Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:50:00.143Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Causewayed Camps and Early Neolithic Economies in Central Southern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Graeme Barker
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, Sheffield University
Derrick Webley
Affiliation:
Agricultural Development and Advisory Service, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Wales

Summary

This paper is a study of the location of several causewayed camps in central southern England. We first discuss their contemporary environment, the cultivation technology of the early neolithic farmers, and the implications of this technology for land use. We conclude from soil studies that all except one of the sites examined were in pastoral situations, although the seasonality of the pasture varied between the sites. On the basis of the location studies and our earlier arguments, we put forward a model of early neolithic land use in the area as an alternative to the traditional brandwirtschaft model.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anati, E., 1964. The Camonica Valley. Jonathan Cape, London.Google Scholar
Ashbee, P., 1966. ‘The Fussell's Lodge long barrow. Excavations 1957’, Archaeologia 100, 180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashbee, P., 1970. The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain. Dent, London.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. C., 1957. ‘Worms and weathering’, Antiquity 31, 219–33.Google Scholar
Atkinson, R. C., Piggott, C. M. and Sandars, N. K., 1951. Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.Google Scholar
Barfield, L. H., 1971. Northern Italy. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Barker, G. W. W., 1975. ‘Early neolithic land use in Yugoslavia’, PPS 41, 85104.Google Scholar
Bowen, H. C., 1975. ‘Pattern and interpretation: a view of the Wessex landscape’. In Fowler, P. (ed.) Recent Work in Rural Archaeology. 4456. Moonraker Press, Bradford on Avon.Google Scholar
Bowen, H. C. and Fowler, P. J., 1966. ‘Romano-British rural settlements in Dorset and Wiltshire’. In Thomas, C. (ed.) Rural Settlement in Roman Britain, 4367. CBA research report no. 7, London.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. and Ellison, A., 1975. Rams Hill. British Archaeological Reports 19.Google Scholar
Case, H., 1956. ‘The neolithic causewayed camp at Abingdon, Berks.’, Antiquaries Journal 36, 1130.Google Scholar
Childe, V. G., 1957. The Dawn of European Civilization. University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Chisholm, M., 1968. Rural Settlement and Land Use. Hutchinson, London.Google Scholar
Christie, P. M., 1959. ‘A bronze age round barrow on Earl's Farm Down, Amesbury’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 59, 3045.Google Scholar
Clapham, A. R. and Clapham, B. N., 1939. ‘The valley fen at Cothill, Berkshire: data for the study of post-glacial history’, New Phytologist 38, 167–74.Google Scholar
Clark, J. G. D., 1952. Prehistoric Europe—the Economic Basis. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Coles, J. and Hibbert, A., 1975. ‘The Somerset Levels’. In Fowler, P. S. (ed.) Recent Work in Rural Archaeology, 1226. Moonraker Press, Bradford on Avon.Google Scholar
Coles, J., Hibbert, A. and Clements, C. F., 1970. ‘Prehistoric roads and trackways in Somerset, England: 2. Neolithic’, PPS 36, 125–51.Google Scholar
Coles, J., Hibbert, A. and Orme, B. J., 1973. ‘Prehistoric roads and trackways in Somerset: 3. The Sweet Track’, PPS 39, 256–93.Google Scholar
Collis, J. R., 1970. ‘Excavations at Owslebury, Hants’, Antiquaries Journal 50, 246–61.Google Scholar
Connah, G., 1965. ‘Excavations at Knap Hill, Alton Priors, 1961’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 60, 123.Google Scholar
Cope, D. W., 1973. Soils in Gloucestershire I: Sheet SO 82 (Norton). Soil Survey Record No. 13, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Cope, D. W., 1974. Soils in Wiltshire I: Sheet SU 03 (Wilton). Soil Survey Record No. 32, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Darby, H. C. and Campbell, E. M. J., 1962. The Domesday Geography of South-East England. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Darby, H. C. and Welldon Finn, R., 1967. The Domesday Geography of South-West England. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Defoe, D., 1742. A Tour Thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. Peter Davies, G. D. H. Cole reprint.Google Scholar
Dennell, R. W., 1976. ‘Prehistoric crop cultivation in southern England: a reconsideration’, Antiquaries Journal 56, 1123.Google Scholar
Dennell, R. W. and Webley, D., 1974. ‘Prehistoric settlement and land use in southern Bulgaria’. In Higgs, E. S. (ed.) Palaeoeconomy. 97109. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Dimbleby, G. W. and Evans, J. G., 1974. ‘Pollen and land snail analysis of calcareous soils’, Journal of Archaeological Science 1, 117–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dixon, P. W., 1971. Crickley Hill Third Report. Gloucestershire College of Art, Cheltenham.Google Scholar
Dixon, P. W., 1972. ‘Crickley Hill 1969–71’, Antiquity 46, 4952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodgshonn, R. A. and Jewell, P. A., 1969. ‘Paring and burning and related practices with particular reference to the southwestern counties of England’. In Gailey, A. and Fenton, A. (eds) The Spade in Northern and Atlantic Europe. Queens University, Belfast.Google Scholar
Drew, C. D. and Piggott, S., 1936. ‘The excavation of long barrow 163a on Thickthorn Down, Dorset’, PPS 2, 7796.Google Scholar
Drewett, P., 1977. ‘The excavation of a neolithic causewayed enclosure on Offham Hill, East Sussex, 1976’, PPS 43, 201–41.Google Scholar
Duffey, E., 1974. ‘Grasslands and their history’. In Duffey, E. (ed.) Grassland Ecology and Wildlife Management, 1240. Chapman, London.Google Scholar
Dyer, J., 1973. Southern England: an Archaeological Guide. Faber, London.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. and Harriss, J., 1972. ‘Settlement and land use in the prehistory and early history of southern England’. In Clarke, D. L. (ed.) Models in Archaeology, 911–62. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Evans, H., 1931. Cwm Eithin. Liverpool.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., 1971a. ‘Notes on the environment of early farming communities in Britain’. In Simpson, D. D. A. (ed.) Economy and Settlement in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Europe, 1126. University Press, Leicester.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., 1971b. ‘Habitat change on the calcareous soils of Britain: the impact of neolithic man’. In Simpson, D. D. A. (ed.) Economy and Settlement in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Europe, 2773. University Press, Leicester.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., 1975. The Environment of Early Man in the British Isles. Paul Elek, London.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., Limbrey, S. and Cleere, H., 1975. The Effect of Man on the Landscape: the Highland Zone. CBA research report no. 11, London.Google Scholar
Evens, E. D., Smith, I. F. and Wallis, F. S., 1972. ‘The petrological identification of stone implements from south-western England’, PPS 38, 235–75.Google Scholar
Field, N. H., Matthews, C. L. and Smith, I. F., 1964. ‘New neolithic sites in Dorset and Bedfordshire, with a note on the distribution of neolithic storage pits in Britain’, PPS 30, 352–81.Google Scholar
Findlay, D. C., 1965. Soils of the Mendip District of Somerset. Soil Survey Record, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Findlay, D. C., 1976. Soils of the Southern Cotswolds. Soil Survey Record, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Fleming, A., 1971. ‘Territorial patterns in bronze age Wessex’, PPS 37 (1), 138–66.Google Scholar
Fleming, A. and Collis, J. R., 1973. ‘A late prehistoric reave system near Cholwich Town, Dartmoor’, Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 31, 121.Google Scholar
Fowler, P. J., 1971. ‘Early prehistoric agriculture in western Europe: some archaeological evidence’. In Simpson, D. D. A. (ed.) Settlement and Economy in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Europe, 153–82. University Press, Leicester.Google Scholar
Fowler, P. J. and Evans, J. G., 1967. ‘Plough-marks, lynchets and early fields’, Antiquity 41, 289301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garner, H. V. and Dyke, G. V., 1969. ‘The Broadbalk yields’, Rothamsted Experimental Station Report for 1968, 2649. Lawes Agricultural Trust, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., 1944. ‘The age and origin of the Breckland heaths of East Anglia’, Nature 154, 6.Google Scholar
Godwin, H., 1956. The History of British Flora. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Grinsell, L. V., 1958. The Archaeology of Wessex. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Helbaek, H., 1952. ‘Early crops in southern England’, PPS 18, 194230.Google Scholar
Iversen, J., 1941. ‘Land occupation in Denmark's Stone Age’, Danmarks Geologiske Undersegelse II, 66, 168.Google Scholar
Jarman, H. N. and Bay-Petersen, J. L., 1977. ‘Agriculture in prehistoric Europe—the lowlands’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 275, 175–86.Google Scholar
Jarvis, R. A., 1968. Soils of the Reading District. Soil Survey Record, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Jarvis, R. A., 1973. Soils of the Wantage and Abingdon District. Soil Survey Record, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. E., 1975. ‘Experiments made on Stackyard field, Woburn, 1877–1974’, Rothamsted Experimental Station Report for 1974, 2944. Lawes Agricultural Trust, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Kerney, M. P., 1962. ‘Late glacial deposits on the chalk of southeast England’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 246, 203–54.Google Scholar
Kerney, M. P., Brown, E. G. and Chandler, T. J., 1964. ‘The late-glacial and post-glacial history of the chalk escarpment near Brook, Kent’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B, 248, 135204.Google Scholar
Kerridge, E., 1959. ‘Agriculture c. 1500–c. 1973’. In Crittard, E. (ed.) A History of Wiltshire IV, 4364.Google Scholar
Victoria History of the Counties of England. University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Kjaerum, P., 1954. ‘Plough furrows under a stone age barrow in Jutland’, Kuml. 27–9.Google Scholar
Kruk, J., 1973. Studia Osadnicze nad Neolitem Wyzyn Lessowych. Polska Akademia Nauk, Warsaw.Google Scholar
Limbrey, S., 1975. Soil Science and Archaeology. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
McConnell, P., 1897. The Agricultural Notebook, 6th edition. Crosby, Lockwood and Co., London.Google Scholar
Mellars, P. A., 1976. ‘Fire ecology, animal populations and man: a study of some ecological relationships in prehistory’, PPS 42, 1545.Google Scholar
Mercer, R., 1975. ‘Hambledon Hill’, Current Archaeology 48, 1618.Google Scholar
Morgan, F. de M., 1959. ‘The excavation of a long barrow at Nutbane, Hants.’, PPS 25, 1551.Google Scholar
Palmer, R., 1976. ‘Interrupted ditch enclosures in Britain: the use of aerial photography for comparative studies’, PPS 42, 161–86.Google Scholar
Peacock, D. P. S., 1969. ‘Neolithic pottery production in Cornwall’, Antiquity 43, 145–9.Google Scholar
Pennington, W., 1969. The History of British Vegetation. Unibooks, London.Google Scholar
Pickering, J., 1975. ‘Aerial reconnaisance 1974: interim report on cereal cropmarks’, C.B.A. Group 9 Newsletter 5, 57.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1954. The Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1962. The West Kennet Long Barrow. Excavations 1955–56. HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Pitt Rivers, A. H. L., 1898. Excavations in Cranborne Chase IV.Google Scholar
Postan, M. M., 1962. ‘Village livestock in the thirteenth century’, Economic History Review 15, 219–49.Google Scholar
Pryor, F., 1975. ‘Fengate’, Current Archaeology 46, 332–9.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., 1973. ‘Monuments, mobilization and social organization in neolithic Wessex’. In Renfrew, C. (ed.) The Explanation of Culture Change, 539–58. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Richards, R., 1933. Cymru-r Oesau Canol. Hughes, Wrexham.Google Scholar
Roberts, B. K., 1977. Rural Settlement in Britain. Dawson Archon, Folkestone.Google Scholar
Scott, R., 1959. ‘Medieval agriculture’. In Crittall, E. (ed.) A History of Wiltshire IV, 742. Victoria History of the Counties of England. University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Seeberg, P. and Kristensen, H. H., 1964. ‘Many criss-cross furrows’, Kuml., 714.Google Scholar
Simmonds, W. S., 1861. ‘On the drifts of the Severn, Avon, Wye and Usk’, Proceedings of the Cotteswold Natural History Field Club 3, 31–9.Google Scholar
Slicher Van Bath, B. H., 1963. The Agrarian History of Western Europe A.D. 500–1850. Edward Arnold, London.Google Scholar
Smith, A. G., 1970. ‘The influence of mesolithic and neolithic man on British vegetation: a discussion’. In Walker, D. and West, R. G. (eds) Studies in the Vegetational History of the British Isles, 8196. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F., 1965. Windmill Hill and Avebury: Excavations by Alexander Keiller 1925–1930. University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F., 1966. ‘Windmill Hill and its implications’, Palaeohistoria 12, 469–82.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F., 1974. ‘The Neolithic’. In Renfrew, C. (ed.) British Prehistory: A New Outline, 100–36. Duckworth, London.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F. and Evans, J. G., 1968. ‘Excavation of two long barrows in north Wiltshire’, Antiquity 42, 138–42.Google Scholar
Sparks, B. W. and Lewis, W. V., 1957. ‘Escarpment of dry valleys near Pegsdon, Hertfordshire’, Proceedings of the Geological Association 68, 2638.Google Scholar
St Joseph, J. K., 1962. ‘Air reconnaisance in northern France’, Antiquity 36, 279–86.Google Scholar
Steensberg, A., 1973. ‘A 6000 year old ploughing implement from Satrup moor’, Tools and Tillage 2, 105–18.Google Scholar
Taylor, C., 1970. Dorset. Hodder and Stoughton, London.Google Scholar
Thomas, N., 1959. ‘The neolithic causewayed camp at Robin Hood's Ball, Shrewton’, Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 59, 127.Google Scholar
Tringham, R., 1971. Hunters, Fishers and Farmers of Eastern Europe 6000–3000 B.C. Hutchinson University Library, London.Google Scholar
Tyler, A., 1976. Neolithic Flint Axes from the Cotswold Hills. British Archaeological Reports 25.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J., Evans, J. G. and Longworth, I. H., 1971. ‘The excavation of a late neolithic enclosure at Marden, Wiltshire’, Antiquaries Journal 51, 177239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, D. and West, R. G. (eds), 1970. Studies in the Vegetational History of the British Isles. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Warren, R. G. and Johnson, A. E., 1967. ‘Hoosfield continuous barley’, Rothamsted Experimental Station Report for 1966, 320–38. Lawes Agricultural Trust, Harpenden.Google Scholar
Waterbolk, H. T., 1968. ‘Food production in prehistoric Europe’, Science 162, 10931101.Google Scholar
Wheeler, R. E. M., 1943. Maiden Castle. Reports of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries No. 12. University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
White, K. D., 1970. Roman Farming. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. W. R., 1977a. ‘Earlier neolithic enclosures in north-west Europe’, PPS 43, 329–48.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. W. R., 1977b. The Earlier Neolithic of S. England and its Continental Background. British Archaeological Reports, Supplementary Series 35.Google Scholar
Wilson, D. R., 1975. ‘Causewayed camps and interrupted ditch systems’, Antiquity 49, 178–86.Google Scholar