Isotopic Evidence for Landscape use and the Role of Causewayed Enclosures During the Earlier Neolithic in Southern Britain

Samantha Neil,Janet Montgomery,Chris Scarre,Jane Evans

doi:10.1017/ppr.2018.6

Samantha Neil, Janet Montgomery + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.1017/ppr.2018.6

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Abstract

The nature of landscape use and residence patterns during the British earlier Neolithic has often been debated. Here we use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel, from individuals buried at the Hambledon Hill causewayed enclosure monument complex in Dorset, England to evaluate patterns of landscape use during the earlier Neolithic. Previous analysis suggests that a significant proportion of the artefacts found at the site may originate from lithology of Eocene and Upper to Middle Jurassic age that the enclosures overlook to the immediate west and south. The excavators therefore argued that the sector of landscape visible from Hambledon Hill provides an approximate index for the catchment occupied by the communities that it served. Most of the burial population exhibit isotope ratios that could be consistent with this argument. Connections between Hambledon Hill and regions much further afield are also hypothesised, based on the presence of artefacts within the assemblage that could have been sourced from lithology in Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall in south-west England. However, few of the sampled individuals have strontium isotope ratios consistent with having obtained the majority of their diet from such areas during childhood. The individuals who exhibit the highest strontium isotope ratios are all adult males, whom the excavators suggest to have died during one or more episodes of conflict, following the burning and destruction of surrounding defensive outworks built during the 36th centurybc. At least one of these individuals, who was found with an arrowhead amongst his ribs, did not obtain his childhood diet locally and has87Sr/86Sr values that could be comparable to those bioavailable in the south-west peninsula.

Highlights

Causewayed enclosures began to be constructed in southern Britain from the late 38th century BC (Whittle et al 2011, 878–5; Bayliss et al 2011, 684)
We use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel, from individuals buried at the Hambledon Hill causewayed enclosure monument complex in Dorset, England to evaluate patterns of landscape use during the earlier Neolithic
Rather than Neolithic communities obtaining all of their resources through year round sedentary intensive mixed farming at permanently occupied settlements, these authors propose that patterns of land use, subsistence, and mobility were complex and socio-culturally variable

Summary

Introduction

Causewayed enclosures began to be constructed in southern Britain from the late 38th century BC (Whittle et al 2011, 878–5; Bayliss et al 2011, 684). In Britain, substantial timber buildings are part of a diverse range of evidence for occupation, that includes pits, lithic scatters, and more ephemeral structural remains (eg, Anderson-Whymark & Thomas 2012; Brophy 2015) The latter are frequently interpreted as temporary camps and could suggest that some members of early farming communities were residentially mobile, moving episodically between occupation sites and visiting a variety of different geographical locations to obtain dietary resources (eg, Pollard 1999, 82; Whittle 1997, 21; 2003, 43; Garrow et al 2005, 155).

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