Gwernvale Neolithic long cairn reconsidered

Britnell, William

doi:10.2307/j.ctv371cnzx.10

Cited by 2 publications

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“…The construction of these three long mounds during the course of the thirty-eighth century BC, each on the footprint of one of the timber buildings, was also a notably early series of occurrences. Penywyrlod, on the western side of the Black Mountains, may have been built fractionally earlier than the Dorstone mounds (Britnell & Whittle 2022), but many of the other long cairns in Wales and the Cotswolds probably fit into a horizon between the end of the thirty-eighth and the thirty-sixth century BC (Bayliss et al 2020(Bayliss et al : 1070. The Dorstone mounds may therefore be amongst the earliest funerary monuments in west-central Britain.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This tradition consists of relatively well-made thin-walled bowls with simple rims and a high proportion of carinations, mostly black smoothed and/or burnished surfaces, and with inclusions of white quartz and/or (leached) shell and other organic matter represented by voids. The nearest comparative assemblage to that from Dorstone Hill is perhaps the pre-cairn pottery from Gwernvale, located 25 km to the south-west (Britnell & Whittle 2022), although the heavy rimmed hemispherical bowls found at the latter are notably absent at the Dorstone Hill causewayed enclosure. The pottery associated with the causewayed enclosure is not significantly different in form and fabric from that found in association with the long mounds and the buildings beneath them, although bag-shaped vessels were added to the enclosure assemblage.…”

Section: Artefacts and Other Findsmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Dorstone Hill: a Neolithic timescape

et al. 2023

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Studies of early fourth-millennium BC Britain have typically focused on the Early Neolithic sites of Wessex and Orkney; what can the investigation of sites located in areas beyond these core regions add? The authors report on excavations (2011–2019) at Dorstone Hill in Herefordshire, which have revealed a remarkable complex of Early Neolithic monuments: three long barrows constructed on the footprints of three timber buildings that had been deliberately burned, plus a nearby causewayed enclosure. A Bayesian chronological model demonstrates the precocious character of many of the site's elements and strengthens the evidence for the role of tombs and houses/halls in the creation and commemoration of foundational social groups in Neolithic Britain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Artefacts and Other Findsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Dorstone Hill: a Neolithic timescape

et al. 2023

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“…Hazleton North chambered tomb is part of the Cotswold-Severn monumental tradition stretching from southern Wales to the west to Oxfordshire in the east (Darvill 2004; Britnell & Whittle 2022). There is considerable diversity in monumental form in this group, and while they all contain one or more chambers enclosed within a mound or cairn, the number of chambers varies considerably as does their location within the encasing mound (Fig.…”

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confidence: 99%

Materialising Descent: Lineage Formation and Transformation in Early Neolithic Southern Britain

Cummings¹,

Fowler²

2023

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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This paper builds on the recent aDNA results from Hazleton North chambered tomb to explore how people might have repeatedly negotiated kinship, descent, and affinity in Early Neolithic southern Britain. Hazleton North was constructed around 3700 cal bc, was in use for less than a century, and – unlike many other Cotswold-Severn tombs – was never modified to alter the arrangement of chambers. The aDNA analysis from 35 individuals whose remains were deposited at the site revealed that 27 were biologically related and represented five sequential generations. Here we explore changing practices across those generations. We argue that Hazleton North was constructed to demonstrate the vitality of a lineage at a specific moment in time while choices about who to entomb indicate an inclusive expansion of the lineage in the first two generations which is not evident during the remaining generations. We argue that by the third generation lineage members increasingly chose to dispose of the remains of their dead elsewhere. Hazleton North was built in a landscape rich in earlier tombs, many of which were modified to produce long cairns with multiple chambers: some of those formed opposed pairs similar to the chambered areas at Hazleton North. We argue this was part of a growing trend in ‘kinship work’ which accentuated lineal descent and sub-lineage distinctions in the centuries around 3700 cal bc. However, deposition at Hazleton North was short-lived. This can be set in the local context of not only the construction and use of further chambered tombs but also increasing investment in larger corporate projects like causewayed enclosures. These enclosures formed new arenas where negotiations of descent and community were played out with increased intensity and in different ways to activities at chambered tombs. Overall, we argue that kinship, affiliation, and belonging were repeatedly renegotiated among the monument building communities of Early Neolithic southern Britain.

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Gwernvale Neolithic long cairn reconsidered

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Dorstone Hill: a Neolithic timescape

Dorstone Hill: a Neolithic timescape

Materialising Descent: Lineage Formation and Transformation in Early Neolithic Southern Britain

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