Issue 115

Nov / Dec 2010

news

All the latest archaeology news from around the country

features

On the Trail of Viking Women

Jane Kershaw reports on an astounding quantity of Viking-style jewellery found in England

THE BIG DIG: Bestwall Quarry

At this large site in Dorset local, largely unfunded amateurs were nominated to manage the archaeology with fascinating results

Life Between the Nations

The wartime correspondence of German refugee archaeologist Paul Jacobsthal

Excavating the Living Dead

Alistair Barclay examines the stories of the many people who were buried on Boscombe Down, Wiltshire

The Human Remains Crisis

Change is promised, but fieldwork continues under conditions that many are unhappy with

The Little House by the Shore

The directors of the Star Carr excavation update readers on the endangered organic remains

The Varmints Show

In the Varmints' third exploration, we introduce Great Excavations – The Musical

on the web

Neolithic excavations online and the Cranbourne Chase gets an overhaul

CBA Correspondent

From CBA Director, Mike Heyworth on academia

letters

Your views and responses

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

on the web

Neolithic excavations: feast or famine?

Neolithic discoveries have been in the news, from Orkney to Stonehenge, but as Caroline Wickham-Jones finds, the people themselves remain curiously hard to pin down.

The interpretive world of the archaeologist is sometimes characterised as either "ceremonial" or "domestic", ignoring the fact that in the past, as today, the two blend into one another. In Orkney this year there has been ample opportunity to explore the neolithic world. Five separate excavations, as well as numerous ongoing research projects, are investigating the ways in which the different aspects of life inter-related.

This is perhaps best illustrated at Links of Noltland (good video at DateLine) where open area excavation of the neolithic houses has uncovered some strange goings on with cattle skulls, not to mention the evocative "Venus" figurine. In contrast the great trenches at Ness of Brodgar are uncovering structures on a massive scale with little evidence of "ordinary" life. But neolithic people settled all over the fertile islands of Britain. What is going on elsewhere?

Archaeologists have been busy at Stonehenge, where the main findings are ceremonial (and see our editor's comment). Marden henge, too, has seen an influx of workers, as has Ballymena (for a slightly garbled account; download a better poster PDF 580KB). In Cambridgeshire landscape archaeologists at a quarry site have unearthed some apparently pecked artwork while in Guernsey the Clifton Antiquarian Club has been shedding light on a chambered tomb at Delancy Park.

So far so good, but where are the investigations of domestic settlement? A Google trawl for "neolithic settlement excavation 2010" suggests that most (with the exception of neolithic Orkney) take place outside the UK. Where UK excavations can be rooted out, information is minimal.

Excavations at Green, Orkney, took place in August, though the website has not been updated. Information on the site at Braes o' Ha'breck, also in Orkney, is limited to the "installation of a poem", and the rarity of neolithic houses was noted when eight were said to have been found in Basildon, Essex last year – and the archaeologists are now saying they may be bronze age. In desperation I searched excavation listings (CBA Briefing; Past Horizons; I Love The Past), and found fieldwork on one targeted neolithic settlement (Britarch and I Love the Past – at Green, Orkney), and one burial site (Britarch – at Colvend, Dumfries & Galloway).

So, what are we doing to find out about neolithic life? The information available from the internet suggests that work centres on monumental ceremonial sites. Is this really the case, and if so, why? Are settlements much less visible in the archaeological record? (That might be a reason to seek them out). Maybe settlement sites are not threatened? (What about research work?) Perhaps there were originally fewer domestic sites? (That seems odd, surely all those busy henge-builders and stone-movers lived somewhere?) Are domestic sites less interesting? (Not for me, I like archaeology's ability to engage with the lives of ordinary people).

Perhaps we know all there is to know about the everyday life of our neolithic ancestors? (Seems unlikely!) Maybe it is easier to get funding for the out-of-the-ordinary? (A poor reflection on our outreach if it is true). Or, god forbid, do archaeologists prefer to seek out the high status and showy? Has 21st century celebrity culture penetrated the past?

Sensing the Past on the Web

• Noltland, Orkney – www.westrayheritage.co.uk
  • Follow the excavation unfold with text and photo diaries
• Borras Quarry, Wrexham – www.cpat.org.uk (PDF 760KB)
  • Plenty to put rare neolithic remains into context
• Delancy Park – www.cliftonantiquarian.co.uk/delanceypark.htm
  • Community archaeology on holiday, with lots of information and reports
• Balbridie – BA64
  • There are neolithic houses outside Orkney (as also at Crathes, no website)
• In-depth neolithic – www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/
  • Interesting summary from the BBC, but with less on life than on death

Caroline Wickham-Jones teaches archaeology at the University of Aberdeen

The magical world of Cranborne Chase

Emma Rouse introduces a recently relaunched website that both describes a nationally important historic landscape, and reveals the processes behind landscape characterisation.

The Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) is a spectacular chalk landscape straddling the counties of Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It was designated as an AONB in 1981, affording it the same level of protection as a national park. Since then local and national organisations have worked together to produce a management plan to help conserve and enhance the area's key characteristics, including its archaeological and historical aspects.

Cranborne Chase will be particularly familiar to archaeologists, being associated with the legacy of General Pitt Rivers (1827–1900) and the wealth of prehistoric remains that include the great neolithic Dorset cursus. However, as the relaunched website shows, there is much more to this landscape, including medieval hunting areas, historic tracks and industrial relics.

The website provides an introduction to this history and archaeology. It also introduces historic landscape characterisation, and explores how the AONB is conserving and enhancing this special heritage through Historic Environment Action Plans (HEAPs) with the support of English Heritage.

In the first section, Exploring Our Historic Landscape, you can travel through time, using the interactive timeline, to discover how people lived in the area in the past and how they helped to create and shape the landscape we see today. You can also pursue 12 key historical themes such as the impact of medieval hunting forests and the legacy of two world wars. Finally you can learn about the history of archaeological discovery and the work of, amongst others, Richard Colt Hoare, Pitt Rivers and Heywood Sumner. Detailed texts and maps can be downloaded as PDF files.

In the Characterising our Historic Landscape section you can see how previous land uses are fossilised in today's landscape, creating time depth. There is a special section devoted to the historic character of the routeways in the AONB, and an interactive map allows you to explore the 11 historic character areas, from the Vale of Wardour to chalk escarpments.

Finally the Conserving our Historic Landscape section introduces how the AONB as a partnership is helping to conserve and enhance this unique heritage. It is more technical in nature, and aimed at people who want to find out more about the AONB's work, such as historic environment action plans or historic landscape characterisation, with links to county historic environment records. There is a special section aimed at other protected landscapes (AONBs and national parks), containing detailed methodologies to help them carry out similar work.

Emma Rouse is historic environment action plan project officer at the Cranborne Chase and west Wiltshire downs AONB.

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