The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution

343 Pages·1999·10.26 MB·English

by  John Hunter

The Archaeology of
Britain

The Archaeology of Britain is a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to all the archaeological
periods covering Britain from early prehistory to the Industrial Revolution. It provides a one-
stop textbook for the entire archaeology of Britain and reflects the most recent developments in
archaeology both as a field subject and as an academic discipline.
Chapters are:
• accessibly written by experts in the relevant field;
• organised in chronological order;
• followed by two-level bibliographies, the first providing core reading material and the second
a more detailed guide to the subject area;
• highly illustrated with photographs, maps, graphs and tables.
This collection is essential reading for undergraduates in archaeology, and all those interested in
British archaeology, history and geography.
John Hunter is Professor of Ancient History and Archaeology at the University of Birmingham.
He has wide research interests covering heritage management, forensic archaeology and late Iron
Age and Viking settlement. His most recent book is Fair Isle: the Archaeology of an Island Community
(1996). Ian Ralston is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. His principal
archaeological interests lie in the later prehistory of Scotland and in the Iron Age of Western
Europe. His most recent publication is, with K.J.Edwards, Scotland: Environment and Archaeology
(1997).

The Archaeology of
Britain
An introduction from the Upper Palaeolithic
to the Industrial Revolution
Edited by
John Hunter and Ian Ralston
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Tayor & Francis Group.
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
© 1999 Selection and editorial matter John Hunter and Ian Ralston;
individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
The archaeology of Britain: an introduction from the Upper
Palaeolithic to the Industrial Revolution/edited by John Hunter
and Ian Ralston.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Great Britain—Antiquities. 2. Excavations (Archaeology) —
Great Britain. I. Hunter, John, 1949–. II. Ralston, Ian.
DA90.A715 1999
936.1–dc21 98–24844
CIP
ISBN 0-415-13587-7 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-13588-5 (pbk)
ISBN 0-203-02946-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-20069-1 (Glassbook Format)
Contents
List of figures vii
List of contributors xi
Preface xiv
Chapter One
BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY SINCE THE END
OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR 1
Ian Ralston and John Hunter
Chapter Two
THE LATEGLACIAL OR LATE AND FINAL UPPER PALAEOLITHIC
COLONIZATION OF BRITAIN 13
Nicholas Barton
Chapter Three
HUNTER-GATHERERS OF THE MESOLITHIC 35
Steven Mithen
Chapter Four
THE NEOLITHIC PERIOD, c.4000–2500/2200 BC:
CHANGING THE WORLD 58
Alasdair Whittle
Chapter Five
THE EARLIER BRONZE AGE 77
Mike Parker Pearson
Chapter Six
THE LATER BRONZE AGE 95
Timothy Champion
Chapter Seven
THE IRON AGE 113
Colin Haselgrove
• vi • Contents
Chapter Eight
ROMAN BRITAIN: THE MILITARY DIMENSION 135
W.S.Hanson
Chapter Nine
ROMAN BRITAIN: CIVIL AND RURAL SOCIETY 157
Simon Esmonde Cleary
Chapter Ten
EARLY HISTORIC BRITAIN 176
Catherine Hills
Chapter Eleven
THE SCANDINAVIAN PRESENCE 194
Julian D.Richards
Chapter Twelve
LANDSCAPES OF THE MIDDLE AGES: 210
TOWNS 1050–1500
John Schofield
Chapter Thirteen
LANDSCAPES OF THE MIDDLE AGES:
CHURCHES, CASTLES AND MONASTERIES 228
Roberta Gilchrist
Chapter Fourteen
LANDSCAPES OF THE MIDDLE AGES:
RURAL SETTLEMENT AND MANORS 247
Paul Stamper
Chapter Fifteen
THE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF BRITAIN FROM AD 1500:
LANDSCAPE AND TOWNSCAPE 264
Ian Whyte
Chapter Sixteen
THE WORKSHOP OF THE WORLD: THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION 280
Kate Clark
Chapter Seventeen
REELING IN THE YEARS: THE PAST IN THE PRESENT 297
Timothy Darvill
Index 316
Figures
1.1 The recording of military monuments 2
1.2 Aerial photography as a major factor in increasing the number of known
sites 4
1.3 The development of urban archaeology 7
2.1 Comparison of ice accumulation rates and palaeotemperature 15
2.2 Creswellian artefacts from Three Holes Cave, Devon 16
2.3 Distribution of Creswellian findspots 17
2.4 Reindeer baton from Gough’s Cave 20
2.5 Cut-marks on a human lower jaw bone from Gough’s Cave 22
2.6 A horse’s head engraved on a rib fragment from Robin Hood Cave 23
2.7 Final Upper Palaeolithic artefacts 25
2.8 Distribution of Final Upper Palaeolithic penknife point findspots 27
2.9 Final Upper Palaeolithic ‘long blade’ artefacts from Scatter ‘A’, Three
Ways Wharf 30
2.10 Distribution of Final Upper Palaeolithic ‘long blade’ findspots with
bruised blades 31
2.11 Engraved horse mandible from Kendrick’s Cave 32
3.1 Location of Mesolithic sites mentioned in text 35
3.2 Pollen diagram from Star Carr illustrating changing vegetation 36
3.3 Changes in sea-level of the North Sea in the Early Holocene 37
3.4 Chipped stone artefacts from Star Carr and Kinloch, Rum 39–40
3.5 Organic and coarse stone artefacts from Mesolithic sites 41
3.6 Non-utilitarian artefacts from Mesolithic sites 42
3.7 Excavations at Farm Fields, Rum 47
3.8 Excavations at Gleann Mor, Islay 48
3.9 Excavations of the hut at Mount Sandel 49
4.1 Reconstruction of one of the phases of occupation at Loch Olabhat, North Uist 64
4.2 The primary burials in the Radley oval barrow, Oxfordshire 66
4.3 The chambers of the West Kennet long barrow, Wiltshire 68
4.4 Reconstructions of two phases of the Street House long barrow, Cleveland 69
4.5 Excavation of bone deposits at Windmill Hill 70
4.6 The Dorset Cursus on Bottlebush Down, seen from the air 71
4.7 Excavations on Site IV within the henge at Mount Pleasant, Dorset 73
5.1 Metalwork chronologies for the Earlier Bronze Age 79
5.2 An unprovenanced bronze flat axe with geometric incised decoration 80
• viii • Figures
5.3 Ceramic chronologies for the Late Neolithic, Early and Middle Bronze Ages 81
5.4 A beaker and associated non-perishable grave goods from the Green Low
round barrow in Derbyshire 82
5.5 Styles of Early Bronze Age storage pots used as cremation containers 83
5.6 Assemblage variation within the Trevisker series 84
5.7 Early Bronze Age house plans from the Western Isles 85
5.8 Different types of round barrows on Normanton Down, Wiltshire 86
5.9 The sequence of funerary events at Hemp Knoll barrow, Wiltshire 87
5.10 The triple-ditched barrow at Irthlingborough, Raunds 88
6.1 Examples of bronzes of the Wilburton assemblage 97
6.2 Examples of bronzes of the Ewart Park assemblage 98
6.3 Deverel-Rimbury pottery 99
6.4 Pottery of the Post-Deverel-Rimbury undecorated phase 100
6.5 Simplified plans of Mucking North Ring and Lofts Farm 100
6.6 Plan of Black Patch Bronze Age settlement 101
6.7 Simplified plan of Bronze Age land divisions on Dartmoor 102
6.8 The Dover Bronze Age boat during excavation 104
7.1 Selected Iron Age brooch types 114
7.2 Different types of circular structures 116
7.3 Rectilinear and curvilinear settlement enclosures 118
7.4 Open and aggregated settlement plans 119
7.5 Danebury in its early and developed stages 121
7.6 Plans of territorial oppida 122
7.7 Plans of Iron Age shrines and sacred enclosures 123
7.8 Grave plans from Wetwang Slack and Westhampnett 124
7.9 Selected iron tools 126
7.10 Selected Iron Age pottery 127
7.11 Inscribed Iron Age coins 129
8.1 Tombstone of Tadius Exuperatus 138
8.2 Aerial photograph of the fort, annexe and temporary camps at Malling 139
8.3 Distribution of first-century AD Roman forts in Britain 140
8.4 Site plans: fortresses 142
8.5 Site plans: forts 144
8.6 Site plans: fortlet and towers 145
8.7 Ardoch fort, Perthshire 146
8.8 Aerial photograph of the fort and vicus at Old Carlisle, Cumbria 148
8.9 Plan of the Gask frontier 150
8.10 Frontiers across the Tyne—Solway and Forth—Clyde 151
8.11 Distribution of Saxon Shore forts and late Roman forts and coastal
watchtowers 154
9.1 Comparative distribution of civilian towns and long-term military sites
in Roman Britain 158
9.2 Plan of the civitas-capital at Silchester, Hampshire 161
9.3 Public buildings at Silchester 162
9.4 Plan of a ‘small’ town, Water Newton, Cambridgeshire 163
9.5 Plans showing the development of the Gorhambury villa 165
9.6 Settlement and landscape of the Roman period around Chalton, Hampshire 166
9.7 Plan of temple and associated buildings at Uley, Gloucestershire 167
Figures • ix •
9.8 Drawing of the Hinton St Mary mosaic 169
9.9 Plan of Walesland Rath, Pembrokeshire 170
9.10 Late Roman timber churches at Lincoln 174
10.1 Map of kingdoms and tribal areas mentioned in text 177
10.2 Perception of King Alfred 180
10.3 Cremation burials at Spong Hill 183
10.4 Anglo-Saxon grave from Kent 185
10.5 Sutton Hoo from the air 185
10.6 Aerial view of fort at Dundurn, Perthshire 186
10.7 Model of Anglo-Saxon monastery of St Paul, Jarrow 190
10.8 A Middle Saxon road with timber buildings, London 192
11.1 Cuerdale, Lancashire: part of the early tenth-century silver hoard 196
11.2 The burial at Balladoole in the Isle of Man 199
11.3 The Middleton Cross, St Andrew’s Church, Middleton 200
11.4 Ribblehead, N. Yorks: an artist’s reconstruction of the Viking Age farmstead 201
11.5 Norse buildings at Jarlshof, Shetland 202
11.6 Excavated buildings at Coppergate, York 204
12.1 The undercroft beneath the chapel on medieval London Bridge 212
12.2 An oak board from a twelfth-century waterfront, Seal House,
Thames Street, London 217
12.3 A revetment of 1270–90 excavated at Trig Lane, London 218
12.4 Three medieval buildings at the Cornmarket, Oxford 219
12.5 Three houses and a latrine in thirteenth-century Kirk Close, Perth 220
12.6 An engraved piece of animal bone from Milk Street, London 221
12.7 Late thirteenth-century tokens found near Billingsgate, London 223
12.8 Torksey, Lincolnshire: an aerial view of the shrunken medieval river port 224
13.1 Sequence of church constructions at Raunds, Northamptonshire 232
13.2 Composite ground-plan of St Peter’s church, Barton-upon-Humber 233
13.3 Reconstruction of defences and timber buildings at Hen Domen,
Montgomeryshire 236
13.4 Castle Acre, Norfolk 236
13.5 Bodiam Castle, Sussex 237
13.6 Norton Priory, Cheshire 239
13.7 Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire, from the north-east 240
13.8 Fountains Abbey, North Yorkshire: the wool-house 241
13.9 Little Maplestead, Essex: church 242
14.1 Pillar-and-stall coal mining exposed at Coleorton, Leicestershire 248
14.2 A late medieval cruck-built longhouse 252
14.3 Home Farm, Wardhouse, Aberdeenshire 253
14.4 The village of West Whelpington in the early fifteenth century 254
14.5 Thirteenth-century terraced longhouses at Springwood Park 255
14.6 Open fields of Doddington, Northamptonshire 259
14.7 Medieval industrial activity at Stanion, Northamptonshire 261
14.8 The timber piers of the great bridge at Hemington, Leicestershire 262
15.1 Shieling huts, Lewis, Scotland 267
15.2 Montacute House, Somerset 268
15.3 A deserted bastle house and fermtoun site, Glenochar, upper Clydesdale 268
15.4 Crathes Castle, Aberdeenshire 269