Bronze Age Round Barrows Research Articles

MONUMENTS AND LANDSCAPE: INVESTIGATING A PREHISTORIC MONUMENT COMPLEX AT LOCHBROW, DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY

This paper presents the results of a survey project investigating a complex of prehistoric archaeological sites at Lochbrow, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. An Early Neolithic timber cursus, Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age timber circles and Bronze Age round barrows were first recorded as cropmarks on aerial photographs in the 1980s and 1990s. The Lochbrow Landscape Project set out to investigate and understand this lesser-known complex of prehistoric sites and their layout in the landscape using non-destructive survey techniques, including geophysical survey, experiential survey and re-assessment of aerial photographs. A pilot survey was undertaken in 2010 followed by a series of short field seasons from 2011 to 2015. Interpretation of the results from geophysical survey has proved challenging because of strong geological and geomorphological signals, but has been successful in detecting both the features known from aerial photographs and additional archaeological features. The simple step of marking out the known archaeology on the ground has provided additional insights into the landscape context of the known monuments and elements of their morphology. This indicates that the monuments were closely tied to their landscape context and that the monument boundaries were used to influence the experience of being within the monuments. Overall, the research has been successful in enriching our understanding of the complex of prehistoric sites known at Lochbrow.

Other Types of Meaning: Relationships between Round Barrows and Landscapes from 1500 bc–ac 1086

This paper is about Bronze Age round barrows and the ways in which they became caught up in human practices over an extended time period. At one level it belongs to a flourishing body of work that examines the ‘re-use’ or ‘biography’ of prehistoric monuments. Rather than treating the latter as a generic group, however, this study focuses on chronologies of one specific monument type—round barrows—over a 2600-year period from 1500 bc–ac 1086. By bringing together evidence and interpretations generated mainly within period specialisms, significant homogeneities are revealed in terms of how activities at prehistoric monuments have previously been understood. The possibilities for seeking out different interpretative ground are duly explored. Using a case study from the east of England and drawing on evidence and ideas from much more broadly, the approach taken places particular emphasis on examining relationships between round barrows and other aspects of landscape. The findings offer fresh insight into the temporality of activities undertaken at round barrows, question existing characterizations of past people's historical understandings, and explore the long-term coherence of ‘round barrows’ as a category.

A Bronze Age Round Barrow Cemetery, Pit Alignments, Iron Age Burials, Iron Age Copper Working, and Later Activity at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys

Excavation undertaken at the Upper Severn valley round barrow cemetery at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, between 2004 and 2006 has increased the known barrows and ring ditches to some twenty-seven monuments within this complex, and revealed additional burials. Based on limited dating evidence, and the data from earlier excavations, the majority of the barrows are thought to be constructed in the Bronze Age. The barrows are considered part of a larger linear cemetery. The landscape setting and wider significance of this linear barrow cemetery are explored within this report. Dating suggests two barrows were later, Iron Age additions. The excavation also investigated Iron Age and undated pit alignments, Middle Iron Age copper working and a small Romano-British inhumation cemetery and field systems. Much of this evidence reflects the continuing importance of the site for ritual and funerary activity.

The Afterlife of Monuments in the English Peak District: The Evidence of Early Bronze Age Burials

SummaryThis research is an investigation of the locations of Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age round barrows in the Peak District. The work involved close examination of the barrows present around two earlier monuments: the Long Low bank barrow and the henge at Arbor Low. Using a Geographic Information System, it considered the densities of the barrows around these focal monuments, inter‐visibility between the sites, and the distribution of distinctive artefacts in the surrounding area. The results raise important questions about the role of memory in the past.

Bronze Age barrows at Longstone Edge: Taphonomy and site formation

The taphonomy of the small vertebrate fauna from Longstone Edge is compared and contrasted with the site formation processes of the Bronze Age round barrows from which they were recovered. The microfauna may provide important clues about the site formation processes of the barrows, including access to and exposure of the structures in different periods. Two contexts, the earth barrow 1 and the burial cists beneath barrow 1, have rich small vertebrate faunas preserved, and taphonomic evidence of breakage and digestion provides evidence of two predators responsible for the accumulation of the faunas. The preservation context indicates that the predators were nesting or roosting on the ground. Three other contexts in barrow 1 (subsoil, stone mound underlying the earth mound, and a later fissure cutting across the mound) have only scattered remains, and barrow 2 also has dispersed remains. The taphonomy and site formation processes of the two Longstone Edge barrows complement each other, but the nature of the evidence from the two sources is quite different: taphonomy is a constructive discipline that adds information to animal and plant assemblages, shows what processes were operating in the past, and allows us to retrieve the original information of past ecosystems. Site formation processes and destruction of the structural elements that make up the barrows may show how the site was formed, and how it has deteriorated over time. Attempts to refer to both subjects as aspects of taphonomy are misguided.

An investigation of the origins of cattle and aurochs deposited in the Early Bronze Age barrows at Gayhurst and Irthlingborough

The Early Bronze Age round barrows at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire and Gayhurst, Buckinghamshire contained remarkably large quantities of cattle ( Bos taurus) remains. At Irthlingborough, at least 185 skulls with smaller numbers of mandibles, shoulder blades and pelves were found together with a small number of skeletal elements from aurochs ( Bos primigenius). In contrast, the remains from Gayhurst are dominated by the limb bones from more than 300 animals. This study employed strontium isotope ratio analysis of cattle tooth enamel from 15 cattle and one aurochs to investigate the diversity of the animals' origins at both sites and provide insights into Early Bronze Age funerary practices. Although strontium results show that most of the cattle and the aurochs included in this study were consistent with local origins, one animal from each barrow was born remotely, most likely in western Britain. In addition, a second Gayhurst animal was consistent with origins in a region of chalk rather than the local Jurassic sediments.

Round Barrows and Dykes as Landscape Metaphors

This article outlines the results of phenomenological research on the significance of landscape features, in particular ridges and coombe (dry valley) systems, in relation to the locations of Bronze Age round barrows and late Bronze Age/early Iron Age crossridge and spur dykes constructed along a chalk ridge in central southern England. It considers the locations of these monuments in a holistic manner and argues that together the round barrows, and then subsequently the dykes, network or draw together very different aspects of the topography in narratives about life and death. The round barrows differentially reference the significance of these places metaphorically through a combination of their specific locations. By contrast, the monumental courses of the dykes physically impose themselves on, or objectify the significance of, the same landscape features, but in a radically different manner indicating both continuity and difference in the historical significance of place.

Archaeological and Palaeo-environmental Investigations of the Upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset (1998–2000): a New Model of Earlier Holocene Landscape Development

A combination of on- and off-site palaeo-environmental and archaeological investigations of the upper Allen valley of Dorset conducted in 1998–2000 has begun to reveal a different model of landscape development than those previously put forward. A combination of off-site geoarchaeological and aerial photographic survey and palynological analyses of two relict palaeochannel systems, and sample investigations of four Bronze Age round barrows and a Neolithic enclosure, have been combined with inter-regional summaries of the archaeological and molluscan records to re-examine the prehistoric landscape dynamics in the study area. Preliminary results suggest that woodland development in the earlier Holocene appears to have been more patchy than the presumed model of full climax deciduous woodland. With open areas still present in the Mesolithic, the area witnessed its first exploitation of the chalk downs, thus slowing and altering soil development of the downlands. Consequently, many areas perhaps never developed thick, well structured, clay-enriched soils (or argillic brown earths), but rather thin brown earths. By the later Neolithic these under-developed soils had become thin rendzinas, largely as a consequence of human exploitation. The presence of thinner and less well-developed soils over large areas of downland removes the necessity for envisaging extensive soil erosion and thick aggraded deposits in the valley bottom in later prehistory. The investigations have suggested that, if there were major changes in vegetation and soil complexes, these had already occurred by the Neolithic rather than in the Bronze Age as suggested by previous researchers, and the area has remained relatively stable since.

Magnetic imaging of a late Bronze Age tumulus in France before and during excavation

Geophysical surveying is taking place in the Chatillon-sur-Seine area in France to examine and map prehistoric settlements and the structure of tumuli (grave-mounds which originally reached a height of up to 5 m but which are now almost level). The magnetic survey discussed here was conducted to detect archaeological structures within a late La Tene (100-50 bce) necropolis, in particular the preexcavation recording of a late Bronze Age round barrow. During the excavation, additional surveys were carried out to analyze the influence of immediate subsurface soil layers on the magnetic anomalies originating from the deeper archaeological features. Additional radar surveys made use of a 500 MHz antenna and a SIR-2 system from GSSI which clearly showed the archaeological structures, but the results presented here will focus on the magnetic data. Two family graves within a larger late La Tene necropolis dating to between 300 and 75 bce were archaeologically examined in 1967. The objective of the present geomagnetic survey was to find more graves and record the structure of the whole necropolis. A Geoscan FM36 gradiometer was used, the upper probe being at a distance of 0.9 m from the surface, the lower probe at 0.4 m. The use of a gradiometer is preferable in order to reduce or cancel the effects of background noise and of metallic objects near the area of investigation. Most archaeological anomalies hardly achieve a value of more than 10 nanotesla (nT); therefore, sample and traverse intervals of 0.25 m were chosen …

Bronze Age Barrows: Factors Influencing Their Survival and Destruction

This paper analyses the influences on the survival of Bronze Age round barrows in two regions of southern Britain, the Upper Thames Valley and the Stonehenge Environs. It is clear that persistent arable farming in the medieval period had a highly destructive effect on these burial mounds. This can be seen despite later agricultural activity. Other factors such as the type of barrows can also be important factors in the survival and destruction of these burial mounds. Nevertheless, when analysing the distribution of these Bronze Age monuments, later historic land use must be considered as well as the contemporary prehistoric landscape.

The Topography of some Barrow Cemeteries in Bronze Age Wessex

Although the study of Early Bronze Age round barrows and cemeteries has flourished in recent years, detailed studies of the siting of barrows and cemeteries in relation to local topography and contemporary monuments are rare. This paper analyses the distribution of barrow cemeteries in relation to three major monumental complexes in Wessex: the South Dorset Ridgeway, Avebury, and Stonehenge. The analyses indicate that the location of barrows and cemeteries was strictly regulated. Although the specific pattern in each region is different, and closely related to the local topography of rivers and ridges, an underlying structural principle has been identified. This principle is that of circularity, and it is suggested that the various patterns of cemetery layout, involving curved settings and arcs, reflect the shape of the round barrows contained within them, the stake- and post-circles which lie buried beneath some of them, and the shape of the timber and stone monuments upon which they focus. This tradition of cemetery regulation appears to have continued to effect mortuary behaviour well into the Middle Bronze Age, alongside new systems of settlement and burial patterning which were developing in areas away from the ancient monumental foci. Finally, pointers towards future related research are outlined.

The Bronze Age Round Barrows of Kent

About 170 round barrows and 15 flat graves from Kent are here recorded, almost all on the Chalk. In addition there are at least as many ring-ditches, mostly of ploughed-out round barrows, in Thanet, only a small selection of which are here included as a full list is being prepared by the Trust for Thanet Archaeology. Nine sites have yielded primary central inhumations and ten have contained primary central cremations. Four sites have yielded burials in their encircling ditch. Warrior equipment has come from two sites, and ‘Wessex’ interments from another two. Barrow Wouldham 1/THAN contained a central primary cremation in a four-post mortuary structure with parallels in the Toterfout-Halve-Mijl cemetery in the Netherlands, with which area relations are suggested. One site (Lydden 1/DOV) is identified as the Ellenbeorge of an Anglo-Saxon land charter. Several Bronze Age round barrows were used by the Jutes and Saxons for their intrusive burials, and there are two instances of an Anglo-Saxon cemetery being sited to adjoin a Bronze Age round barrow. More than twenty sites have recorded local names of which the most frequent general name is Mount. Some of the best surviving barrows are beside or near the North Downs Way and the Pilgrims' Way.

Maiden Castle: excavation, education, entertainment?

In its developed or final form Maiden Castle, some two miles (3.2 km) south-west of Dorchester in Dorset, is an iron age hillfort, of great complexity, which takes in two knolls of a saddle-backed spur of Upper Chalk, the highest point of which is about 440 ft (c.134 m) above OD. The defences enclose47 acres (c.18 ha) and consist of three banks and two ditches with an additional bank inserted along most of the south side. There are two entrances, at the east and at the west, each with double openings elaborately defended by outworks. The outstandingly imposing character of Maiden Castle is derived from the size and complexity of these earthwork defences rather than from its altitude or the natural defensive advantages of its position. Ptolemy has been thought to supply a hint as to the ancient name of Maiden Castle. The conventional identification of Roman Dnrchester is with theDurnovaniaof the Antonine Itinerary. Ptolemy omits that placename, but mentionsDuniumin the same region as the one city apparently worthy of mention in the territory of the Durotriges (GeographiaI, 103, ed. C Müller (1883)).Duniumwas long ago identified with Maiden Castle. This may well be so, although recently Hod Hill and Hengistbury have also been put forward as possibilities. Part of the hillfort lies on the site of a neolithic causewayed enclosure and it also surrounds a unique ‘long-mound’ of the same period, a bronze age round barrow and the foundations of a Romano-British temple and accompanying buildings.

The Excavation of a Neolithic Cairn at Street House, Loftus, Cleveland.

In 1979 Cleveland County Archaeology Section completed fieldwork for a survey of Bronze Age burial mounds in the county. The survey isolated a number of themes for further investigation, including the examination of several of the few remaining barrows near the coast, all of which are threatened with destruction from continued ploughing. One of these mounds was a shallow earthwork surviving in a hedgebank at Street House Farm, Loftus. Excavation in the autumn of 1979 and in the summers of 1980 and 1981 revealed a multiphase neolithic cairn which incorporated a burnt timber façade and mortuary structure. The cairn had been badly damaged by ploughing, but the evidence for the construction and use of the monument survived to a considerable extent. The neolithic monument had been overlain by a Bronze Age round barrow, of which only a part had survived.

Myrhøj, 3 hustomter med klokkebægerkeramik

Myrhøj, 3 hustomter med klokkebægerkeramik

The Bronze Age Round Barrows of Wessex

The area covered by this survey, which epitomizes the writer's work on Wessex barrows since 1929, is limited on the west by a line drawn from Weston-super-Mare to Bridport, on the east by a line drawn from Dorking to Arundel, on the north roughly by the northern limit of the chalk downs south of the Thames, and on the south by the sea. It encloses the great majority of bell, disc, and saucer barrows, all of which appear to be expressions of Piggott's Wessex Bronze Age culture. It should be noted however that elements of this culture are found outside the area dealt with, notably at various places to the north-east. Nearly all of these are so close to the Icknield Way as to make it certain that this was the means of communication linking the one with the other. Another, though less important, extension of the Wessex Bronze Age culture is represented by a few sites, some of them doubtful, within a short distance of the course of the Upper Thames, and it is probable that the river was the means of communication used.Here it is well to point out the respects in which the boundaries of Bronze Age Wessex, as determined by my own distribution-maps of barrows, differ from those adopted in the O.S. Map of Neolithic Wessex, and by Mr Stuart Piggott in his recent paper, ‘The Early Bronze Age in Wessex.’

Finds from British Bronze Age Barrows

FINDS from the recent excavation of two bronze age round barrows, one at Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, and one at Reffley Wood, King's Lynn, Norfolk, are now on exhibition in the Prehistoric Saloon of the British Museum (Bloomsbury). Both barrows belong to the Early Bronze Age and date from about 1700 B.C. The Hampshire barrow was excavated by Dr. N. Gray Hill, and that at Reffley Wood by Mr. P. L. K. Schwabe and Mr. I. J. Thatcher. While the sites exemplify the two types of ground on which such barrows are found, namely, chalk down and sandy heath, in their characteristics they exhibit a striking similarity. In each the body had been laid approximately in the centre in the contracted position and accompanied by earthenware beakers. At Stockbridge the skeleton was in a remarkably good state of preservation and was accompanied by an almost intact beaker, but at Reffley Wood the skeleton had disappeared and no complete beaker was found, although the whole area under the mound was strewn with fragments. At both sites there were secondary interments in the mound, belonging to the later period of the Middle Bronze Age about 1400 B.C., when cremation was practised. In both barrows examples of the small segmented Egyptian faience beads were associated with the secondary burials. About eighty finds of Egyptian beads have now been made in Britain. The segmented type occurs in Egypt in the Eighteenth Dynasty from about 1600 B.C. onward, and is especially abundant at Tell el-Amarna (1380-50 B.C.). These beads have also been found in Hungary, Moravia, and Holland, and are thought to have reached Britain through Greece, travelling across Europe along the amber trade-route.