An ancient seascape: the social context of seafaring in the early Bronze Age

Abstract

The social context of prehistoric seafaring remains poorly understood and, conversely, the significance of seafaring in exchange networks and the perception of seascape in the early Bronze Age are under-explored. This paper approaches seascapes as the synergy of maritime and landscape archaeology, and offers a new perspective on the social context of seafaring in the early Bronze Age. Around 2000 cal. bc, a new type of boat appears in the British Isles, the ‘sewn-plank boat’, with examples known from around the English and Welsh coast. This type of boat was probably used for seafaring and played a significant role in the development and maintenance of elite networks that extended over much of Europe by this time. The types of goods exchanged across the North Sea and the English Channel were of high status and were extensively used in ritualized practices. In this study, the landscape contexts of two sewn-plank boat sites, at North Ferriby and Kilnsea (both in East Yorkshire, England) are investigated. The North Ferriby foreshore can be interpreted as a prehistoric boatyard, also ideally suited as a landing place for ferrying across the Humber estuary. The landscape context of this boatyard includes archaeological evidence for farming on the foreshore and beyond and a nearby settlement, but no evidence of monuments, ritual deposition of artefacts or other ritualized activities. The Kilnsea site would have been ideally suited as a landing place for craft crossing the North Sea. Its landscape context includes several monuments, including two Bronze Age barrows, a possible mini-henge or hengiform and the remains of a Neolithic house. The landscape context of the North Ferriby boats indicate that the sewn-plank boats, their use in daily life and boat building and repair were not associated with ritualized activities; rather, these actions belonged to the rhythm of daily life. The use of these boats in seafaring, as inferred from the landscape context of the Kilnsea boat, however, implies close association with ancestors and ancestral rites and that the use of the craft in exchange with Continental Europe was a ritualized activity. The close association with ancestors refers to seafaring as a rite of passage, and to the sea as a liminal space.