bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Settlement Patterns and Landscape Change: The Late Neolithic and the Bronze Age of the Marais Poitevin Area of Western France
Authors: Scarre C. J. 
Published: February 2015

It is, with a few exceptions, only in very recent years and with works such as that by Guilaine and his colleagues on the Abri Jean-Cros (Guilaineet al.1979) that the site locational and ecological approaches have made their appearance in the French archaeological literature. Studies of this type are still not common, despite the richness of certain areas of France in prehistoric settlement evidence and the existence of a body of geomorphological research which often makes this type of approach particularly attractive. The present article attempts to use both geomorphological and settlement evidence for a consideration of the relationship between changes in the landscape and patterns of site distribution in the Marais poitevin area of western France during the period 2800–600 bc.The basis for the study is provided by locational information on a series of Late Neolithic fortified settlement sites which has been discovered in this part of France in recent years. These impressive sites have a striking distribution pattern which invites interpretation in terms of their landscape setting. Geomorphological and archaeological evidence makes it possible to reconstruct at least in outline the development of this landscape during the later prehistoric period, and to suggest what it may have been like at the time the sites were occupied and how it may have affected their foundation and their abandonment. The evidence relating to landscape development is crucial to our understanding of the prehistoric sites and no apology is made for considering it in some detail below. Bronze Age as well as Neolithic sites have been included in the final analysis. This allows the Late Neolithic fortified settlements to be viewed in a broader context and related to changes in site distribution patterns over a period of approximately two thousand years.
Cemeteries and Settlement Patterns of the Iron Age on the Yorkshire Wolds
Authors: Dent John S. 
Published: February 2015

The Yorkshire Wolds hold an air of mystery for students of the Iron Age. As is well known these chalk hills lie at the heart of the largest group of Early Iron Age burials in Britain, the ‘Arras Culture’, so-called after the first and richest cemetery to be excavated (fig. 1; Stead 1979). Although these burials are often quoted in general discussions and formed an important piece of evidence in the ‘invasion controversy’, it is only in the last few years that up to date illustrations of the material have begun to appear in textbooks (Cunliffe 1978; Champion 1979) following the publication of interim excavation reports (Brewster 1976; Stead 1977). Little is known of the settlements which these cemeteries served and even less is published. The present paper is an attempt to trace settlement patterns by an examination of the funerary material in conjunction with the domestic evidence which was found in the very large-scale excavations in Garton and Wetwang Slacks (Brewster 1981; Dent 1982).A heavy funerary bias in the material is further exaggerated because the distinctive square-plan barrows of the ‘Arras Culture’ are readily identifiable from the air whereas settlement can rarely be dated without excavation. Many hundreds of barrows are now known in this way (Ramm 1973; 1974; Loughlin and Miller 1979) and all but the most recently excavated have been catalogued (Stead 1979). An essential requirement for a discussion of these is the ability to date the material involved, either in absolute or in relative terms. It would be useful if distinctive groups could be recognized among the pottery from these sites since the metalwork is rare in domestic contexts, whereas even poor sites usually produce some sherds. Unfortunately there is virtually no decorated pottery and the plain jars which are found in graves cannot at present be used as a basis for a chronology. It is the metalwork which presents the best opportunity for such a classification.
A Bronze Age Urn Cemetery at Kimpton, Hampshire
Authors: Dacre Maxwell , Ellison Ann , Everton R. F. , Smith I. F. , Davies Sue , Richards Julian 
Published: February 2015

Summary. An extensive urn cemetery associated with a complex flint platform, excavated by Max Dacre between 1966 and 1970, included burials of late Neolithic, Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age (‘Deverel-Rimbury’) and Late Bronze Age date. The cemetery developed organically from a late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age focus which had evolved around one or more large sarsen stones.The pottery sequence is of particular interest. The chronological precedence of all the barrel urn types of Central Wessex has been demonstrated for the first time and the Deverel-Rimbury phases contain pottery which relates both to the local Wessex sequence and to the Lower Thames Valley assemblages. The later Deverel-Rimbury phases also include vessels of the post-Deverel-Rimbury tradition and the final burials were interred in Late Bronze Age jars.Analysis of the associated cremations gives some indication of the age and sex structure of each phase of burials, although identification proved difficult owing to the post-incineration process of pulverization to which the remains had been subjected in all phases. The existence of a range of age groups and both sexes in each phase serves to confirm the hypothesis that modular units within such later Bronze Age cemeteries represented the burial places of individual small social groups.The urn cemetery developed gradually over a period of 1500 years (fromc. 2100 to 600 BC).
Middle Bronze Age trade between Britain and Europe: a maritime perspective
Authors: Muckelroy Keith 
Published: February 2015

This paper is derived from chapters of a PhD dissertation by Keith Muckelroy which was partially completed at the time of his death in September 1980. Publication of sections relating to work on two Bronze Age wreck sites was thought appropriate since the maritime context of the material and Muckelroy's assessment of its significance related to Bronze Age studies in general as well as the more specific focus of Middle Bronze Age maritime archaeology which formed the core of the research. In these chapters Muckelroy discussed the individual artefact types and their continental relationship and assessed the implications of the Langdon Bay and Moor Sand cargoes in terms of Bronze Age seafaring and the seaborne transportation of goods. His detailed discussion of the bronze forms has been summarized here; and it is upon the maritime aspect that this paper concentrates, this being the area in which Muckelroy's work at the two sites was making its unique contribution.The two sites under examination, Langdon Bay and Moor Sand, are well-enough known through various interim statements (Baker and Brannigan 1978; Coombs 1976; Muckelroy and Baker 1979; Muckelroy 1980) to require little detailed introduction other than a short description here. Both are important not so much for the particular objects found, but for the implications of the associations and contexts and as a result of the briefest consideration it can be asserted that in the later second millennium BC there existed vessels of size and quality sufficient to transport bulk materials across the channel, probably at regular intervals, and certainly guaranteed of receptions which warranted the organization of Bronze Age shipping by a community or segment of a community.
A ‘Head and Hooves’ Burial beneath a Round Barrow, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age Sites, on Hemp Knoll, near Avebury, Wiltshire
Authors: Robertson-Mackay M. E. 
Published: February 2015

This barrow was excavated by the author for the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate of the then Ministry of Public Buildings and Works (now the Department of the Environment) in August and September 1965. The barrow was scheduled under the Ancient Monuments Acts by the Department of the Environment as Wiltshire 563, and all finds were accordingly thus marked at the time of excavation. In 1958 the barrow was observed by the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate as being 4½ ft high and the mound was spread by agricultural activity to a diameter of 75 ft. In 1965 this bowl barrow stood barely 18 in. high, having suffered much from the effects of ploughing. The barrow had been disturbed mainly in the centre of the mound by early, possibly nineteenth century, excavations. At least one slit trench had been dug into the side of the mound during the 1939–45 war and much other disturbance had been caused by rabbits.Residual finds from this site caused a particular problem. Where they seem to be dateable they have been inserted in their appropriate section, otherwise where there is a possible alternative date they have been cross referenced. All ranging rods and scales shown in the photographs of the site are marked in feet and inches, except where otherwise obvious.
Two Late Bronze Age Settlements on the Kennet Gravels: Excavations at Aldermaston Wharf and Knight's Farm, Burghfield, Berkshire
Authors: Bradley Richard , Lobb Sue , Richards Julian , Robinson Mark 
Published: February 2015

One of the major problems of British prehistory has been the contrast between the mass of Late Bronze Age metalwork and the rarity of contemporary settlements. The Berkshire river gravels are one area in which a high proportion of bronze objects is recorded in apparent isolation. With the increasing recognition of Late Bronze Age pottery, however, it has been possible to identify domestic finds of this period among the artefacts from gravel pits around Reading. Part of the gap in the settlement record has also been closed by the excavation of two sites on the Berkshire Downs, the earthwork enclosure at Rams Hill, and an open site at Beedon Manor Farm (Bradley and Ellison 1975; Richards in press). But it was not until 1974 that a Bronze Age settlement on the gravels could be examinedin situ, and since the formation of the Berkshire Archaeological Unit a series of five sites have been sampled or more extensively investigated. This paper is concerned with the two most extensive sites, those at Aldermaston Wharf and Knight's Farm, Burghfield, but will make cross reference to the other work where necessary, in particular to a more recently recorded site at Pingewood.It is now clear why this evidence was so difficult to find. The pottery is extremely friable and would not survive on the surface; and the gravel sites contain very few worked flints. The main features are small pits under 50 cm deep, and for this reason the sites cannot be detected from the air; and, even if they could be recognized, there would be nothing to distinguish them from Iron Age open sites, like those in the Upper Thames Basin.
The Pottery of the Later Bronze Age in Lowland England
Authors: Barrett John C. 
Published: February 2015

This paper discusses the development of pottery styles in southern and eastern England during the first half of the first millennium B.C. The region discussed is Hawkes' Southern Province (1959, fig. 1), and excursions will also be made into the Eastern Province (fig. 1).The discussion of settlement sequences, and the dating of individual sites, is still largely dependent upon ceramic refuse derived from such sites. The analysis of settlement patterns for the earlier part of the first millennium B.C. thus rests upon our understanding of the ceramic traditions of that period, and this has led to considerable confusion. Two problems must be isolated at the outset. The first results from the re-evaluation of British Bronze Age chronology which took place in the 1950's, leading to Hawkes' 1960 scheme and then to Burgess' rather rigid reading of the evidence nine years later (Butler and Smith 1956; Smith, M. A. 1959; Smith, I. F. 1961; Hawkes 1960; Burgess 1969). The main effect, if we are to follow Burgess, was to draw Beakers, Food Vessels and most Urn forms back into an early Bronze Age the end of which, around 1400 B.C., was marked by the end of the Wessex grave series. As for the Middle and Late Bronze Age Burgess concluded that ‘over much of the British Isles there are no settlements, burials, defended sites, pottery, or other non-metallic cultural material which can safely be assigned to the Middle or Late Bronze Age. There are a few localized exceptions such as the Deverel-Rimbury culture and Flat-rim ware’ (Burgess 1969, 29).
The Technology of Primary Copper Mining in South-East Europe
Authors: Jovanović B. 
Published: February 2015

Through lack of data, knowledge of primary copper mining has remained for a long time unclear (Bognár-Kutzián 1976, 75; Sherratt 1975, 577). For the same reason, comparisons with the mining of flint, well known in Central and Western Europe, were not possible. This lack of direct knowledge of copper mining has meant that theories concerning the origins of copper metallurgy have been based largely on the results of examination of various copper objects (Tylecote 1976, 5; Rowlands 1971, 210).Recent excavations carried out in SE Europe underline the importance of mining as a new element in the investigation of the beginning of copper metallurgy. Two sites are foremost: Ai Bunar in South Bulgaria and Rudna Glava in North-East Yugoslavia (fig. 1). Mining works of considerable size, attested at Ai Bunar, have not been completely examined (see now Cernych 1978, not available when this report was prepared). According to the published results, it seems to be a combination of open-cast and shaft extraction; the places of exploitation are numerous—eleven of them have been investigated—but this may not be the final total. An ore bed of copper carbonate minerals, mainly malachite and to a lesser extent azurite, has been exposed for a distance of 1·5 km (Cernych 1975, 133; Cernych 1978).
Excavation at Killeaba, Ramsey, Isle of Man
Authors: Cubbon A. M. 
Published: February 2015

The excavation of this site on the southern outskirts of Ramsey (nat. grid ref. SC452936) was undertaken as a rescue operation when a building estate was to encroach upon the large mound which formed a conspicuous feature in the field. The Manx Museum and National Trust acknowledges the co-operation of the Planning Committee of the Isle of Man Local Government Board in stipulating as a condition of planning approval that opportunity must be given for scientific examination of the site. The excavation (necessarily accommodated with other commitments, and briefly delayed through snow) took place within the period December 1968 to April 1969.Early References to the Site. As well as a strong local tradition that the mound was a burial place, references to the site occur in the local antiquarian literature. The earliest appears to be that in Oswald's Vestigia (1860, 57–58), where he notes the inspection of this site by the Rev. W. Kermode of Ramsey at the time when it was first given over to the plough, c. 1850. Kermode remarked that the ‘mound of considerable dimensions … had on the top the usual kist vaen,—a rude stone grave, consisting of a few upright stones with a large heavy slab resting on the top; within were found some very small pieces of unbaked pottery, with a black substance which was probably charred human bones.’ From the north–south orientation of the cist he surmised that it might have been a Viking grave.
Water Mythology and the distribution of Palaeolithic Parietal Art
Authors: Bahn Paul G. 
Published: February 2015

In recent years there has been a refreshing move away from simplistic interpretations of Palaeolithic art: few scholars still adhere to the view of ‘art for art's sake’ or ‘totemism’, although many are reluctant to abandon the formerly dominant theory of ‘hunting magic’. The approach of Laming-Emperaire (1962) and Leroi-Gourhan (1965) is undoubtedly more realistic, in view of what is now known about the highly complex thought-processes which lie behind present-day ‘primitive’ art; but interpretation of cave art's content is unlikely to advance very far, and is largely a waste of time.There has been a similar move away from the study of Palaeolithic art as a single line of continuous evolution, as this view ignores the factors of artistic ability and individuality; moreover, the stretching of the period by absolute dating has underlined the rarity of the phenomenon. I have argued elsewhere (Bahn 1977a, 251) that Palaeolithic art represents a large output by a relatively small number of individuals. It is obvious that no one single explanation will suffice to account for any aspect of an art which assumed a wide variety of forms and which lasted for tens of thousands of years.
Characterisation of Deverel-Rimbury Pottery from Cranbourne Chase
Authors: Barrett John , Bradley Richard , Cleal Rosamund , Pike Herbert 
Published: February 2015

Pitt Rivers' excavations in Cranbourne Chase not only provided his successors with a lavish series of reports but also with a remarkable body of artefacts. These finds are now housed in the Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum. The research programme which is centred upon the re-excavation of South Lodge Camp will include a new assessment of the Bronze Age material in this collection. This work discussed here is the first stage in this project (cf. Barrett and Bradley 1978).The Bronze Age sites investigated by the General include the well known enclosures of South Lodge Camp, Martin Down and the Angle Ditch, as well as a series of round barrows (Pitt Rivers 1888 and 1898). These excavations were extensive. The enclosures were trenched across much of the interior, the ditches were emptied and substantial parts of the surrounding banks were removed. Large scale excavation was also undertaken on many of the barrows, although the first mounds to be dug were examined by a single trench or by a central shaft. These earlier barrow excavations were among the first to be undertaken by Pitt Rivers on his Wessex estates.
Causewayed Camps and Early Neolithic Economies in Central Southern England
Authors: Barker Graeme , Webley Derrick 
Published: February 2015

SummaryThis paper is a study of the location of several causewayed camps in central southern England. We first discuss their contemporary environment, the cultivation technology of the early neolithic farmers, and the implications of this technology for land use. We conclude from soil studies that all except one of the sites examined were in pastoral situations, although the seasonality of the pasture varied between the sites. On the basis of the location studies and our earlier arguments, we put forward a model of early neolithic land use in the area as an alternative to the traditional brandwirtschaft model.
Aibunar—a Balkan copper mine of the fourth millennium BC: (Investigations of the years 1971, 1972 and 1974)
Authors: Černych E. N. 
Published: February 2015

As a result of surveys carried out by the Bulgarian-Soviet archaeological expedition, Eneolithic copper mines were discovered in southern Bulgaria in October 1971. The most interesting of these mines, Aibunar, constitutes, without doubt, one of the rarest discoveries in the history of mining not only of Europe, but also of other parts of the Old World. In the same year, Jovanović published news of finds, unique for the Balkan peninsula, of characteristic Vinač pottery found together with a zoomorphic figurine at the Rudna Glava mine in north-eastern Serbia. On the basis of these finds, he suggested an Eneolithic date for the mine. However, the remains of ancient shafts at Rudna Glava were very small, and extensive and historically well-documented mining activities of the Classical Antiquity and the Medieval period made the dating of the extant areas of ancient mining very problematic.In contrast to this, from the moment of its discovery, the large amounts of Eneolithic pottery of Karanovo VI—Gumelnitsa type and antler tools, which were found in the mine at Aibunar, and in particular the well-dated shafts were startling. Interest in Aibunar was further increased by the discovery of seven settlement sites in an area of 15 km around the mine, with Eneolithic layers containing more than 100 pieces of oxidic copper ore. Spectral analysis showed that these pieces of ore came from Aibunar.
The Excavation of an Iron Age Souterrain and Settlement at Carn Euny, Sancreed, Cornwall
Authors: Christie Patricia M. L. , Elsdon S. M. , Dimbleby G. W. , Saville A. , Rees S. , Fowler E. , Williams D. F. 
Published: February 2015

The ancient village of Carn Euny, formerly known as Chapel Euny, lies on a south-west slope just above the 500 foot contour in the parish of Sancreed in West Cornwall (fig. 1). The granite uplands of the region are rich in antiquities, as a glance at a recent survey shows (Russell 1971), not least those of the prehistoric period. The hill on which the site is situated is crowned by the circular Iron Age Fort of Caer Brane (pl. 27). Across the dry valley to the north-west rises the mass of Bartinny Down, with its barrows, while in the valley below the site near the hamlet of Brane is a small, well preserved entrance grave and other evidence of prehistoric activity. To the south-east about one mile away is the recently excavated village of Goldherring dating from the first few centuries of our era (Guthrie 1969). From later times, the holy well of St Uny and the former chapel which gave its name to the site, lie nearby to the west. The village contains a fine souterrain, locally known as a fogou, after a Cornish word meaning a cave (Thomas 1966, 79).Nothing appears to have been known of the settlement or Fogou before the first half of the 19th century when the existence of an unexplored fogou at Chapel Uny is first mentioned by the Reverend John Buller (1842), shortly followed by Edmonds (1849) who described to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society an ‘Ancient Cave’ which had been discovered by miners prospecting for tin.
The Defences of the Iron Age Hill-Fort at Winklebury, Basingstoke, Hampshire
Authors: Robertson-Mackay Reay 
Published: February 2015

This report should be read in conjunction with the report on the excavations in the interior of the fort (previous paper in these Proceedings).The site of the hill-fort lies on the north side of the North Downs Trackway (National Grid Reference SU/614528). It is also on the southern edge of the Lower Thames valley. In this area there is a gap through the Hampshire Downs which connects the Thames valley with that of the River Test.The derivation of the place name Winklebury is not entirely clear. Medieval spellings, e.g. Wiltenischebury, c. 1290; Wyltenysshbury, 1407; Wynnyshbery and Wynlysbery, 1443, suggest that the name may be of Anglo-Saxon derivation and mean the ‘fort or stronghold of the people of Wilton’, i.e. the fort owned, occupied or built by the Wiltshiremen. However, Wiltonish occurs as a surname in Romsey in the 1289 Assize Rolls, in Walter le Wyltenysshe, and thus the site name may have evolved in the 13th century through associations with this family.Building development threatened the north side of the hill-fort in 1959. Excavations were accordingly carried out by the Ancient Monuments Inspectorate of the then Ministry of Works (now the Department of the Environment), under the direction of the writer in July and August of that year.