Jeremy Taylor

The miniliths of Exmoor

This paper presents the results of a programme of research on an unusual group of prehistoric stone settings located on Exmoor, south-west England. Taking a variety of semi-geometric and apparently random forms, a total of 59 settings have been identified, with new discoveries taking place on a regular basis. These stone settings are remarkable for their diminutive size, with component stones often standing to heights of 100 mm or less, a factor which has led to their being termed ‘minilithic’. Through reference to the results of a programme of geophysical survey and small-scale excavation targeted upon a particularly rich cluster of settings around the upper reaches of Badgworthy Water, issues of morphology, dating, relationships, and the implications of the Exmoor miniliths for developing understandings monumentality are discussed.

Encountering Romanitas: Characterising the Role of Agricultural Communities in Roman Britain

There has been a hesitancy in academic discussion of Roman Britain to address the potential significance of the identity and agency of rural communities in shaping the provincial landscape. This article seeks to address the reasons for this before delineating some avenues by which we might better investigate this issue. Through two case studies the importance of kinship, agricultural peers and occupational identity (being farmers) are recognised as potential drivers for the course of rural life in Roman Britain. In so doing the extent to which ‘being Roman’ was really a central concern of many agricultural communities is questioned.

Settlement Size and Structural Complexity: A Case Study in Geophysical Survey at Phillip’s Garden, Port au Choix

Phillip’s Garden (EeBi-1) is the largest, most complex and most extensively investigated Dorset Palaeoeskimo site in Newfoundland (Renouf, Chap. 7). Despite this, the precise number of dwellings at the site is unknown. To date, estimates have been based on visible house depressions that cover the upper two terraces at the site (Harp 1976) and to a lesser extent through test pitting (Renouf 1985). However, as extensive midden deposits are known to have buried many dwellings at the site (Renouf and Murray 1999:119) and the number of these buried depressions has never been systematically assessed, calculations of total number of dwellings at the site have tended to be best-guess estimates. The magnetometer survey conducted at Phillip’s Garden in 2001 provides the first systematic approach towards a meaningful calculation.