Stuart Needham
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 183105 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Stuart Needham |
| PRENOMES | Stuart |
| SOBRENOME | Needham |
| ASSINATURA | NEEDHAM S |
| AFILIAÇÕES | British Museum |
| VERIFICADO | Não |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 40 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 438 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 40 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1979 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2024 |
| ÍNDICE H | 11 |
A Catalogue of British Bronze Age Axes, Including Basic Typology, Compositional Analyses and Associated Radiocarbon Dates
This archive lists ~8000 Bronze Age British axeheads, alongside associated compositional analyses, isotopic measurements and radiocarbon dates. It integrates several major existing data collection efforts and published catalogues, whilst also providing a self-consistent basic typology. It is archived as four related flat-sheet text files and could be reused to support quantitative assessment of geographic and temporal patterns in metalwork style,…
Assemblage, Structure and Meaning in Bronze Metalwork Studies
Multi‐object metalwork deposits provide the foundation block for many branches of enquiry, yet surprisingly little attention has been paid to the methodological issues that underlie their analysis and interpretation. The framework outlined here aims to circumvent some of the dangers of circular argument inherent in the concepts of metalwork ‘stages’, ‘phases’ or ‘traditions’, as well as in assumptions of pan‐regional synchronizations in metalwork…
Death by Combat at the Dawn of the Bronze Age? Profiling the Dagger-Accompanied Burial From Racton, West Sussex
A previously unresearched Early Bronze Age dagger-grave found in 1989 at Racton, West Sussex, is profiled here through a range of studies. The dagger, the only grave accompaniment, is of the ‘transitional’ Ferry Fryston type, this example being of bronze rather than copper. Bayesian analysis of relevant radiocarbon dates is used to refine the chronology of the earliest bronze in Britain. While the Ferry Fryston type was current in the earlier hal…
Beaker people in Britain
A Hafted Halberd Excavated at Trecastell, Powys
Excavations at Trecastell, Powys, south Wales, in 2007 yielded a copper halberd complete with its haft-grip. This has major implications for the mode of hafting halberds, but the discovery has also prompted a reconsideration of insular halberds in their north-west European context. Understanding the relationships between different types of halberd and different regional groups continues to be hampered by the dearth of good dating evidence, but th…
Once a Sacred and Secluded Place
Two round barrows were excavated in 1982–3 at Church Lawton near to the eastern edge of the Cheshire and Staffordshire Plain. One of the barrows was defined by a ring of nine glacial boulders and it is possible that these monoliths initially formed a free-standing stone circle. The remains constitute a rare example of the use of stone to enhance a Bronze Age barrow in the lowlands of central western England. Beneath the mound demarcated by the bo…
A Noble Group of Barrows’
Two hundred years after William Cunnington and Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s excavations into Bronze Age barrows on Normanton Down, Wiltshire, we offer a fresh appraisal of this renowned cemetery, which lies within sight of Stonehenge. The paper focuses specifically on burial deposits of Early Bronze Age Period 3, seen as representing a dynastic succession that controlled access to Stonehenge for a while and presided over the ceremonies therein. Pre-e…
A first 'Wessex 1' date from Wessex
The furnished barrow burials of Wessex represent a maturation of the Beaker rite during the Early Bronze Age in Britain. Many of these burials were unearthed centuries ago, when archaeology was at its most eager and insouciant, but - happily for us - there were often a few careful recorders on hand. Thanks to their records, the modern scientists engaged in the Beaker People Project can still follow the trail back to a museum specimen and obtain h…
Gristhorpe Man
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely a…
The Clandon Barrow Finery
The famous assemblage of finery excavated by Edward Cunnington from Clandon Barrow, Dorset, in 1882 is usually held to be archetypal of the ‘Wessex culture’ and rich graves. Meticulous examination of the six artefacts and re-appraisal of comparative material casts a new light on the significance of the group. It does not represent a definable cultural package and instead points to a complex set of inter-relationships with ‘foreign’ lands achieved…
From Sicily to Salcombe
Bronze Age objects found in the English Channel off Salcombe, southern Britain, include an implement which has its normal home in Sicilian agriculture - perhaps as a plough shoe. The authors assemble and classify the objects and consider the web of exchange networks that brought the artefact from Sicily to Devon via France around the thirteenth century BC
The Dunaverney and Little Thetford Flesh-Hooks
Discovered in County Antrim and Cambridgeshire respectively, the Dunaverney and Little Thetford flesh-hooks are two of only thirty-six currently known examples from the Bronze Age of the Atlantic seaboard of Europe. Both are impressive and enigmatic objects and are among the most elaborate of later-series flesh-hooks dating to c 1100–800 BC. Not surprisingly, from the time it was found in 1829, Dunaverney was the subject of much antiquarian inter…
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
Transforming Beaker Culture in North-West Europe; Processes of Fusion and Fission
‘It is the slippery assemblages and the social traditions they represent, that we are trying to precipitate from the mass of beaker data’. Clarke 1970, 33 The pottery we collectively call ‘Beakers’ is united by the thread of a potting and style tradition, Wrapped up in that tradition are also expressions concerning what such a pot is for and who it may represent. Both style and those embedded meanings mutate through the long currency of British B…
Flesh-hooks, technological complexity and the Atlantic Bronze Age feasting complex
Thirty-six Atlantic flesh-hooks are documented, classified and discussed after critical evaluation of previously identified examples and the addition of new ones. A chronological progression is shown from the more simple classes to the more complex from 1300 to 800 cal BC, but even the latter examples begin as early as c.1100 cal BC. Although highly distinctive, the Atlantic series derives ultimately from similar hooked instruments to the east an…
When Expediency Broaches Ritual Intention
The current interpretation of Bronze Age metalwork deposits relies on an opposition between deposits made ritually and those made with the utilitarian objective of temporary safe keeping. Tied to this distinction were the intentions, respectively, to leave buried in perpetuity, or to retrieve. Contrasts in the character and burial location of hoard deposits are used to support the dichotomous interpretation. The article challenges this bipolar mo…
Power Pulses Across a Cultural Divide
Understanding of the nature and significance of connections between Armorica and southern Britain in the Early Bronze Age has been inhibited by poorly refined chronologies. The Armorican grave series is now believed to span seven to eight centuries (c. 2300/2200–1500 BC) and association patterns are used to suggest five assemblages (series 1–5). In the absence of many skeletal remains, structural and organisational evidence is gleaned to suggest …
The Development of Embossed Goldwork in Bronze Age Europe
The discovery of a pair of armlets from Lockington and the re-dating of the Mold cape, add substance to a tradition of embossed goldworking in Early Bronze Age Britain. It is seen to be distinct in morphology, distribution and decoration from the other previously defined traditions of goldworking of the Copper and Early Bronze Ages, which are reviewed here. However, a case is made for its emergence from early objects employing ‘reversible relief …
Richard Osgood. Warfare in the Late Bronze Age of North Europe. (BAR International series 694.) xiii+192 pages, 1 colour plate & numerous black & white illustrations. 1998. Oxford
Richard Osgood. Warfare in the Late Bronze Age of North Europe. (BAR International series 694.) xiii+192 pages, 1 colour plate & numerous black & white illustrations. 1998. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-878-3 paperback £30 - Volume 73 Issue 279
An Independent Chronology for British Bronze Age Metalwork
The paper presents and analyses 46 new radiocarbon measurements undertaken at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit with the aim of critically evaluating the existing chronology for Bronze Age metalwork. Samples chosen, from both old museum collections and more recent finds, were all organics in immediate physical contact with various types of bronze object; indeed the great majority were in direct functional association. Contextual integrity w…
Refuse and the formation of middens
The prodigious quantities of refuse recovered from excavations at Runnymede Bridge, Berkshire, England - and at other late prehistoric British sites - highlight those archaeological entities we call 'rubbish' and 'middens'. What is a 'midden'? General thoughts on an archaeology of refuse are applied to the specific case of these 1st-millennium BC sites in southern England in an attempt to comprehend their origin and scale in terms of the period's…
Redating Rams Hill and reconsidering Bronze Age enclosure
A new set of radiocarbon measurements for the three phases of Bronze Age enclosure at Rams Hill allows refinement of their chronology. Phase 1 is radiocarbon dated for the first time and appears, contrary to previous indications, not to be very much earlier than phases 2 and 3. The dates are on carefully selected bone samples and give a rather later timespan overall than an earlier set of dates on charcoal, within the 13th–10th centuries cal BC. …
A Bronze Age goldworking anvil from Lichfield, Staffordshire
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Penard-Wilburton Succession
Two important new metalwork groups were exhibited at a Society of Antiquaries ballot (4 May 1989, Needham 1989a). They contain both bronze and gold metalwork including some types that are rare, or as yet unique. Consideration of these finds, along with other associations of Penard to Wilburton date (1200–900 BC), leads to the conclusion that the Wallington complex is best subsumed within Penard (1200–1000 BC) and has minimal overlap with Wilburto…
Middle Bronze Age Ceremonial Weapons
Two new finds (see Exhibits at Ballots, p. 461) of Middle Bronze Age weapons help document a tradition of ceremonial weapons in Britain and neighbouring parts of the Continent. Two distinct though small groups are represented, one—the Caistor St Edmunds-Melle series—being named for the first time. It is suggested that both series emerged during the Acton Park stage (1500–1350 BC), the Plougrescant-Ommerschans type having been elaborated from the …
An Independent Chronology for British Bronze Age Metalwork
The paper presents and analyses 46 new radiocarbon measurements undertaken at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit with the aim of critically evaluating the existing chronology for Bronze Age metalwork. Samples chosen, from both old museum collections and more recent finds, were all organics in immediate physical contact with various types of bronze object; indeed the great majority were in direct functional association. Contextual integrity w…
Transforming Beaker Culture in North-West Europe; Processes of Fusion and Fission
‘It is the slippery assemblages and the social traditions they represent, that we are trying to precipitate from the mass of beaker data’. Clarke 1970, 33 The pottery we collectively call ‘Beakers’ is united by the thread of a potting and style tradition, Wrapped up in that tradition are also expressions concerning what such a pot is for and who it may represent. Both style and those embedded meanings mutate through the long currency of British B…
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign is still in progress, but the story so far is well worth reporting. Revisiting records of 100 years ago the aut…
Selective deposition in the British Early Bronze Age
The contextual and spatial distributions of metalwork in Early Bronze Age Britain make a clear case for the differential use of the various metal equipment available. This paper concentrates on deposition and argues that various depositional modes were intended to be permanent. There is a complex interplay between and within grave contexts, hoards and single finds, with mutual exclusion as a dominant feature. Extant distributions are considered t…
When Expediency Broaches Ritual Intention
The current interpretation of Bronze Age metalwork deposits relies on an opposition between deposits made ritually and those made with the utilitarian objective of temporary safe keeping. Tied to this distinction were the intentions, respectively, to leave buried in perpetuity, or to retrieve. Contrasts in the character and burial location of hoard deposits are used to support the dichotomous interpretation. The article challenges this bipolar mo…
Refuse and the formation of middens
The prodigious quantities of refuse recovered from excavations at Runnymede Bridge, Berkshire, England - and at other late prehistoric British sites - highlight those archaeological entities we call 'rubbish' and 'middens'. What is a 'midden'? General thoughts on an archaeology of refuse are applied to the specific case of these 1st-millennium BC sites in southern England in an attempt to comprehend their origin and scale in terms of the period's…
Beaker people in Britain
Power Pulses Across a Cultural Divide
Understanding of the nature and significance of connections between Armorica and southern Britain in the Early Bronze Age has been inhibited by poorly refined chronologies. The Armorican grave series is now believed to span seven to eight centuries (c. 2300/2200–1500 BC) and association patterns are used to suggest five assemblages (series 1–5). In the absence of many skeletal remains, structural and organisational evidence is gleaned to suggest …
A first 'Wessex 1' date from Wessex
The furnished barrow burials of Wessex represent a maturation of the Beaker rite during the Early Bronze Age in Britain. Many of these burials were unearthed centuries ago, when archaeology was at its most eager and insouciant, but - happily for us - there were often a few careful recorders on hand. Thanks to their records, the modern scientists engaged in the Beaker People Project can still follow the trail back to a museum specimen and obtain h…
Developments in the Early Bronze Age metallurgy of southern Britain
This discussion paper raises some theoretical issues of approach and presents selected results from an analytical programme on the early bronze metalwork of southern Britain. The analyses, performed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, are assessed against a fine chronological model to show for example that tin bronze alloying was introduced swiftly towards the end of the third millennium BC. The consistency of tin alloying thereafter is unriv…
A Noble Group of Barrows’
Two hundred years after William Cunnington and Sir Richard Colt Hoare’s excavations into Bronze Age barrows on Normanton Down, Wiltshire, we offer a fresh appraisal of this renowned cemetery, which lies within sight of Stonehenge. The paper focuses specifically on burial deposits of Early Bronze Age Period 3, seen as representing a dynastic succession that controlled access to Stonehenge for a while and presided over the ceremonies therein. Pre-e…
Flesh-hooks, technological complexity and the Atlantic Bronze Age feasting complex
Thirty-six Atlantic flesh-hooks are documented, classified and discussed after critical evaluation of previously identified examples and the addition of new ones. A chronological progression is shown from the more simple classes to the more complex from 1300 to 800 cal BC, but even the latter examples begin as early as c.1100 cal BC. Although highly distinctive, the Atlantic series derives ultimately from similar hooked instruments to the east an…
The Development of Embossed Goldwork in Bronze Age Europe
The discovery of a pair of armlets from Lockington and the re-dating of the Mold cape, add substance to a tradition of embossed goldworking in Early Bronze Age Britain. It is seen to be distinct in morphology, distribution and decoration from the other previously defined traditions of goldworking of the Copper and Early Bronze Ages, which are reviewed here. However, a case is made for its emergence from early objects employing ‘reversible relief …
The Penard-Wilburton Succession
Two important new metalwork groups were exhibited at a Society of Antiquaries ballot (4 May 1989, Needham 1989a). They contain both bronze and gold metalwork including some types that are rare, or as yet unique. Consideration of these finds, along with other associations of Penard to Wilburton date (1200–900 BC), leads to the conclusion that the Wallington complex is best subsumed within Penard (1200–1000 BC) and has minimal overlap with Wilburto…
The Clandon Barrow Finery
The famous assemblage of finery excavated by Edward Cunnington from Clandon Barrow, Dorset, in 1882 is usually held to be archetypal of the ‘Wessex culture’ and rich graves. Meticulous examination of the six artefacts and re-appraisal of comparative material casts a new light on the significance of the group. It does not represent a definable cultural package and instead points to a complex set of inter-relationships with ‘foreign’ lands achieved…
Honey and Dripping
This paper illustrates the prospects for a fuller understanding of ancient foodstuffs by applying a range of analytical techniques to charred food residues on pottery. The relevant techniques of organic chemistry are briefly described. First results on Neolithic material from Runnymede stand amongst few for prehistoric Europe. They demonstrate the potential importance of such analyses both in redressing imbalances present at the site level and in…
Redating Rams Hill and reconsidering Bronze Age enclosure
A new set of radiocarbon measurements for the three phases of Bronze Age enclosure at Rams Hill allows refinement of their chronology. Phase 1 is radiocarbon dated for the first time and appears, contrary to previous indications, not to be very much earlier than phases 2 and 3. The dates are on carefully selected bone samples and give a rather later timespan overall than an earlier set of dates on charcoal, within the 13th–10th centuries cal BC. …
Bush Barrow gold
The group of gold objects excavated in 1808 from Bush Barrow, a little to the south of Stonehenge, are among the best-known and best-regarded artefacts from British prehistory. Here they are fully published, with an account of the recent restoration of the larger lozenge from the group
Eight Ring-ditches at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, 1981–85
Eight ring-ditches and several stretches of pit alignment have been excavated between 1981 and 1985, as part of the investigation of an extensive cropmark complex on a gravel terrace in the Upper Severn valley at Four Crosses, northern Powys. Excavation of the ring-ditches, which form part of a more scattered barrow cemetery, has revealed a long and complex pattern of development of barrow types and burial forms in the period between the Middle N…
An Assemblage of Late Bronze Age Metalworking Debris from Dainton, Devon
Excavated sites referable to the earlier first millennium B.C. are rare in the south-west peninsula. Although Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor exhibit well preserved Bronze Age landscapes, most of the upland settlements are attributed to the second millennium and there are few which on present evidence fall within the succeeding centuries (Silvester 1979). Beyond the granite moors, pottery from Kent's Cavern, Torquay and the Mount Batten peninsula, near …
Death by Combat at the Dawn of the Bronze Age? Profiling the Dagger-Accompanied Burial From Racton, West Sussex
A previously unresearched Early Bronze Age dagger-grave found in 1989 at Racton, West Sussex, is profiled here through a range of studies. The dagger, the only grave accompaniment, is of the ‘transitional’ Ferry Fryston type, this example being of bronze rather than copper. Bayesian analysis of relevant radiocarbon dates is used to refine the chronology of the earliest bronze in Britain. While the Ferry Fryston type was current in the earlier hal…
Gristhorpe Man
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same as before: a local big man buried looking out to sea. Modern analytical techniques can create a person more real, more human and more securely a…
Excavation of a Bronze Age Funerary Cairn at Manor Farm, near Borwick, North Lancashire
The excavation of a large circular dished earthwork near Carnforth, North Lancashire, in 1982, has revealed a substantial Bronze Age funerary monument. The earliest structure was a sub-rectangular enclosure of limestone boulders dated to c. 1740–1640 BC cal. and associated with parts of two poorly preserved inhumation burials lying on the previously cleared ground surface. Both burials were accompanied by typologically early metalwork. The centra…
Neolithic and Bronze Age Settlement on the Buried Floodplains of Runnymede
In reviewing the evidence from excavations at Runnymede Bridge this paper illustrates the potential of floodplains as archaeological resourceS. The topographic development of the local floodplain is outlined in relation to Flandrian sea level changes in the Thames estuary. Consideration is given to the role of the Middle Neolithic and Late Bronze Age occupations and the influence of physiographical and hydrological factors
Two Recent British Shield Finds and their Continental Parallels
In the course of research on Bronze Age metalwork from Surrey 1972–4, the writer's attention was drawn to an unpublished bronze shield in Chertsey Museum found locally at Mixnam's Pit several years earlier. The find obviously did not fall into any known British type, and closer parallels evident amongst the continental Nipperweise class made this, potentially, the first recognised import of a Bronze Age shield to Britain. With the aid of the Sir …
Two Recent British Shield Finds and their Continental Parallels
In the course of research on Bronze Age metalwork from Surrey 1972–4, the writer's attention was drawn to an unpublished bronze shield in Chertsey Museum found locally at Mixnam's Pit several years earlier. The find obviously did not fall into any known British type, and closer parallels evident amongst the continental Nipperweise class made this, potentially, the first recognised import of a Bronze Age shield to Britain. With the aid of the Sir …
Tin-plating in the Early Bronze Age
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
An Assemblage of Late Bronze Age Metalworking Debris from Dainton, Devon
Excavated sites referable to the earlier first millennium B.C. are rare in the south-west peninsula. Although Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor exhibit well preserved Bronze Age landscapes, most of the upland settlements are attributed to the second millennium and there are few which on present evidence fall within the succeeding centuries (Silvester 1979). Beyond the granite moors, pottery from Kent's Cavern, Torquay and the Mount Batten peninsula, near …
Neolithic and Bronze Age Settlement on the Buried Floodplains of Runnymede
In reviewing the evidence from excavations at Runnymede Bridge this paper illustrates the potential of floodplains as archaeological resourceS. The topographic development of the local floodplain is outlined in relation to Flandrian sea level changes in the Thames estuary. Consideration is given to the role of the Middle Neolithic and Late Bronze Age occupations and the influence of physiographical and hydrological factors
A Multi-phased Barrow and Possible Henge Monument at West Ashby, Lincolnshire
Excavation of the surviving half of a barrow, identified from aerial photographs as having three concentric ditches, revealed a sequence of at least six major alterations. The site may originally have been a Class I henge monument subsequently adapted for use as a barrow. Features of all phases were mainly in the central area of the barrow and included two inhumations in coffins, one accompanied by a Yorkshire-type food vessel. A cremation in a P…
Frequency table analysis
Eight Ring-ditches at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, 1981–85
Eight ring-ditches and several stretches of pit alignment have been excavated between 1981 and 1985, as part of the investigation of an extensive cropmark complex on a gravel terrace in the Upper Severn valley at Four Crosses, northern Powys. Excavation of the ring-ditches, which form part of a more scattered barrow cemetery, has revealed a long and complex pattern of development of barrow types and burial forms in the period between the Middle N…
Towards the Reconstitution of the Arreton Hoard
The major Early Bronze Age hoard from Arreton Down in the Isle of Wight was made known to the Society of Antiquaries as early as 1735. Until recently however, half of the hoard had remained unlocated since 1737, when it was drawn by Charles Frederick. His drawings, which appear in the Society's MS 265, have been instrumental in relocating five of the missing bronzes; four of these were found to have acquired false provenances. This paper traces a…
Honey and Dripping
This paper illustrates the prospects for a fuller understanding of ancient foodstuffs by applying a range of analytical techniques to charred food residues on pottery. The relevant techniques of organic chemistry are briefly described. First results on Neolithic material from Runnymede stand amongst few for prehistoric Europe. They demonstrate the potential importance of such analyses both in redressing imbalances present at the site level and in…
Structure and Sequence in the Neolithic deposits at Runnymede
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Excavation of a Bronze Age Funerary Cairn at Manor Farm, near Borwick, North Lancashire
The excavation of a large circular dished earthwork near Carnforth, North Lancashire, in 1982, has revealed a substantial Bronze Age funerary monument. The earliest structure was a sub-rectangular enclosure of limestone boulders dated to c. 1740–1640 BC cal. and associated with parts of two poorly preserved inhumation burials lying on the previously cleared ground surface. Both burials were accompanied by typologically early metalwork. The centra…
The Late Bronze Age Hoard from Brough-On-Humber
The discovery in 1719, at Brough-on-Humber [North Humberside, SE 93 26], of a hoard of Late Bronze Age weapons and casting matrices is described from contemporary manuscript and printed sources. The subsequent passage of its component artefacts through antiquarian collections is carefully documented, and four pieces are recognized as surviving in the British Museum. These comprise two rare two-piece casting moulds together with one example of eac…
Bush Barrow gold
The group of gold objects excavated in 1808 from Bush Barrow, a little to the south of Stonehenge, are among the best-known and best-regarded artefacts from British prehistory. Here they are fully published, with an account of the recent restoration of the larger lozenge from the group
Selective deposition in the British Early Bronze Age
The contextual and spatial distributions of metalwork in Early Bronze Age Britain make a clear case for the differential use of the various metal equipment available. This paper concentrates on deposition and argues that various depositional modes were intended to be permanent. There is a complex interplay between and within grave contexts, hoards and single finds, with mutual exclusion as a dominant feature. Extant distributions are considered t…
Developments in the Early Bronze Age metallurgy of southern Britain
This discussion paper raises some theoretical issues of approach and presents selected results from an analytical programme on the early bronze metalwork of southern Britain. The analyses, performed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, are assessed against a fine chronological model to show for example that tin bronze alloying was introduced swiftly towards the end of the third millennium BC. The consistency of tin alloying thereafter is unriv…
The Penard-Wilburton Succession
Two important new metalwork groups were exhibited at a Society of Antiquaries ballot (4 May 1989, Needham 1989a). They contain both bronze and gold metalwork including some types that are rare, or as yet unique. Consideration of these finds, along with other associations of Penard to Wilburton date (1200–900 BC), leads to the conclusion that the Wallington complex is best subsumed within Penard (1200–1000 BC) and has minimal overlap with Wilburto…
Middle Bronze Age Ceremonial Weapons
Two new finds (see Exhibits at Ballots, p. 461) of Middle Bronze Age weapons help document a tradition of ceremonial weapons in Britain and neighbouring parts of the Continent. Two distinct though small groups are represented, one—the Caistor St Edmunds-Melle series—being named for the first time. It is suggested that both series emerged during the Acton Park stage (1500–1350 BC), the Plougrescant-Ommerschans type having been elaborated from the …
A Bronze Age goldworking anvil from Lichfield, Staffordshire
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Redating Rams Hill and reconsidering Bronze Age enclosure
A new set of radiocarbon measurements for the three phases of Bronze Age enclosure at Rams Hill allows refinement of their chronology. Phase 1 is radiocarbon dated for the first time and appears, contrary to previous indications, not to be very much earlier than phases 2 and 3. The dates are on carefully selected bone samples and give a rather later timespan overall than an earlier set of dates on charcoal, within the 13th–10th centuries cal BC. …
An Independent Chronology for British Bronze Age Metalwork
The paper presents and analyses 46 new radiocarbon measurements undertaken at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit with the aim of critically evaluating the existing chronology for Bronze Age metalwork. Samples chosen, from both old museum collections and more recent finds, were all organics in immediate physical contact with various types of bronze object; indeed the great majority were in direct functional association. Contextual integrity w…
Refuse and the formation of middens
The prodigious quantities of refuse recovered from excavations at Runnymede Bridge, Berkshire, England - and at other late prehistoric British sites - highlight those archaeological entities we call 'rubbish' and 'middens'. What is a 'midden'? General thoughts on an archaeology of refuse are applied to the specific case of these 1st-millennium BC sites in southern England in an attempt to comprehend their origin and scale in terms of the period's…
Richard Osgood. Warfare in the Late Bronze Age of North Europe. (BAR International series 694.) xiii+192 pages, 1 colour plate & numerous black & white illustrations. 1998. Oxford
Richard Osgood. Warfare in the Late Bronze Age of North Europe. (BAR International series 694.) xiii+192 pages, 1 colour plate & numerous black & white illustrations. 1998. Oxford: Archaeopress; 0-86054-878-3 paperback £30 - Volume 73 Issue 279
Power Pulses Across a Cultural Divide
Understanding of the nature and significance of connections between Armorica and southern Britain in the Early Bronze Age has been inhibited by poorly refined chronologies. The Armorican grave series is now believed to span seven to eight centuries (c. 2300/2200–1500 BC) and association patterns are used to suggest five assemblages (series 1–5). In the absence of many skeletal remains, structural and organisational evidence is gleaned to suggest …
The Development of Embossed Goldwork in Bronze Age Europe
The discovery of a pair of armlets from Lockington and the re-dating of the Mold cape, add substance to a tradition of embossed goldworking in Early Bronze Age Britain. It is seen to be distinct in morphology, distribution and decoration from the other previously defined traditions of goldworking of the Copper and Early Bronze Ages, which are reviewed here. However, a case is made for its emergence from early objects employing ‘reversible relief …
When Expediency Broaches Ritual Intention
The current interpretation of Bronze Age metalwork deposits relies on an opposition between deposits made ritually and those made with the utilitarian objective of temporary safe keeping. Tied to this distinction were the intentions, respectively, to leave buried in perpetuity, or to retrieve. Contrasts in the character and burial location of hoard deposits are used to support the dichotomous interpretation. The article challenges this bipolar mo…
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (38 obras) · Archaeology (37 obras) · History (32 obras) · Bronze Age (27 obras) · Geography (26 obras) · Bronze (23 obras) · History (23 obras) · Ancient history (21 obras) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (15 obras) · Geology (13 obras)