Professor Martin bell

Martin's research concerns the contribution which archaeology makes to an understanding of environmental change on a wide range of timescales. Analytically he is interested in the analysis of soils, sediments and molluscs, land and marine. Topics include the prehistory of soil erosion, experimental archaeology and coastal environments. Experimental research focuses on earthworks and wood structures and the contribution of experiments to understanding how the archaeological record forms and in particular the role of faunal agents. Coastal research has focused on an extensive programme of fieldwork and excavations in the Severn Estuary where he has been working since 1983. This has involved major excavations at Brean Down, Goldcliff,  Redwick and Peterstone. Discoveries at these sites include several Mesolithic settlements, human and animal footprints, and many Bronze Age and Iron Age buildings and wood structures such as trackways and fish traps. He has an advisory role in the Living Levels Project a Heritage Lottery project designed to connect local communities with the heritage and natural history of the Gwent Levels. He has published  four monographs on his Severn Estuary coastal research and his wider interest in patterns of movement in prehistory, including riverine and maritime, are the subject of his most recent book Making One's Way in the World: the footprints and trackways of Prehistoric People (Oxbow 2020).