scholarly journals Excavating a Mid-Iron Age crouched inhumation on the shores of Loch Gruinart, Islay, Argyll and Bute

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-62
Author(s):  
Donna Hawthorne ◽  
Kevin Paton
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Sand Dunes ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
The Body ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
Western Shore ◽  
Burial Rites

Human remains uncovered across Atlantic Scotland have displayed a variety of burial rites practised throughout the Iron Age. An excavation on the island of Islay, as part of the Historic Environment Scotland Human Remains Call-Off Contract, has uncovered a crouched inhumation eroding out of sand dunes near the western shore of Loch Gruinart. Osteological analysis of the skeleton revealed it is that of an adult male, aged between 26 and 35 years. The body was found in a crouched position on its left-hand side, aligned south-east to north-west, with the head raised up and turned to face the west. No artefacts or grave goods were found in association with the burial. Radiocarbon dating has established that the remains relate to the Mid-Iron Age. The evidence uncovered here adds to the evolving narrative of the nature and date of the varying burial rites practised throughout this region during the Iron Age.

Early Iron Age tombs at Knossos: (Knossos Survey 25)

1961 ◽  
Vol 56 ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. S. F. Hood ◽  
John Boardman
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
Main Road ◽  
North West ◽  
Left Hand ◽  
The Road ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Roman Concrete

This group of tombs lies about 50 metres south-west of the main Knossos–Herakleion road, immediately opposite the new Sanatorium. Here in the autumn of 1953 Mr. David Smollett, then engaged in making the map for the Knossos Survey, noticed some large sherds which had been thrown into a rubbish pit on the edge of a small patch of ground newly ploughed for a vineyard (Plan, Fig. 1, a). The vineyard lay on the top of a slight knoll behind the café on the west side of the road. The knoll had until this time been occupied by a threshing floor, and was pointed out by the local inhabitants as the site of the ‘Tomb of Caiaphas’. But the great Roman concrete-built tomb traditionally known as the ‘Tomb of Caiaphas’, was really, it appears, on the main road some metres away to the north-west (Knossos Survey 23): it was destroyed about 1880 when the road was built.The sherds recovered by Mr. Smollett, some of them large and freshly broken from fine Geometric vases, made it seem likely that there was a disturbed tomb of that period in the area. Permission was therefore sought, and readily granted by Dr. N. Platon, Ephor of Antiquities for Crete, to explore the field before it was planted with vines. Trials led to the discovery of three small collapsed chamber tombs, all apparently Iron Age in date, cut in the soft kouskouras rock. The tombs clearly belong to the same complex as tombs L, Π, and TFT which have been published by Brock in Fortetsa (1957). They stood in a row with their entrances facing south towards Knossos. Two isolated burials (Plan, Fig. 1, b, c), extended on their backs with their heads to the west and feet to the east immediately below the surface of the field, may be Roman or later; there was a bent iron nail by the left hand of burial c. The knoll with the tombs lies near the western edge of the big Roman cemetery which covered the region now occupied by the new Sanatorium (Knossos Survey 35).

An Iron Age A site on the Chilterns

1951 ◽  
Vol 31 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. M. Richardson ◽  
Alison Young
Keyword(s):  
Water Supply ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Roman Villa ◽  
Adjoining Area ◽  
Cursory Examination ◽  
A Site ◽  
The Hill

In 1946 a visit to the barrow, which lies on the edge of the western scarp of Chinnor Common, and a cursory examination of the adjoining area, cultivated during the war, resulted in finds of pottery and other objects indicating Iron Age occupation. The site lies on the saddleback of a Chiltern headland, at a height of about 800 ft. O.D. Two hollow ways traverse the western scarp, giving access to the area from the Upper Icknield Way, which contours the foot of the hill, then drops to cross the valley, passing some 600 yards to the north of the Iron Age site of Lodge Hill, Bledlow, and rising again continues northwards under Pulpit Hill camp and the Ellesborough Iron Age pits below Coombe Hill. The outlook across the Oxford plain to the west is extensive, embracing the hill-fort of Sinodun, clearly visible some fourteen miles distant on the farther bank of the Thames. The hollow way at the north-west end of the site leads down to a group of ‘rises’ hard by the remains of a Roman villa, and these springs are, at the present day, the nearest water-supply to the site.

The Excavation of an Iron Age Souterrain and Settlement at Carn Euny, Sancreed, Cornwall

1978 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 309-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia M. L. Christie ◽  
S. M. Elsdon ◽  
G. W. Dimbleby ◽  
A. Saville ◽  
S. Rees ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Dry Valley ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Hill ◽  
The Village

The ancient village of Carn Euny, formerly known as Chapel Euny, lies on a south-west slope just above the 500 foot contour in the parish of Sancreed in West Cornwall (fig. 1). The granite uplands of the region are rich in antiquities, as a glance at a recent survey shows (Russell 1971), not least those of the prehistoric period. The hill on which the site is situated is crowned by the circular Iron Age Fort of Caer Brane (pl. 27). Across the dry valley to the north-west rises the mass of Bartinny Down, with its barrows, while in the valley below the site near the hamlet of Brane is a small, well preserved entrance grave and other evidence of prehistoric activity. To the south-east about one mile away is the recently excavated village of Goldherring dating from the first few centuries of our era (Guthrie 1969). From later times, the holy well of St Uny and the former chapel which gave its name to the site, lie nearby to the west. The village contains a fine souterrain, locally known as a fogou, after a Cornish word meaning a cave (Thomas 1966, 79).Nothing appears to have been known of the settlement or Fogou before the first half of the 19th century when the existence of an unexplored fogou at Chapel Uny is first mentioned by the Reverend John Buller (1842), shortly followed by Edmonds (1849) who described to the Penzance Natural History and Antiquarian Society an ‘Ancient Cave’ which had been discovered by miners prospecting for tin.

Daggers in the West: Early Bronze Age Daggers and Knives in the South-west Peninsula

2013 ◽  
Vol 79 ◽  
pp. 165-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy M. Jones ◽  
Henrietta Quinnell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Alloy ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
South West ◽  
South West England

This paper describes the results from a project to date Early Bronze Age daggers and knives from barrows in south-west England. Copper alloy daggers are found in the earliest Beaker associated graves and continue to accompany human remains until the end of the Early Bronze Age. They have been identified as key markers of Early Bronze Age graves since the earliest antiquarian excavations and typological sequences have been suggested to provide dating for the graves in which they are found. However, comparatively few southern British daggers are associated with radiocarbon determinations. To help address this problem, five sites in south-west England sites were identified which had daggers and knives, four of copper alloy and one of flint, and associated cremated bone for radiocarbon dating. Three sites were identified in Cornwall (Fore Down, Rosecliston, Pelynt) and two in Devon (Upton Pyne and Huntshaw). Ten samples from these sites were submitted for radiocarbon dating. All but one (Upton Pyne) are associated with two or more dates. The resulting radiocarbon determinations revealed that daggers/knives were occasionally deposited in barrow-associated contexts in the south-west from c. 1900 to 1500 calbc.The dagger at Huntshaw, Devon, was of Camerton-Snowshill type and the dates were earlier than those generally proposed but similar to that obtained from cremated bone found with another dagger of this type from Cowleaze in Dorset: these dates may necessitate reconsideration of the chronology of these daggers

scholarly journals The Body in the Ditch: Alternative Funerary Practices on the Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire?

Britannia ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 203-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trudi Buck ◽  
Elizabeth M. Greene ◽  
Alexander Meyer ◽  
Victoria Barlow ◽  
Eleanor Graham
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Dna Analysis ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
The Body ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Male Individual ◽  
Ancient Dna Analysis ◽  
Taphonomic Analysis

ABSTRACTDisarticulated human remains were recovered from a first-century fort ditch at Vindolanda on the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire. Ancient DNA analysis revealed the skeleton to be that of a male individual and forensic taphonomic analysis suggested a primary deposition of the body in a waterlogged environment with no obvious evidence of formal burial. Occurrences of disarticulated human remains outside a cemetery context are often overlooked in Roman bioarchaeology. This discovery adds to the growing body of literature regarding alternative funerary practice in the Empire, highlighting that the concept of burial and disposal of the dead is more complex than ancient historical sources suggest. Details of the DNA analysis are provided in the Supplementary Material available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X1900014X.

Old Smyrna: the Iron Age fortifications and associated remains on the city perimeter

1959 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 35-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. V. Nicholls
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Great Depth ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
East Side ◽  
The West ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Small Probe ◽  
South West ◽  
The City

Traces of fortifications around the area apparently once occupied by the city of Old Smyrna were observed by Louis Fauvel, and our first detailed description of them is that of Prokesch von Osten, who accompanied him there on a second visit in 1825. As we shall see later, it seems likely, though proof is no longer possible, that most of the circuit wall around the tell, as well as that on the low spur to the west of it on which the modern village now stands, as described by Prokesch, may have belonged to the defences of the classical city. Nothing today survives of these above ground, owing to extensive stone-plundering in the interval; and it is to be feared that the fate of much of this rather exposed classical enceinte has been to provide masonry either for the houses of the modern village or for the terrace walls which today encircle the tell.The plundering of this outermost circuit probably left the earlier ones inside it rather more exposed to view. I have not been able to verify which of the city walls it was that was photographed by Keil in 1911, but when Franz and Helene Miltner excavated here in 1930 a part of the late-seventh-century B.C. circuit was visible on the east side of the city. Here they cleared about 80 metres of its face, for the most part to no great depth, then picked up its line again with a small probe some 20 metres farther north. Two further small trenches seem to have located more of this late-seventh-century wall-line south-south-west of their long cut, in addition to traces of yet other circuits. Besides this they report sinking two shafts into the mound dominating the north-west corner of the tell and making two small probes in occupation levels within the city itself.

An Iron Age Hill-Fort at Grimthorpe, Yorkshire, England

1969 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 148-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. M. Stead ◽  
M. Jarman ◽  
Angela Fagg ◽  
E. S. Higgs ◽  
C. B. Denston
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Circular Area ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
White Horse ◽  
The Hill ◽  
Grave Goods

The Iron Age hill-fort at Grimthorpe (Grid reference SE.816535) in the parish of Millington, East Riding of Yorkshire, is on the western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, with a commanding position over the Vale of York. There is an uninterrupted view to the White Horse on the Hambleton Hills, 25 miles to the north-west; beyond York, 13 miles to the west, to the Pennines; and to the south 25 miles to the chimneys of Keadby and Scunthorpe. To the west and south the land slopes away to the Vale of York, and to the north and east there is a sharper fall to Given Dale and Whitekeld Dale. The hill-fort defences follow the 520 feet contour, and enclose an approximately circular area of eight acres (fig. 1).A traditional reference may be preserved in the field-name—Bruffs—perhaps a variation of ‘Brough’, which ‘refers in all cases to ancient camps, usually Roman ones’. But all surface indications have now been obliterated by ploughing, and even a century ago there was little more to be seen. John Phillips in 1853 noticed ‘unmistakable traces of ancient but unascertainable occupation’, and in 1871 an excavation by J. R. Mortimer located ‘the filled up inner ditch of a supposed camp’. But Mortimer was not concerned with the settlement; his interest had been aroused by the discovery, in 1868, of a burial with rich grave-goods, including metalwork with La Tène ornament, in a chalk-pit within the south-west sector of the hill-fort.

scholarly journals Knappach Toll, Balbridie: a late 3rd-millennium bc Beaker burial on Deeside, Aberdeenshire

2019 ◽  
Vol 83 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Olivia Lelong ◽  
Iraia Arabaolaza ◽  
Torben Ballin ◽  
Jane Evans ◽  
Richard P Evershed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Residue Analysis ◽  
Isotope Analysis ◽  
The Body ◽  
The West ◽  
Animal Fat ◽  
North East ◽  
And Migration

A short cist discovered during ploughing at Knappach Toll on Balbridie Farm, Aberdeenshire held the remains of an adult accompanied by a Beaker, fragments of a copper awl and 11 struck flints. Little survived of the skeleton except for cranial fragments, but these indicate that the person had been placed with the head to the west, with the artefacts also at that end. While the sex of the person is indeterminate, with the single surviving sexual dimorphic trait suggesting a male, the position of the body and the presence of the awl are more usually indicative of a female. Radiocarbon dating shows that the person died between 3775±35 years bp (SUERC-30852) and 2330–2040 cal bc (95.4% probability). Stable isotope analysis indicates that he or she grew up on basalt geology, like that of the region, or on chalk. Residue analysis of the Beaker has established that it had held ruminant animal fat such as butter or milk, probably for some time, and some of the flint pieces had been lightly used. The composition and constituents of the burial suggest links between north-east Scotland and East Yorkshire. They also evoke the cultural practices that were spreading across eastern Britain in the later 3rd millennium bc through the mechanisms of cultural transmission and migration.  

Total Landscapes (250 BC to the Early Roman Period)

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Bradley ◽  
Colin Haselgrove ◽  
Marc Vander Linden ◽  
Leo Webley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
First Century ◽  
Northern Europe ◽  
North West ◽  
Late Iron Age ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Written Sources

By the late first century BC, most of north-west Europe had been incorporated into the Roman Empire or had fallen under its shadow. This has profoundly affected how the late Iron Age is perceived and studied. Being able to view peoples and places through written sources and coin inscriptions means that the archaeology of the period is often approached very differently to those discussed in previous chapters, with greater emphasis on historical events and causality. The chronology encourages this. Late La Tène sites on the Continent can now be dated to within a generation or so, anchored by a growing number of dendrochronological fixed points (Kaenel 2006; Durost and Lambert 2007), although similar precision is rarely attainable in northern Europe or in Ireland and northern Britain, which rely largely on radiocarbon dating. The prevailing narrative for the late Iron Age in central Europe, Gaul, and southern Britain—essentially the areas that later became part of the Roman empire—is one of increasing hierarchy, social complexity, political centralization, urbanization, and economic development. These changes are seen as bound up with increasing contact with the Mediterranean world, leading up to the Roman conquests of the first centuries BC and AD. This is contrasted with the situation in northern Britain, Ireland, and ‘Germanic’ northern Europe, which are assumed to have been more tradition-bound and resistant to change. As we shall see, recent excavations do not necessarily contradict this narrative, but they do suggest that the picture is far more complex. Not all developments can be fitted into the story of growing social complexity, whilst to assume that Roman expansion was the most important factor at work at this period is to see events through the eyes of Classical writers (Bradley 2007). It is important to understand late Iron Age societies in their own terms, rather than just as precursors to provincial Roman societies. Many influential approaches to the period—from core–periphery models to the current emphasis on the agency of client rulers (Creighton 2000)—suffer from teleology as a result of having been constructed with half an eye to explaining the pattern of Roman expansion.

Excavation of Four Barrows, and a Middle Bronze Age Cremation Cemetery, at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire

2018 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-89
Author(s):  
Richard Massey ◽  
Elaine L. Morris
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The South ◽  
The West ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
South West ◽  
Middle Bronze Age

Excavation at Heatherstone Grange, Bransgore, Hampshire, investigated features identified in a previous evaluation. Area A included ring ditches representing two barrows. Barrow 1.1 held 40 secondary pits, including 34 cremation-related deposits of Middle Bronze Age date, and Barrow 1.2 had five inserted pits, including three cremation graves, one of which dated to the earlier Bronze Age, and was found with an accessory cup. A number of pits, not all associated with cremation burials, contained well-preserved urns of the regional Deverel-Rimbury tradition and occasional sherds from similar vessels, which produced a closely-clustered range of eight radiocarbon dates centred around 1300 BC. Of ten pits in Area C, three were cremation graves, of which one was radiocarbon-dated to the Early Bronze Age and associated with a collared urn, while four contained only pyre debris. Barrow 1.3, in Area E, to the south, enclosed five pits, including one associated with a beaker vessel, and was surrounded by a timber circle. Area F, further to the south-west, included two pits of domestic character with charcoal-rich fills and the remains of pottery vessels, together with the probable remains of a ditched enclosure and two sets of paired postholes. Area H, located to the north-west of Area E, partly revealed a ring ditch (Barrow 1.4), which enclosed two pits with charcoal-rich fills, one with a single Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age potsherd, and the other burnt and worked flint. A further undated pit was situated to the east of Barrow 1.4. The cremation cemetery inserted into Barrow 1.1 represents a substantial addition to the regional record of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials, and demonstrates important affinities with the contemporary cemeteries of the Stour Valley to the west, and sites on Cranborne Chase, to the north-west.

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