Abstract:Summary
This paper discusses the relationship between agricultural activity and ritualized/religious practices in England from the middle Bronze Age to the early medieval period (c.1500 BC–AD 1086). It is written in the context of the ERC‐funded, Oxford‐based ‘English Landscapes and Identities project’ (EngLaId), which involved the compilation of an extensive spatial database of archaeological ‘monuments’, finds and other related data to chart change and continuity during this period. Drawing on this database … Show more
“…The Yorkshire Wolds dyke systems appear to have had a long history of development from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age or beyond (Dent, 1984;Giles, 2012), without major disruption to the landscape organisation. Pit alignments are also found on the Yorkshire Wolds as cropmarks; the associated banks survive in places on the North York Moors, for example on the Tabular Hills (Spratt, 1988). When these features are excavated, they usually appear to be associated with 'prehistoric' activity, though Romano-British examples are also known.…”
Section: The Study Regionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Subsequent archaeological work has refined our knowledge of the extent and character of land divisions of all ages (e.g. Bradley, 1977; Fleming, 1988; Yates, 2007; Oosthuizen, 2013; Rippon et al, 2015; Ten Harkel et al ., 2017). Yet, despite their common occurrence and importance, the timing and tempo of their emergence and expansion is poorly understood.…”
Land divisions are ubiquitous features of the British countryside. Field boundaries, enclosures, pit alignments, and other forms of land division have been used to shape and delineate the landscape over thousands of years. While these divisions are critical for understanding economies and subsistence, the organization of tenure and property, social structure and identity, and their histories of use have remained unclear. Here, the authors present the first robust, Bayesian statistical chronology for land division over three millennia within a study region in England. Their innovative approach to investigating long-term change demonstrates the unexpected scale of later ‘prehistoric’ land demarcation, which may correspond to the beginnings of increasing social hierarchy.
“…The Yorkshire Wolds dyke systems appear to have had a long history of development from the Late Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age or beyond (Dent, 1984;Giles, 2012), without major disruption to the landscape organisation. Pit alignments are also found on the Yorkshire Wolds as cropmarks; the associated banks survive in places on the North York Moors, for example on the Tabular Hills (Spratt, 1988). When these features are excavated, they usually appear to be associated with 'prehistoric' activity, though Romano-British examples are also known.…”
Section: The Study Regionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Subsequent archaeological work has refined our knowledge of the extent and character of land divisions of all ages (e.g. Bradley, 1977; Fleming, 1988; Yates, 2007; Oosthuizen, 2013; Rippon et al, 2015; Ten Harkel et al ., 2017). Yet, despite their common occurrence and importance, the timing and tempo of their emergence and expansion is poorly understood.…”
Land divisions are ubiquitous features of the British countryside. Field boundaries, enclosures, pit alignments, and other forms of land division have been used to shape and delineate the landscape over thousands of years. While these divisions are critical for understanding economies and subsistence, the organization of tenure and property, social structure and identity, and their histories of use have remained unclear. Here, the authors present the first robust, Bayesian statistical chronology for land division over three millennia within a study region in England. Their innovative approach to investigating long-term change demonstrates the unexpected scale of later ‘prehistoric’ land demarcation, which may correspond to the beginnings of increasing social hierarchy.
“…Van Giffen 1939, 88; Brongers 1976, 20; Cooper 2016, 303–5; Ten Harkel et al . 2017, 418) – suggested that they might have played a part in funerary rituals (Janssen 1848, 122; Brongers 1976, 23; Van der Sanden 2009, 17), as he found no evidence for their use as settlements, garden plots, or sheep-pens (Janssen 1848, 121–2).Fig. 2Schematic plans of several Dutch Celtic fields.…”
Section: The Deep Roots Of Dutch Celtic Field Studiesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Ten Harkel et al . 2017, 420)? One could argue that it is mere chance that none of these has, as yet, been identified (given the few sites investigated and small areas uncovered in such excavations; but see Fig.…”
Section: Implications: the Netherlands’ Most Stable Agricultural Landmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Whereas the rise of prehistoric field systems in the British Isles is frequently dated to the Middle Bronze Age (Klamm 1993, 82; Bewley 2003, 82; Yates 2007, 22, 27; Wickstead 2007, 44; Sharples 2010, 36–41; Ten Harkel et al . 2017, 419), such an early start had not yet been argued for the continental field systems with earthen banks. By the Late Bronze Age, most of the field systems in southern England fell into disuse, with no evidence for new examples in Iron Age Wessex (Sharples 2010, 43).…”
Section: Implications: the Netherlands’ Most Stable Agricultural Landmentioning
The Celtic field research programme of Groningen University involves research excavations of Dutch Celtic fields or raatakkers: embanked field plots thought to date to the Iron Age (c. 800 cal bc–12 bc). In this paper, detailed attention is given to (a) the palaeoecology of raatakkers; (b) the relationship between habitation and agriculture in such systems; and (c) their dating and use-life. Counter-intuitively, it is argued that the macro-remains from crops such as barley, wheat, millet, and flax recovered from Celtic field banks represent a non-local (settlement) signal rather than document local agricultural regimes. Palynological approaches, in which a more local signal can be preserved but which also show evidence for details of the agricultural regime such as manuring strategies and fallow cycles, are argued to be more appropriate avenues to study local agricultural strategies. A discussion of the relations between habitation and agriculture shows that house sites uncovered within Dutch Celtic fields are almost invariably placed in positions partly overlapping banks. Moreover, in most cases such settlement traces appear to date to the Middle or Late Iron Age, raising the question of where the initial farmers of the Celtic fields lived, as the communities planning and first using these Celtic fields probably pre-dated the Iron Age. A critical review of existing dates and discussion of new OSL and AMS dates has shown that bank construction of Dutch Celtic fields started around the 13th–10th centuries cal bc and continued into the Roman era. The chronostratigraphies preserved in the banks testify to a sustainable agricultural regime of unprecedented time-depth: centuries of continued use make the system employing raatakkers the most enduring and stable form of farming known in the history of the Netherlands.
Edinburgh EH8 9AGIron Age studies in Britain operate in a world populated by roundhouses. Post-ring evidence is generally interpreted in domestic contexts. However, research on later prehistoric roundhouses in northeast Scotland has identified a small but significant number of round structures in unusual locations, with unusual architectural details and a distinct lack of domestic material. Some of these relate to Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age stone circles, for which Richard Bradley's work in the wider region has highlighted progressive biographies of construction and reuse. This paper, rooted in architectural design theory, selects a particular case study, the multiple timber post-rings at Candle Stane, Aberdeenshire, to highlight the complexities in interpreting these interesting yet enigmatic buildings. The architectural approach develops alternative reconstructions that lead to new perspectives on later prehistoric architecture as event-based and concerned with process.These processes only gradually lead to an architectural end product, which displays distinctly non-domestic connotations. The research not only highlights the usefulness of data derived from rescue work for academic study, but the advocated approach of reconstructing in alternatives also lends itself for developing innovative approaches in Higher Education to teach visual competence.Structures clearly dedicated to ritual functions can be identified from the Neolithic onwards, but in Britain this evidence seems to decline from the Middle Bronze Age, coinciding with a 1 highlighting the uncertainties regarding the roofing of the Early Neolithic structure at Claish. 12 Noble et al. 2007, 153-5. 3 conclusions into question and proposes a series of alternative interpretations to stimulate debate over ambiguous evidence. ROUND HOUSES, ROUND-HOUSES, ROUNDHOUSES: CASE STUDIES FROM NORTHEAST SCOTLAND The fertile lowland areas of Scotland's south and east have attracted settlement for thousands of years. People have worked these lands, built and rebuilt homes and consequently compromised the archaeological evidence of earlier periods. Because of this development pressure in these areas, their archaeological record has become dominated by rescue work, which by its nature is limited in scale to the affected area. As Bradley, Gosden and their colleagues demonstrated, such records still present important data for prehistoric archaeological research. 13 For the author's study, focused on northeast Scotland, the rescue excavation record was not only useful for large-scale analysis, but also to address specific research questions in detail, highlighting a small number of sites that stood out from the general roundhouse evidence. This prompted the present enquiry into whether round timber structures of later prehistoric date would have necessarily been used as prehistoric round houses. What may appear as playing with semantics is in fact an important distinction to be clarified to ensure the use of terms consistent with the argument: the spelling "roundhou...
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