Anatomy of a Tomb‐west Kennet Revisited

Thomas, Julian; Whittle, Alasdair

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0092.1986.tb00349.x

Cited by 33 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The test is performed by plotting the cumulative distributions of the sample (percentage of cases per visibility class) and population (percentage of area per visibility class) respectively and obtaining the difference D with a normal distribution. Large sample theory (Kvamme, 1990, citing Thomas andWhittle, 1986) dictates that the critical value d is approximately 1.36/ √ n for the 0.05 significance level, resulting in a d of 0.45 for Paros and 0.34 for the Lassithi plain. At last, statistical inferences were made about the association between visibility and land use using the land use maps in overlay with both the cumulative and the constrained singular viewsheds.…”

Section: Viewshed Analysismentioning

confidence: 98%

Settlement models, land use and visibility in rural landscapes: Two case studies in Greece

Sevenant

Antrop

2007

Landscape and Urban Planning

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Viewshed Analysismentioning

confidence: 98%

Settlement models, land use and visibility in rural landscapes: Two case studies in Greece

Sevenant

Antrop

2007

Landscape and Urban Planning

102

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Piggott added the factor of bone robbing in his discussion of the West Kennet deposits (1962,(23)(24), and the idea of bone circulation within and between tombs and other contexts has gained further support (Smith 1965;Thomas & Whittle 1986;Thomas 1988;Richards 1988). The idea of excarnation or secondary burial has been much favoured.…”

Section: The Mortuary Structure Of Wayland's Smithy Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Discussing the Quanterness tomb, Renfrew (1979, 166-68) restated that there need be no clash between successive deposits and the practice of excarnation; the question of whether excarnation took place singly or collectively was left open. Another development has been to perceive very careful placings of remains, beyond the already noticed rearrangements (Shanks & Tilley 1982;Thomas & Whittle 1986). Hertz i960) have also been included in recent interpretations (for example, Bradley & Gardiner 1984).…”

Section: The Mortuary Structure Of Wayland's Smithy Imentioning

confidence: 99%

Wayland's Smithy, Oxfordshire: Excavations at the Neolithic Tomb in 1962–63 by R. J. C. Atkinson and S. Piggott

Whittle

Brothwell

Cullen

et al. 1991

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wayland's Smithy, on the north scarp of the downs above the Vale of the White Horse, is a two-phase Neolithic tomb. It has been a recognized feature of the historic landscape since at least the 10th century AD. It was recorded by Aubrey and later antiquaries, and continued to be of interest in the 19th century. It was amongst the first monuments to be protected by scheduling from 1882. The first excavations in 1919-20 were haphazardly organized and poorly recorded, but served to confirm, as suggested by Akerman and Thurnam, that the stone terminal chamber was transepted, to show that it had held burials, and to indicate the likely existence of an earlier structural phase.Further excavations took place in 19 62-63 to explore the monument more and restore it for better presentation. The excavations revealed a two-phase monument. Wayland's Smithy I is a small oval barrow, defined by flanking ditches, an oval kerb, and a low chalk and sarsen barrow. It contains a mortuary structure defined by large pits which held posts of split trunks, a pavement, and opposed linear cairns of sarsen. This has been seen as the remains of a pitched and ridged mortuary tent, in the manner proposed also for the structure under the Fussell's Lodge long barrow, but in the light of ensuing debate and of subsequent discoveries elsewhere, it can also be seen as an embanked, box-like structure, perhaps with a flat wooden roof. This structure contained the remains of at least fourteen human skeletons, in varying states of completeness. The burial rite may have included primary burial or exposure elsewhere, but some at least of the bodies could have been deposited directly into the mortuary structure, and subsequent circulation or removal of bones cannot be discounted. Little silt accumulated in the ditches of phase I before the construction of phase II, and a charcoal sample from this interval gave a date of 3 700-3 390 BC.Wayland's Smithy II consists of a low sarsen-kerbed trapezoidal barrow, with flanking ditches, which follows the north-south alignment of phase I. At the south end there was a faqade of larger sarsen stones, from which ran back a short passage leading to a transepted chamber, roofed with substantial capstones. This could have risen above the surrounding barrow. The excavations of1919-20 revealed the presence of incomplete human burials in the west transept; the chamber had probably already been disturbed. The excavations of1962-63 revealed further structural detail of the surrounds of the chamber, including a sarsen cairn piled in front and around it; deposits of calcium carbonate well up the walls of the chamber could be taken to suggest the former existence of chalk rubble blocking, in the manner of the West Kennet long barrow.

show abstract

“…Manipulation of human bone for purposes not primarily connected with burial is unremarkable and has long been recognized as a possibility particularly when interpreting incomplete skeletal remains from chambered tombs (Piggott 1962, 65-68;Thomas and Whittle 1986). Bronze Age burials beneath or within cairns or tumuli, on the other hand, are usually taken to have an air of final disposal.…”

Section: What May Have Been the Function Of Ring Cairns?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Survey and Excavation of Ring Cairns in SE Dyfed and on Gower, West Glamorgan

Ward

1988

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ring cairns in Wales have been viewed as a discrete form of structured cairn, a stony ring enclosing an open central area, dating to the second millennium be, whose distinctive character may reflect a particular role not primarily connected with the interment of the dead. Fifteen likely ring cairns were noted in cairn groups on five ridges in SE Dyfed and on the Gower Peninsula. Although the position of ring cairns on these ridges to some extent overlaps that of other cairns, ring cairns tend towards locations particularly dominated by higher ground which are not so favoured by the other cairns. A range of structural elaborations was present amongst the ring cairns including kerbing, in-filled interiors, orthostats in the bank, and breaks in the ring possibly representing entrances.Two ring cairns adjacent to each other, GCRC I and II, on Cefn Bryn, Gower were excavated. GCRC I was a stony ring bank, originally with two entrances, one of which had been blocked in antiquity. It enclosed an open area at the centre of which was a pit containing a very little burnt bone. GCRC II comprised a ring bank of stone with inner kerb, against which was a pit containing earth and charcoal flecks. It certainly had one entrance, which was deliberately blocked perhaps at the same time as the interior was filled with stone to the level of the top of the kerb. The pit contents at the rings each gave mid-ind millennium be radiocarbon dates. It is possible that the pit fill at GCRC I came from an earlier burial elsewhere so the determination may not reflect the time of deposition at GCRC I.A case can be argued that ring cairns in the area were built for the public performance of ceremonial on the basis of the apparent absence of formal burial at GCRC I and II, and the structure and siting of the monuments suggesting their suitability as arenas. Ceremonial may have been connected with mortuary ritual, although undated evidence for early agricultural activity in the vicinity of the rings indicates a potentially wider social and economic context for their use. While aspects of the evidence for activity at the two excavated ring cairns may be paralleled at structurally similar monuments in N Wales and S W England, some variations in form and activity are apparent which could indicate differences of emphasis during the time they were in use across the region. Finally, ring cairns are not the only form of broadly contemporary monument to which a ceremonial role can be assigned, and the differences in monumental form could well reflect different ritual requirements, or even social distinctions though too little work has been undertaken as yet on possible social models for the region for this idea to be developed.Post-war fieldwork in Wales, studying ritual cairns of structural diversity (RCAHM 1956;i960; 1964; presumed znd millennium be date, or late Neolithic 1976a; Bowen and Gresham 1967). The data were earlier Bronze Age attribution, indicated considerable reviewed by Lynch (197Z), and a general classification proposed based on visible ...

show abstract

Anatomy of a Tomb‐west Kennet Revisited

Cited by 33 publications

References 24 publications

Settlement models, land use and visibility in rural landscapes: Two case studies in Greece

Settlement models, land use and visibility in rural landscapes: Two case studies in Greece

Wayland's Smithy, Oxfordshire: Excavations at the Neolithic Tomb in 1962–63 by R. J. C. Atkinson and S. Piggott

Survey and Excavation of Ring Cairns in SE Dyfed and on Gower, West Glamorgan

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About