Research and publication
Download the research and publication capability statement (PDF 9kb)
A significant proportion of archaeological work and expenditure takes place after fieldwork has been completed. The management of this work is essential to meeting planning requirements, client needs and academic goals.
Post-excavation work at Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS) is carefully managed to ensure projects progress smoothly through the completion of site archive work and assessment, in accordance with English Heritage’s guideline Management of archaeological projects (1991).
Where assessment demonstrates the potential to contribute to identified research objectives, a programme for analysis and publication of appropriate data is drawn up. Consultation and review stages track projects and amend and update research designs as appropriate.
MoLAS calls upon the skills of Specialist Services and experts at many academic institutions around Britain and abroad for specialist analysis of finds and environmental assemblages from many of its projects. The effective use of IT systems is a central element in the successful and efficient operation of MoLAS post-excavation work, and a comprehensive IT strategy has been established for the programming of work, analysis and publication.
Research work can lead to a wide variety of publication types, depending upon the size and importance of projects. More substantial work tends to be published in the MoLAS series of monographs, archaeology studies, popular books and booklets, or as papers or articles in peer-reviewed periodicals.
Quality assurance is an important aspect of all our publication work and expert editorial support is provided by an in-house Managing Editor and a team of trained editors. Larger publications are organised and written as integrated texts, with the stratigraphic, finds and environmental data brought together in a single narrative wherever possible. Supporting data are made available through edited and accessible research archives held at the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC) or the appropriate regional archive centre.
Major research work is currently made up of a mixture of English Heritage and developer-funded projects. These include:
- Study of the prehistoric West London landscape,
- the East London Gravels and the Lea Valley;
- Roman urban development at sites such as Poultry and Plantation Place;
- the Roman amphitheatre at Guildhall;
- London’s Roman cemeteries;
- the Saxon settlement of Lundenwic and the small Saxon settlements at Clapham, Battersea and Hammersmith;
- London’s medieval religious houses;
- the medieval palaces at Westminster and Southwark;
- the cemetery and buildings of Spitalfields;
- London’s playhouses;
- pottery production centres;
- and early modern industrial sites and shipyards.
MoLAS is also publishing the results from an increasing number of projects situated outside of London, with recent and forthcoming examples including the Saxon and medieval sequence at Marefair, Northampton, and an Iron Age to Romano-British landscape at Monkston Park, Milton Keynes.