British Archaeology

A Précis on - Stonehenge: Exploring the Greatest Stone Age Mystery by Mike Parker Pearson. 2012. London: Simon & Schuster UK; ISBN-978-0-85720-732-6 paperback £9.99 & US$16.41; ISBN-978-0-85720-730-2 hardback £25.00 & US$31.41; xxii+406 pp., 86 figs.

I recently had the opportunity to review Alex Gibson’s thought provoking volume, 'Enclosing the Neolithic: Recent studies in Britain and Europe'. That review, to which the reader is directed for further commentary, identified as a weakness the uneven spread of regional case studies, and in particular the omission of studies from the West Country, Wales and North West England, which are so important in understanding the Irish Sea Zone. The aim of this paper is to address this with regard to the material from the North West of England, and in particular Cumbria. This paper is therefore meant to be read in conjunction with Gibson’s edited volume.

A metalwork hoard dated to the Wilburton phase of the later Bronze Age, found at Barway close to the Isle of Ely in the Cambridgeshire Fens, is reported. Consideration of the hoard, in the context of later prehistoric hoarding in the local landscape, reveals that particular sorts of artefacts were associated with particular places in the landscape. In particular a strong association between later Bronze Age hoards and causeways connecting the Isle of Ely to the outside world is identified, and an interpretation suggested. This study demonstrates the potential of a detailed contextual approach for providing a more nuanced understanding of later Bronze Age metalwork deposition that moves away from a simplistic wet-dry dichotomy.

Excavation at this site revealed two early, possibly Saxon, features considered to represent small structures or buildings. Later features indicated that the digging and working of clunch, a hard variety of chalk, had been carried out at this site. Dating evidence suggests that this activity continued throughout much of the medieval period and indicates that this is one of the earliest identified incidences of the digging and working of clunch in Isleham. Isleham became known for its clunch industry in the early modern period.

This book brings together a collection of chapters reflecting the scholarship of Tom Beaumont James, Emeritus Professor at the University of Winchester, in advancing the study of medieval and early modern artefacts, buildings, gardens, and towns. The seventeen essays represent substantive contributions on specific topics and many of the authors started out as Tom’s students. Some focus on buildings, others on people, some on documentary evidence and some on material culture. The chapters range chronologically from early medieval Southampton through sixteenth-century Winchester to an analysis of that city’s nineteenth-century censuses. Although the work coheres around central Southern England there are also papers on Edward I’s Tower of London, the medieval and early modern gardens of two Oxford colleges, and the English occupation of Normandy in the fifteenth century.

Since petrological work in the 1930s enabled some Neolithic stone axe heads to be defined as distinctive Groups which could be associated with their rock sources, it has been assumed that there were discrete ‘axe factories’ which could be pin pointed on the ground for each Group. In some parts of Britain fieldwork and excavation has confirmed the presence of axe production sites but, the source sites of the Cornish greenstone axe rock Groups have remained elusive. This is surprising as a large number of Groups have been assigned a Cornish origin with pin-point source locations provided. Recent work, however, on potential Group 1 sources and at an axe production site in West Penwith, has indicated that the picture is very much more complex than previously thought.
In this paper aspects of the smaller Group XVI, prominent in the tor enclosure of Carn Brea, are considered. A small inland greenstone site at Viaduct Farm, near Camborne, was focussed upon to see if a discrete source could be identified. Outcrops in one valley were sampled and examined against thin sections attributed to Group XVI to see if this material really was the source of Group XVI.
The results suggest that caution should be used in attributing specific source sites for Cornish axe rock groups and that a range of sources may have been used for the production of axe heads in each of these Groups.

Grahame Clark, whom many would concur in naming as the foremost
prehistorian of our time is hardly ever cited in German-speaking Central
Europe. The chapter discusses possible reasons analyzing the few existing
references in German archaeological literature. The authors argue that
there is a need to integrate some important elements of Clark's
materialism holism, und systemic approach, in today 's Central European
archaeology. Reconstructing history of Central European scholarly
reception of Clark's writings should heb to overcome both national
stereotypes as well as the division in the two cultures of scientific
archaeology und an archaeology contributing to the humanities.

West Penwith, the Land’s End, the south western extremity of the British Isles has long attracted the attention of archaeologists, landscape historians, writers and artists. Still largely a rural landscape of ancient farmsteads and churchtowns, it also has a famous mining history interwoven into the distinctive character of this rugged peninsula. Across the moorland spine lie numerous prehistoric ceremonial monuments whilst in the surrounding farmland deeply embedded imprints of early settlement reveals extraordinary and rare time-depth. Today’s fields, particularly across Zennor and Morvah parishes, preserve boundaries that were laid out over 2,000 years ago. For centuries these patterns determined tenure and land use, yet in the early 19th century mining transformed the landscape of the St Just and St Ives districts. Abandoned engine houses, iconic symbols of this once great industry lie scattered along the northern coast amid mine waste and moorland between villages of terraced houses dotted with nonconformist chapels. This book is the result of over 270 pioneering archaeological surveys and conservation projects carried out over the past 35 years. It seeks deeper understanding of this amazing historic landscape and is a celebration of its unique qualities. It lays down a sound foundation for increased understanding and protection and hopefully will prove an inspiration and a source of information for all who love and care for this special place.

The effects of neoliberalism as ideology can be seen in every corner of the planet, worsening inequalities and empowering markets over people. How is this affecting archaeology? Can archaeology transcend it? This volume will delve into the context of archaeological practice within the neoliberal world and the opportunities and challenges of activism from the profession. From a global perspective with collaborations from all around the world, it aims to encourage a new course of action that makes the past relevant in the present.

The initial phase of the Understanding Exmoor’s Barrows Project made direct contact with or explored the online catalogues of a total of 23 museums and archives potentially holding archaeological material relevant to improving understanding of Bronze Age barrows and associated funerary traditions on Exmoor and in the wider area around Exmoor. These enquiries identified a number of relevant collections and produced detailed inventories of the material available.
The information obtained includes a number of unusual and intriguing elements and will make a significant addition to the data currently held by the Exmoor Historic Environment Record and other relevant repositories.
Additionally, the Project has demonstrated that the material identified has potential for further analysis through, for example, examination by pottery, lithics, bone and charcoal experts, and for radiocarbon dating. The prospective results from these analyses and determinations are likely to substantially advance current understanding of Bronze Age burial traditions across Exmoor and its wider region and to provide an enhanced foundation for future research.

Later Prehistoric Settlement in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly reports on the excavation between 1996 and 2014 of five later prehistoric and Roman period settlements. Three of the mainland sites – Killigrew, Nancemere and Higher Besore – are located in central Cornwall, near Truro, with the fourth, at Porthleven, situated on the south coast in west Cornwall. The fifth settlement, Porth Killier, is on the island of St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly. All the sites were multi-phased, revealing both similar and contrasting patterns of occupation stretching from the Bronze Age into the Iron Age and beyond. Despite having broadly comparable chronological sequences, there are considerable differences in both the tempo and intensity of occupation, and significant contrasts in practices associated with them. Significantly, all four mainland sequences culminate with an enclosed settlement in the Late Iron Age and especially during the Roman period, a time of significant economic and social change following the conquest. During this period there continued to be differences in the character of occupation. Notably two of the enclosures seem to have been strongly associated with industrial activities, including metalworking at Killigrew, suggesting that the working of iron may have been a controlled or ritualized activity undertaken within a dedicated space. The volume presents the results from each of the five settlement sites, before reviewing the key themes which have emerged from the investigations.

This project employed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to conduct aerial surveys of two deserted medieval villages (DMVs) to investigate the hypothesis that using UAVs to create high-quality 3D landscape models is preferable to traditionally-collected aerial photographs, topographic and historic maps for interpreting archaeological sites. Using PhotoScan, seven 3D models were created using various UAV settings. It was shown that when comparing 3D models with traditional sources, the same archaeological features were readily distinguishable. It is the author’s hopes that the comparable data from the new models will inspire the collection of higher quality data of DMVs using UAVs.

St. Mary's Abbey, Museum Gardens, York (SE 59941 52176). Improvements to the accessibility of parts of the Museum Gardens, York (under the management of York Museums Trust) in 2014–15 necessitated three watching briefs (consisting of a total of five trenches undertaken in March, April and November 2015) in the Abbey Church. These excavations encountered in situ architectural remains previously unrecorded by modern archaeological techniques and a range of relevant, albeit residual, small finds.

Radiocarbon dates for the Early Bronze Age of Northern England are presented, these provide an independent chronology for the Collared Urns of the region together with associated Accessory Vessels and grave goods. The results indicate that Collared Urns were in use in Northern England between 2000/1950 BC and 1600/1550 BC. Comparison of the dates obtained for Northern England show that they are broadly correspondent with those obtained for Ireland, Scotland and Wales in previous studies. This rebuts the idea that Collared Urns radiated from southern England, reaching northern and western Britain after a passage of time, instead the pattern is one of parallel development in all the regions considered here.

KEYWORDS
EARLY BRONZE AGE, COLLARED URNS, DATING, BRITISH PREHISTORY, IRISH PREHISTORY, SCOTTISH PREHISTORY, BURIAL BARROW, CHRONOLOGY, RADIOCARBON DATING, LANCASHIRE, NORTH WEST ENGLAND

This is a study of the treatment of the dead during Irish late prehistory. It concerns what was done to the body prior to burial, how and where it was buried, what was buried with it, and who was buried. It also explores possible causes for diachronic developments and possible reasons for the general scarcity of burials from this period.

"This special issue of "Patrimonio Histórico" (Historical Heritage), the bulletin of the Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute, brings together a series of contributions aimed at disseminating the concept of megalithic heritage among cultural and historical heritage specialists. It provides a general overview of the basic themes involved in today's research of the megalithic phenomenon (section "ideas, theories, problems"), the main methodological innovations the field has experienced in recent years ("sciences, methods"), the public perceptions involved ("perceptions") as well as a series of major megalithic sites of southern Iberia ("sites, interventions, management")."

Archaeologists’ excavation practices vary significantly from country to country and site to site. But variation in the most fundamental, ‘common-sense’ excavation practices is ‘black-boxed’ - it is not discussed outside casual, informal contexts, and is treated as having no effect on higher-level interpretation. These practices can, however, be a source of conflict when archaeologists from different communities of practice work together. In this paper, I explore what variation in excavation methodology reveals about the nature of archaeological knowledge itself. By comparing methodologies and the organization of labour on British and Andean excavations, I argue that archaeologists in different communities of practice have divergent understandings of what the object of archaeological investigation is, and of how it can be known, and by whom. This results in contrasting understandings of the nature of material/archaeological objects, as well as contrasting conceptualizations of excavation as an ‘expert’ practice – one requiring skills, knowledge and bodily practices that are specific to trained archaeologists. Situating these concerns in historical and ethnographic context, this paper suggests that archaeological excavation is, in fact, a far more complex, nuanced and variable practice than the lack of attention paid to it implies.

Between 2008 and 2011 excavations were undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit at Tremough, near Penryn, Cornwall. The site is situated on a plateau overlooking the Carrick Roads, historically one of the busiest waterways in Cornwall.

The excavations led to a large number of significant archaeological features being uncovered ranging from Neolithic pits to Bronze Age structures and late prehistoric enclosures. Foremost of these sites were a Middle Bronze roundhouse (circa 1500-1300 cal BC) and a large circular Late Bronze Age enclosure (circa 1000-800 cal BC).

Importantly, the roundhouse was found to contain stone moulds associated with the production of socketed tools and pins, and traces of metalworking were found inside the building. As such, the excavations have provided the first evidence for metalworking inside a Middle Bronze Age roundhouse in southern England, as well as radiocarbon dating for a range of metalwork forms. As part of the project finds of metalwork from other roundhouses in the South West region have been reassessed.

The Late Bronze Age enclosure is the first of its type to found in the South West of Britain. It encircled a large number of pits and postholes, some of which were associated with rectangular post-built structures. A carefully made cairn of burnt stone beside a large pit and a second large pit containing burnt stone and pottery were also investigated. These may have been associated with cooking or perhaps with a small-scale episode of metalworking, as the tip of a sword mould was found in one of the pits.

The significance of the investigated sites is fully discussed with regard to their relationships with other prehistoric sites on the plateau and in terms of their wider context with other sites in the South West and beyond.

Dorothy Garrod is considered a pioneer of the development of early prehistoric archaeology. She was an advocate of prehistory on a global scale, excavating over a wide geographical area and making connections between continents to achieve her vision. Garrod‘s work strongly contributed to the development of prehistoric archaeology as a defined subject in its own right. Garrod was renowned as a field archaeologist, continuing to research and excavate up until her death in 1968. It is her excavations at Mount Carmel for which she is most famous, through which she contributed towards the foundation of the chronology of the prehistory of the Levant, the basis of which remains to this day. Garrod was the first women to be appointed to the Disney Chair of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, subsequently training the next generation of prehistoric archaeologists and lecturers who took prehistory out into the World. Garrod was not herself keen to be thought a feminist figurehead but today she is considered a pioneer within the disciplines of the Archaeology of Women and Gender Archaeology, providing inspiration even today. As a committed Catholic throughout her life, Garrod‘s humility, thoughtfulness and gentleness is evident within her work and no doubt provided her with strength throughout her extensive career.

This paper considers the role and persistence of long term memory in communities in the south west peninsula and the way that it affected their disposition and practices as they occupied and engaged with places from the earliest Neolithic period c 4000 cal BC down to the centuries of first millennium cal BC. Case studies from recent archaeological excavations and new analyses of older excavations are drawn upon to give examples of how communities used and at perhaps at times manipulated long held traditions as means of engaging with particular places or for establishing new types of sites in the landscape. Examples include the digging of pits, the continuing engagement with ‘natural’ features and ‘ancient’ monuments and the reuse of roundhouses.

This is an updated version of an earlier paper titled "Stonehenge, Durrington Walls, Newgrange: Monuments to the Egyptian Bull and Cow Cults and Origins of Innovation" by the same author. However, in this paper new material has been included. Thus, this paper marginally amends (in view of the summer 2016 retraction of the summer 2015 announcement regarding Durrington Walls) and considerably extends the previous paper.
On September 19th, 2016 I revised the view presented in this paper regarding the date of Gobekli Tepe's oldest layer's construction with this paper:
https://www.academia.edu/28603175/Dating_Gobekli_Tepe
A new version of this paper is forthcoming to account for this update.

Alcohol has been a part of the human diet for millennia, however little analysis has been done on the origins of large-scale production, specifically in Europe. The rise of agriculture in Europe during the Neolithic revolution brought about a greater availability of food and the allowance for specialized skills. Naturally, one of these skills was that of brewing. Examining four different sites from Neolithic Europe, correlations and connections are made to suggest possibilities of the cultural role of alcohol in its production, consumption, and ritualization.

Updated Resource Assessment and Research Agenda 2019 for the Isles of Scilly. Includes results from several recent projects which have made major advances in our understanding of Scilly during prehistory, particularly during the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

http://www.scilly.gov.uk/sites/default/files/planning-apps/SHERF%20Resource%20Assessment%20and%20Research%20Agenda.pdf

The research paper deals with the art of building which was introduced and developed in Lahore during the period of British Raj. We have variety of buildings which were built during the British period. These can broadly be divided into two groups, namely, Religious and Utilitarian. These principally include Churches, Cathedrals, Lawrence and Montgomery halls, the Government College University, National College of Arts, Aitchison college, Punjab University, Lahore Museum, General Post Office, the Senate hall, Memorials, Railway Station and Bridges. The built heritage can also be termed as "Colonial Architecture". Unlike previous architectural traditions of the city, the British style has a distinctive character. When study deeply it provides us with matrix of eastern and western elements. Architecturally all these buildings are dominated by brick structures and represent separate school of architecture which is easily identifiable due to their particular architectural characteristic. The present work, however, provides an introductory information about two types of buildings, namely, Religious and Educational. Rest of the structure will be discussed at later stage in a separate article. Keeping in view present state of condition of the British built heritage, some suggestions are also given in order to preserve and conserve these buildings.

This thesis explores the craft of metallurgy in the British Bronze Age through an examination and analysis of metalworking tools.
The goal of this research was to reassemble the Bronze Age metalsmithing toolkit based on an understanding of the craft and its practice. The first chapters examine the smith and metalsmithing tools through literary sources to establish a theoretical framework for understanding the significance of tools and smiths in the British Bronze Age.
This is followed by a study of metalsmithing tools in museum collections. These examinations focussed on wear, design, and chemical composition. Tools were cross-referenced to contemporary tools, descriptions from ethnographic literature, and tools in modern workshops.
This research also supplied data to create replica tools for use in an experimental programme to explore tool use and performance. The research culminated in establishing a system called Minimum Tools Required (MTR). It is based on the idea that the presence of an object implies the existence of the tools and materials necessary for its manufacture, and that the presence of tools implies a purpose, and the possibility of other tools and materials that are associated with that purpose.
Using this system provides a means to assess assemblages and aids in understanding the kind and the number of tools and materials that were a necessary part of the Bronze Age metalsmith’s toolkit.
The system also allows for more precise interpretations to be made of hoards. Tools can indicate the types of metal objects being made, or represent specific metalsmithing tasks. Thus by recognising the tools and their function, statements can be made about how these tools were used and the processes by which metal objects were made in the Bronze Age, resulting in a more complete understanding the organisation of the metalsmith’s craft in antiquity.

CONTENTS
Obit: Mary Desborough Cra’ster, 1928–2008, John Pickles, Peter Gathercole, and Alison Taylor
A Fen Island in the Neolithic and Bronze Age: Excavations at North Fen, Sutton, Cambridgeshire, Leo Webley and Jonathan Hiller
A fen island burial: excavation of an Early Bronze Age round barrow at North Fen, Sutton, Aileen Connor
The Bartlow Hills in context, Hella Eckardt with Amanda Clarke, Sophie Hay, Stephen Macaulay, Pat Ryan, David Thornley and Jane Timby
Senuna, goddess of the river Rhee or Henney, Stephen Yeates
A Reappraisal of the Evidence for the ‘northern arm’ of the Fleam Dyke at Fen Ditton, Scott Kenney
An excavation at Station Quarry, Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire, Laura Piper and Andrew Norton
Excavations at Scotland Road/Union Lane, Chesterton, Duncan Mackay
A Curious Object from Firs Farm, Caxton, Aileen Connor
A morphological analysis of Ickleton, Cambridgeshire: An admission of defeat, Christopher Taylor
Funerals, the final consumer choice? Ken Sneath
The ‘Age of the Windmill’ in the Haddenham Level, N James
Upware and Bottisham Sluices, K S G Hinde
Changes in the landscape of west Cambridge, Part V: 1945 to 2000, Philomena Guillebaud
The C.A.S. Collection of Cambridgeshire ‘Sketches’ J.D. Pickles
Fieldwork in Cambridgeshire 2007, Elizabeth Shepherd Popescu and Sarah Poppy
Reviews, Tim Malim and Sue Oosthuizen

"The Roman construction techniques of buildings in Britain during the Imperial Age, with a particular focus on bricks and tiles". I also used PhotoScan to create 3D models of my case studies and MeshLab to better analyze the ancient buildings.

The purpose of this study is to provide some interpretation and synthesis for Cornwall's regional archaeology. Contents: Introduction and Background - structure and methodology, barrow studies, 18th, 19th, 20th and recent research and models; The Later Neolithic Background and the role of Beakers in Cornwall - comparative studies, ceremonial sites and ritual traditions; The Evidence from the Barrows - dating, the Watch Hill Barrow and Needham's chronology; Barrow Cemeteries and their Landscape; The Role of Bronze Age Barrow Cemeteries in Cornwall - 4 case studies; Devon; Cornish Ceremonial Landscapes - New Interpretations. Appendices include lists of terminology and excavated barrows and their contents.

Throughout the summer of 2001 archaeological investigations were carried out along the South West Water Pipeline between Mitchell and St Newlyn East.
In the Metha area a number of pits of probable Neolithic/Early Bronze Age date were uncovered including one that was dated to the Middle Neolithic period (circa 3000 BC). A second pit contained fragments of an Early Bronze Age Food Vessel which was radiocarbon dated to circa 2300 BC, and a third was found to be Middle Bronze Age (circa 1500 BC). A small scattering of unstratified flints dating to this period were also recovered.
Another pit of probable prehistoric origin was excavated in Church Close, adjacent to a field containing a pair of large ring ditches identified from aerial photographs.
A roundhouse of Middle Bronze Age date was uncovered at Trevilson and this led to the rescue excavation of a circular structure that dated between approximately 1400 and 1100 BC. The roundhouse was situated within a man-made hollow measuring approximately 7 metres in diameter. Importantly a collection of baked clay objects including what has been interpreted as briquetage was recovered from inside the roundhouse which probably provides some of the earliest evidence for salt production in the region. Further evidence for the highly structured processes associated with the abandonment of Bronze Age buildings in Cornwall was uncovered.
A geophysical survey along the route of the pipeline had identified eight areas that were likely to contain features of archaeological interest. The subsequent topsoil stripping of one of these areas at Pollamounter resulted in the rescue excavation of a Romano-British enclosure dated to the first to fourth centuries AD. The enclosure contained a number of enigmatic pits and ditches and two structures relating to at least three phases of activity within the Romano-British period.

http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archiveDS/archiveDownload?t=arch-1352-1/dissemination/pdf/Cornwall/GL18018.pdf

The discovery of twelve denarii found individually between 1985 and 1991 at New Fordey Farm, Barway, Soham in Cambridgeshire complements finds of aurei and denarrii at the same location reported in 1958, 1979, 1981 and 1984. The presence of associated pottery sherds, and progressively decreasing wear from oldest to youngest coin, identify this as a disturbed hoard of at least 451 coins (the total found to date) with a closing date of AD 180 in the reign of Commodus (AD 180–92). This paper describes the most recent finds and places them in the context of the earlier reports and what is known of Roman activity in the immediate vicinity, before considering possible reasons for their deposition.

Feasting equipment, copper‐alloy cauldrons and flesh‐hooks, are a distinctive feature of the later Atlantic Bronze Age suggesting elements of a shared ideology whose ultimate origin may lie in the eastern Mediterranean. The easterly distribution of the earliest British cauldrons previously identified is further confirmed by the recent discovery of a Type Colchester example at Salle, Norfolk, which brings to three the number of cauldrons of this type found in the region. Similarities between them suggest their origin lies in a single workshop, if not individual craftsman. The appearance of the cauldrons found at Feltwell, Norfolk, and Salle is so close as to suggest a new ‘Feltwell’ Variant. Analysis of the contents of the Feltwell cauldron hint at the function of these intriguing objects as high status cooking vessels, most likely reserved for the chiefly class and deployed in the hosting of feasts which, along with flesh‐hooks, served to build and cement political alliances.

KEYWORDS
CAULDRON, FLESH‐HOOK, FEASTING, LATER BRONZE AGE, IDEOLOGY, BRONZE AGE CHRONOLOGY, METAL DETECTING