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.     

FROM RAW IRON TO SEMI‐PRODUCT: QUALITY AND CIRCULATION OF MATERIALS DURING THE IRON AGE IN FRANCE*

Iron raw materials provide a privileged source of information for the reconstruction of metallurgical techniques and the circulation of iron products. An interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological and archaeometrical studies of the exemplars known from the French Iron Age, has been undertaken. This enables a new typological classification to be produced that demonstrates a correlation between morphological and structural properties. Through comparison with chronological data, it is possible to propose a reconstruction of the organization of production according to three main periods, which are characterized by the circulation of different qualities of iron and by diverse levels of artisanal specialization.     

PYLOS: REFLECTIONS ON THE DATE OF ITS DESTRUCTION AND ON ITS IRON AGE REOCCUPATION

Summary. The opinions of Blegen on the date of the destruction of the 'Palace of Nestor' at Epano Englianos and on the slightness of Iron Age occupation on the site are questioned. It is suggested that the palace may have been destroyed very early in Late Helladic IIIB if some vases of IIIC or early Iron Age were mistakenly ascribed to the destruction instead of to subsequent occupation of the site which, in Geometric times at least, appears to have been considerably greater than Blegen admitted.     

REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN BLOOMERY SMELTING SLAG OF THE IRON AGE AND ROMANO‐BRITISH PERIODS*

This study highlights regional variation in the composition of iron‐smelting slag produced in England prior to the medieval period and attempts to link slag composition to the type of ore smelted. For many sites, the slag compositions were consistent with the use of limonite ore, but there is evidence that siderite ore was smelted at sites in Sussex in the late Iron Age/Romano‐British periods. A compositional comparison of smelting slags and slag inclusions in Iron Age currency bars, using data from Hedges and Salter (1979 ), illustrates the potential of smelting slag compositional data in provenance studies of early iron objects.     

THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEOLITHIC AND COPPER AGE SETTLEMENT IN THE GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN PART II: SITE SURVEY AND SETTLEMENT DYNAMICS

Summary. Within the region of the Great Hungarian Plain (discussed in the first part of this article) the processes of settlement change can be followed in greater detail from site survey in the Szeghalom area. This central part of the Plain, drained by the Körös and Berettyó rivers, was a major focus of settlement in Neolithic times (6000-4000 BC), and its rising importance can be followed in the emergence of a series of wealthy 'supersites'. During the succeeding Copper Age, the character of sites altered as the role of the area in relation to the rest of the region began to change. Around 3500 BC a dramatic shift in settlement patterns coincided with the appearance of large tumuli of steppe type, which mark a new phase of land use in this region.     

USING AND ABANDONING ROUNDHOUSES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE EVIDENCE FROM LATE BRONZE AGE–EARLY IRON AGE SOUTHERN ENGLAND

Summary.   It has recently been demonstrated that a number of roundhouses of the early first millennium BC in southern England show a concentration of finds in the southern half of the building. It has thus been argued that this area was used for domestic activities such as food preparation, an idea which has formed the basis for discussion of later prehistoric 'cosmologies'. However, reconsideration of the evidence suggests that this finds patterning does not relate to the everyday use of the buildings, being more likely to derive from a particular set of house abandonment practices. Furthermore, evidence can be identified for the location of domestic activities within contemporary roundhouses that appears to contradict the established model.     

PERCEIVING COMMUNITIES: EXCHANGE, LANDSCAPES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN THE LATER IRON AGE OF WESTERN BRITAIN

Summary.   In recent years British Iron Age studies have focused on regionality whilst critiquing the hierarchical model of Iron Age society. Despite the success of these approaches there has been little detailed replacement of previous social models with an understanding of how Iron Age societies worked. Looking at the later Iron Age of western Britain this paper combines examination of the exchange of material culture alongside study of the landscape to explore the nature of Iron Age communities. It is argued that Iron Age societies in the region used material culture to construct and maintain social relationships, while using visual landscape references allowed groups to engage in larger perceived communities.     

POST-COLLAPSE: THE RE-EMERGENCE OF POLITY IN IRON AGE BOĞAZKÖY, CENTRAL ANATOLIA

How communities reorganize after collapse is drawing increasing attention across a wide spectrum of disciplines. Iron Age Boğazköy provides an archaeological case study of urban and political regeneration after the widespread collapse of eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age empires in the early twelfth century BC. Recent work at Boğazköy has significantly expanded our understanding of long-term occupation in north central Anatolia. This work counters previous suggestions that Boğazköy was abandoned after the collapse of the Hittite Empire during the Early Iron Age. In this paper, we focus on the Iron Age occupations at the site to show how growth in the scale and complexity of ceramic production and trade during this period provides another line of evidence for economic and political re-emergence. Based on the increasing diversity of non-local ceramics and ceramic emulations during the Iron Age, we suggest that only in the Late Iron Age, 500–700 years after Hittite collapse, did Boğazköy re-emerge as a significant polity in central Anatolia.     

HOUSES FOR THE DEAD AND CAIRNS FOR THE LIVING; A RECONSIDERATION OF THE EARLY TO MIDDLE BRONZE AGE TRANSITION IN SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND

Summary.   The Early to Middle Bronze Age transition period has often been interpreted as involving a move to 'rational' food-producing societies. More recently, models have been advanced which have highlighted the presence of ritualized practices within Middle Bronze Age society. However, many of these interpretations have largely been based upon evidence from excavated settlements in central southern England. This paper examines the need to consider the transition period at a more localized level and presents the evidence from south-west England.     

THE CITY OF GOD AND AFTER: RELIGIOUS CHANGE AND ORGANISATIONAL DECLINE IN GREAT ENGLISH TOWNS SINCE C. 1850

Abstract

The demands and effects of warfare have not been one of the traditional concerns of historians of early modern English towns. This essay looks at the way in which the townsmen of York, Hull and Beverley responded to the demands of war. It explores the level of urban involvement in the king's wars, mainly but not exclusively against the Scots, and the way in which the pressure of war acted to transform relations within towns and relations between towns and their neighbours. In a period when towns were experiencing rapid economic, social and religious change, war provided one means of renegotiating power relations and allowed urban elites to expand their authority, through partnership with the Crown, vis-à-vis their fellow citizens and non-urban elites. The balance between profiting from war and being ruined by its demands was a fine one, however, exemplified by the experience of Hull in the 1540s.     

THE 20TH-CENTURY REVOLUTION IN TEXTILE MACHINES AND PROCESSES. PART 2: TEXTURED YARNS AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

This is the second of a two-part study on the archaeology and technological development of the machine textile industry in the 20th century. The previous paper, Part 1 (IAR, 35·2), described the changes in two long-established textile technologies: the production of yarns from short fibres such as cotton and wool; and the weaving of fabrics. The main part of this paper describes completely new technologies that resulted from the manufacture of new continuous filament yarns. Other technologies are also mentioned.     

FTIR AND SOLID‐STATE 13C CP/MAS NMR SPECTROSCOPY OF CHARRED AND NON‐CHARRED SOLID ORGANIC RESIDUES PRESERVED IN ROMAN IRON AGE VESSELS FROM THE NETHERLANDS*

In this study, solid‐state ¹³C magnetic resonance spectroscopy using cross‐polarization combined with high‐powered proton decoupling and magic‐angle sample spinning and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy using a diamond anvil cell, are employed to give information about the organic functional groups present in charred and non‐charred solid organic residues and to give an insight into the degree of condensation of the chars. Residues were preserved in ceramic vessels recovered from the indigenous settlement of Uitgeest–Groot Dorregeest, dating back to the Roman period. In addition, the application of these solid‐state techniques is used for verification of earlier results obtained in analytical pyrolysis studies and to clarify the relationship between the already thermally degraded charred residues and the controlled heating fragmentation taking place during analytical pyrolysis and direct temperature‐resolved mass spectrometry.     

POLITIES AND PRINCES AD 400–800: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON THE FUNERARY LANDSCAPE OF THE SOUTH SAXON KINGDOM

Burials, borders and boundaries are themes much pursued in early medieval research. Barrow burials, in particular, have been suggested as markers or ‘sentinel graves’; funerary monuments used to define territorial boundaries and entrance points to kingdoms. This paper assesses the burial evidence of the fifth to eighth centuries from West Sussex, England, taking a topographic perspective and examining the uses made of ancient remains and natural topography. Certain distinctive topographic traits in cemetery and burial placement are argued to exist and, when considered alongside the written accounts of the kingdom, are suggested here as evidence for putative early micro‐kingdom structures, centred around the major river valleys, surviving into and perhaps even beyond the seventh century AD.     

“UNABLE TO RESIST”: ON THE “POSSIBILITY” OF “IMPOSSIBILITY” AND CHRISTOPHE BOUTON'S TIME AND FREEDOM

This essay reflects critically on Martin Heidegger's remarks about authenticity and death with the aid of Christophe Bouton's Temps et liberté (2002), translated by Christopher Macann as Time and Freedom (2014). It first raises general questions concerning the possible thematic relationship between human endeavoring (action) and the experiences of finitude and freedom. Heidegger's Being and Time is particularly useful for exploring this relationship, but certain problems emerge when using this text for accessing the essay's themes. To wit: there are good reasons for mistrusting readings of Being and Time as a “practical” guide for grounding action. Against the practical reading, the essay wishes to reclaim the ontological‐existential significance of Heidegger's text. Although Bouton's treatment of Being and Time excludes its ontological dimensions and is entirely practical, even to the point of disregarding certain theoretical risks inherent in this approach, Bouton's study is indispensable for situating Being and Time in a historical‐intellectual context, whereby the experiences of freedom and time are understood within certain metaphysical presuppositions rendering them difficult to establish together on reliable grounds. Following Bouton's lead, the essay shows that the hermeneutic differences between practical and ontological readings of Being and Time can be explored through reflections on what Heidegger might have meant by the term “Möglichkeit” (“possibility”), from which Bouton infers “freedom.” It is alleged that Bouton does not fully consider all of Heidegger's assertions regarding Möglichkeit, most problematically the claim that the human being's most essential “possibility” is its “impossibility,” that is to say, its death.     

THE “INS” AND “OUTS” OF HISTORY: REVISION AS NON‐PLACE

Revision in history is conventionally characterized as a linear sequence of changes over time. Drawing together the contributions of those engaged in historiographical debates that are often associated with the term “revision,” however, we find our attention directed to the spaces rather than the sequences of history. Contributions to historical debates are characterized by the marked use of spatial imagery and spatialized language. These used to suggest both the demarcation of the “space of history” and the erasure of existing historiographies from that space. Bearing these features in mind, the essay argues that traditional, temporally oriented explanations for revision in history, such as Thomas S. Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions, miss the mark, and that a more promising line of explanation arises from the combined use of Michel Foucault's idea of “heterotopias” and Marc Augé's idea of “non‐places.” Revision in history is to be found where writers use imagery to move readers away from rival historiographies and to control their movement in the space of history toward their desired vision. Revision is thus associated more with control than with liberation.