Encoding a Neolithic Landscape: The Linearity of Burial Monuments along Strumble Head, South-west Wales

Abstract

In terms of geography, the distribution of Welsh Neolithic burial monuments and their setting has recently been discussed by Barker (1992), Tilley (1994), Children and Nash (2002), Cummings and Whittle (2004), Burrows (2006) and Nash (2006). Tilley has applied an ancestral geography, its roots embedded in the Mesolithic, to a number of Neolithic ritual/burial monuments occupying the core areas of south-west and central Wales. Cummings and Whittle have approached monument location using the concept of view sheds. (i.e., the landscape features that can be seen from each monument). Children and Nash, and recently Nash, have explored similar approaches, focusing on intervisibility between neighboring monuments and monument, chamber, and passage orientation. Although some of these approaches have been seen as flawed (e.g. Fleming 2005), the interaction between burial, monument construction, and landscape must be considered as being important to a monument's builders and users. Steve Burrows has provided a good introduction to the construction and use of Neolithic burial-ritual monuments using the excellent archive recourses of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. Children and Nash (2002) identify a number of clusters within south-west Wales that appear to conform to a number of architectural and landscape rules; one of these groups, the Fishguard Group, is located on Strumble Head (Nash 2006). Nash has recognized that elements of this group form a linear distribution comprising up to ten monuments.This paper discusses in detail the architecture of each of the Strumble Head monuments and explores the concept of linearity, a trait that is common in the siting of European Bronze Age barrows and cairns but limited in respect of Neolithic ritual/burial monuments. It is clear that there is intentionality in the distribution of the Strumble Head monuments, which utilize a series of jagged peaks along the uplands.