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Radiocarbon dates from the chambered tomb at Hazleton (Glos.): a chronology for neolithic collective burial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Alan Saville ,
John A.J. Gowlett  and
Robert E.M. Hedges
Alan Saville
Affiliation:
Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museums, Clarence Street, Cheltenham GL50 3JT
John A.J. Gowlett
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ
Robert E.M. Hedges
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, 6 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3QJ
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Abstract

The social organization of prehistoric British societies has been a busy interest recently, with the hypothesis that the Neolithic was characterized by lineage societies, very likely egalitarian in character, whose dead were placed into communal ‘tombs for the ancestors’. But how secure is the evidence for burial in chambered or unchambered long barrows over many generations? Hazleton provides the key example, for it is the first neolithic burial-site to benefit from the full resources of AMS dating and the new calibration.

Type
Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 61 , Issue 231 , March 1987 , pp. 108 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1987

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