Iron Age Studies Research Articles

Sex identification of a Late Iron Age sword and mirror cist burial from Hillside Farm, Bryher, Isles of Scilly, England

A burial dating to the 1st century BCE was found in 1999 in the Isles of Scilly, south-west England. As well as being the most richly furnished burial in the region, it has grave goods considered to have oppositional gender associations: martial items (sword, shield) plus a bronze mirror. The inability to determine sex from the poorly surviving skeletal remains, using morphological or the available genomic methods at the time of its discovery, has been recognised as a key difficulty in the interpretation of this significant burial for Iron Age studies. Here, we apply high throughput DNA sequencing and analysis of dental enamel peptides to the highly degraded human remains in efforts to determine sex. The former effectively showed that no useable aDNA survived in the remains; the latter identified the sex as female with ca. 96% probability. This demonstrates the value of dental enamel peptide analysis for establishing the sex of ancient remains in circumstances where survival of skeletal remains is marginal and when diagenesis has effectively eliminated aDNA. Understanding symbolism in ancient burial rites, and hence making inferences concerning the social identities of the deceased is very difficult. These difficulties are not resolvable by biomolecular analyses. However, the sex identified from the proteomic work adds to the reconstruction of the biological identity of the interred individual, and helps to provide a firmer basis upon which debates concerning her social identity can be conducted. We discuss the funerary treatment of the interred individual in terms of her possible social persona, especially the meaning of the martial items for her potential role in Iron Age warfare.

Study of an Iron Age Gilded Silver Earring by XRF, SEM-EDS and Multifocus OM

The use of gold for artefact productions underwent substantial developments during Iron Age in western Europe, with the diversification of alloy compositions and the introduction of new technologies and aesthetics. This work presents a detailed study of a Late Iron Age earring from the western Iberian Peninsula and a discussion taking into consideration the alloys and technologies used at the time. The earring has a complex structure, composed of block- and strip-twisted wires and granulation. Characterization by multifocus optical microscopy, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF), micro-XRF and scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) were performed to obtain information on the chemical composition and manufacturing techniques. Results show that the earring was manufactured with wires and granules made of a silver-rich alloy, covered with a gold-rich layer 45 μm thick on average, which acted as an external coating making the entire earring resemble gold. This is a rare example of an Iron Age gilded earring, and its detailed study provides further information on the manufacturing solutions adopted by the Iron Age goldsmiths.

Analysing Social Change through Domestic and Public Spaces

This paper presents a study of Iron Age (IA) societies through the analysis of architecture and built space. The approach is focused on a small area in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, and constructs a small-scale narrative that seeks to identify different social dynamics concerning the onset, development and decline of the fortified habitat (between the ninth and first centuries BC). Three main spheres of human habitation are assessed: the environment of the household, the construction of collective and non-domestic buildings and the development of settlement planning. The main characteristics of these spheres are discussed and summarised, and they are understood as part of the same dynamic that reflects how the IA communities of northwest Iberia were structured. The main objective of the paper is to employ this methodology to study social dynamics at different scales and thus build a multi-scale historical and archaeological narrative about the development of heterogeneous processes in IA societies.

Symbolic kraals: Subterranean food stores, hidden wealth and ethnographic errors

Iron Age studies in South Africa are dominated by Huffman’s (1982, 1986, 1993, 2001) ethnographically derived Central Cattle Pattern model, which identifies the cattle-based bridewealth institution of South Eastern Bantu-language speakers by the spatial distribution of specific archaeological features. The idea of the spatial expression ‘on the ground’ of a variety of symbolic codes was Adam Kuper’s (1980, 1982) interpretation of predominantly Swazi ethnography. Surprisingly, Kuper’s work has never been interrogated and consequently his misunderstanding of the ethnography was carried into the Central Cattle Pattern and interpretations of the last 1600 years of Iron Age, farmer archaeology in southern Africa. Two particular features, burials and subterranean grain storage pits, and their relationship to cattle-kraals are explored. Because cattle are central to the Central Cattle Pattern, much archaeological attention has been given to looking for evidence of cattle at archaeological sites, either by dung, bones or cattle-kraals. The paper presents the views of contemporary Swazi, Xhosa and Mfengu people that suggest the symbolic importance of cattle-kraals; in the extreme they may not reflect the presence of livestock at all, yet their persisting presence demonstrates the continuing importance of cattle, real or imagined.

Autonomous but not isolated: A petrographic study of Iron Age ceramics from a ‘deep‐rural’ community in Asturias (NW Iberia)

AbstractThis article discusses a petrographic study of Late Iron Age (400–19 BCE) ceramics from El Castru in Vigaña (Asturias, NW Spain), providing evidence, for the first time in this region and time period, for the circulation of ceramics across NW Iberia. This preliminary study comprises the petrographic analysis of 40 pottery sherds and nine geological samples in order to discuss the mineralogical composition of the ceramic fabrics. The results point to a non‐local origin of most samples, providing the basis of a re‐examination of traditional views on the self‐sufficiency and isolation of Iron Age communities in Asturias during the Late Iron Age.

A multi-isotope (C, N, O, Sr, Pb) study of Iron Age and Roman period skeletons from east Edinburgh, Scotland exploring the relationship between decapitation burials and geographical origins

Recent excavations at Musselburgh, East Lothian (Scotland) revealed twelve skeletons, radiocarbon dated to the Iron Age and Roman period. The high incidence of skeletal trauma characteristic of decapitation in those of Roman date makes this site unusual. A multi-isotope investigation of seven of these individuals was conducted to explore any link between intrusive burial practices and migration at one of Britain’s most northerly frontiers. Bulk collagen analysis provided a terrestrial, C3, dietary protein signal (mean δ13C −20.4‰ and δ15N + 11.1‰), consistent with other Romano-British studies. However, the range of δ18O, 87Sr/86Sr and Pb isotopes indicate more diverse origins for the Roman individuals. These results suggest that decapitation burials were afforded to migrants to the Lothian area, but is not indicative of a common origin, implying that something more complex than a shared geographic childhood origin united these individuals. The possible association of these decapitation burials with a nearby 2nd century fort suggests that they may also represent some of the earliest examples of Roman decapitation burials to be found anywhere in Britain.

ФИЗИЧЕСКИЙ ТИП НАСЕЛЕНИЯ НИЖНЕГО ПРИКАМЬЯ ЭПОХИ РАННЕГО ЖЕЛЕЗА ПО ДАННЫМ ОСТЕОМЕТРИИ (МАТЕРИАЛЫ НОВО-САСЫКУЛЬСКОГО МОГИЛЬНИКА)

ФИЗИЧЕСКИЙ ТИП НАСЕЛЕНИЯ НИЖНЕГО ПРИКАМЬЯ ЭПОХИ РАННЕГО ЖЕЛЕЗА ПО ДАННЫМ ОСТЕОМЕТРИИ (МАТЕРИАЛЫ НОВО-САСЫКУЛЬСКОГО МОГИЛЬНИКА)

Iberos en el Alto Guadalquivir: singularidad y complejidad del poblamiento ibérico en torno a la Depresión Linares Bailén (Jaén)

Los estudios de la Edad del Hierro en el Alto Guadalquivir han sido siempre un gran referente para conocer la idiosincrasia de la cultura ibera. De hecho, la mayor parte de las interpretaciones que permiten imaginar su modo de organización social, político y económico proceden de las investigaciones arqueológicas realizadas en esta área geográfica. Sin embargo, queda todavía un largo camino por recorrer. El análisis en profundidad del territorio enmarcado entre los ríos Rumblar y Guadiel, dos afluentes del Guadalquivir, ha permitido retomar viejas cuestiones y plantear cambios de enfoque en torno al modelo de poblamiento desarrollado y sobre conceptos como oppidum, turris o vía de comunicación. Este artículo presenta todos estos nuevos datos y esboza la construcción de un paisaje ibero diferente del que, exclusivamente, se conservan pequeñas evidencias.

Was There a Pre-Roman Occupation in Coimbra, Portugal? The Contribution of Rua Fernandes Thomaz, 72–74 for Understanding Occupation of the Territory of Aeminium during the Transition from the Iron Age to the Roman Era

Iron Age studies are scarce for the city of Coimbra, besides the findings from the Machado Castro Museum, and therefore this intervention has revealed an important heritage collection. The recovered artefacts, which can be associated with the indigenous world, reveal regional parallels with Conimbriga, the Aeminium Forum and Lomba do Canho. There is clear evidence of region-wide homogenisation of pottery morphologies, surface treatments and production processes. A structure dated from the period of the Roman emperor Augustus aligned with the steep natural geological profile, with unobstructed views over the Mondego river, was found in the interior of a medieval defensive wall, making it possible to deconstruct the chronological periods of the locale, which is consistent with an Iron Age occupation, since at least the second century B.C. More importantly, it is necessary to understand the spatial contextualisation of this archaeological site through morphological analysis of the pottery in a local and regional context and comprehend the chronological hiatus and settlement between the archaeological sites located in the estuary mouth, from other sites found upstream along the Mondego river.

ROOM FOR IDEAS: TRACING NON-DOMESTIC ROUNDHOUSES

Iron Age studies in Britain operate in a world populated by roundhouses. Post-ring evidence is generally interpreted in domestic contexts. However, research on later prehistoric roundhouses in north-east Scotland has identified a small yet significant number of round structures in unusual locations, with unusual architectural details and a distinct lack of domestic material. Some of these relate to Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age stone circles, for which Richard Bradley’s work in the wider region has highlighted progressive biographies of construction and reuse. This paper, rooted in architectural design theory, selects a particular case study – the multiple timber post-rings at Candle Stane (in Aberdeenshire) – to highlight the complexities in interpreting these fascinating and enigmatic buildings. The architectural approach develops alternative reconstructions that lead to new perspectives on later prehistoric architecture as event-based and concerned with process. These processes only gradually lead to an architectural end-product, which displays distinctly non-domestic connotations. The research not only highlights the usefulness of data derived from rescue work for academic study, but the advocated approach of reconstructing in alternatives also lends itself to developing innovative approaches in Higher Education to teach visual competence.

Danebury and the Heuneburg: Creating Communities in Early Iron Age Europe

The Iron Age in temperate Europe is characterized by the emergence of hillforts. While such sites can be highly variable, they also share many characteristics, implying cultural linkages across a wide geographical area. Yet, the interpretation of hillforts has increasingly seen significant divergence in theoretical approaches in different European countries. In particular, Iron Age studies in Britain have progressively distanced themselves from those pursued in continental Europe. This article attempts to address this issue by analysing the evidence from two of the best-known hillforts in Europe: Danebury in Wessex, southern England, and the Heuneburg in Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany. The article highlights a number of key similarities and differences in the occupational sequences of these sites. While the differences indicate that the hillforts are the creation of very different Iron Age societies, the synergies are argued to be a consequence of communities evincing similar responses to similar problems, particularly those resulting from the social tensions that develop when transforming previously dispersed rural societies into increasingly centralized forms.

Developing an integrated, large-scale approach to the archaeological study of food: A pilot study of Iron Age and Roman Cambridgeshire

Foodways are deeply integrated into society, and, by extension, the archaeological study of foodways can be revealing of sociocultural and political features of ancient societies. This paper presents the results of a proof-of-concept trial of a new methodological approach for the study of foodways based on archaeological evidence. The aim is to enhance the quality of the conclusions that can be drawn about food in the ancient world. This approach relies on an improved system for the collection, organization, and storage of data—an extensible relational database dubbed the Roman Food Database—which facilitates the large-scale, integrated analysis of the remains of edible plants and animals. This system enables the application of novel analytical methodologies to data that would otherwise be too disparate and variable to consider holistically. The methodology was tested using evidence from Iron Age and Roman Cambridgeshire, for which there is much high-quality data available, making it possible to assemble one of the most extensive integrated datasets of archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological information to date. Preliminary analysis has allowed for the integrated exploration of topics such as production intensification and the use of wild resources. Results suggest that this approach is a productive way forward for the archaeological study of foodways.

Alternatives to Urbanism? Reconsidering Oppida and the Urban Question in Late Iron Age Europe

The mega-sites of Late Iron Age Europe (traditionally known as oppida) provide an important dataset for exploring how complex social systems can articulate power in novel ways. The question of whether these can be described as ‘urban’ has overshadowed a deeper understanding of the development and role of such sites, with many studies examining this issue almost wholly against peculiarly classical concepts of urbanism, isolating Iron Age studies from wider debate. Rather than seek to redefine ‘towns’, this paper explores how and why oppida diverge from traditional concepts of urbanism, arguing that the form of oppida reflects their focus on particular aspects—assembly, theatricality, and the household—which reflect the nature of Late Iron Age societies. It will be suggested that oppida are comparable to a range of mega-sites and low-density settlements recognised throughout the world that represent alternative solutions to the social complications urbanism seeks to address.

Multi-analytical study of ceramic pigments application in the study of Iron Age decorated pottery from SW Iberia

A non-invasive multi-analytical approach combining optical microscopy (OM), micro-X-ray diffraction (µXRD), in-situ X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF), variable pressure scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (VP-SEM-EDS) and Raman micro-spectroscopy has been employed for the first time to investigate the chemical composition of ceramic pigments in Iberian Iron Age ceramics. The methodology was applied in the study of red, black and white pigments on Iron Age decorated pottery from the archaeological site of Garvão (SW Portugal). The complementary methodology adopted in this study minimized the damage to the ancient artefacts and turned out to be essential in achieving a complete chemical and mineralogical characterization of pigment composition.Results suggest that haematite (Fe2O3) and pyrolusite (MnO2) are the main mineral carriers of the Fe and Mn chromophore ions, responsible respectively for the red and black colour. While illite (K(Al,Mg,Fe)2(Si,Al)4O10(OH)2), a common clay mineral, is giving the white colour. It is the first time that the use of illite as a pigment on decorations of ancient pottery has been reported in western societies.The potters used local raw materials, compatible with the regional geological context and the archaeometric study seems to demonstrate that the society that produced the painted ceramics had limited access to long commercial routes.

Filling the Gaps: The Iron Age in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan

Over the last 20 years interpretive approaches within Iron Age studies in Britain have moved from the national to the regional. This was an important development which challenged the notion that a unified, British, Iron Age ever existed. However, whilst this approach has allowed regional histories to be told in their own right, there has been far too much focus on ‘key’ areas such as Wessex and Yorkshire. Our knowledge of the ‘gaps’ in-between these regions is uneven across the country and seriously distorts our understanding of the period. This situation is particularly acute in Wales where there is a paucity of very large material and structural assemblages. As with many ‘in-between’ areas, developer-funded archaeology has increased the baseline dataset, although the interpretations of those data have not developed in parallel. This paper will demonstrate that, to more fully understand the integrated regional composition of Iron Age Britain, we must give detailed consideration to the evidence from these ‘gaps’. By bringing together for the first time all of the available aerial photographic, chronological, faunal, palaeobotanical, and excavated data in one of these ‘gap’ areas, southern Glamorgan, this paper will show that through the careful analysis of the available evidence we are able to gain an understanding of different areas’ distinctive regional characters and move beyond our over-reliance on a small number of key regions.

Defining Banjo Enclosures: Investigations, Interpretations, and Understanding in the Iron Age of Southern Britain

Banjo enclosures are an important archaeological site type within British Iron Age studies, particularly for southern England. Significant numbers of these sites have been discovered through aerial survey but only a comparatively small number have been explored through additional survey and excavation. Chronologically these sites wholly exist within the Middle and Late Iron Age periods,c. 400bctoad43. As yet there has been no standard interpretive framework for these sites and our understanding and discussion has often been based on the theoretical model most popular at the time of investigation. A key aim of his paper is to question this piecemeal approach and incorporate more recent interpretations from a much-expanded dataset. Since the 1990s large-scale landscape surveys have increased considerably the numbers of sites identified and subsequently the regions in which they are located. Tying this in with recent excavations, we have begun to redefine our understanding of banjo enclosures as more complex in their site development and function, while also providing a simplified framework which accounts for the diversity of forms, locations, and relative associations. Ultimately these enclosures are more complex than previously realised, potentially serving a multiplicity of functions with different phases of use throughout a period of significant change at the end of prehistory.

Decisive Evidence for Multidirectional Evolution of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa

While pioneers of archaeology in any given region have established the foundations of the discipline, their views have not remained unchanged in places such as Europe, North America and Australasia. In these regions, successive generations of researchers changed the direction of their work based not just on new observations but also in light of new methods and theories. For example, the idea of a Bronze Age revolution popularised by V. G. Childe in Europe was superseded by multiple alternatives over the years. In southern African Iron Age studies, John Schofield, Gertrude Caton-Thompson, Roger Summers, Keith Robinson and Peter Garlake created an impressive platform upon which successors could build. Confronting firm disapproval from more experienced researchers in the early 1980s, Huffman speculated that the evolution of sociopolitical complexity in our region was a linear relay from Mapungubwe to Khami via Great Zimbabwe. This position was sustained as the conventional wisdom largely, we argue, because no new research was being carried out in key areas of the region, and too few students, in particular African ones, were being trained to expand the focus of investigation. Here, we present new data to support our argument, that the pathway to sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa was multilinear. We propose looking forward rather than back, and to continue to seek the exposure of scales of interaction between multiple but chronologically overlapping entities associated with the rise of sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa.

Foot-fall and Hoof-hit. Agencies, Movements, Materialities, and Identities; and Later Prehistoric and Romano-British Trackways

In archaeological considerations of Iron Age and Romano-British landscapes, trackways are usually interpreted in purely normative terms, merely as means of getting from one settlement to another, or as functional features to assist with the herding of animals. In these somewhat static expositions, the role of trackways as places in themselves, and their long-term importance in constructions of social identity and memory, are often overlooked, as are the complex relationships between people and animals within the landscape. Recent theoretical ideas concerning relational agency and identity, materiality and movement have much to offer in terms of our archaeological understandings of these features. This paper explores the interpretative potential of such approaches using case studies of Iron Age and Romano-British trackways from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire. Integrating theories of identity, embodiment, materiality, relationality and practice highlights the sedentarism of previous explanations, and allows for much more nuanced accounts of highly dynamic, mobile meshworks, where agency resided in complex constraints and affordances between people, animals and the materiality of the lived-in landscape.

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...

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.