Land, Kinship Relations and the Rise of Enclosed Settlement in First Millenium B.C. Britain

Enclosed settlements are characteristic of the first millennium B.C. in Britain, contrasting with the predominantly open settlements of the fourth to second millennia. Settlement enclosures have recently been interpreted in symbolic terms, the enclosure marking social divisions between social groups. Anthropological studies indicate that divisions between groups may be more clearly marked in societies which use land intensively than in ones which use it extensively, because of the need to prevent valuable land from passing outside the group by out-marriage and inheritance. The earlier first millennium B.C. was a period of agricultural intensification in Britain. It is suggested that settlement enclosure became widespread at this time because agricultural intensification led to land becoming more valued as a form of property. This in turn led to changes in kinship relations, with the division between 'insiders' and 'outsiders' becoming more significant than before. Apparently 'special' deposits of material in enclosure ditches have been interpreted as a way of reinforcing such a division.