Centralized Storage in Later Prehistoric Britain

Abstract

Archaeological evidence for centralized storage facilities may provide useful information about the organization of prehistoric economies. In the background are a range of explanatory ideas. 'Redistribution' is a term which has been applied to the evidence from some British hillforts. Resources might be collected and then re-allocated through a permanent agency of co-ordination. They might be mobilized as tribute to elites as part of political strategy. This has been suggested for early British hillforts, and the evidence is reviewed. Much depends on the interpretation of the four-poster' structures at these sites as storehouses. A survey of these structures on British and continental sites strengthens this interpretation, and a further survey shows that, in Britain, disproportionate numbers of these structures are found at massively enclosed sites. A modified form of site catchment analysis suggests that some of the hillforts stored produce mobilized from an area which was greater than is likely to have been farmed directly from these sites. One possible inference is that resources were mobilized from subordinate settlements. It is suggested that stored grain was a critical commodity if rising populations and climatic change combined to increase the risk attached to the cereal harvest.

Cist burials and an Iron Age settlement at Dryburn Bridge, Innerwick, East Lothian

“…If this interpretation were accepted, it would remain the case that archaeological evidence for this form of storage technology is relatively rare in the later prehistoric settlement record of eastern Scotland, an area in which grain storage pits (sensu Reynolds 1974) are also very rare, if not wholly absent. The archaeological evidence from eastern Scotland does not seem to represent the sort of large-scale 'centralized storage' seen in southern England at some sites such as Danebury (Gent 1983;Hill 1996, 97-8 for a critique).…”

Understanding Pit Sites: Storage, Surplus and Social Complexity in Prehistoric Western Europe

“…Iron Age Britain is one of the most prolific contexts in Prehistoric Western Europe as regards pit-digging (Collis 2000;Marshall 2011;Reynolds 1974Reynolds , 1979. Pits are distributed geographically across southern, central and eastern England, in nearly all territories south and east of an imaginary line from the Welsh Marches to the estuary of the river Tees (Gent 1983). Interestingly, right at the other side of the Channel, continental NW Europe shows a similar pattern of pit digging practices (Gent 1983;Gransar 2000).…”

A Late Bronze Age Enclosure at Lofts Farm, Essex

“…Four-post structures are often interpreted as granaries (Gent 1983). The relative frequency of two-and four-post structures at Lofts Farm and general absence of pits, probably reflects the necessity for above ground storage, in the wet ground conditions.…”