Stuart Needham

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 authors demonstrate that the ambiguous dating of the trilithons, the grand centrepiece of Stonehenge, was based on samples taken from the wrong context, and can now be settled at 2600-2400 cal BC. This means that the trilithons are contemporary with Durrington Walls, near neighbour and Britains largest henge monument. These two monuments, different but complementary, now predate the earliest Beaker burials in Britain – including the famous Amesbury Archer and Boscombe Bowmen, but may already have been receiving Beaker pottery. All this contributes to a new vision of massive monumental development in a period of high European intellectual mobility….

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 periods social geography.

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 Beakers. Indeed, the newly emerging chronology for Beaker grave groups suggests that there was one critical point of rapid mutation in both pot form and associated artefacts. This phase is referred to as a fission horizon, c. 2250–2150 cal BC, and it underlines the difficulties that past schemes of steady evolution have run into. In reviewing the continental background for Beaker-carrying cultures, a corridor of Bell Beaker/Corded Ware fusion is perceived along the southern flanks of the Channel. This created a modified spectrum of Beaker culture which stands at the head of the insular phenomenon. The long ensuing currency of Beaker pottery and Beaker graves in Britain does not hold up as a unified, steadily evolving entity. Instead, three ‘phases of meaning’ can be suggested: 1) Beaker as circumscribed, exclusive culture; 2) Beaker as instituted culture; 3) Beaker as past reference. The fission horizon initiates phase 2.

Selective deposition in the British Early Bronze Age

Abstract 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 to be largely due to positive selection processes in deposition, a conclusion with implications for the metal stocks in circulation. Suggestions regarding the use of early metalwork in display and parade, as denoter of rank or symbolic expression, as well as associations with ritual sites, contribute to a social theory which is advanced to account for the main customs of deposition observed.

Power Pulses Across a Cultural Divide: Cosmologically Driven Acquisition Between Armorica and Wessex.

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 that some tombs were not immutably sealed and were used more than once. It is suggested that the accumulation of successive grave groups, primarily in series 2 and 4, is one factor blurring signs of chronological progression, whilst added complexity derives from regional shifts. A review of specific artefact types and burial rites on the two sides of the western Channel gives little credence to the migration of more than occasional individuals. On the contrary, an essential autonomy in the way that materials and artefacts are employed by elites comes through, yet this is set against some important material connections. The conundrum is resolved by suggesting that inter-dependence was actually limited and that the procurement of exotic materials/goods was driven by ‘cosmological acquisition’ needs which, if anything, maintained real differences between distant participating societies. In Wessex, however, the growth of this mode of extracting ideological capital from long-range contacts was to have profound consequences for superordinate centres based around Late Neolithic ceremonial complexes – their ultimate transformation and eclipse.

‘A Noble Group of Barrows’: Bush Barrow and the Normanton Down Early Bronze Age Cemetery Two Centuries On

Abstract 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-eminent are the finds from the Bush Barrow grave group, now housed in the Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes, and still without close parallel. Long-held notions that the skeleton was extended are dispelled; instead, the grave assemblage is reconstructed around the universal crouched inhumation rite of the period, giving rise to important new implications. Special attention is also given to two probable female graves nearby; essentially contemporary, their accompaniments contrast in a number of respects, pointing to very distinct affiliations. Our capacity to reinterpret such burial complexes is a tribute to the records made by the pioneer excavators. Résumé Deux cents ans après les fouilles des tumulus de l’âge du bronze de Normanton Down, Wiltshire, effectuées par William Cunnington et Sir Richard Colt Hoare, nous offrons une nouvelle évaluation de ce cimetière renommé, qui se trouve en vue de Stonehenge. Cette communication se concentre spécifiquement sur les dépôts funéraires de l’âge du bronze ancien période 3, dont l’interprétation est qu’ils représentent une succession dynastique laquelle, pendant un certain temps, contrôla l’accès à Stonehenge et présida les cérémonies qui y avaient lieu. Parmi ces dépôts, les découvertes faites dans l’ensemble de sépultures du tumulus de Bush Barrow, qui se trouvent actuellement au Wiltshire Heritage Museum, Devizes, sont prééminentes et encore sans parallèle proche. Des idées de longue date, selon lesquelles le squelette aurait été inhumé en position allongée, sont écartées; à la place, l’ensemble funéraire est reconstruit autour du rite funéraire de l’inhumation en position contractée, qui était universel à l’époque, suscitant d’importantes nouvelles implications. On s’occupe tout particulièrement de deux sépultures féminines probables à proximité; essentiellement contemporaines, leur mobilier funéraire fait contraste à de nombreux égards, indiquant des affiliations très nettes. Notre capacité pour réinterpréter de tels complexes funéraires est due en grande partie aux notes rédigées par ces précurseurs des fouilles. Zusammenfassung Zweihundert Jahre nach den Ausgrabungen der Hügelgräber aus der Bronzezeit in der Normanton Down, Grafschaft Wiltshire, die von William Cunnington und Sir Richard Colt Hoare durchgeführt wurden, präsentieren wir eine neue Bewertung dieses berühmten Gräberfeldes, das sich in Sichtweite von Stonehenge befindet. Dieser Bericht konzentriert sich insbesondere auf Grabbeilagen der 3. Periode der Frühen Bronzezeit, die von einer dynastischen Erbfolge gekennzeichnet war, die für eine Weile den Zugang nach Stonehenge kontrollierte und über die dortigen Zeremonien waltete. Besonders hervorstechend sind die Funde aus der Bush Barrow Gräbergruppe, die jetzt im Wiltshire Heritage Museum ausgestellt sind und immer noch ohne gleichen sind. Die lang-gehegte Auffassung daß dieses Skelett ausgestreckt begraben war wurde widerlegt; stattdessen wurden die Grabbeilagen um die, in dieser Periode allgemein üblichen Höckerbestattung, rekonstruktuiert, was wiederum neue Schlussfolgerungen nach sich zieht. Besondere Beachtung wird auch zweien, sich in der Nähe befindlichen, Frauengräbern gegeben; im wesentlichen zeitlich parallel, sind deren Beigaben in vieler Hinsicht verschieden, was auf eine deutlich andere Zugehörigkeit folgern lässt. Unsere Fähigkeit solche Bestattungsanlagen zu neu zu interpretieren ist ein Tribut für die Aufzeichnungen, die von den frühen Pionierausgräbern gemacht wurden.

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 to execute decoration and others with small-scale corrugated morphology. Emergence in the closing stages of the third millennium BC is related also to a parallel development in the embossing of occasional bronze ornaments. Subsequent developments in embossed goldwork and the spread of the technique to parts of the Continent are summarized. The conclusions address the problem of interpreting continuity of craft skills against a very sparse record of relevant finds through time and space.

Flesh-Hooks, Technological Complexity and the Atlantic Bronze Age Feasting Complex

AbstractThirty-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 and newly recognized Sicilian examples introduce an alternative path of dissemination from the more usually accepted intermediary route of the Urnfield culture. The rarity of flesh-hooks is striking and understanding of their social role needs to take into account not only their marked individuality in terms of technological construction or iconographic features, but also their relationship to other contemporary prestige feasting gear. The distributions of flesh-hooks and rotary spits are mutually exclusive over most of Atlantic Europe; thus, not only did t...

The Penard-Wilburton Succession: New Metalwork Finds from Croxton (Norfolk) and Thirsk (Yorkshire)

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 Wilburton. It is acknowledged that Wilburton material shows contrasting regional distributions, but this is seen as resulting from the nature of production and social organization during the tenth century BC. Some discussion is given to the character of hoards in the important period of change from Penard to Wilburton.

Beaker people in Britain: migration, mobility and diet

Abstract The appearance of the distinctive ‘Beaker package’ marks an important horizon in British prehistory, but was it associated with immigrants to Britain or with indigenous converts? Analysis of the skeletal remains of 264 individuals from the British Chalcolithic–Early Bronze Age is revealing new information about the diet, migration and mobility of those buried with Beaker pottery and related material. Results indicate a considerable degree of mobility between childhood and death, but mostly within Britain rather than from Europe. Both migration and emulation appear to have had an important role in the adoption and spread of the Beaker package.