Bronze Age landscape dynamics: spatially detailed pollen analysis from a ceremonial complex

The late Neolithic and early Bronze Age are periods marked by the construction of conspicuous concentrations of ‘ritual’ complexes, used for funerary rituals, seasonal gatherings and communal activities. Understanding the environmental context of monuments may provide detailed insights into relationships between the physical environment and the activities undertaken at individual monuments. Raised burial mounds (barrows) are generally assumed to have been constructed in open landscapes (the so-called ‘landscape openness’ hypothesis) thus rendering them highly visible in the surrounding landscape. This paper seeks to test to what extent vegetation (and in particular openness) around a dense concentration of barrows was actively managed, using three pollen sequences in close spatial juxtaposition to the archaeology. The local vegetation histories, supported by radiocarbon dating, demonstrate spatial differences in vegetation pattern both during the time of monument construction and use (c. 2000–1500 cal BC) and during subsequent periods. They do not support the ‘landscape openness’ hypothesis. This suggests that there is no single ‘blueprint’ for vegetation structure on and around these types of monument complexes. There is no evidence for major restructuring of the landscape during the early Bronze Age. The data describe a major transformation of the vegetation around 1500 cal BC (the Middle Bronze Age) in an area not known for archaeology of this date. This serves to emphasize the role of palaeoecology in augmenting the archaeological record of landscape re-organisation and transformation in prehistory.     

Two Traditions of Bronze Age Burial in the Stonehenge Landscape

A study of the size of round barrows in relation to their position in the Stonehenge landscape allows us to define two types of mound, here termed 'Conspicuous' and 'Inconspicuous'. Conspicuous barrows are large and prominently located, whilst inconspicuous barrows are smaller and less strikingly placed. Inconspicuous barrows were associated mainly with funerary urns and were constructed throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Conspicuous barrows contain a wider range of grave goods and were mainly built in the later part of the Early Bronze Age. The Conspicuous barrows were impressive features of the prehistoric landscape and may have been built there because of the long-established significance of some of the local monuments, including Stonehenge itself. They contain exotic grave goods and could have been the burial places of a wider population. By contrast, the Inconspicuous barrows appear to be associated with settlement areas. They contain a range of ceramic grave goods which extend throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Ages and may have been built by the people who were living in the area. The latter tradition is the longer lived and retained its importance into the Middle Bronze Age when more conspicuous mounds were no longer built.     

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.     

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.     

Rudston 'Cursus A'– Engaging with a Neolithic Monument in Its Landscape Setting Using GIS

Summary. Cursus monuments are one of the most functionally enigmatic of prehistoric structures. Surrounding Rudston, East Yorkshire, a cluster of at least four cursuses converges on a bend in the Great Wold Valley. Of these monuments, Cursus A, or the ‘Woldgate Cursus’, is particularly unusual, with a curving morphology that forms a ‘dogleg’ plan. The unique shape of this structure provides an opportunity for studying cursus morphology with the aim of interpreting its function – essentially, why does the structure curve in this way? A GIS‐based approach is used which demonstrates a compelling visual relationship between the area enclosed by the cursus and the positions of two long barrows lying on its western horizon. The results of this study are considered in relation to the broader question of cursus function.     

BRONZE AGE BARROWS ON THE HEATHLANDS OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND: CONSTRUCTION, FORMS AND INTERPRETATIONS

The Bronze Age barrows on the downs of southern England have been investigated and discussed for nearly 200 years, but much less attention has been paid to similar structures in the areas of heathland beyond the chalk and river gravels. They were built in a phase of expansion towards the end of the Early Bronze Age, and more were constructed during the Middle Bronze Age. They have a number of distinctive characteristics. This paper considers the interpretation of these monuments and their wider significance in relation to the pattern of settlement. It also discusses the origins of field systems in lowland England.     

Defying God and the king: A 17th-century gold rush for ‘megalithic treasure’

Abstract

At the beginning of the 17th century, the priest Vázquez de Orjas received from the Spanish King Philip III a franchise that allowed him to excavate the mámoas or megalithic barrows of Galicia (northwest Iberian Peninsula). His task would be to recover for the Royal Treasury all the gold supposedly held in them. However, the priest's activities and claims gave rise to a widespread gold rush that resulted in hundreds of looted monuments and ended in a long series of trials. This paper is based on the legal case file resulting from that lawsuit and presents the translation of several fragments. The origins and development of the event are explained, together with discussion of the human and legal aspects regarding ownership and management of this heritage. In addition, the symbolic role played by the monuments at this time is explored: as hidden places for treasures, the megaliths represented salvation for many people. This gave rise to episodes involving mythical creatures and to resorting to the help of magic and religion, as reported in the interrogations. Finally, archaeologists are encouraged to pay attention to this stage of the life histories of the monuments when undertaking excavations.     

Bigberry Camp,Harbledown, Kent

Despite containing one of the largest stone and timber circles in Britain, the Late Neolithic monument complex at Stanton Drew, Somerset, has seen surprisingly little archaeological work. This paper presents the results of new fieldwork, which included excavation around a recently discovered recumbent stone, test-pitting on the floodplain of the River Chew and fieldwalking close to the monuments. The excavations revealed that the recumbent stone had been deliberately buried in the medieval period and also uncovered other archaeology of this date. The test-pitting exposed thick deposits of alluvium and from this it is argued that the landscape has changed dramatically since the monuments were constructed. The fieldwalking revealed a relatively low density of lithics which may indicate that activities around the monuments were carefully controlled. Also considered is the siting of the Stanton Drew monuments and their intimate relationship with the River Chew.     

PROVENANCE OF THE SANDSTONE USED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE KHMER MONUMENTS IN THAILAND

We investigated the sandstone used in the construction of the Khmer monuments situated upon and around the Khorat Plateau in north‐east Thailand in order to clarify the provenance. The sandstones of the 22 investigated Khmer monuments can be classified into three groups. The sandstone of Group 1 is lithic and is derived mainly from the Khok Kruat Formation. This group includes the sandstone used at Phimai, Phnom Wan, Muang Khaek etc. The sandstone of Group 2 is siliceous and can be subdivided into three further groups. The sandstone of Group 2 is considered to have been derived from the Phu Phan, Phra Wihan or Sao Khua Formations. The sandstone used at Muang Tam, Phnom Rung, Sdok Kok Thom, Preah Vihear (Khao Phra Wihan), Narai Jaeng Waeng etc. belongs to Group 2. The sandstone of Group 3 is feldspathic and is correlated with the grey to yellowish‐brown sandstone that is commonly used in the Angkor monuments in Cambodia. This sandstone is used at Wat Phu and Hong Nang Sida in Laos. The above results reveal that the choice of sandstone used for the Khmer monuments, including the Angkor monuments, was dictated by the surrounding geology.     

THE NEOLITHIC of the AVEBURY AREA: SEQUENCE, ENVIRONMENT, SETTLEMENT and MONUMENTS

Summary: The implications are discussed of the first five seasons of a regional project to investigate the Neolithic sequence and environment, and the context in which monuments great and small were built, in the area around Avebury, north Wiltshire, England. A five-phase local sequence is proposed. There was a varying mosaic of clearances, and settlement density may have been low. the episodic character of monument building stands out. With the exception of Silbury Hill, none of the monuments need indicate significant social ranking, and more attention can be given to their sacred character and to the tradition which produced them.     

The Monumental Cemeteries of Northern Pictland

THE EMERGENCE OF FORMAL CEMETERIES is one of the most significant transformations in the landscapes of 1st millennium ad Scotland. In eastern and northern Scotland, in the lands of the Picts, square and circular burial monuments were constructed to commemorate a small proportion of the population — perhaps a newly emerging elite in the post-Roman centuries. This paper presents the results of a project that has consolidated and reviewed the evidence for monumental cemeteries of the northern Picts from Aberdeenshire to Inverness-shire, transcribing the aerial evidence of many sites for the first time. In addition, the landscape location of the cemeteries is assessed, along with their relation to Pictish symbol stones, fortified sites and settlement landscapes of the 1st millennium ad. Two particular elements of the burial architecture of northern Pictland are highlighted — barrow enlargement, and the linking of barrows through the sharing of barrow/cairn ditches. Both of these practices are suggested here to be implicated in the creation of genealogies of the living and the dead during an important transitional period in northern Europe when hereditary aristocracies became more prominent.     

Organizational principles of Khirigsuur monuments in the lower Egiin Gol valley,Mongolia

Khirigsuurs are the largest and most common archaeological monuments of the Mongolian Steppe in the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, a critical time for the spread of nomadic pastoralism and the emergence of a new social order during the Bronze Age in Inner Asia. Using data from a full coverage regional survey of the Lower Egiin Gol valley, this paper presents a system for studying the defining ground level features of Khirigsuurs to discover structural categories, organize sites, compare Khirigsuur monuments across regions and explore activities that may have gone on around the Khirigsuurs themselves as they were built and used. The primary methods used are a study of monumental scale and a typology of additive parts from which complex and comparable types emerge. Elaborate Khirigsuurs illustrate the use of Khirigsuurs as small monuments, stages for group activities, and are the persistent backdrop for social transformations during the spread of nomadic pastoralism. I suggest that the Khirigsuurs of the Lower Egiin Gol are monuments constructed with relatively regular frequency, by a consistently sized group, and used for group oriented activities rather than the memorialization of an elite. This is consistent with something one might see as part of a regular yearly nomadic round.     

The Construction Process of the Angkor Monuments Elucidated by the Magnetic Susceptibility of Sandstone*

The Angkor monuments in Cambodia are mainly constructed of grey to yellowish‐brown sandstones. No differences in the constituent minerals and in the chemical composition of the sandstones have been confirmed among the monuments. However, we have found their magnetic susceptibility a useful parameter by which to distinguish them. The principal monuments of Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Preah Khan, Banteay Kdei and Bayon, constructed from the Angkor Wat period to the Bayon period (from the beginning of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century ad ), were investigated in detail using a portable magnetic susceptibility meter. We succeeded in dividing the periods of construction into stages. This elucidated the enlargement process of the monuments and correlated their construction stages.     

Localizing the Different Faces of Archaeological Landscapes in South India

Siruthavoor is a village situated 40?km south of Chennai in south India. The people of this village share their landscape with archaeological remains of south India’s past, including Iron Age–Early Historic burials and medieval temples. As an archaeologist, having witnessed and been both an indirect and direct participant in the changing reactions, actions, and perceptions of the community towards these monuments, I use this paper to explore the implications we can draw from the interaction between archaeological landscapes and various actors, spanning a period of twelve years. In India, as in many other countries, archaeological landscapes, monuments, and objects face the possibility of alteration, conservation, preservation, or destruction. The factors involved in this, I argue, are specific to localized conscious and unconscious decision-making by people living around such archaeological sites. Delving deeper into these issues will help us understand these often seemingly inexplicable choices that imperil the continued presence of archaeological monuments in the contemporary landscape. The behind-the-scenes events that occur in the ‘field’ of archaeology often remain untold, and yet they hold a lot of information. Through this narrative, this paper explores some of the subjectivities that we need to acknowledge as academics.     

Consideration on the construction process and the sandstone quarries during the Angkor period based on the magnetic susceptibility

Detailed magnetic susceptibility measurement was conducted on the sandstones used for the Angkor monuments constructed in the period spanning the Preah Ko and Angkor Wat styles, and the construction process of the buildings and quarries of the sandstones was considered. Combined with the previous study on the sandstones of the Bayon style [Uchida, E., Cunin, O., Shimoda, I., Suda, C., Nakagawa, T., 2003. The construction process of the Angkor monuments elucidated by the magnetic susceptibility of sandstone, Archaeometry 45, 221–232], the magnetic susceptibility measurement revealed that there were 7 sandstone quarries corresponding to Stages I, II, III, IVa, V, VII and VIIIb during the Angkor period. The sandstones used for the monuments belonging to Stage I show average magnetic susceptibility values ranging from 1.1 to 2.3 × 10⁻³ SI units. In the Bakheng style period (Stage II), the average magnetic susceptibility of the supplied sandstones decreased gradually from around 10 to 1 × 10⁻³ SI units over time. The magnetic susceptibility range of the sandstones used for the monuments of Stage III was from 2.3 to 3.0 × 10⁻³ SI units. In the early Angkor Wat style period (IVb), the average magnetic susceptibility of the supplied sandstones increased over time, reflecting the supply of the sandstones from two different quarries, that is, the quarry corresponding to the Khleang and Baphuon style monuments (Stage IVa), with low average magnetic susceptibilities of 1.1 to 2.4 × 10⁻³ SI units, and the quarry corresponding to the main Angkor Wat style monuments (Stage V), with high average magnetic susceptibilities ranging from 2.8 to more than 4.3 × 10⁻³ SI units. The sandstones of Stage VII show low average magnetic susceptibility around 1 × 10⁻³ SI unit. The sandstones of Stage VId is a mixture of sandstones of Stages V and those of Stage VII. The sandstones with high magnetic susceptibilities are found in the monuments belonging to Stage VIIIb, reflecting the supply from the new sandstone quarry.     

“An alternative discourse”: Local interpreters of antiquities in the Ottoman Empire

Abstract

The premise of Ottoman indifference to “antiquities” was already widely assumed by early modern travelers and archaeologists and continues to inform contemporary discussion of cultural patrimony in post-Ottoman nations. However, it is contradicted by numerous accounts of local interpretations of ancient monuments and local resistance to the efforts of outsiders to remove antiquities. Local interpretations of monuments constituted an alternative discourse that cohered around a set of recurring concerns, while also developing over time. The potential of these local interpretations to expand the discourse of academic archaeology has been obscured by their classification as elements of a timeless folklore, which is understood to speak to the customs and manners of the interpreters, not to the objects of interpretation.     

Interpreting the Neolithic: The Monuments of North Yorkshire

Recent interpretations of the British Neolithic either consider the shared beliefs of this period or the short-term engagement of individuals with their material surroundings. This paper argues that, while both approaches provide exciting agenda, they fail to address the marked regional differences which exist within the range of monuments, and indeed have actually shifted Neolithic studies away from a consideration of such variability. A comparison of the monuments from North Yorkshire with similar evidence elsewhere in lowland England illustrates the value of an approach which concentrates on long-term trends in the continuity or transformation of social structures. It is proposed that the absence of causewayed enclosures and the early development of single-grave burials demonstrate a distinct social trajectory which continued with the construction of the later henges. The monuments are therefore seen to reflect long-term continuities in the social history of North Yorkshire.     

The construction and destruction of a colonial landscape: monuments to British monarchs in Dublin before and after independence

Where cities evolve in contentious political circumstances and make the transition from a colonial to a post-colonial state, aspects of the urban landscape such as public monuments, street nomenclature, buildings, city plans and urban design initiatives take on particular significance. Collectively they demonstrate the fact that the city is the product of a struggle among conflicting interest groups in search of dominion over an environment. As one group seeks dominance over the other the urban landscape often becomes the canvas upon which this power struggle finds expression. Public statues in particular serve as an important source for unravelling the geographies of broader political and cultural shifts. These issues are explored here with reference to Dublin City and the monuments erected to royal monarchs before the achievement of political independence in 1922, namely Kings William I (1701), George I (1722), George II (1758) and Queen Victoria (1908). The fate of such monuments in post-colonial Dublin and the ways in which the fledgling state and particular groups within it sought to express their new found power through both the official and oftentimes wilful destruction of these royal statues is then examined. The paper illuminates the power of public monuments as symbolic sites of meaning and explores their role in the construction of a landscape of colonial power. It also demonstrates how monuments become sites of protest, as symbolic in their removal as in their erection.