THE BROCH CULTURES OF ATLANTIC SCOTLAND. PART 2. THE MIDDLE IRON AGE: HIGH NOON AND DECLINE c.200 BC–AD 550

The basic features of broch architecture are discussed. There were probably a large number of classic, hollow-walled, dry-stone towers, as opposed to lower, less architecturally sophisticated 'Atlantic roundhouses'. Various kinds of dating imply that most were built – probably by professionals – in the Middle Iron Age, from c.100 BC to AD 200, although a few emerged earlier in Shetland, perhaps from 400–300 BC. Wheelhouses seem to have emerged from these early Shetland brochs. The MIA material culture includes many new items found all over the province, though much of the pottery is regional. Everted Rim ware was clearly connected somehow with the spread of the brochs from Shetland. The details of the MIA mixed farming economy are reviewed, as is the varied if indirect evidence for the social organization of the broch families; a hierarchical clan society is implied. The MIA now seems to have lasted until the sixth century AD and in the west at least its end may have been precipitated by a drastic climatic downturn.     

THE BROCH CULTURES OF ATLANTIC SCOTLAND: ORIGINS, HIGH NOON AND DECLINE. PART 1: EARLY IRON AGE BEGINNINGS c.700–200 BC

Summary.   A new overview of the broch and wheelhouse-building cultures is offered because recent comparable attempts have omitted substantial amounts of relevant data, such as discussion of the most plausible broch prototypes and of the details of the material cultural sequence, particularly the pottery. Well dated Early Iron Age roundhouse sites have often been described, but promontory forts of the same period, showing the specialized broch hollow wall, have not. The example at Clickhimin, Shetland, is now reliably dated to the sixth century BC at the latest and the associated pottery shows clear links with north-west France. Another unexcavated example in Harris can be restored in some detail and shows how these sites were probably used. The pivotal role of Shetland in the emergence of the new culture is confirmed by the early dating of the broch at Old Scatness to the fourth/third centuries BC. However, a separate development of the round broch tower seems also to have occurred in the west, in the third/second centuries BC. English Early Iron Age pottery is also prominent in some of the earliest sites in the west and north. The picture is of a dynamic, maritime zone open to influences from several remote regions.     

The integration of chronological and archaeological information to date building construction: an example from Shetland,Scotland, UK

This paper presents new chronological data applied to the problem of providing a date for the construction of a prehistoric building, with a case study from the Old Scatness Broch, Shetland. The innovative methodology employed utilises the combination of radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dates with the archaeological information, which includes the stratigraphic relationships of sampled deposits, context information, and evidence relating to the formation of the deposit. This paper discusses the scientific validity of the dates produced, and the advantages that the methodology employed at this site offers for archaeological interpretation. The combined dating evidence suggests that the broch at Old Scatness is earlier than the conventionally accepted dates for broch construction. More broadly it shows the value of integration of the specialists at the planning stages of the excavation. The application of a Bayesian statistical model to the sequences of dates allowed investigation of the robustness of the dates within the stratigraphic sequences, as well as increasing the resolution of the resulting chronology. In addition, the value of utilising multiple dating techniques on the same deposit was demonstrated, as this allowed different dated events to be directly compared as well as issues relating to the formation of the sampled deposit. This in turn impacted on the chronological significance of the resulting dating evidence, and therefore the confidence that could be placed in the results.     

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.     

Fire and Memory: Transforming Place using Fire at Henge Monuments

Henges — Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age earthwork monuments — often have long life-histories of reuse and rebuilding over generations. At some sites, fire-lighting and the deposition of fire-altered materials played a significant role in certain phases of the use of the henge. This article reviews the evidence for fire in the life-histories of four henges in Scotland, and interprets the various ways in which fire was employed at different times and at different sites. It argues that fire had a transformational effect, not only upon monuments and materials, but it also characterized and transformed people’s experiences and memories of particular sites, thus creating links between monumental sites and quotidian experience during the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Scotland.     

Upland agriculture and environmental risk: a new model of upland land-use based on high spatial-resolution palynological data from West Affric, NW Scotland

Marginality and climatic determinism are common themes in upland archaeology, particularly in northern Britain, but there is increasing evidence to challenge these assumptions, notably in the palynological record. An alternative model for land-use in a highland valley is developed using three high spatial-resolution pollen sequences from north-west Scotland. In spatial terms, land-use was shaped by the landscape but also structured to make the most productive use of the small, fragmented areas of better soil in a peat-dominated environment. Climate change alone provides an inadequate explanation for land-use dynamics. A combination of careful site selection, resource management, and social interactions buffered farmers from risks posed by upland conditions, whilst allowing the flexibility to respond to opportunities created by environmental and socio-economic change, particularly during the early Bronze Age, Bronze Age/Iron Age transition, Iron Age and ‘Little Ice Age’. Implications for the perception of upland farming, for the prediction of responses to environmental risk, and for the expected character and survival of archaeological evidence for past upland and mountain-farming systems are evaluated.     

The Potential for Dating the Old Scatness Site,Shetland, By Optically Stimulated Luminescence

A series of deposits from the agricultural infield of the multiperiod settlement mound, Old Scatness, were investigated for their potential to yield optically stimulated luminescence dates. Luminescence properties of quartz grains were found to vary through the sequence, but dates were successfully obtained from five deposits, including anthropogenic soils, windblown sands and sands within midden deposits. Single‐aliquot equivalent dose measurement was found to be the most appropriate method for dating the deposits. The OSL dates obtained accorded well with the dates provided by archaeological evidence and included the post‐medieval, Iron Age, Bronze Age and Neolithic periods of Shetland, while a substantial midden was dated to the Bronze/Iron Age transition.     

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.     

Mongolian Deer Stones,European Menhirs,and Canadian Arctic Inuksuit: Collective Memory and the Function of Northern Monument Traditions

Northern peoples and those living in the Arctic and environments with broad vistas created cultural landscapes with distinctive monument traditions that supported their cultural and political systems. This paper explores three societies in different geographic regions and time periods during the past 10,000 years that used stone monuments to humanize their landscapes and invoke or honor gods or spirits, mythological ancestors, or deceased leaders. Canadian and Greenland Inuit and their predecessors of the past thousand years marked their lands with abstract human figures known as Inuksuit; Neolithic and Bronze Age Europeans built megaliths, henges, and passage graves; and Mongolian Bronze Age nomadic pastoralists populated the central Asian steppe with burial mounds (khirigsuurs) and anthropomorphic deer stone monuments. Each tradition contributed in different ways to shape and perpetuate the society’s values by invoking spirits, ancestors, or heroic leaders. The enduring presence of these creations reinforced cultural or ethnic identity through ritual, group ceremonialism, landscape values, communal enterprise and labor, and collective memory. This paper identifies commonalities and differences between these traditions and how they functioned. We also see how successive societies perpetuate, change, reinterpret, or invent new uses and meanings for ancient monuments and their landscape settings to create new ethnicities and histories for their own times.     

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 Bronze Age landscape of the Bjäre peninsula,southern Sweden,and its relationship to burial mounds

Palaeoecological analyses from a small fen deposit, combined with pollen analysis from buried soil profiles under prehistoric burial mounds, have been used to investigate the timing and vegetation change associated with the Holocene development of a cultural landscape in southern Sweden. Traditional pollen analysis is complemented with plant macrofossil analysis and soil pollen analysis from within and in close proximity to the burial mounds in the coastal Bjäre peninsula, well known for its high density of well-preserved Bronze Age monuments. The vegetation development is linked to the construction of the burial mounds. A marked increase of cultural impact on the landscape is recorded during the Neolithic–Bronze Age transition and estimates of landscape openness suggest that by the onset of the Bronze Age, forest cover was only 20–40%, falling to 10% in the immediate vicinity of the burial mounds themselves. The coastal strip appears to have been affected by human activity to a greater extent and at an earlier date than sites from further inland in southern Sweden and the Bronze Age burial mounds were most likely designed to be visible in a largely deforested landscape.     

Variations in the C/C ratios of modern wheat grain, and implications for interpreting data from Bronze Age Assiros Toumba, Greece

Variations in the ¹³C/¹²C ratios of wheat grain at different spatial and temporal scales are examined by analysis of modern samples, including harvests of einkorn and durum wheat from Greece, and serve as a guide to interpreting data for Bronze Age grains from Assiros Toumba. The normal distribution and low variability of δ¹³C values of einkorn from 24 containers in the Assiros storerooms are consistent with pooling of local harvests, but less likely to represent the harvest of several years or include grain imported from further afield. Correlation between emmer and spelt δ¹³C values provides strong support for other evidence that these were grown together as a maslin crop. ¹³C discrimination (Δ) for the Bronze Age samples is estimated to be 2.5‰ larger than at present, and would be consistent with an intensive, horticultural regime of cereal cultivation, possibly involving some watering.     

The Stone Tidal Fish Weirs of the Molène Archipelago,Iroise Sea,Brittany, Western France: a long‐term tradition with early megalithic origins

This reports on a project that combined evidence gleaned from aerial photographs, place‐names, interviews, topography, LIDAR data, and sonar bathymetry to locate stone tidal fish weirs in the Molène Archipelago. The results were verified by diver and pedestrian visual surveys. Models of Holocene sea‐level change allowed a group of possibly Late Mesolithic–Early Neolithic weirs to be recognized, with a second group broadly dated to the later Neolithic–Early Bronze Age. The construction of these long megalithic structures is compared to the funerary monuments for which the Molène Archipelago is well known, in terms of technique, cost, and societal organization.     

The environmental context of a prehistoric rock carving on the Bjäre Peninsula,Scania, southern Sweden

Palaeoecological analysis of peat deposits from a small bog at Lingården, southern Sweden, have been used to examine the nature and timing of vegetation changes and anthropogenic activity associated with a nearby rock carving located close to the edge of the wetland. This study is the first of its type to investigate the environmental context of rock carvings in southern Sweden. Debate has tended to focus on chronology and iconography, with little consideration of the environmental relationships of rock carvings and how vegetation may help construct a site within its surrounding landscape. The pollen evidence from Lingården demonstrates that the rock carving was located in an isolated semi-wooded setting during the late Bronze Age. This is in stark contrast to several other pollen studies from the Bjäre Peninsula that record widespread woodland clearance and agricultural activity from the late Neolithic–Bronze Age transition. The results of this study support hypotheses that suggest complex rock carvings, such as Lingården, were separated from settled areas. This sense of separation and isolation is reinforced by the vegetation surrounding the rock carving. This paper also discusses the relationship between charcoal in the pollen sequence and evidence that the decorated outcrop had been burnt.     

Rock-cut tombs and funerary landscapes of the Late Bronze and Iron Ages in Sicily: New fieldwork at Pantalica

Abstract

Rock-cut chamber tombs are characteristic monuments of the Bronze and Iron Ages in southern Sicily. They are found in large numbers and prominent locations at several Late Bronze Age sites, most of which were first investigated over a century ago by Paolo Orsi, but received little attention subsequently. One famous example is the UNESCO World Heritage site of Pantalica, where the author recently conducted fieldwork aimed at clarifying the form, distribution and topographical relationships of the tombs, which date from about 1250–650 b.c. Although these monuments present various practical problems for research, and their contents were removed long ago, the author argues that they can be profitably studied from an architectural, contextual, and landscape perspective. A new sample of the Pantalica tombs is presented, showing a wide range of forms and associations that provides a basis for the discussion of several issues: links with domestic architecture, demography, accessibility, visibility, temporality, and perception.     

Neolithic and Bronze Age ungulate footprint-tracks of the Severn Estuary: Species,age, identification and the interpretation of husbandry practices

Ungulate footprint-tracks provide information regarding the species and age of animals. Combined with other datasets, this contributes to interpretation of seasonal husbandry patterns in the Severn Estuary, focusing on Bronze Age intertidal footprint-tracks at Redwick and Goldcliff East and the Late Neolithic site of Oldbury. Metric dimensions and morphology of modern contemporary ungulate footprint-tracks are used as analogues to help understand the species and age of prehistoric ungulates. Findings indicate that Dexter cattle and Soay sheep are metrically similar to British prehistoric ungulates. The prehistoric sites have a concentration of neonatal and juvenile individuals. Along with evidence provided by environmental data, faunal skeletal assemblages and lipid and isotopic analysis, this leads to the conclusion that the presence of younger animals and evidence at Brean Down for dairying is consistent with saltmarsh grazing activity in spring and summer.     

THE TALAYOTIC MONUMENTS OF MALLORCA: FORMATION PROCESSES AND FUNCTION

Summary. Talayots are stone monuments which were constructed singly, or as part of fortified settlements, in the Balearic islands during the late second and first millennia bc. Along with comparable monuments in Sardinia ('nuraghi') and Corsica ('torri'), there has been debate over their function(s) within Bronze and Iron Age societies. In recent intra-site analyses, the material and faunal remains within such monuments have been contrasted with those found in surrounding, domestic structures. Interpretations of talayots as elite residences, or locations for ceremonial feasting, butchery and storage have been evaluated. Using data from talayot 4 at Son Ferrandell Oleza, the authors argue that an understanding of formation processes is an essential basis for any attempt to make such inferences about functional differentiation within Bronze and Iron Age settlements on West Mediterranean islands.     

Fields,Ritual and Religion: Holistic Approaches to the Rural Landscape in Long‐Term Perspective (c.1500 BC–AD 1086)

This paper discusses the relationship between agricultural activity and ritualized/religious practices in England from the middle Bronze Age to the early medieval period (c.1500 BC–AD 1086). It is written in the context of the ERC‐funded, Oxford‐based ‘English Landscapes and Identities project’ (EngLaId), which involved the compilation of an extensive spatial database of archaeological ‘monuments’, finds and other related data to chart change and continuity during this period. Drawing on this database alongside documentary and onomastic evidence, we analyze the changing relationship between fields, ritual and religion in England. We identify four moments of change, around the start of the middle Bronze Age (c.1500 BC), in the late Bronze Age (c.1150 BC), the late Iron Age (c.150 BC) and the middle/late Anglo‐Saxon period (c.800 AD). However, despite changes in both agricultural and ritual/religious practices during this extensive timeframe, a clear link between them can be observed throughout.     

On the Book of Devotions,Deposited by Cardinal Howard in the Library of the Dominican Convent at Bornheim in 1659

This paper reports the results of the excavation of an Early Bronze Age cist cemetery on the mid-Northumberland coast at Howick. The Bronze Age site was discovered during the investigation of a Mesolithic hut site, the latter having been published separately as a monograph. A total of five cists were found with only one being adult-sized, the rest presumably for infants. Due to the acidic conditions on the site, only a few fragments of a small skull were found in Cist 2. Other small finds included a small sherd of Food Vessel urn in an area of disturbance next to Cist 5, smoothed limestone cobbles and some nodules of yellow ochre. Flints were found in most of the feature fills, but these are considered to be residual as they are directly comparable to the narrow blade material found within the Mesolithic hut and its environs. The siting of Early Bronze Age cist burials in coastal locations is thought to reflect contemporary settlement on the coastal margin and its hinterland. With no Bronze Age dwelling sites known from this area, these cemeteries have an added significance as they provide indirect evidence for Bronze Age settlement on the North-East coastal plain.