Holocene relative sea-level (RSL) change is investigated at Nyland Hill (Somerset Levels). The lithostratigraphy comprises turfa peat underlying marine clay, both onlapping a sloping Upper Palaeozoic basement. The altitude of the peat-clay contact ranges from 2.42 to 4.52 m OD, becoming lower down basement slope, yet 14C dates of three samples taken laterally along the contact at different altitudes yield similar ages (3640-3330, 3715-3460, 3725-3465 cal. yrs BP), suggesting either very rapid (‘instantaneous’) RSL rise or sediment compaction. Biostratigraphic data indicate a gradual transition to marine conditions across the peat-clay contact. Therefore, the height difference is interpreted as evidence for significant compaction. We consider 4.64 m OD the minimum pre-compaction altitude, indicating maximum observed compaction of 2.22 m. The clay surface, reclaimed during Roman occupation, represents an anthropogenically induced negative tendency and is dated chemostratigraphically to 1776 ± 46, using a datum related to the onset of local Roman lead mining AD 43-49. Sedimentation rates of the marine clay are established: 1.58-1.92 mm yr-1 and 0.8-0.96 mm yr-1 at sites of maximum and less severe compaction respectively. RSL continued to rise throughout the deposition of the clay unit at a rate of 0.41-0.82 mm yr-1, a view that disagrees with previous models that imply stabilised RSL by 3000 BP. These earlier studies underestimate compaction with implications for subsequent studies employing these sea-level data, particularly in crustal studies where the apparent trend of subsidence is overestimated/increased.

INTRODUCTION: THE ROMANO-BRITISH EXPLOITATION OF COASTAL WETLANDS A reas of coastal marshland formed an important and distinctive part of the landscape of Roman Britain, and current work is showing that different wetlands were utilised in very different ways. Some areas, for example in Essex 1 and Kent, 2 were simply exploited for their natural resources to produce salt and support seasonal grazing. Parts of Fenland were also used in this way, though the higher coastal siltlands were modified through the creation of drainage systems in order to improve agricultural opportunities within a landscape that was still liable to tidal flooding. 3 A third strategy towards wetland exploitation is reclamation: a major transformation of the natural environment, involving the construction of a sea wall along the coast to keep tidal waters out and a system of drainage ditches cut into the surface of the former saltmarsh to lower the water table and remove surface runoff from the surrounding uplands. One example of this strategy towards wetland exploitation was the Wentlooge Level adjacent to the Severn Estuary in SouthEast Wales, where up to c. 27 km 2 were embanked and systematically drained with a carefully-planned system of long narrow fields, probably to provide meadow land for the military establishment at Caerleon 4 (FIG. 1). Similar work may have been undertaken in the western part of the adjacent Caldicot Level, where parts of a buried Roman drainage system have recently been uncovered close to where an inscription was found during the nineteenth century recording work by legionaries on a linear earthwork, presumably a sea wall. 5 Across the Estuary in the Central Somerset Levels it appears that a conscious decision was made to divide the coastal marshes and exploit their potential in two different ways. 6 The area between the rivers Axe and Parrett was divided by a now extinct river (named in a Saxon charter as the Siger). The area to the south (towards the Parrett Estuary) was left as a tidally inundated marsh used to produce salt, possibly in order to supply the military establishment in South Wales. The latter also received 1

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Recent developer funded projects conducted by Archaeology SouthEast , the contracting division of the Centre for Applied Archaeology (CAA) have, over the last decade or so, begun to fill a void in our knowledge of one of the most archaeologically under-researched areas in Britain. It is becoming clear that rather than being a marginal landscape beyond more habitable zones, the Weald of SouthEast England was actually one which experienced significant and widespread periods of colonisation. By examining the evidence from a number of sites the author is starting to explore the area's early medieval landscape, which is beginning to show degrees of continuity from Roman and prehistoric times. This brief update is intended to highlight a revolution in our understanding of SouthEast England in the centuries surrounding the Roman Conquest. The ongoing research is a case study in landscape analysis and landscape regression. Results will be discussed in forthcoming articles as well as a 'Spoilheap monograph' due for release this year (Margetts 2018). The Iron Age − Romano-British Weald The area is traditionally divided between the elevated, predominantly sandstone, High Weald and the largely clay Low Weald. The Greensand Ridge that surrounds this inner core has, on the other hand, been both grouped with the Weald and defined as a distinctive character area within its own right (Figure 1). The Weald, a 'sub-province' within Roberts and Wrathmell's 'south-eastern province', is characterised by historically high densities of settlement dispersion (2000: 8, figure 3). It has been traditionally seen as a 'marginal' landscape, with a distinctive economy and history of colonisation. The origins Archaeology SouthEast (UCL),

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