by Nick Corcos

See especially the recently-published report on the ten-year landscape investigation at Shapwick, Somerset, where exactly this kind of predictive use of toponymy was successful in identifying potential sites the existence of which was subsequently proven by geophysics and/or excavation. Gerrard, C; Aston, M (eds), 2007, The Shapwick Project, Somerset: A Rural Landscape Explored, Society for Medieval Archaeology, Monograph 25. The rationale to this approach is explained on pp 351-352, while Chapter 8 (pp 361- 403), describes in detail some of the sites in the parish where archaeology confirmed the initial, guiding evidence of the toponymy.

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