6. Iron Age Invasions of Britain

The Question

Is the 'Invasion hypothesis' still a valid concept in British Iron Age Studies?

February 1995

The British Iron Age is considered to have spanned the period circa. 800/700BCE - 50 CE. In the area brought within the Roman Empire and to the 5th/6th centuries CE to those not conquered by Rome (e.g. the Northern mainland/islands and Ireland).

Early nineteenth century 'pilfering'[1] finds of tools, weapons and jewellery followed by "barrow sacking in high victorian style"[1] (mostly from Yorkshire, but other isolated finds elsewhere) had produced evidence of a British Iron Age, but it was not clear how they could be interpreted. Thurnham listed this material as 'Late British' (1857) and Sir Wollaston Franks as 'Late Keltic' (1863). After 1872 British archaeologists were able to identify this material against a classification system of comparable mainland continental styles based on the primary find sites of late Bronze/early Iron Age date at Hallstatt (Austria), and Middle to Late Iron Age at La Tene (Switzerland).

From the second half of the nineteenth century excavations of hillforts and settlements were being undertaken, enabling a more general perspective to emerge of Iron Age culture than was possible from the evidence of burial assemblages along, and which could be identified as having broadly Hallstatt (e.g. All Cannings Cross 1911-22, Eastbourne 1924) or La Tene (e.g. The Arras Culture of Yorkshire) affinities. The discovery of Belgic cemeteries at Aylesford (1886), Welwyn (1912), and Swarling (1921) added emphasis to a growing acceptance that waves of invaders arrived from continental Europe, bringing with them new forms of weaponry and associated pottery.

Abercromby (1912) suggested an invasion of Deverell-Rimbury Urn carriers (c700-650 BCE); Crawford (writing ten years later) advanced the theory that these invaders were late Bronze Age Goidelic Celts arriving 100 years earlier. Peake (1922) argued that a series of invasions took place, the first c 1,200 BCE; the second 900 BCE (Abercromby and Crawford's Deverell-Rimbury Urn carriers) and the third 300 BCE (Brythonic Celts). Hallstatt discoveries at All Cannings Cross appeared to confirm Peake's second invasion. Maud Cunnington (1923) summarised the hypothesis at this stage, as an obvious result of the northward movement of continental populations, an "invasion not likely to have come about as a single incursion but .... by a long continued series of small incursions and colonisations"[2].

Excavations of hillforts and occupation sites during the rest of the decade threw up a number of complications, leading to a new hypothesis being put forward by Christopher Hawkes (1930-1), which set the agenda for the next three decades.

Maud Cunningtons "long continuous series of small incursions and colonisations" was replaced by large scale migrations/invasions from the "seventh century or before"[3], and the ABC Invasion Hypothesis was born. Hawkes hypothesis was that three phases of migration/invasion can be discerned from the evidence:-

1. Iron Age A: being Hallstatt migrants arriving as a result of pressure from German tribal advances down the course of the Rhine. These people settled in Southern and Eastern England during the sixth century, occupying the territory, virtually undisturbed, until the first century. These people were associated with Univallate hillforts.

2. Iron Age B: formed two prongs of early and middle La Tene culture people, the first arriving in the fourth century from Spain and Brittany into South West England, associated with Multivallate hillforts. The second occurring in the third century from Gaul (the Marnians) into Yorkshire and associated with cart/chariot burials. Both prongs linked up encircling the earlier Iron Age A people, in some instances dislocating them.

3. Iron Age C: the late La Tene Belgae from Gaul, who arrived in two waves, the first C.75BCE into Kent and the Thames Valley seeking 'lebensraum' and in the process dislocating, or absorbing, the earlier Iron Age A people and introducing in process, pedestal urns. Roman advances into Gaul were the causal factor of a further influx into Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire, dislodging, or absorbing, indigenous populations and introducing Normandy bead ware. The Iron Age C people were also credited with the introduction of the potters wheel and Oppida.

Over the next three decades many more hillforts and settlements were excavated, producing additional data and regional variations on the theme. As a result complicated modifications of the ABC Hypothesis were advanced by Hawkes (1958; published 1961).

From the 1960 criticism of the traditional invasion view of prehistory began to surface (Hodson 1964 'Woodbury Culture') and alternative 'cultural' models were advanced, which highlighted "the indigenous nature of much of the material" [4]. Testing showed up a number of discrepancies, for example invasion theory would suggest that the earliest hillforts would be strategically built in Southern England, however the earliest evidence points to the Welsh Marches (understandably not fully appreciated prior to the introduction of Radio Carbon dating). Pottery and weaponry appear to be a mixture of indigenous forms alongside continental imports and locally manufactured continental styles. Hillforts could be seen as a development of earlier indigenous enclosures and henges, rather than a completely new innovation.

The introduction of Radio Carbon dating required re-assessment of the data, added to this the 1960's was a period during which a radical re-think of previous theories were taking place in a number of disciplines. The new archaeology saw invasion theory as being heavily influenced by inter-war/immediate post-war experiences. The ABC scheme, "by and large held good" [5], but was reinterpreted for the new age, the old ideology was discounted and the British Iron Ages was "generally seen as consisting of indigenous regional groups, influenced by contact with the Hallstatt and La Tene cultures of the continent, with some immigration, such as the Arras culture in Humberside, and the Belgae into Southern England." The alphabet was effectively reduced to a C- !

Since the sixties arguments have become increasingly polarised "both schools have developed entrenched positions, and as so often happens, the major issues have been lost between the battle lines"[7]. If the late Iron Age had not entered the stage of history through Strabo, Caesar etc., it is tempting to imagine that the Belgae too would have become an aboriginal elite emulating continental contemporaries, a possibility that Cunliffe finds of equal probability as 'invaders', in interpreting the exotic chariot and square ditched barrow burial tradition of the Yorkshire Arras Culture.[8]

In the nineties people are again questioning the 'new orthodoxy', pointing out that theorists from the sixties onward are also victims of social bounding/ influence. "The adoption of a revolutionary polemic by the New Archaeologists of the 1960's was a response to the political environment of their academic adolescence. In Western Europe and North America the children of the middle classes had embarked on a crusade to establish a new world order, to meet the challenge archaeology needed to be both ambitious and iconoclastic - the times demanded no less". [9] It is, of course, important to learn from the academic past and to recognise this problem and accept "the extent which we interpret, or emphasise, any particular aspect of prehistory will be a function of our own backgrounds and beliefs". [10]

The archaeological (and historical) material is enigmatic and open to various interpretations. If the Romans had not been firmly literate, is it possible that their occupation of the islands could have been theorised away? Roman and native pottery, rituals and buildings are also found alongside each other - evidence of an aboriginal elite emulating continental exemplars in the time honoured, traditional manner perhaps?

The type of theoretical archaeology that builds a new invasion theory to explain every change in material culture is no more, or less, likely to be correct than his/her colleague who claims that on her entry to the (Roman) world stage, the people of the British Isles were, by and large, the descendants of migrants that had crossed via the land bridge and were then cut off. If no peoples 'invaded' then this is the conclusion that appears to meet the evidence - no neolithic innovators, no Beaker folk, no Hallstatt or La Tene migrants, a position that would appear to be incompatible with common sense and continuity "migrations have been well described in both contemporary and historic societies ..... there seems no reason to doubt that similar migrations would have occurred in prehistory."[11]

The material recovered cannot prove whether, when or how many people migrated into/invaded the Islands of Britain. Nor is it sufficiently sparse to prove the opposite. An invasion of people does not necessarily require large numbers, nor do they have to be belligerent. Cunliffe argues that "on balance ..... there is no evidence in the British Isles to suggest that a population group of any size migrated from the continent."[12] Unfortunately, even fairly large elite invasions are likely to be almost invisible in the archaeological record, as the new elite would probably use indigenous labour for the production of both luxury and utilitarian tools, weapons etc. Local craftsmen would use traditional materials and techniques for the 'new order', sometimes this would result in 'changes of continuity' [13], for example the building of traditional circular structures but with a re-orientation of entrances, which occurred from the late bronze age onwards [14]. As Cunliffe added, "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" [15], giving an example of the 40,000 Celts than 'invaded' Greece in 279 BCE, but the archaeological evidence of this historic 'fact' are 3/4 items. In this context it would be interesting to mount an expedition to the Indian sub-continent in search of the British Raj!


Almost all of the evidence against the 'Invasion Theory' can be explained as irrelevant or can be used to argue the opposite. For example the siting of early hillforts on the Welsh Marches, rather than in the south, may be a response to internal raiding by intrusive warriors seeking metal ores and cattle [16]. It is possible that an early raiding and pillaging phase of Hallstatt continental incursions was carried out by people associated with the Round Houses constructed in the Thames Valley and Eastern England.
It is interesting that the La Tene Aylesford-Swarling Culture is also located in the same area.
In this context it is tempting to see the particularly large hillforts located along the Welsh Marches as an attempt to hold a boundary against external incursions. Bradley argues that in the late Iron Age exotic imports to the 'core' area of eastern England and the Thames Valley, were paid for by a "purely local aggrandisement" [17] outwards into the periphery zones to provide the trade goods required by importers (continental Europe and Rome) of slaves, cattle, gold, silver, iron, corn, hunting dogs [18], copper, lead and salt [19]. "This list is revealing for the number of commodities which could not be obtained in the core area ..... hillforts outside the core area might be a response to this threat ..... some of these were attacked at this time.

One area with evidence of widespread destruction is the Welsh Marches" [20]. Evidence from slaving in West Africa suggests that slaving is normally undertaken against people that the native slavers see as 'other', which would add support to a core zone population of non-indigenous settlers.


The other area where late Bronze Age Round Houses are found also has a later history of continental intrusion, this is the Arras Culture of South Yorkshire with its La Tene chariot burials and square ditched barrows. On the continent similar burial traditions are found. If South Yorkshire is the home of an indigenous elite 'emulating' exotic continental cultures in order to differentiate themselves from a lower social strata, they went to extraordinary lengths in adopting the tribal name of their exemplars. In historic times these people were known as the Parisii, they also travelled inland to find them.
It is conceivable that the earliest Arras Culture people arrived in Yorkshire earlier than the inauguration of the Chariot Burial Tradition, at which time the continental Parisii perhaps resided closer to the British Isles. Their 'historic' homeland was located further down the course of the Seine in an area where isolated chariot burials are found - concentrated examples being found further east. The Yorkshire Parisii being aware of their relationship, perhaps continued contact with the motherland (wherever it moved) and adopted new burial rituals because of this known kinship, rather than emulation. That the earliest Arras Culture people were Hallstatt, rather than La Tene, is suggested by finds of Hallstatt jewellery in a square ditched barrow at Burton Fleming (1978), and that the Arras Culture barrows are clustered around the site of the earlier round house at Thwing etc.


Caesar described the inhabitants of Britain thus "while the people of the interior believed themselves to be aboriginal, the 'maritime part' was inhabited by men who had crossed over for warfare and plunder 'ex-Belgio' and settled down permanently to till the land, still bearing, for the most part, their ancestral tribal names." [22]. Tribal names found both sides of the channel are the Parisii (see above), Artebrates and Catuvellauni (it should be remembered that Caesar sometimes got his Gauls, Celts and Germans mixed up, and never ventured further than Kent or the Thames Valley).

It would appear that archaeological material and historical evidence does point to invasive cultures penetrating the British Isles over a long period of time, probably stretching from the late Bronze Age (or before if the Beakers are intrusive), up to the Claudian invasion in CE 43. Whether these were large scale, to what extent the aboriginal peopled contested, or welcomed, the intrusion is not easily determined. It is possible that most migrations took the form of elite group movements, rather than large scale population disruptions, leading to cultural mixing rather than swamping of the indigenous people*. It is almost certain that large scale incursions occurred during the final century, or so, before the Roman advance into the island. A non-Roman source supports the 'invasion hypothesis', the 'Book of Invasions', tells of the "Mil or Milesius, the ancestor of the Gaels of Ireland, came from Spain ..... people ..... could have come from Spain in the wake of the Roman conquest there in 133 BCE. Such a possibility is strengthened by the presence of chevaud-de frise stones at (e.g.) Dun Aenglus ....... similar examples occur in Spain and Northern Portugal"[23]. The 'Book of Invasions' tells of earlier invaders, including the Fir Bolg and the Tuatha De Danainn. Whatever cultural ideologies lie behind the monks that transferred the oral traditions to written form, they are most certainly not those that influenced either the orthodoxy of ABC' or of the 'C-' theories! The Invasion Hypothesis is not merely a valid concept for study of the British Iron Age, but essential to understanding it.

During the nineties perhaps the time has come to abandon both entrenched positions and take a fresh look at the evidence. I will leave the last words with Brodie "interpretation must be open to constant scrutiny as facts and theories shift around within their social formers ..... it seems desirable that any process of critical evaluation should proceed by means of a logical and structured discourse, polemic exchanges from theoretical bunkers serve only to retard progress and ultimately vitiate the discipline" [24].


TUTOR COMMENT:

I thoroughly enjoyed this - a very stimulating essay. It underlines that we need to constantly re-examine our attitudes too, as well as the physical evidence. Well done. No idea which one, probably Mark as I could read it!


NOTES:

1. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Communities in Britain' P1
2. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Communities in Britain' P7
3. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Communities in Britain' P8
4. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Communities in Britain' P17
5. Personal Comment lecture Mark Corney
6. Lesley & Roy Adkins 'The Handbook of British Archaeology' P74
7. Neil Brodie 'The Neolithic - Bronze Age Transition in Britain' P27 paraphrasing D W Anthony 'Migrations in archaeology: the baby and the bath water' American Anthropologist (1990) P898. Discussing Beakers, but the argument is equally applicable to the ABC invasion theory.
8. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Britain' P23
9. Neil Brodie 'The Neolithic - Bronze Age Transition in Britain' P84
10. Robert Bewley 'Prehistoric Settlement' P133
11. Neil Brodie 'The Neolithic - Bronze Age Transition in Britain' P10
12. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Britain' P22
13. Wakefield 1995 - I think I just made this up!
14. Robert Bewley 'Prehistoric Settlement' P107/8, Parker-Pearson P122/3 plus previous assignment, which I have not yet had returned.
15. Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Britain' P22
16. Michael Parker Pearson 'Bronze Age Britain' P134 plus previous assignment as above
17. Richard Bradley 'The Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain' P155
18. Richard Bradley 'The Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain' P156 as listed by Strabo
19. Richard Bradley 'The Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain' P156 additions to Strabo's list
20. Richard Bradley 'The Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain' P156
21. 'The Arras Culture' P94
22. Christopher Hawkes & G C Dunning 'The Belgae of Gaul and Britain' P32 citing 'The Bello Gallico' Vol.12 1-2
23. Peter Harbison 'Pre-Christian Ireland' P170
24. Neil Brodie 'The Neolithic - Bronze Age Transition in Britain' P84



ILLUSTRATIONS:

Frontispiece: A Garton Slack cart burial (1971) 'The Arras Culture' P111

1. Distribution of circular enclosures - Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Communities in Britain' P42
2. Area of Aylesbury-Swarling Culture with inset showing area of Thames Valley core zone in the late bronze age/early iron age (as represented by ritual weapon deposits). Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Communities in Britain' P131 and Richard Bradley 'Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain' P111
3. Distribution of Iron Age Hillforts in Wales. The Marches are marked by particularly large examples. Robert Bewley 'Prehistoric Britain' P98
4. Core and periphery suggesting where the commodities not available in the 'core' zone were derived. Richard Bradley 'Social Foundations of Prehistoric Britain' P155
5. Vehicle burials of the fifth to third centuries BCE in Britain and Europe. The home of the historic Parisii were South Yorkshire and eastward along the Seine (thus the city Paris). Barry Cunliffe 'Iron Age Britain' P46
6. Distribution of square barrows in Yorkshire and Humberside, showing the site of Thwing and a possible coastal round house. 'The Arras Culture' P31
7i. Location and names of Iron Age tribes in England and Wales, as recorded by Caesar, with names found both sides of the channel highlighted. Robert Bewley 'Prehistoric Britain' P92
7ii. Location and names of Iron Age tribes in Gaul at the time of Caesar, with the names found both sides of the channel highlighted. Christopher Hawkes and G C Dunning 'The Belgae of Gaul and Britain' P230


BIBLIOGRAPHY:

NO AUTHOR The Arras Culture The Yorkshire Philosophical Society 1979
ADKINS, Lesley & Roy The Handbook of British Archaeology Papermac 1993
BEWLEY, Robert Prehistoric Settlements English Heritage/Batsford 1994
BRADLEY, Richard The Social Foundation of Prehistoric Britain: themes and variations in the archaeology of power Longman 1992
BRODIE, Neil The Neolithic-Bronze Age Transition in Britain BAR British Series 238 1994
CUNLIFFE, Barry Iron Age Communities in Britain Routledge 1991 Iron Age Britain English Heritage 1995
HARBISON, Peter Pre-Christian Ireland Thames & Hudson 1994
HAWKES, Christopher & DUNNING, Michael Bronze Age Britain English Heritage 1993



FURTHER RESEARCH:

* Recent Mitrochondrial DNA evidence has confirmed the nature of the British population as mainly indigenous on the mother's side - Paternal DNA suggests the levels of invasions that may have occurred.

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7817

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Oppenheimer

5. Summer School Year one

Monday 11th April 1994

Urchfont
First day. My room is basic but comfortable, with toilet and bath room across the hallway. The week promises many baths with Radox.

A talk on geology and typography was unexpectedly interesting.

After lunch, and a particularly scrumptious treacle tart, we set of ............. first stop

Marden Henge Enclosure
Marden is bounded on one side by a river and contained a huge bell barrow 80 yards in diameter and 30 feet high. Its about the same size as Durrington Walls and roughly contemporary. Not a lot to see, the large barrow has been ploughed out. Water associations are also present at Silbury, Avebury, Stonehenge and Stanton Drew.

Knap Hill Causewayed Camp

My first taste of what was to come - me behind the pack, further and further behind. Lovely day, wonderful scenery of the Valley of Pewsey. Were they built there because neolithic people liked the views? The Spur looked like a coastline jutting into a sealess sea .....

Mark or Julian - probably Mark - told us the area had a major importance in the dark ages and the car park (or near vicinity) was the arena for two significant battles between a) the Brits and Saxons and b) Saxons and Vikings (?). He didn't say who won.

The road we came along may be a very ancient one providing access, from ancient (pre-neolithic?) times, to the Pewsey Valley. The Wansdyke runs slightly to the north (?) and road access is one of the few breaks provided in it by the builders.

The enclosure has a number of causewayed entrances which can be clearly seen from a distance, but they get less clear standing near them. Odd that!

How come a stolid, sensible, Roman built a villa up there? Must have been an early example of British eccentricity or late Neolithic madness. The moles had been very busy and students, plus lecturers, had a 'field' day. I found a nice worked flint bitty.

Adams Grave Long Barrow

Next - the victim of grave robber Thurman a 19th centry nutter with a perverted need to rob ancient sites of skulls. The site has also been messed up by flint mining to obtain the wherewithal for the gods of more modern wars. Despite Thurman's excesses there appear to be a possibility that there may be a fine stone facade - see what maybe a standing stone. Once again fine views.


The Wansdyke + An Iron Age Village That Was(n't)


Totally exhausted after Knap Hill and Adams Grave I collapsed into inertia in the car park while everyone else climbed up to The Wansdyke. If you look real close (magnifying glass time) the rest of the group can be seen ascending Walkers Hill (?) [fig 7 centre of the green slope]

Everyone was very excited when they got back as the mole spoils in the 'Iron Age' settlement produced, not the expected iron age pottery, but Bronze Age!!!

Thoughts for the Day

Not impressed by the PC of Neolithic people on disability issues. So many of their remains show that most of them suffered from arthritis etc how did they manage the climbing?

The after supper discussion was about alternatives to farming - cattle - someone said something about a residue of beef and honey in a pot. Everyone agreed that text books were often vague with throw away, undateable remarks being common place. The lack of evidence and attributable references are often annoying.

Learnt a new 'fact' (that turned out not to be) the Romans introduced nettles to Britain. There were lots on the 'plateau enclosure' at Knap Hill.

Tuesday 12th April 1994


Bath last night and this morning reduced some of the aches and pains from yesterday. Couldn't resist the prunes - lovely breakfast.

Sarsen Warehouse

Did a detour to Avebury area, to see a sarsen 'warehouse' (don't know where it was). It was eerie, would have like to have stopped to get photo's. Was this a dump? Why were they not used? They looked a bit like stranded, petrified sheep!

Windmill Hill Enclosure

If Julian hadn't stopped us we would have blithely well walked past the monument. A parish line runs through the site, on the side of our arrival the farmer had ploughed away, on the other side ditches and banks were visible. Thus are the vagaries of visibility/survival of our monuments! It was wet and windy and my plant got pretty battered. We had pointed out to us traces of field systems - late bronze/early Roman - couldn't see a thing!

The gleaming white chalk embankments facing Avebury must been very impressive from there. The photo shows two (of three) barrows aligned on Silbury Hill (which can just be made out in the misty background - if you have excellent eye sight that is).

Once again - spectacular views!

My notes were pretty wet and running off the page. Sorry.

From the inner enclosure it is not possible to see the Avebury complex. Perhaps the earlier Windmill Hill had a different alignment? The outer 'back' ditch was dug halfway down a steep slope, with good views of the plain below. An illustration in the AK Museum suggests a village down there - artistic licence or inspired guess?

West Kennet Long Barrow

To West Kennet I have been many times, however, I never knew you could go on top! I always forget how long the mound is.

The amount of damage being done to this monument is extensive. Fires have been lit damaging entrance stones, the top is being progressively eroded and farmers have totally levelled the quarry ditch. All this is added to the destructions wrought by antiquarian excavators (looters). Mark said recent surveys of ditches suggest there my be two chambers. The barrow tapers to the west and widens in the middle, which tends to confirm the possibility. Mark and Julian may convince Oxford University to do some geophysics to check this out in the summer.



Recent 'exotic' visitors to the chambers have left offerings of candles an the debris of illicit substances.


Mark disabused me of my recent discovery that the Romans introduced nettles (see yesterday). So our neolithic ancestors, I am relieved to note, could eat nettle salads and stews and drink a refreshing tea.

Avebury


Next to Glastonbury the 'New Age Monuments' of Avebury (West Kennet, Avebury Circles and Silbury Hill particularly) have a modern importance that, no doubt, the builders would find bemusing. One shop in particular amasses the new age paraphernalia of the world to sell to unsuspecting 'pilgrims to the shrine'. Goddesses galore, bronze axe replicas etc ad infinitum. Is it a 'rip off' or are the owners 'believers'? Avebury has a good eatery, but is is not cheap.

This is another site that I have visited with regularity - at least twice as a teacher with coach loads of secondary school students in tow. Now that we/were experiences that could well have been missed. Most times my visits followed close on some xstian fundamentalist reclamation project - this time the loads of daft x x x x's were, thankfully, absent.


We stood like pillocks in the rain while Julian expounded on Avebury as a ritual exclusionary monument, which I find unlikely as I cannot get my head around why the mass of builders would invest so much labour in something for someone else (historical examples are different cos wages or slavery etc come into the equation). The ground was horrid and slippery and my lunch exploded all over the ground due to the wetness of the bag.











Alexander Keiller Museum

I remember the museum being somewhere else and in larger premises. The exhibits were interesting, but designed to catch the attention of school children, rather than adults. However, much more space than this is required for the large number of school parties that visit regularly. The narrow passageways and restricted access to displays are designed to lose the interest of the children in the rear.

What has happened to the inexpensive adult pamphlets that used to be available? The only one still on sale is for Stanton Drew!

The Sanctuary

Connected by the Avenue to Avebury and similar to Wood
Henge. The concrete posts aren't exactly inspiring. Right next to the Ridgeway (which I didn't know before). Overlooks the area of the West Kennet Palisaded Enclosure, Long Barrow and Silbury Hill.

West Kennet Palisaded Enclosures


Saw this on the telly last year - sounded fascinating then. A large complex of circles, enclosed by huge palisades up to 30 foot high and connected by lines of palisades. The largest is two concentric circles straddling the Kennet. A small forest must have been sacrificed and no archaeologist has yet stuck his/her head over the parapet to suggest a purpose. Is this a miracle? A similar enclosure has been found in Dorchester (and since at Stanton Drew).

Silbury Hill


All the other monuments in the area can be seen from Silbury Hill. Is this significant.

While we were there the ditch was filled with water. It is possible that water was important at the Avebury sites. A castle Mott at Marlborough may be a similar monument, exploited in the middle ages to form the foundation of a castle. Antler 'pick-axes' have been found during recent work. It is possible that other castle 'motts' are similarly re-used neolithic ritual mounds?







Urchfont the Elusive

Our driver managed to lose us on the way back.

Thoughts

Got worried in the car park, someone asked Julian about 'The Stonehenge People', he was pretty disparaging about both and I have used the most disparaged as a reference in Assignment one! Does the Jurassic Way exist I ask myself!


Wednesday 13th April 1994

Had prunes for breakfast again - for which I was going to be very, very sorry (see below).

Bells, Bowls and Cursus

First stop was the bell and bowl barrows just before the Cursus. Then on to the Cursus, which, without the side fence, I probably would not have recognised at all. We then began to walk to the end of cursus. The prunes made me return with haste, I was so far behind the others that I was unable to excuse myself. I went back to the car park and amused myself watching the tourists (Americans - lots - French, German, Japanese, English etc) and reading the English Heritage menu. Are they totally naff? Capitalism gone mad is English Heritage. Anything for a cheap laugh and a quick £ from a punter parted.

Stood on the mesolithic hot-spots in the car park.


Wessex Archaeology: Old Sarum Park Salisbury

One of the outfits that grew out of government legislation on planning requirements was Wessex Archaeology. We spent a few hours looking at how sites are assessed etc. Visited the 'finds' department, Drawing and Environmental. My mine feeling was that archaeology is going through a fundamental change as important as earlier this century .... a return to loot and pillage, opportunism .... not love of archaeology but exploitation. The samples and paperwork too are getting ready to drown the world. The accountant is king and the 'trickle down' is museums stuffed to the gills with seeds and molluscs. Why cannot the samples etc be returned to the site in air tight containers where they won't take up valuable space? If I was fourteen writing my school assignment now, I would not want to be an 'archaeologist when I grow up', the romance is turning into £sd. Pity and sad for those who became archaeologists because of wide eyed enthusiasm.


Durrington Walls


Well we looked and saw basically nothing. Well that's what I saw when I came as a teenager. Where is it? Excavations have discovered strange structures. One similar to Woodhenge and the Sanctuary, and another with a structure of wooden screens and or avenues, which Barrett talks about in 'Fragments', and sort of connects to a stone screen at Avebury (which I cannot see at Avebury either) and has implications on the exclusion of worshippers that Julian was talking about - I think?!


Woodhenge

Once again a familiar monument to me, which has already disappointed me with its unromantic concrete posts. As a youngster I remember identifying with the buried child and this still draws me to the centre. I didn't know that some standing stones were incorporated at a later date. I also wasn't aware that finds were made in a local garden.

Another complex with strong watery connections.

Stonehenge

I always respond to Stonehenge, but have not been there since its closure to the public.
I remember being in the circle and touching the stones, before some of them were erected. Its strange to be on the outside looking in. Stonehenge is responsible for my early love of pre-history and history - and thus is a major contributor to my being here today. I spent every find day of my summer holidays (between 10 and 15) cycling there from Shrewton, and never tired of the thrill of standing in an ancient landscape containing so many other monuments that seemed to be connected to each other and, most importantly, to me.

I don't like what English Heritage is doing, but I don't see any real alternative either. A real pity.

The postcards and photographs speak visually on this site.

Neolithic and bronze age people may have celebrated both solstice events at Stonehenge. However, I don't think that the winter solstice would have attracted the 'mass' popular support of a summer uplands ingathering. The winter solstice may have been celebrated in the downlands by most communities at mid-winter Brrrrrrrrrrr ...........


Winterbourne Stoke Barrow Cemetery


We visited this cemetery as there is a particularly wide range of monuments there. A number of rounds barrows were aligned on a long barrow.
Of the round barrows there are early bells and bowls, which are of both the large and small variety, later bowls and discs (we were told that Lambourne round barrow has 112 secondary burials, of which 56 were in urns).

The cemetery also had a saucer barrow and a pond barrow, which are difficult to recognise, unless found in association with other barrows.

After Dinner Discussion

The advantages and disadvantages of farming, as opposed to gathering and hunting. Why did they give up the relatively easy option before population pressure? Subsistence farming is hard work said Ingrid, and she should know!

No prunes in future!


Thursday 14th April 1994

Devizes Museum

Full of lovely interesting models, but seems dated in presentation and in theory. The room and floor layout is confusing and the building has poor access. One of the cabinets had a 'male fertility' phallus. But any feller who had one like that would not be popular with the ladiesIngrid commented, that if it was a penis it belonged to a sheep - and she should know!

In other cabinets they had long heads (described as 'neolithic immigrants') who inhabited long barrows and short heads ('beakers') who conveniently used round barrows. How true is this?

An upstairs cabinet contained some beautiful Josiah Wedgewood 'replica' beakers and bronze age ware. They were in basalt (black) or jasper (red) and definitely turned on a potters wheel.

Whitesheet Hill Causewayed Enclosures


It was so windy I could barely hear a word. When we stood on a barrow I almost blew away. It was so windy I couldn't hold my footing and took no notes at all!

Julian thinks White Sheet may be a similar site to Hambledon with three neolithic enclosures, one of which was overbuilt by an iron age fort and the third almost ploughed out.

It is possible that the round barrows were aligned on a long barrow which would have fallen into the quarry long ago.


We walked down to the second enclosure and I couldn't see anything at all. The ground was incredibly rough, the wind awful and I was emoting like crazy with the poor huddled sheep.

When we got back to the road I gave up while the others went to the hill fort.

Yet again lovely views!


After Supper

I was so jittery about the tutorial that I cannot remember anything about the brilliant discussions that took place!


Friday 15th April 1994

Working in the Grounds


One day (not this day) Julian did some flint napping and someone cut their finger! This morning Mark, not to be out done showed us how to measure and incline and find a grid reference. I am useless at this sort of thing. It all seemed simple, and totally logical at the time, but completely eludes me now!!

Oldbury Castle


This was our final visit. An iron age hill fort, which Julian believes was built over a neolithic enclosure. The local farmer was very helpful to insomniacs as he had numbered his sheep in a variety of colours. I was very behind everyone else, as usual, and talked to them, until Julian came back for me. He is much more interesting than sheep! The fort ditches are very deep and there is a very phallic post-industrial revolution monument up there too!

The sites of the iron age huts are quite clearly defined. Mary and I got a lift down the hill part way and I had an opportunity to pick Marks brain.


Wonderful views yet again.




TUTORS REMARKS:

I really enjoyed reading this Dale. The structure was superb. There is much very good information and the inclusion of the odd humerous comment puts everything into context! I particularly liked the layout and use of illustrations.

Really pleased to see a contents page (not included here).

Probably Mark as the writing is legible, unless Julian was in legibility mode.