Catherine M. Batt

The state of theocracy: defining an early medieval hinterland in Sri Lanka

The ancient Sri Lankan city of Anuradhapura is currently the subject of one of the worlds largest and most intensive archaeological research projects. Having traced its growth from an Iron Age village to a medieval city, the research team now moves to the task of modelling the surrounding landscape. Three seasons of fieldwork have located numerous sites of which the most prominent in the urban period are monasteries. Here is a clue about how the early urban hinterland was managed which has implications well beyond Sri Lanka.

Re-deposited cryptotephra layers in Holocene peats linked to anthropogenic activity

Tephra layers can form useful age-equivalent stratigraphic markers for correlating palaeoenvironmental sequences and they provide information about the spatio-temporal nature of past volcanic ash fall events. The use of microscopic ‘cryptotephra’ layers has both increased the stratigraphic resolution of tephra sequences in proximal areas and extended the distal application of tephrochronology to regions of the world situated far from volcanoes. Effective tephrochronology requires the discrimination between in situ tephra deposited directly from volcanic plumes and tephras that have been remobilised since their initial deposition. We present tephrostratigraphic and glass chemistry data from two proximal peat profiles (one lowland, one upland) from the Shetland Islands, UK. Both profiles contain the Hekla-Selsund tephra (deposited c. 1800–1750 cal. bc), whilst the Hekla 4 ash (c. 2395–2279 cal. bc) is present in the upland record. Overlying the Hekla-Selsund tephra are a number of distinct peaks in tephra shard abundance. The geochemistry of these layers shows that they represent re-working of the Hekla 4 and Hekla-Selsund layers rather than primary air-fall deposits. Pollen analysis of the peat sequences illustrates that these re-deposited tephra layers are coincident with a rise in heather-dominated vegetation communities (heath and/or moorland) and a subsequent intensification of burning in the landscape. We suggest that burning caused increased erosion of peats resulting in the remobilisation of tephra shards. The study demonstrates both the need for caution and the opportunities created when applying tephrochronologies in regions heavily affected by past human activity that contain both reworked tephra layers and in situ fallout.

The potential for dating the Old Scatness site, Shetland, by optically stimulated luminescence

A series of deposits from the agricultural infield of the multiperiod settlement mound, Old Scatness, were investigated for their potential to yield optically stimulated luminescence dates. Luminescence properties of quartz grains were found to vary through the sequence, but dates were successfully obtained from five deposits, including anthropogenic soils, windblown sands and sands within midden deposits. Single-aliquot equivalent dose measurement was found to be the most appropriate method for dating the deposits. The OSL dates obtained accorded well with the dates provided by archaeological evidence and included the post-medieval, Iron Age, Bronze Age and Neolithic periods of Shetland, while a substantial midden was dated to the Bronze/Iron Age transition.

Gristhorpe man: an early bronze age log-coffin burial scientifically defined

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 anchored in history. This research team shows how.

Socio-economic transformations : Settlement survey in the tehran plain and excavations at tepe pardis

ABSTRACT An archaeological survey of the plain of Tehran was begun in August 2003, marking the initiation of the second phase of collaborative research between Durham University, the University of Bradford, the University of Leicester, the University of Tehran and the Iranian Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation (ICHTO). The survey was launched with three main aims. Firstly, to pilot the collection of data regarding the frequency, distribution, density and condition of sites from the terminal Palaeolithic c. 8000 B.C., through the Late Chalcolithic c. 3000 B.C. to the present. Secondly, to provide a basis from which to select prehistoric sites for detailed survey and test excavation in order to enhance the absolute chronology of the Tehran plain. Finally, to begin to assess the archaeological landscape background to these changes in the light of geomorpho- logical analysis. In the summer of 2004, we continued this work during a second season and recorded a total of 123 archaeological sites, including 14 previously unknown Chalcolithic sites. One of the larger Chalcolithic sites to be identified in our first season, Tepe Pardis, was also excavated in 2004 in order to enhance the absolute chronology for the plain, and has generated dates of c. 5300 B.C. for the Late Neolithic/Transitional Chalcolithic interface (Fig. 1). Finally, our new survey data has reconfirmed our earlier findings that this non-renewable cultural resource is under substantial pressure from farming, building and illicit excavations.

The Identity of the St Bees Lady, Cumbria: An Osteobiographical Approach

Abstract Using an Osteobiographical approach, this contribution considers the identity of the woman found alongside the St Bees Man, one of the best-preserved archaeological bodies ever discovered. Osteological, isotopic and radiocarbon analyses, combined with the archaeological context of the burial and documented social history, provide the basis for the identification of a late 14th-century heiress whose activities were at the heart of medieval northern English geopolitics.

A mineral magnetic investigation into fuel derived deposits from Old Scatness Broch, Shetland

Abstract There is increasing interest in the use of measurements of magnetic mineralogy to answer archaeological questions (e.g. R. Thompson, F. Oldfield, Environmental Magnetism, Allen & Unwin, London, 1986, p. 83; The IRM Quarterly 9(4) (2000) 2; Physics and Chemistry of the Earth (A) 25(5) (2000) 455; Archaeological Prospection 8(4) (2001) 227). The aim of the research presented here is to explain the distinctive magnetic signatures which characterise the fuel ash deposits encountered during excavation at Old Scatness Broch, Shetland, and to attempt to identify fuel sources used at the site by comparison with modern analogues. Archaeological deposits thought to contain fuel ash, from a variety of contexts and periods within the site were sampled and were supplemented by samples of modern fuel sources, including a variety of forms of peat, turf and wood. Magnetic investigations included mass specific magnetic susceptibility, high temperature variation in susceptibility, fractional conversion and laboratory imparted remanences. The archaeological deposits are shown to comprise complex mixtures of minerals with different thermal histories. Whilst most of the archaeological ash deposits were closest in magnetic characteristics to modern turf ash, some appeared to have close parallels with furnace residues obtained from reconstruction iron-smelting. The research highlights the potential benefits of these techniques to archaeological investigations, but also demonstrates the complexity of the processes of formation of such archaeological deposits.

Dating and sourcing fuel ash residues from Cladh Hallan, South Uist, Scotland, using magnetic techniques

Abstract Mineral magnetic and archaeomagnetic measurements have been carried out on fire ash deposits from a central hearth within a circular dwelling at the Late Bronze/Early Iron Age settlement site of Cladh Hallan on South Uist, Scotland. Archaeomagnetic methods date the hearths to 560–700 BC and 650–850 BC, the earliest archaeomagnetic dates produced for the Western Isles of Scotland. A range of mineral magnetic measurements have been carried out on a continually sampled profile through the hearths/ash build-ups displaying differences between the two main ash build-ups and floors. The mineral magnetic results have also been used to assess fuel sources through the application of techniques based on modern ash residues. The results show a marked change in fuel source from well-humified peat to a more mixed fuel, with a high proportion of fibrous-upper peat/peat turf.

Where to draw the line? The calibration of archaeomagnetic dates

Abstract It has long been acknowledged that an archaeomagnetic date is only as reliable as the calibration curve from which it is derived. However, until recently, objective approaches to the construction of regional calibration curves have been restricted by lack of data. This paper examines the ways in which calibration is carried out in different regions and discusses the limitations and deficiencies of the methods used. Particular emphasis is placed on archaeomagnetic dating procedures in Britain. A different approach to calibration is proposed which draws on recent advances in this subject in the USA, in particular the use of a weighted moving window method of averaging, leading to a secular variation curve with an associated error estimate. Hence, when dating a magnetic direction, the uncertainties in the calibration curve can be taken into account, as well as the uncertainties in the magnetic direction to be dated. The implications of changing the procedure of calibration of archaeomagnetic dates are discussed.

A Stamford Ware Pottery Kiln in Pontefract: A Geographical Enigma and a Dating Dilemma

Abstract THIS REPORT PRESENTS the results of analyses carried out following the discovery and excavation of a medieval pottery kiln in Pontefract, a discovery which featured in the ‘Fieldwork Highlights’ section of Medieval Archaeology 53 (2009). The kiln is remarkable for having produced vessels previously only associated with the Stamford ware industry of the late 11th and 12th centuries and demonstrates the existence of at least one northern production site, the likely existence of which was first mooted in the 1950s. As both radiocarbon and archaeomagnetic dating methods indicate a last firing of the Pontefract kiln in the late pre-Conquest period, the discovery also poses questions about the chronology of Stamford ware production.