Ceremonial living in the third millennium BC
Subtitle: excavations at Ringlemere site M1, Kent, 2002-2006
By: Keith Parfitt and Stuart Needham ; with contributions from Frances Healy [and 11 others]
Contributors: Needham, Stuart, author; Healy, Frances, contributor
Series: Research publication -- no. 217; Research publication (British Museum) -- no. 217.
Publisher: The British Museum Press
Published: 2020
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 342
ISBN-13: 9780861592173
Copyright date: 2020
Subjects: Bronze age; Prehistoric Antiquities; Prehistoric Goldwork; Excavations (Archaeology)
Description: The discovery in 2001 of an exquisite Early Bronze Age gold cup at Ringlemere Farm in Kent prompted an extensive survey and excavation of the site from 2002-2006. Excavation revealed a site with a long history of use, the most striking evidence being for intensive activity in the third millennium BC associated with a henge monument, the interior of which was later buried beneath an Early Bronze Age mound. This volume presents a detailed report on a rich array of structural and artefactual evidence spanning a few thousand years of prehistory, and the site's subsequent slide into agricultural anonymity. Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age structures include a horseshoe setting, post alignments, hearths, pit clusters and varied small post settings. Evaluation of form and associated material culture steers interpretation away from the purely domestic and contributes to the keen ongoing debate about the place of ceremony in the world of third millennium Britain.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-334) and index.