Iron Age Britain Research Articles

Her Mirror, His Sword: Unbinding Binary Gender and Sex Assumptions in Iron Age British Mortuary Traditions

At the site of Hillside Farm, Bryher, on the Isles of Scilly, a materially rich single Iron Age inhumation was discovered containing the unsexable fragmented remains of one adult with a number of high-quality metal grave goods including an iron sword with a bronze scabbard and a bronze mirror. Swords and mirrors have long been considered high-status, oppositionally gendered grave goods that crosscut regional divisions in the pre-Roman British Iron Age (c. 800 B.C.–A.D. 43). Their combined presence within the burial of a single individual represents a touchstone within the ongoing unraveling of a long-held, interconnected set of reified binary sex and gender assumptions that have permeated discussions of British Iron Age mortuary contexts. In better recognizing this web of “binary binds,” we can deconstruct the a priori, exclusionary, interconnected sex and gender assumptions that configure how we investigate the terms of engagement between materials and persons in these burial contexts. Crucial to this analysis is an approach to patterning that (1) does not begin with a search for sex and gender as evidence of male and female dichotomies, (2) sees the potentiality for any component of a mortuary assemblage to have multiple points of significance, and (3) embraces data ambiguity. Developing such critical approaches will ultimately contribute to the deployment of more inclusive forms of analysis that do not reify sex and gender as the primary organizing principles within mortuary contexts, aiding scholars in avoiding assumptions that bind sex and gender analyses into artificially binary paradigms.

New evidence for diverse secondary burial practices in Iron Age Britain: A histological case study

Iron Age (c. 700 BC–43AD) funerary practice has long been a focus of debate in British archaeology. Formal cemeteries are rare and in central-southern Britain human remains are often unearthed in unusual configurations. They are frequently recovered as isolated fragments, partially articulated body parts or complete skeletons in atypical contexts, often storage pits. In recent years, taphonomic analysis of remains has been more frequently employed to elucidate depositional practice (e.g. Madgwick, 2008, 2010; Redfern, 2008). This has enhanced our understanding of modes of treatment and has contributed much-needed primary data to the discussion. However, only macroscopic taphonomic analysis has been undertaken and equifinality (i.e. different processes producing the same end result) remains a substantial obstacle to interpretation. This research explores the potential of novel microscopic (histological) methods of taphonomic analysis for providing greater detail on the treatment of human remains in Iron Age Britain. Twenty human bones from two Iron Age sites: Danebury and Suddern Farm, in Hampshire, central-southern Britain were examined and assessed using thin section light microscopy combined with the Oxford Histological Index (OHI). Results suggest that diverse mortuary rites were practised and that different configurations of remains were subject to prescribed, varied treatment, rather than resulting from different stages of the same process. Practices that may be responsible for these patterns include exhumation followed by selective removal of elements and sheltered exposure prior to final burial. Only one sample provided evidence for excarnation, a practice that has been widely cited as a potential majority rite in Iron Age Britain.

Tankards of the British Iron Age

Iron Age tankards are stave-built wooden vessels completely covered or bound in copper-alloy sheet. The distinctive copper-alloy handles of these vessels frequently display intricate ‘Celtic’ or La Tène art styles. They are characterised by their often highly original designs, complex manufacturing processes, and variety of find contexts. No systematic analysis of this artefact class has been undertaken since Corcoran’s (1952a) original study was published in Volume 18 of these Proceedings. New evidence from the Portable Antiquities Scheme for England and Wales and recent excavations have more than quadrupled the number of known examples (139 currently). It is therefore necessary and timely to re-examine tankards, and to reintegrate them into current debates surrounding material culture in later prehistory. Tankards originate in the later Iron Age and their use continued throughout much of the Roman period. As such, their design was subject to varying influences over time, both social and aesthetic. Their often highly individual form and decoration is testament to this fact and has created challenges in developing a workable typology (Corcoran 1952a; 1952b; 1957; Spratling 1972; Jackson 1990). A full examination of the decoration, construction, wear and repair, dating, and deposition contexts will allow for a reassessment of the role of tankards within the social and cultural milieu of later prehistoric and early Roman Britain.

Re-Engaging with the Iron Age Landscapes of the Outer Hebrides

Abstract This paper explores Iron Age landscapes and places in the Outer Hebrides. The Outer Hebrides are a group of islands where the Iron Age is defined chiefly by the distribution of monumental settlement architecture. The research behind this paper was motivated by the observation that experiential or sensory landscape archaeology had been largely neglected within British Iron Age archaeology and in the study of the Outer Hebridean Iron Age more specifically, despite being comparatively well developed in the context of Neolithic and Bronze Age research. Although there are a variety of perspectives on the Outer Hebridean Iron Age within current literature, they all rely upon the premise that this society was structured primarily around differences in monumental domestic architecture. This paper offers an alternative narrative for the Outer Hebridean Iron Age, structured specifically around an understanding of landscape and place. Four principal landscape settings are identified for Iron Age sites: lowl...

Iron-Agers loved a pig trotter festival

It wasn't so much bring a bottle to British Iron Age parties, as bring a pig's leg. At a site in south Wales people apparently feasted almost exclusively on the right forelegs of pigs--a mysterious ritual they kept up for centuries. An Iron Age site at Llanmaes in the Vale of Glamorgan was a particularly important location--but the feasts that occurred there are unlike any others people know of from that time period. Excavations led by the National Museum Wales between 2003 and 2010 recovered a haul of 73,000 bone fragments, 70 per cent of them from pigs. Analyzing them, Richard Madgwick and his colleague Jacqui Mulville found a curious pattern: almost three-quarters of the limb bones came from the right foreleg. Radiocarbon dates on some of the bones suggest that gatherings were held at Llanmaes for at least 700 years--and always featured the right forelegs of pigs.

The feasibility of vitrifying a sandstone enclosure in the British Iron Age

Iron Age structures with evidence for having been subjected to high temperatures have been identified throughout Europe. The thermal conditions that must have yielded such evidence of alteration remain enigmatic, especially for the case of high-silica, quartz-rich building materials such as sandstones. Here, we conduct an experimental investigation of thermal treatment using the Wincobank Iron Age hill fort site in Sheffield, South Yorkshire (U.K.) as a test case. We have selected samples of the unaltered protolithic sandstone from which the fort was constructed as starting material as well as material from the vitrified wall core. An experimental suite of thermally treated protolith samples has been analysed using a combined approach involving X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis (simultaneous differential scanning calorimetry with thermogravimetric analysis). Comparison between our experimental products and the variably vitrified samples found in the wall of the Wincobank hill fort helps to constrain firing temperatures and timescales. For mineralogical markers, we employ the high-temperature conversion of quartz to cristobalite and the melting of feldspar to compare the relative abundance of these phases before and after thermal treatment. We find that the Iron Age wall samples have mineralogical abundances most consistent with a minimum firing temperature range <1100–1250°C and a firing timescale of >10h. These first quantitative constraints for a fort constructed of sandstone are consistent with those found for forts constructed of granitic material. Finally, we explore the reasons for thermal disequilibrium during firing and invoke this mechanism to explain the differential vitrification found at some Iron Age stone-built enclosures.

The impact of Bayesian chronologies on the British Iron Age

Radiocarbon dating was long neglected in Iron Age research, with dates on the ‘Hallstatt plateau’ (800–400 bc) considered too broad to be useful compared to artefact typo-chronologies. Such views are now untenable. Around fifty British Iron Age settlements and cemeteries have been dated using Bayesian methodologies, yielding two important general results: (1) typological dating produces sequences that are regularly too late; and (2) many phenomena, from chariot burials to settlement shifts, represent brief horizons, rather than being long lived. Drawing on a selection of studies, this article explores the impact of Bayesian modelling on British Iron Age studies. It highlights potential pitfalls and issues that must be considered when dating the period, illustrates some major successes and looks to the future.

The Complex Roundhouses of the Scottish Iron Age (2 vols): an architectural analysis of complex Atlantic roundhouses (brochs and galleried duns), with references to wheelhouses and timber roundhouses BAR British Series 550 by Tanja Romankiewicz Vol. 1, Te

International Journal of Nautical ArchaeologyVolume 43, Issue 1 p. 213-215 Book Review The Complex Roundhouses of the Scottish Iron Age (2 vols): an architectural analysis of complex Atlantic roundhouses (brochs and galleried duns), with references to wheelhouses and timber roundhouses BAR British Series 550 by Romankiewicz, Tanja Vol. 1, Text and illustrations, 315 pp with 300 b&w photos, plans, maps; and tables Vol. 2, Catalogue, 514 pp with approximately 1200 b&w photos and plans, 400 figs Archaeopress for BAR, Gordon House, 276 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7ED, 2011, £102 (sbk), ISBN 978-1407308869 (vol. 1), ISBN 978-1407308876 (vol. 2) Colin Martin, Colin Martin University of St Andrews, ScotlandSearch for more papers by this author Colin Martin, Colin Martin University of St Andrews, ScotlandSearch for more papers by this author First published: 10 February 2014 https://doi.org/10.1111/1095-9270.12050_9Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume43, Issue1March 2014Pages 213-215 RelatedInformation

Experimental archaeology and games

Experimental archaeology has long yielded valuable insights into the tools and techniques that were featured in past peoples’ relationships with the material world around them. However, experimental archaeology has, until now, confined itself to rigid, empirical, and quantitative questions. This article applies principles of experimental archaeology and serious gaming tools in the reconstructions of a British Iron Age round house. This article explains a number of experiments conducted to look for quantitative differences in movement in virtual versus material environments, using both “virtual” studio reconstruction as well as material reconstruction. The data from these experiments was then analysed to look for differences in movement that could be attributed to artefacts and/or environments. This article also explains the structure of the experiments, how the data was generated, what theories may make sense of the data, what conclusions have been drawn, and how serious gaming tools can support the creation of new experimental heritage environments.

The Life of Things Long Dead: a Biography of Iron Age Animal Skulls from Battlesbury Bowl, Wiltshire

This study expands perceptions of ritual behaviour in the British Iron Age, which conventionally focus on the deposition and burial of objects. Classification of animal bones as special deposits in Iron Age Britain, and interpretation of the ritual activities they may represent, has tended to concentrate on the significance of their burial location and composition and/or the cultural perception of the particular animal species deposited. Other than for consumption and sacrifice, little consideration has been given to the complex, dynamic histories (biographies) and cultural significance of animal remains in the period between death and burial. Detailed examination of the taphonomic and pre-depositional histories of animal deposits, are one means by which it is possible to explore the activities that occurred above ground in the past. Zooarchaeological investigations of a group of cattle and horse skulls from Battlesbury Bowl, Hampshire, provide an excellent example of a ‘special deposit’ where it was the objects themselves, as much as their species, location or structured burial that held special significance for the Iron Age community. By taking a biographical approach, we can create detailed narratives of archaeological animal bones and their treatment, thereby expanding the view of activities that fall under the ‘ritual’ umbrella.

British Iron Age chariot burials of the Arras culture: a multi-isotope approach to investigating mobility levels and subsistence practices

Iron Age chariot burials in the UK are rare and restricted in their distribution. Historically it has been suggested that their Arras culture affinities with Continental Europe, particularly with the Paris basin in France, may be indicative of migration. The majority of them are found on chalk and the putative source region is also chalk. This has meant that a study using only strontium isotopes to identify mobile individuals is problematic. Here we present a range of isotope ratio data (strontium, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen and sulphur) for seven chariot burials from Wetwang, Garton Station and Kirkburn. The majority of them are of men and women who were born and lived locally, although the individual from Kirkburn is likely to have spent his childhood elsewhere. They do, however, differ quite subtly from others in the local population, probably in their relationship to a local land-use pattern operating between two distinct biospheres.

Cunobelinus' Bronze Coinage

AbstractCunobelinus was the most significant figure in Britain during the decades leading up to the Roman invasion, though his reign has received relatively little attention. Cunobelinus' coinage is of great importance to understanding the socio-political structure of South-East Britain prior to the Roman invasion and whilst studies of his gold and silver have been published in previous editions ofBritannia(Allen 1975; de Jersey 2001), his bronzes have been subject to surprisingly little work, particularly considering that they are by far the most common struck bronze issues known from Iron Age Britain, with a total of 2,608 examples currently recorded in the Celtic Coin Index and on the PAS database combined. This study proposes a broad typological scheme with which Cunobelinus' bronzes can be ordered and demonstrates that, like Cunobelinus' silver, but unlike his gold, they can be divided into three regional groupings, which it can be argued correspond to three different political sub-groupings under Cunobelinus' control. In addition, the bronze's metallurgy and metrology and the mints at which they were struck are investigated. This article examines the contribution of coinage to understanding Cunobelinus' political history, and how he used imagery to reinforce and legitimate his power in the different regions under his control at different times during his reign. The types of sites at which Cunobelinus' bronzes have been found are also outlined and the likely function of the coins discussed.

Condiments before Claudius: new plant foods at the Late Iron Age oppidum at Silchester, UK

Our understanding of the introduction and adoption of new plant foods in Roman Britain is currently limited by a lack of data from a group of Late Iron Age settlements commonly referred to as oppida (large pre-Roman towns). This paper presents the first evidence of several imported plant foods from Late Iron Age Britain in the form of waterlogged plant remains from the oppidum at Silchester. These were recovered from the basal contexts of two wells, dated to the early first century a.d. One olive stone and several seeds of celery, coriander and dill were identified. The results are compared to archaeobotanical data from elsewhere in Britain and northwestern Europe, demonstrating that Silchester is part of the wider phenomenon of the adoption of new flavourings and fruits in Late Iron Age Europe.

Status, health, and lifestyle in Middle Iron Age Britain: A bioarcheological study of elites and non-elites from East Yorkshire, Northern England

The development of socially-ranked societies has been associated with disparities in human health in a variety of settings. The unique context of the Arras culture of East Yorkshire, Northern England, provides an excellent opportunity to explore how health and well-being may have varied in relation to social factors in Iron Age Britain. Bioarcheological data were collected from two Middle Iron Age (400–100BC) cemeteries, Rudston (N=164) and Burton Fleming (N=56), from the East Yorkshire region of Britain. Social status was inferred from orientational cosmology, animal symbolism, and grave goods. Results indicate a significant difference in hypoplastic lesions, with a higher frequency observed in non-elite individuals, whereas the prevalence of cribra orbitalia and periostitis do not differ between the groups. The similar degree of dental wear as well as the similar frequency of carious lesions and dental abscesses suggests a common dietary pattern, despite a significantly higher prevalence of antemortem tooth loss among the elite. The prevalence of degenerative joint disease and trauma indicate non-elites may have participated more frequently in labor-intensive and hazardous farming activities. These data suggest that although social ranking may not have been marked, inequalities were likely present, resulting in disparities in health.

Stable isotopes and diet: their contribution to Romano-British research

The study of stable isotopes surviving in human bone is fast becoming a standard response in the analysis of cemeteries. Reviewing the state of the art for Roman Britain, the author shows clear indications of a change in diet (for the better) following the Romanisation of Iron Age Britain—including more seafood, and more nutritional variety in the towns. While samples from the bones report an average of diet over the years leading up to an individual's death, carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures taken from the teeth may have a biographical element—capturing those childhood dinners. In this way migrants have been detected—as in the likely presence of Africans in Roman York. While not unexpected, these results show the increasing power of stable isotopes to comment on populations subject to demographic pressures of every kind.

Rural Settlement in Late Iron Age and Roman Britain: a Review of Three Recent Archaeological Fieldwork Reports and their Wider Implications

All three well-produced reports, two excavation and one fieldwalking and magnetometry, deal with rural settlement in Iron Age and Roman Britain. They demonstrate the huge amount of information that can be gathered from such work with implications not only for our understanding of their local area but also many themes relevant to Iron Age and Roman Britain as a whole, as well as beyond. It is useful to review these reports not just in relation to the immense value that each site brings but also in terms of current knowledge and approaches taken to studying rural settlement.

The Ins and Outs of Death in the Iron Age: Complex Funerary Treatments atBroxmouth Hillfort, East Lothian

SummaryEvidence for Iron Age funerary treatments remains sporadic acrossBritain and formal cemeteries are especially elusive. One important exception isBroxmouth hillfort, East Lothian, excavated during the late 1970s but not yet published. New analysis of the human remains fromBroxmouth provides evidence for three distinct populations: a formal cemetery outside the hillfort, isolated graves within the ramparts, and a scatter of disarticulated fragments from a range of domestic and midden contexts. The latter group in particular provides significant evidence for violent trauma; isotopic evidence suggests that they may be the remains of outsiders. Together the human remains shed light on complex and changing attitudes to death and the human body in Iron AgeBritain. The material fromBroxmouth is considered in the light of emerging evidence for fluid and pluralistic treatments of the dead in the Iron Age of south‐east Scotland.

Nationalism and Biographical Transformation: The case of Boudicca

IntroductionIf the purpose of nationalist historiography is to construct a past worthy of the present and future then the role of heroic individuals in the course of key historical events and developments and the construction of suitable biographies to support the narrative is essential to the purpose. Episodes of warfare very often provide the most heroic figures, bolstering national imagery and myth with tales of renown as well as introducing a personal life-story element that not only anchors the individual's biography in a suitable national past but also personalises it in a way that a mere retelling of events cannot. Images of Boudicca, the renowned 'warrior queen' who led an army against the might of imperial Rome in Iron-Age Britain, have been deployed in modern nationalist projects from Victorian times through to more recent times. Not surprisingly, the same images have sometimes been used in feminist struggles for liberation of a different kind.A suitably stylised iconography - most famously represented by Boudicca's statue at Westminster - is accompanied by a popular biographical representation casting her in the role of leader of her 'nation' against the alien occupier and subjugator. That she ultimately failed matters little. Indeed, to have met death in the course of struggle only enhances the individual's stature. The nationalist romanticisation of Boudicca, however, has not gone unchallenged. Alternative interpretations of her biography depict a violent, vengeful figure who cared as Utile for most of her fellow Britons as for the occupying Romans. An equally negative version figured prominently in representations of Boudicca in early modern England. These, however, seem to demonstrate more of a discomfort with the challenge to gender roles presented by a female warrior leader in the nation's past than a concern for the way in which she prosecuted her cause.1 These differing interpretations highlight the way in which biographies are transformed according to the circumstances of the time and the interests, values and projects involved, thus producing different identities for the figure in question and, by implication, of the nation itself.2In this context, Jonathan Hearn notes that 'identity' is therefore not simply a proxy for biography, but rather also provides a conceptual framework within which the link between biography and the study of nationalism can be better understood.3 As suggested above, the way in which Boudicca's life story has been told and retold also reflects aspects of the highly problematic status of heroic women in nationalist myth-making when they step outside the bounds of their 'normal' gender roles and appear to not only act within what is considered to be a largely masculine realm of activity, but also to take leadership positions in that realm. The 'warrior' is very much a masculine ideal embedded in varying cultural contexts. Indeed, it has been argued that war is the most gendered social activity of all, and the strong association of masculinity and war has been expressed in numerous ways across time and space.4 It has been promoted in British popular culture, for example, over a considerable period.5 One contemporary British commentator suggests that her society is 'very odd' because on those occasions when women do come to power, the only way it can cope with figures such as Boudicca, Elizabeth I and Margaret Thatcher is to make them superhuman.6Female heroism is certainly acceptable, but it has usually been limited to activities associated with the 'feminine arts', nursing and nurturing in particular, as well as sacrificing sons to the cause. A pamphlet produced in the wake of a nineteenth-century war, for example, provides an account of the 'noble sacrifices and exploits of heroic women' who not only 'sent forth their sons' but also themselves displayed, in the face of persecution and danger, a heroism that 'surpassed the charity of Florence Nightingale, and repeated the gentle sacrifices recorded of Mary in the sacred Scriptures'. …

Deep-sea fishing in the Iron Age? New evidence from Broxmouth hillfort, South–east Scotland

Rescue excavations carried out during the 1970s at the Iron Age hillfort of Broxmouth in East Lothian produced a small assemblage of fish bone. Despite some uncertainties surrounding the recovery of this material, recent analysis has produced highly unusual results. In particular, the presence of large specimens of ling and other species raises the possibility that the Broxmouth community was, at least periodically, engaged in deep-sea fishing. This suggestion is at variance with present understandings of Iron Age fishing strategies which generally envisage more expedient practices, such as line fishing from the shore. Indeed, it has even been suggested that the consumption of fish was avoided altogether in Iron Age Britain, for religious or cosmological reasons. The composition of the Broxmouth assemblage thus has potentially important implications for our understanding of Iron Age marine exploitation.

Diversity in foddering strategy and herd management in late Bronze Age Britain: An isotopic investigation of pigs and other fauna from two midden sites

Middens of the southern British late Bronze and Iron Age are vast accumulations of cultural debris that can be explained as refuse dumps linked with large periodic feasting events. A distinctive feature of these sites is that their faunal assemblages invariably comprise a considerably higher proportion of pig remains than contemporaneous settlement sites. This paper presents results from a programme of stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analysis of fauna from two major midden sites, Llanmaes in South Wales and Potterne in Wiltshire. The research aim is to reconstruct husbandry strategies and foddering regimes, particularly concerning pigs, to better understand how the challenges of raising large herds were met. Analysis produced exceptionally wide-ranging results for pigs and other domesticates at both sites, particularly in terms of δ15N values, demonstrating that diverse foddering strategies were employed. Diversity in the late Bronze Age pig foddering regimes indicates that the Neolithic husbandry practices (focusing on woodland fodder) had not been abandoned, but that new husbandry methods (consumption of household waste) were also being practised, which subsequently became more widely established in the Iron Age. The heterogeneity of signatures suggests that animals may have been husbanded in a piecemeal fashion at a local, household level. This in turn hints that fauna may have been brought to these sites from households across the surrounding landscape, rather than being husbanded by specialist producers in the vicinity of the middens.