The Movement of Ideas in Late Iron Age and Early Roman Britain: An Imported Rotary Quern Design in South-Western England

Britannia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 393-402
Author(s):  
Ruth Shaffrey
Keyword(s):  
Thin Section ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Isle Of Man ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Thin Section Analysis ◽  
Section Analysis ◽  
Made In

ABSTRACTIn 2012, a complete upper stone of a rotary quern with a projecting lug for a vertical handle was found at Hinkley Point in Somerset, south-western England. It is the first late Iron Age to early Roman period quern of this form to be found in England. This note describes its form in detail and discusses its closest parallels in north-eastern Ireland, south-western Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man and Spain. It shows how thin-section analysis demonstrates the quern to have been locally made in Somerset and discusses the movement of ideas about quern design during the late Iron Age to early Roman period.

Cemeteries and Funerary Practice

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake Weekes
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Spatial Separation ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Roman Britain ◽  
Mortuary Ritual ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Process Method

This chapter applies and attempts to contribute to the funerary process method of investigating late Iron Age and Roman period mortuary ritual in Britain. In this approach, evidence derived from archaeological contexts including tombstones and monuments, possible cemetery surfaces, cemetery boundaries, burials, pyre sites, and other features is reconsidered diachronically in relation to funerary schema. We therefore try to consider objects and actions in their correct funerary contexts, from the selectivity of death itself, through laying-out procedures, modification of the remains and other objects, degrees of spatial separation of the living and the dead, and types of deposition and commemorative acts. The development of tradition and diversity in funerary practice in Roman Britain is considered throughout, and the chapter concludes with a brief reconsideration of the multi-vocality of funerary symbolism.

Iron Age and Roman Enclosed Settlement at Winchester Road, Basingstoke

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-97
Author(s):  
Richard Massey ◽  
Matt Nichol ◽  
Dana Challinor ◽  
Sharon Clough ◽  
Matilda Holmes ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Field Boundary ◽  
Crop Processing ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Middle Iron Age ◽  
Grave Goods

Excavation in Area 1 identified an enclosed settlement of Middle–Late Iron Age and Early Roman date, which included a roundhouse gully and deep storage pits with complex fills. A group of undated four-post structures, situated in the east of Area 1, appeared to represent a specialised area of storage or crop processing of probable Middle Iron Age date. A sequence of re-cutting and reorganisation of ditches and boundaries in the Late Iron Age/Early Roman period was followed, possibly after a considerable hiatus, by a phase of later Roman activity, Late Iron Age reorganisation appeared to be associated with the abandonment of a roundhouse, and a number of structured pit deposits may also relate to this period of change. Seven Late Iron Age cremation burials were associated with a contemporary boundary ditch which crossed Area 1. Two partly-exposed, L-shaped ditches may represent a later Roman phase of enclosed settlement and a slight shift in settlement focus. An isolated inhumation burial within the northern margins of Area 1 was tentatively dated by grave goods to the Early Saxon period.<br/> Area 2 contained a possible trackway and field boundary ditches, of which one was of confirmed Late Iron Age/Early Roman date. A short posthole alignment in Area 2 was undated, and may be an earlier prehistoric feature.

Formation and Land-Use History of Celtic Fields in North-West Europe – an Interdisciplinary Case Study at Zeijen, the Netherlands

2003 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theo Spek ◽  
Willy Groenman-van Waateringe ◽  
Maja Kooistra ◽  
Lideweij Bakker
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Soil Tillage ◽  
North West ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
History Of

Celtic field research has so far been strongly focused on prospection and mapping. As a result of this there is a serious lack of knowledge of formation and land-use processes of these fields. This article describes a methodological case study in The Netherlands that may be applied to other European Celtic fields in the future. By interdisciplinary use of pedological, palynological and micromorphological research methods the authors were able to discern five development stages in the history of the field, dating from the late Bronze Age to the early Roman Period. There are strong indications that the earthen ridges, very typical for Celtic fields in the sandy landscapes of north-west Europe, were only formed in the later stages of Celtic field agriculture (late Iron Age and early Roman period). They were the result of a determined raising of the surface by large-scale transportation of soil material from the surroundings of the fields. Mainly the ridges were intensively cultivated and manured in the later stages of Celtic field cultivation. In the late Iron Age a remarkable shift in Celtic field agriculture took place from an extensive system with long fallow periods, a low level of manuring and extensive soil tillage to a more intensive system with shorter fallow periods, a more intensive soil tillage and a higher manuring intensity. There are also strong indications that rye (Secale cereale) was the main crop in the final stage of Celtic field agriculture.

The Pershore Hoards and Votive Deposition in the Iron Age

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 297-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Hurst ◽  
Ian Leins
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Geophysical Survey ◽  
Landscape Position ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Archaeological Excavation ◽  
Extensive Area ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Votive Deposition ◽  
Twisted Wire

A large hoard of Iron Age coins was discovered by metal-detecting at Pershore, Worcestershire, in 1993. During small-scale archaeological excavation further Iron Age coins were recovered, including a likely second hoard. Further fieldwork in the same vicinity as the hoard(s) produced more Iron Age finds, including more coins, and a possible fragment of a twisted wire gold torc. In total 1494 Iron Age gold and silver coins were recovered. Geophysical survey indicated that the hoard(s) lay at the southern end of an extensive area of settlement which, based on the fieldwalking evidence, was mainly of Iron Age and Roman date. This covered an overall area ofc.10 ha, within which several areas of more intensive activity were defined, including enclosures and possible round-houses. It is suggested that the coin hoard(s) indicate the location of a Late Iron Age religious space in an elevated landscape position situated on the edge of a settlement which continued into the Roman period. As part of the archaeological strategy, specialist deep-search metal-detecting was undertaken in order to establish that the site has now been completely cleared of metalwork caches

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