Spatial Analysis of the Saxon Shore Forts on the Southern Coast of Britain
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2024-02-24

Madison Paige Scrabeck

On the southern coast of Britain, several highly fortified coastal forts were constructed in the 3rd century CE. This series of forts, known as the Saxon Shore Forts, were long interpreted as a single unified military system by scholarship; however, due to excavations in the 70s and 90s the primary function of these shoe forts has shifted towards being interpreted as ‘logistic’ rather than purely military (Cotterill 1993: 238; Milne 1990: 82-84, 2008: 22; Wood 1990: 93-97; Walsh et. al 2022). The major aim of this research was to determine if the currently accepted theory of the Saxon Shore Forts having a role as a logistic facilitator of commerce was an accurate representation; therefore, computational modelling using Accumulated Cost Surfaces (also known as friction surfaces) and Least-Cost-Pathways were employed to examine rural interior site accessibility potential, overall shore fort distribution and coastline coverage, and affordance of least-effort pathways to urban centers. The definition of ‘logistic’ for the parameters of this paper was set as ‘enabling the process of coordinating and implementing complex movement of resources’, as scholarship had not previously defined what ‘logistic’ meant in terms of their research. The research herein found that the Saxon Shore Forts coastal distribution and accessibility to interior sites afforded an ability to support several types of systems at once: piratical defense, imperial defense, and facilitation of imports and exports into the province. This paper further suggests that the focal purpose of each shore fort may have been different dependent on the location and interior site accessibility rates, rather than all sharing a main function altogether.