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

这个开创性的研究项目将解释从青铜时代到中世纪时期的河流沉积的实践和意义。公元前2200年至公元1500年，通过跨部门合作得到加强。河流对人类历史的进程产生了深远的影响，作为重要的交流轴线，丰富的资源库，以及超凡脱俗的崇拜场所（Edgeworth 2011）。一些河流，如泰晤士河和莱茵河，特别受到重视，接受了许多世纪的沉积物，在某些情况下，数千年。因此，这些物品提供了一个独特的档案，揭示了人类在广阔的时间尺度上对水域的不断变化的意义和信仰。这种做法的长期持续性已经被以前的研究所强调，但只是在一般性的条款或作为一个通过特定时期的研究参考。我的项目将是第一个实施一个真正长期的，以地理为重点的方法来研究河流沉积。它将通过新颖的数据规模，跨时期的比较和解释框架产生新的叙述，通过非学术合作伙伴关系最大化。我的深度时间探索将位于泰晤士河中部考古合作伙伴关系（MTAP）的核心，阅读大学考古学系与一个利益相关者组织网络之间的合作，旨在促进泰晤士河中部的考古遗产，研究区域。我的研究将为推进MTAP的愿望提供一个关键的工具，并为在学术，商业，政府和第三部门组织之间的接口从事博士研究工作提供一个模型。对河流发现物进行系统的、长期的调查已被确定为泰晤士河的一个关键研究重点，因为泰晤士河是西北欧此类物体最丰富的来源之一（Booth et al. 2007，209; Naylor 2011; Humphries 2019）。与MTAP的合作将通过解锁难以访问的数据和上下文来源，并为泰晤士河谷地区的公众参与提供一个框架，为我的研究增加实质性的价值。我的研究旨在了解河流景观和人类的实践和经验之间的变化关系，在过去通过长期的调查河沉积在泰晤士河中部从青铜时代到中世纪时期，c。公元前2200年至公元1500年这一目标将通过以下目标实现：利用一系列现有的考古和新开发的档案资源，制作一个全面的泰晤士河中游多时期河流发现语料库。根据类型学变化和生物学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整体空间分布图，以确定与交叉点、汇合点和其他河流特征的关联，并探索不同时期不同河段的实践如何变化。结合河流疏浚的数据，严格评估河流发现的空间格局的程度，由恢复实践形成。利用挖掘数据、地名和制图资料，更精确地分析长期沉积的选定地点，以了解这些地点的发展如何与更广泛的文化景观不断变化的格局相关联。

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.