Later European Prehistory

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.

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

The Later European Prehistory Group of Cambridge is excited to invite you to submit an abstract to our conference “A Blessing and a Curse: Mediterranean mountains between idyll and violence in later Prehistory”
Mountains are indeed double in their nature: on one hand, they are places of idyllic refuge, where to escape the stress of urban and civilised life, uncontaminated corners of beauty and loci amoeni; on the other, they are liminal places, places of anxiety, where phenomena of colonisation, globalisation and normalisation happened at a different pace, or never at all, frictional landscapes where the rules are dictated by a harsh and unforgiving environment.

Iron Age swords are remarkable in terms of their short length compared to their contemporaries in La Tène Britain and Continental Europe, a feature that has led to speculation that they were primarily stabbing weapons or a ceremonial object not intended for fighting. This research incorporates previously published swords with new material from a survey of Irish museum databases to examine the swords in terms of blade morphology and dimension to infer their possible use in battle. The study shows that the majority of swords from the period (c. 700 BC – c. 400 AD), both La Tène and sub-Roman, have features of stabbing weapons used for fighting on foot. This is at odds with the nature of weaponry found elsewhere in La Tène Europe, and highlights an insular development in Ireland during the period. Through two case studies, this analysis also shows that in interacting with the outside world, conscious choices may have been made when it came to importing weapons and ideas. By clarifying the suggestions made in other works about the uses of these swords, this article looks at the swords from a new dimension, one that also relates these weapons to the nature of warfare and society in Iron Age Ireland.

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

A rare Chalcolithic rolled-gold bead-like ornament dated to c. 2400–2200 cal. BC was found in association with sherds of early Beaker ware in an Early Bronze Age Collared Urn burial dated
to c. 1545–1450 cal. BC. The grave was located at Pendleton, Lancashire. This paper reports on the AMS radiocarbon dates for the burial context along with X-ray composition analysis of the
gold ornament, which shows the object had a high platinum content consistent with alluvial, placer, deposits possibly originating in Brittany, France rather than the British Isles. This
unparalleled rolled-gold ornament is compared to the corpus of British and French rolled-gold ornaments and contemporary goldwork and a provenance, manufacture and biography of the find is explored. Both curation and fragmentation are considered in the context of a dated Beaker ware assemblage from the local domestic site of Lower Brockholes, Preston, as well as existing corpora of Beaker and Collared Urn ware from the region.

Studies of Iron Age artefacts from Britain tend to be dominated either by the study of metalwork, or pottery. This thesis presents a study not only of a different material, but also a different type of object: glass beads. These are found in a range of different sizes, shapes, colours, and employ a variety of different decorative motifs. Thus far, glass beads have been studied through typology (Guido 1978a) and compositional analysis (Bertini 2012; Henderson 1982), yet a thorough analysis of the social context of glass beads remains absent.

Through an analysis of glass beads from four key study regions in Britain, this thesis aims not only to address regional differences in appearance and chronology, but also to explore the role that this object played within the networks and relationships that constructed Iron Age society. It seeks to understand how they were used during their lives and how they came to be deposited within the archaeological record, in order to establish the social processes that glass beads were bound within.

The results indicate that glass beads were a strongly regionalised artefact, potentially reflecting differing local preferences for colour and motif. In addition, glass beads, in combination with several other types of object, were integral to Middle Iron Age dress. Given that the first century BC is often seen as a turning point in terms of settlements and material culture, this supports the possibility of strong continental exchange during an earlier period for either glass beads or raw materials. However, by the Late Iron Age in the first century BC and early first century AD, their use had severely diminished.

This study provides the earliest unambiguous evidence for the extraction of lead in Northern Europe. Previous studies of early metal extraction have focused on copper ores in Ireland, with an increasing number of mines identified in western Britain, particularly in mid‐ and north‐Wales, in recent years. The evidence presented here focuses on the extraction of lead in the north‐west of England, extending our understanding of metal extraction beyond copper ores. Radiocarbon dating of sample sites to c.1800 cal.BC places anthropogenic activity in the British Early Bronze Age, challenging assumptions that lead was first utilised in the Middle Bronze Age period in Britain. Excavation of two Early Bronze Age burials, of contemporaneous date, found Collared Urn cremations with associated crystals of galena, placed as apparent grave offerings, inviting the possibility that they are the graves of putative mine workers.
KEYWORDS
EARLY BRONZE AGE, LEAD, MINING, MINERAL EXTRACTION, MAGNETIC MEASUREMENT, SATURATION ISOTHERMAL
REMANENT MAGNETISATION ASSAY, HEAVY METAL (LEAD) ASSAY, PREHISTORIC METALLURGY, COLLARED URN BURIAL,
UPLAND, PEAT, LANCASHIRE, ARCHAEOLOGY, ARCHAEOLOGICAL METHOD, EUROPEAN BRONZE AGE, BRITISH BRONZE AGE

What was life like for the prehistoric inhabitants of Lancashire? This is the first book to look at the longue duree of the history of the county from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age period. What emerges is a picture of a complex society that changed and developed with the introduction of new technologies and influences from overseas. David Barrowclough provides a narrative of how life would have been for the early residents of this county and explains the monuments they left behind them in the landscape.

Out of this study emerges elements of a uniquely Lancastrian prehistoric cultural identity, which at the same time shared some of the core values of the wider British and European prehistoric period. With new data from a number of unpublished sites and exceptional illustrations, this book is of interest to both scholars and the general public.

Based on recent evidence from both archaeological and natural sciences, in this paper we would like to sketch a historical geography of Europe and the Mediterranean around the year 1600 BC and then discuss the changes observed during the 16th century BC in relation to a possible correspondence with the Thera eruption. Our point of departure will be the sequence of events that took place during the months and years just before, during, and immediately after the Thera eruption. The available archaeological evidence permits us to explore the response of the local and regional communities, the logistics that were mobilised, and the political decisions adopted in light of these events. From this local and regional scenario we will move on to discuss the changes occurring in Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Near East during the 16th century BC. At least four different socio-economic and political scenarios can be sketched, showing that the responses of Bronze Age societies were highly variable.
At that point, we can ask how different political structures existing at the time reacted or were affected by the
ecological and/or social dynamics. Basically, our itinerary concludes that the Thera eruption did not cause a
severe climatic or environmental change, but touched the ideological realm particularly of those socio-political
entities which were more dependent on complex ideological superstructures in order to legitimate extreme
economic exploitation.

In this intereview Kristiansen discusses his views with Shanks and Witmore on the current (2003) state of archaeological theory and interpretation, and its consequences for later European prehistory,his views on current issues in archaeological heritage and the role the Association of European Archaeologists (EAA)

Long (4p) English abstract of a book chapter published in French (Circulations et modalités d'échanges à l'âge du Bronze en France). Special thanks to Lindsey Büster for her help in writing this document.

Moreover, in the book, fig.3 appeared mistakenly printed in shades of grey, which makes it a bit difficult to understand. A coloured version of this figure, made by Florent Comte, has been inserted in this document

New electron micro-probe analysis of residues found on the median 'stitched-seams' of Scandinavian flint daggers dating to the late Neolithic are presented and linked to previous work on the mode of production of this artefact type. Analysis suggests that previous interpretation of the production sequence requires revision with consequences for the understanding of social organization of craft production in Southern Scandinavia.