Excavations near Guiting Power in the Cotswolds reveal evidence of occupation until the late 4th century AD: a relatively undefended middle Iron Age farmstead was abandoned, followed by a mid to later Iron Age ditched enclosure. This latter site perhaps became dilapidated, with a Romanised farmstead developing over the traditional habitation area.
This volume outlines an investigation of the early manor at Guiting Power, a village in the Cotswolds with Saxon origins, lying in an area with interesting entries in the Domesday Survey of 1086.
This volume covers the full excavation, analysis and interpretation of two early Bronze Age round barrows at Guiting Power in the Cotswolds, a region where investigation and protection of such sites have been extremely poor, with many barrows unnecessarily lost to erosion, and with most existing excavation partial, and of low quality.
The Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals – including gold, silver, tin and lead – is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling ‘entrepreneurs’, and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking. This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris. The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.
Through an analysis of glass beads from four key study regions in Britain, the book aims to explore the role that this object played within the networks and relationships that constructed Iron Age society.
MOLA (Museum of London Archaeology) undertook archaeological excavations at Brackmills, Northampton, investigatng part of a large Iron Age settlement and Roman complex farmstead. The remains were very well preserved having, in places, been shielded from later truncaton by colluvial deposits. Earlier remains included a late Bronze Age/early Iron Age pit alignment. The main focus of occupation spanned the middle Iron Age to the late 4th century/early 5th century AD. The initial late middle Iron Age enclosed farmstead was defined by a series of enclosures and boundary features. From the late Iron Age the core of the settlement shifted and the range of activity increased dramatically, both in complexity and density through the 1st and 2nd centuries AD. The pottery assemblage associated with the beginning of this development is dominated by utilitarian jars with no clear evidence of higher status activity. Two well preserved pottery kilns date from this period, adding to our understanding of local pottery traditions. Funerary evidence for this period was limited to two late Iron Age/early Roman crouched inhumations, and a small assemblage of disarticulated human bone. By the second century the settlement had developed further, and a well-constructed road surface had been laid, leading to the stone roundhouses at the core of the settlement. The re-establishment or expansion of the farmstead with stone rectangular buildings in the late 3rd to 4th century AD marks a clear shift in the status of the site. Industrial remains included a drying oven. Of note for a rural site were 17 inhumation burials and a single cremation burial. Following the decline of the settlement, there was only a short reoccupation when there was a single sunken featured building. Later the site became part of an open field system in the medieval period.
The Earlier Iron Age (c. 800-400 BC) has often eluded attention in British Iron Age studies. Traditionally, we have been enticed by the wealth of material from the later part of the millennium and by developments in southern England in particular, culminating in the arrival of the Romans. The result has been a chronological and geographical imbalance, with the Earlier Iron Age often characterised more by what it lacks than what it comprises: for Bronze Age studies it lacks large quantities of bronze, whilst from the perspective of the Later Iron Age it lacks elaborate enclosure. In contrast, the same period on mainland Europe yields a wealth of burial evidence with links to Mediterranean communities and so has not suffered in quite the same way. Gradual acceptance of this problem over the past decade, along with the corpus of new discoveries produced by developer-funded archaeology, now provides us with an opportunity to create a more balanced picture of the Iron Age in Britain as a whole. The twenty-six papers in the book seek to establish what we now know (and do not know) about Earlier Iron Age communities in Britain and their neighbours on the Continent. The authors engage with a variety of current research themes, seeking to characterise the Earlier Iron Age via the topics of landscape, environment, and agriculture; material culture and everyday life; architecture, settlement, and social organisation; and with the issue of transition - looking at how communities of the Late Bronze Age transform into those of the Earlier Iron Age, and how we understand the social changes of the later first millennium BC. Geographically, the book brings together recent research from regional studies covering the full length of Britain, as well as taking us over to Ireland, across the Channel to France, and then over the North Sea to Denmark, the Low Countries, and beyond.
