The land named from the sea? Coastal archaeology and place-names of Bigbury Bay, Devon

Abstract

The south coast of Devon has seen settled occupation for several thousand years. However, it is suggested that many coastal sites may have been named from a maritime perspective in the first millennium AD. Archaeological information from aerial and geophysical survey and excavation is considered, and new interpretations of a number of place-names are proposed. The archaeological and place-name evidence together suggests that in the later first millennium AD the inhabitants of south Devon knew their coast from both the land and the sea.