Timothy Darvill

Stonehenge excavations 2008

Abstract The following paper is the first published account of an excavation that took place at Stonehenge during April 2008. As this was the first excavation to take place within the stone circle for some forty years, the excavation has attracted an uncommon degree of interest, hence its publication in the Antiquaries Journal as an interim account of work in progress, in the form of an edited transcript of a paper first given at the Ordinary Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 9 October 2008. The paper explains that the 2008 excavation set out to date the construction of the Double Bluestone Circle at Stonehenge and to chart the subsequent history of the bluestones and their use at the monument. Evidence is presented for a provisional working date of around 2300 bc for the construction of the Double Bluestone Circle, while it is argued that the history of the site is far more complex than has been allowed for in existing interpretations, with a multiplicity of overlapping and intercutting (though not continuous) events, including substantial late Roman, medieval and early modern activity. The excavated material, and the evidence from the surviving stones, supports the suggestion that bluestones were brought to the site because of their perceived special qualities, perhaps for their supposed healing properties, and that some knowledge of those qualities remained current in later times with the result that in excess of two-thirds of the original bluestone volume has now disappeared. Résumé L’article suivant est le premier compte rendu publié de fouilles qui ont été effectuées à Stonehenge pendant le mois d’avril 2008. Etant donné qu’il s’agissait des premières fouilles effectuées à l’intérieur du cromlech depuis une quarantaine d’années, ces fouilles ont suscité un très grand intérêt, d’où leur publication dans la revue Antiquaries Journal, en tant que compte rendu provisoire des travaux en cours, sous la forme d’une transcription éditée d’une communication présentée en premier lieu lors de la réunion ordinaire de la ‘Society of Antiquaries of London’ [Société des Antiquaires de Londres] le 9 octobre 2008. Cette communication explique que les fouilles de 2008 avaient pour but de dater la construction du double cromlech de pierres bleues de Stonehenge et de tracer l’historique ultérieur des pierres bleues et leur utilisation dans le monument. Des indices sont présentés à l’appui d’une date de travail provisoire d’environ 2300 avant J.-C. pour la construction du double cromlech de pierres bleues, et on soutient que l’histoire du site est bien plus complexe que ne le prétendent les interprétations existant déjà, avec de nombreux incidents (non continus) de chevauchements et de recoupements, y compris d’importantes activités de la fin de la période romaine, de la période médiévale et du début des temps modernes. Le matériel retrouvé lors des fouilles, ainsi que les indices tirés des pierresencore, appuient la théorie que les pierres bleues avaient été transportées au site à cause des qualités spéciales perçues en elles, peut-être pour les propriétés curatives dont elles étaient censées être dotées, et que des connaissances concernant ces propriétés existaient encore par la suite, ce qui a eu pour résultat la disparition à ce jour de plus des deux tiers du volume de pierre bleue originel. Zusammenfassung Die folgende Abhandlung ist die erste Veröffentlichung über eine archäologische Ausgrabung in Stonehenge, die im April 2008 stattfand. Da sie seit 40 Jahren die erste Ausgrabung innerhalb des Steinkreises war, hatte sie ungewöhnlich viel Aufmerksamkeit auf sich gelenkt. Aus diesem Grund wird dieser, zunächst vorläufige, Bericht im Antiquaries Journal vorgelegt, und zwar in Form einer bearbeiteten Niederschrift eines Vortrags, der bei einer Versammlung der ‘Society of Antiquaries’ am 9. Oktober 2008 in London gehalten wurde. Das Thema dieser Ausgrabung war die Datierung des doppelten Kreises aus Blausteinen, die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Blausteine und deren Gebrauch als Teil dieses Monuments. Ein provisorisches Datum von 2300 v. Chr wird für die Errichtung des Doppelsteinkreises aus Blaustein liegt vor, und es wird argumentiert, daß die Entwicklungsgeschichte dieser Stätte viel komplizierter ist, als aus bisherigen Interpretationen hervor geht. Die Entwicklung wurde von einer Vielfalt von übernandergreifenden und verschachtelten (aber nicht kontinuierlichen) Ereignissen geprägt, insbesondere spätrömische, mittelalterliche und neuzeitliche Aktivitäten. Die Fundstücke und die Beweismaterialien von den Steinüberresten unterstützen die These, daß die Blausteine wegen ihrer wahrgenommenen besonderen Qualitäten antransportiert wurden, vielleicht wegen angeblicher heilerischen Eigenschaften. Das Wissen um solche Qualitäten blieb bis in spätere Zeiten erhalten, was zur Folge hatte, daß mehr als zweidrittel der ursprünglichen Blausteine jetzt verschwunden sind.

Identifying and protecting historic landscapes

Six years ago, Darvill and colleagues reported (A NTIQUITY 61: 393–408) on the Monuments Protection Programme, a new English initiative to build, from a century of haphazard acts of site protection, a set of balanced judgements and priorities by which to recognize ancient places that are more precious, genuinely of a national importance. The Programme, they tell A NTIQUITY , has now completed the first-stage review of information in local sites and monuments records and is proceeding with the identification of nationally important monuments in every English county. This further paper reports on how the Monuments Protection Programme is addressing landscapes, as distinct from ‘spot sites’ with clear limits, where the matters of defining a ‘relict cultural landscape’ and judging relative value are harder.

Sancton I Anglo-Saxon Cemetery Excavations Carried Out Between 1976 and 1980

This report outlines the results of excavations carried out at Sancton I (Humberside, formerly East Riding, Yorkshire), the most northerly of a group of large, well-known Anglo-Saxon cremation cemeteries in eastern England. The excavations, undertaken by N. M. Reynolds1 for the then Department of Environment (now English Heritage), between 1976–80, were designed to assess damage to the site by ploughing and to try to determine the extent and limits of the cemetery. The former objective was achieved all too clearly in that the area of the cemetery investigated had been severely affected by soil disturbances. Many of the cremations had either been totally destroyed or badly damaged. In all, c. 90–95 in situ cremations were recorded and one inhumation. Despite the drawbacks the analysis of the material recovered, particularly the human and animal bone, has provided valuable information about the site which shows some remarkable similarities to the roughly contemporary cremation cemetery at Spong Hill, Norfolk.

The Collfryn Hillslope Enclosure, Llansantffraid Deuddwr, Powys: Excavations 1980–1982.

The report on partial rescue excavations of the Collfryn enclosure between 1980–82 presents a summary of the first large-scale investigation of one of the numerous semi-defensive cropmark and earthwork enclosure sites in the upper Severn valley in mid-Wales. Earlier prehistoric activity of an ephemeral nature is represented by a scattering of Mesolithic and Late Neolithic or early Bronze Age flintwork, and by a pit containing sherds of several different Beaker vessels. The first enclosed settlement, constructed in about the 3rd century bc probably consisted of three widely-spaced concentric ditches, associated with banks of simple dump construction, having a single gated entranceway on the downhill side. It covered an area of about 2.5 ha and appears to have been of a relatively high social status, and appropriate in size for a single extended-family group. This was subsequently reduced in about the 1st century bc to a double-ditched enclosure, by the recutting of the original inner ditch and the cutting of a new ditch immediately outside it. The habitation area between the 3rd and 1st centuries bc probably focused on timber buildings in the central enclosure of about 0.4 ha, whose gradually evolving pattern appears to have comprised between 3–4 roundhouses and 4–5 four-posters at any one time. Little excavation was undertaken between the outer ditches of the first phase settlement, but these are assumed to have been used as stock enclosures. A mixed farming economy is suggested by cattle, sheep/goat and pig remains, and remains of glume wheats, barley and oats. Industries included small-scale iron and bronze-working. The Iron Age settlement was essentially aceramic, although there are significant quantities of a coarse, oxidized ceramic probably representing salt traded from production centres in the Cheshire Plain. The entranceway was remodelled in about the late 1st or early 2nd, century AD by means of a timber-lined passage linked to a new gate on the line of the inner bank. There is equivocal evidence of continued occupation within the inner enclosure continuing until at least the mid-4th century AD, possibly at a comparatively low social level, associated with domestic structures of uncertain form sited on earlier roundhouse platforms, and including some four-posters and possible six-posters. Drainage ditches were dug across parts of the site during the Medieval and post-Medieval periods, which were associated with various structures, including a corn-drying kiln inserted into the inner enclosure bank in the 15th century.

Eight Ring-ditches at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, 1981–85.

Eight ring-ditches and several stretches of pit alignment have been excavated between 1981 and 1985, as part of the investigation of an extensive cropmark complex on a gravel terrace in the Upper Severn valley at Four Crosses, northern Powys. Excavation of the ring-ditches, which form part of a more scattered barrow cemetery, has revealed a long and complex pattern of development of barrow types and burial forms in the period between the Middle Neolithic and the Middle Bronze Age. This is compared with the recently published sequence from the neighbouring upland barrow cemetery at Trelystan, and subdivided into four hypothetical phases. There is evidence of activity in the vicinity of some of the sites in the Iron Age, Romano-British, and possibly the early post-Roman period.

Research frameworks for World Heritage Sites and the conceptualization of archaeological knowledge

Abstract Research has a central place in the identification and definition of World Heritage Sites, and increasingly in their ongoing management and conservation. Using the example of Stonehenge in central southern England, attention is drawn to the formulation of a research framework as a means of providing a transparent and structured approach to the planning and execution of high quality research. Ultimately, however, research has to be useful and socially relevant in terms of the outputs produced. In the second part of the paper some of the wider issues of knowledge creation are explored and a scheme proposed for the conceptualization of archaeological knowledge or scientia as four overlapping fields: narrative knowledge, strategic knowledge, indigenous knowledge and contemplative knowledge. It is suggested that World Heritage Sites should not only be exemplary situations for the pursuit of research but also be closely identified with the creation and maintenance of different kinds of knowledge.

Ironworking in the bronze age? Evidence from a 10th century BC settlement at hartshill copse, upper bucklebury, West Berkshire

Excavations at Hartshill Copse in 2003 uncovered evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement, securely dated to the 10th century BC, associated with long alignments of closely set posts: prehistoric landscape features with few known parallels. Extensive sampling of the settlement remains yielded quantities of burnt flint and plain Post Deverel-Rimbury potsherds, and, quite unexpectedly, a substantial quantity of iron hammerscale. This paper presents the excavation data, with supporting dating evidence, and the results of detailed analysis of the metallurgical residues. It explores the spatial distribution of artefact types within the settlement, and presents an interpretative model for settlement use. The nature of the settlement, with its carefully planned use of space and close relationship with the post alignments, is then discussed. Together, all this provides conclusive evidence for the earliest ironworking site yet recognised in Britain. The paper concludes with a comprehensive discussion of early ironworking in its British and European context.

Value systems and the archaeological resource

Abstract The paper deals with the various values held by people for the heritage, specifically the archaeological heritage. Attention is directed away from economic values towards sociological interpretations – sets of assumptions, beliefs and knowledge‐sets which may be termed ‘value systems’. Such value systems underpin and inform individual and collective attitudes and, by implication, approaches to the physical and experiential environment. After examining the nature of value systems and gradients, the paper identifies three main value gradients with reference to the archaeological resource. These may be characterised as: use value, based on present requirements, option value, based on future possibilities, and existence value, which acknowledges value ‘because it is there’.

Brick and tile production in Roman Britain: Models of economic organisation

Abstract The results of systematically sampling stamped Roman ceramic bricks and tiles from the Cotswolds and Lower Severn Valley, England, are brought together to provide an overview of production and distribution in the Roman tile industry. A general model of economic organisation is developed by combining expected patterns within the ‘heavy sector’ of the Roman economy with details obtained from accounts of recent brick and tile production. A series of idealised modes of production are identified and compared with the recorded archaeological evidence using variables drawn from the general model. It is concluded that the organisation of the Roman tile industry was more complicated than previously imagined, and that the variety of demands created by different types of consumer were met by a variety of responses including nucleated industries, rural workshops and peripatetic production.

Stone circles, oval settings and henges in south-west Wales and beyond

Topographical and geophysical surveys carried out in August 2002 at three monuments in the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire are reported: Bedd Arthur, Gors Fawr and Meini Gwyr. Previously unrecorded features were revealed at all three sites, most spectacularly at Meini Gwyr which, from the evidence of geophysical survey, appears to be a multi-phase monument that includes a double pit-circle, hengi-form monument and embanked enclosure with an internal stone circle. Comparisons are made with plans prepared by Flinders Petrie in 1926, published here for the first time. A viewshed analysis of the surveyed sites and others of similar kind in the area allows an appreciation of landscape setting and intervisibility. It is suggested that the stone circles are sited in relation to upland stone sources. All the monuments considered here are compared with contemporary structures recorded elsewhere in the British Isles. It is concluded that while the stone circles and oval setting fit comfortably within a distribution pattern that extends across most of the British Isles, the later phases of Meini Gwyr at least belong to a more localized tradition of monument building focused on the Irish Sea region.