THE ORIGINS OF BRITISH OPPIDA: UNDERSTANDING TRANSFORMATION IN IRON AGE PRACTICE AND SOCIETY

Abstract

Summary In Britain, large poly‐focal complexes known as oppida have played an important part in understanding the Late Iron Age. These sites are often described as emerging from empty or underused parts of the Iron Age landscape, originating through the convergence of different social groups and external influences from mainland Europe. However, new evidence suggests that ‘pre‐oppidum’ landscapes were far from empty and that earlier occupation, particularly agricultural activities, had a dramatic impact on how oppida and the societies that lived within them formed during the Later Iron Age. A new understanding of the origins of oppida highlights the need to rethink how we examine this settlement type over time and how we currently comprehend Late Iron Age society in Britain.

Crossing Crawford's conceptual divide: monumental linear earthworks in later prehistoric and early medieval Britain

“…Renfrew 1973; Sharples 2010) but the mechanisms of labour mobilisation remain elusive; participants may have provided their labour willingly, perhaps being tied by obligations of kinship or clientage, or may have been enslaved or coerced. For both the Late Iron Age and early medieval era it seems likely that similar articulations of power existed around obligations of labour, some of which may have been intimately linked to seasonal agricultural practices (Garland 2020), although the precise dynamic remains uncertain. Concepts of costly signalling may be relevant here (O'Driscoll 2017), emphasising the desire of these communities, whether hierarchical or heterarchical, to pre-emptively construct a mental and physical deterrent and emphasise power through excessive labour consumption, particularly at times of changing social dynamics.…”

“…While linears may not have always defined cultural boundaries, it seems more than a coincidence that a spate of construction took place when larger social entities were emerging. The high labour demand required for earthwork construction is well recognised as requiring increasing social obligations and organisational capacity (Grigg 2015;Garland 2016;Harris 2020;Moore 2020). Many early medieval scholars therefore consider linears more as a physical statement of power than for defence (Squatriti 2002: 334;Reynolds & Langlands 2006: 31-4).…”

OPPIDUM VOCANT, QUIDVIS CUM VALLO ATQUE FOSSA. SOME THOUGHTS ON OPPIDA, CENTRAL PLACES, AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN THE EUROPEAN IRON AGE

“…Finally, the oppida of the north‐west Iberian Rías Baixas show a particularly heterogeneous morphology and distribution, mainly focused on household compounds, but making it impossible to define the extent (or even the existence) of a real hinterland (González‐Ruibal 2006–07, 324–8). Other regions such as southern Britain (Garland 2020), Moravia (Danielisova 2019), or the Celtiberian area (Álvarez‐Sanchís and Ruiz Zapatero 2019) also show different cultural, social and territorial patterns in which large fortified sites were involved, resulting in different strategies of social inequality and political centralization. Thus, several regions may have developed large settlements that can be labelled as oppida , but it does not seem appropriate to gather them all within the same social model.…”