ABSTRACT
Together with south-eastern Ireland and south-west Wales, south-west England and Armorica form a group of projecting sea-girt promontories, between which maritime routes from the Atlantic, the English Channel, and the Irish Sea converge (McGrail 1990: fig. 4.5). Noting the importance of this area, Mackinder (1902: 19-20; Figure 1.4) dually referred to it as the ‘Channel Entries’ and the ‘maritime antechamber of Britain’, while modern day geologists and geographers still refer to the zone as the ‘western approaches’ (Embleton 1984). The nature of Iron Age maritime links between southern Britain and Armorica have been much better documented compared to those of more northern regions such as Atlantic Scotland and Ireland, largely due to the research interests of Professor Barry Cunliffe. Cunliffe’s programmes of excavation and long-term research objectives, collectively known as the Atlantic Façade Programme, have included work at Hengistbury Head, Dorset (Cunliffe 1987), Mount Batten, Devon (Cunliffe 1988a), Le Câtel, Jersey (Cunliffe 1992) and, with Patrick Galliou of the University of Brest, at Le Yaudet, Brittany (Cunliffe and Galliou 1995, 2000, 2004, 2005). As a part of this work the evidence for visible material contacts between Armorica and southwest England have been reviewed over the past two decades (Cunliffe 1982, 1987, 1988b, 1990, 1991: 180-5; 2000, 2001), while a monograph, Armorica and Britain: Cross Channel relationships in the late first millennium BC (Cunliffe and de Jersey 1997), extensively discussed the evidence for imported material, mainly pottery and coins, manufactured in Brittany and found in Britain.
