Fieldwork at Great Langdale, Cumbria, 1985-1987: Preliminary Report

Abstract

SummaryThe Lake District mountains have long been known as the source of Neolithic artefacts belonging to petrological group VI. The study of their wider distribution has played a central part in investigations of the ‘axe trade’. Unfortunately, it is not clear that all Group VI axes originated in this area and in any case it is now known that there is no direct relationship between different fall-off patterns and the processes that led to their creation. At the same time, it is not possible to compare work at Neolithic flint mines with current knowledge of how non-flint axes were distributed. Recent fieldwork, in the wake of a survey carried out by the National Trust and the Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeological Unit, has tried to investigate the ways in which stoneworking at Great Langdale was organized and the relationship between methods of exploiting the raw materials on site and changes in the distribution of Cumbrian axes across Britain as a whole. This has involved experimental archaeology, technological analysis, environmental investigations and small-scale excavation. This work has resulted in the recognition of two distinct modes of production. These are discussed in relation to the environmental history of the surrounding region.

The Neolithic Quarries and Axe Factory Sites of Great Langdale and Scafell Pike: A New Field Survey

“…It also provided the basis for subsequent specifically research-orientated field-work (Bradley and Edmonds 1988;Bradley and Ford 1986), the preliminary results of which have, in turn, corroborated and complemented aspects of the earlier work. It also provided the basis for subsequent specifically research-orientated field-work (Bradley and Edmonds 1988;Bradley and Ford 1986), the preliminary results of which have, in turn, corroborated and complemented aspects of the earlier work.…”

Rock Physics and the Neolithic Axe Trade in Great Britain*

“…A further set of samples, from Troughton Beck at Great Langdale, were rejected because of flaws in the raw material. Two of the sample sites, Dungeon Ghyll and Top Buttress, were excavated in 1987 (Bradley and Edmonds 1988;Bradley and Edmonds in press).…”

“…They range from 37.0 f 1.9 MPa at East Middle Gully to 34.2 f 3.2 MPa at Middle Gully. The excavated working at Dungeon Ghyll (Bradley and Edmonds 1988) has a value of 36.7f 1.2 MPa. This is particularly significant as the raw material tested and abandoned during the earlier period of working was used to make axes during a second phase of activity (Bradley and Edmonds in press).…”

“…This suggestion is strengthened by the results of detailed fieldwork conducted between 1985 and 1987 at the most extensive and best-preserved of the stone axe sources, in the central Lake District (Bradley and Edmonds 1988;Bradley and Edmonds in press). Here it was possible to show how the nature of axe production had changed during the Neolithic sequence, so that the later axes were made at increasingly remote and dangerous locations in the mountains.…”

Stone Axe Studies in Ireland

“…Furthermore, in order to understand better the nature and organization of implement production and exchange, more detailed investigations at the extraction and production sites are needed (cf. Bradley & Edmonds 1988;Edmonds etal. in press).…”