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.