施真正长期的、关注地理的方法来研究河流沉积的项目。它将通过新颖的数据尺度、跨期比较和解释框架产生新的叙事，通过非学术合作最大化。我的深度探索将位于泰晤士河中部考古伙伴关系(MTAP)的核心，该伙伴关系是雷丁大学考古系和一个利益相关者组织网络之间的合作，该网络发起的目的是促进泰晤士河中部作为一个研究不足的地区的考古遗产。我的研究将为推进MTAP的抱负提供一个关键工具，并为学术、商业、政府和第三部门组织之间的博士研究提供一个模式。对河流发现进行系统、长期的调查已被确定为泰晤士河作为这类物体在西北欧最丰富的来源之一的关键研究重点(Booth等人)。2007年，209；奈勒，2011年；汉弗莱斯2019)。与MTAP的合作将通过释放难以获取的数据和背景来源，并为整个泰晤士河流域地区的公众受众提供一个框架，为我的研究增加实质性的价值。我的研究旨在通过对泰晤士河中从青铜时代到中世纪时期(公元前2200年到公元1500年)河流沉积的长期调查，了解过去河流景观与人类实践和经验之间的变化关系。这一目标将通过以下目标实现：利用现有的一系列考古和新开发的档案资料，生成泰晤士河中河流发现的综合多时期语料库。根据类型变化和生物细节破坏模式的分析，阐明河流发现范围和处理的时间趋势。分析和绘制河流发现的总体空间分布，以确定与交叉点的关联，收集有关河流疏浚的数据，以批判性地评估河流发现的空间格局在多大程度上受到恢复做法的影响。利用挖掘的数据、地名和地图资料，在更精细的水平上分析选定的长期沉积遗址，以了解这些地点的发展与更广泛的文化景观不断变化的格局之间的关系。

This pioneering research project will interpret the practice and meaning of river deposition over the long durée from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, c. 2200 BC to AD 1500, enhanced through cross-sector collaboration. Rivers have had a profound influence on the course of human history as vital axes of communication, rich reservoirs of resources, and arenas for otherworldly veneration (Edgeworth 2011). Some rivers, such as the Thames and the Rhine, were especially valued, receiving the deposition of objects over many centuries, and in some cases millennia. Such objects thus provide a unique archive for unravelling the changing meanings and beliefs that humans attached to watery places over expansive timescales. The long-term persistence of such practices has been highlighted by previous research, but only in generalised terms or as a passing reference in period-specific studies. My project will be the first to implement a genuinely long-term, geographically focused approach to the study of river deposition. It will generate new narratives through novel scales of data, inter-period comparisons and frameworks of interpretation, maximised through non-academic partnerships.My deep-time exploration will be situated at the heart of The Middle Thames Archaeology Partnership (MTAP), a collaboration between the University of Reading's Archaeology department and a network of stakeholder organisations initiated to promote the archaeological heritage of the Middle Thames as an under-studied region. My research will provide a key vehicle for advancing the aspirations of MTAP and a model for engaged doctoral research working at the interface between academic, commercial, governmental and third-sector organisations. A systematic, long durée investigation of river finds has been identified as a key research priority for the Thames as one richest sources of such objects in north-west Europe (Booth et al. 2007, 209; Naylor 2011; Humphries 2019). Collaboration with MTAP will add substantial value to my research by unlocking hard-to-access data and contextual sources and providing a framework for engaging public audiences across the Thames Valley region. My research aims to understand the changing relationship between riverscapes and human practice and experience in the past through a long-term investigation of riverine deposition in the Middle Thames from the Bronze Age to the Medieval period, c. 2200 BC to AD 1500This aim will be met through the following objectives:To produce a comprehensive multi-period corpus of river finds from the Middle Thames drawing upon a range of existing archaeological and newly exploited archival sources.To elucidate temporal trends in the range and treatment of river finds based on the analysis of typological variation and biographical details breakage patterns.To analyse and map the overall spatial distribution of river finds to identify associations with crossing-points, confluences and other fluvial features, and to explore how practice varies across different stretches of the river at different times.To incorporate data on river dredging to critically evaluate the extent to which the spatial patterning of river finds has been shaped by recovery practices. To analyse select sites of long-term deposition at a more refined level drawing upon excavated data, place-names and cartographic sources to understand how the development of these locales relates to the changing configuration of the wider cultural landscape.