Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-01T05:01:24.347Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Excavation of a Bronze Age Funerary Cairn at Manor Farm, near Borwick, North Lancashire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

A. C. H. Olivier
Affiliation:
Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeological Unit, Physics Building, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster
T. Clare
Affiliation:
County Planning Department, Cumbria County Council, County Offices, Kendal, Cumbria
P. M. Day
Affiliation:
Fitch Laboratory, British School at Athens, Souedias 52, GR106 76 Athens
D. Gurney
Affiliation:
Norfolk Archaeological Unit, Union House, Gressenhall, Dereham, Norfolk
D. Haddon-Reece
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
F. Healy
Affiliation:
Chequers Cottage, Beeston Road, Great Fransham, East Dereham, Norfolk
J. D. Henderson
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE, and Institute of Archaeology, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY
L. Hocking
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
C. Howard-Davis
Affiliation:
Cumbria and Lancashire Archaeological Unit, Physics Building, University of Lancaster, Bailrigg, Lancaster
M. Hughes
Affiliation:
British Museum Research Laboratory, British Museum, London
R. T. Jones
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
H. C. M. Keeley
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
S. P. Needham
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities, British Museum, London
J. Sly
Affiliation:
Ancient Monuments Laboratory, Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, 23 Savile Row, London W1X 2HE
M. van der Veen
Affiliation:
17 Mavin Street, Durham

Abstract

The excavation of a large circular dished earthwork near Carnforth, North Lancashire, in 1982, has revealed a substantial Bronze Age funerary monument. The earliest structure was a sub-rectangular enclosure of limestone boulders dated to c. 1740–1640 BC cal. and associated with parts of two poorly preserved inhumation burials lying on the previously cleared ground surface. Both burials were accompanied by typologically early metalwork. The central inhumation was associated with a flat axe and dagger, suggesting an individual of high status as well as providing an important link between the early stages of development of both bronze types. The subsequent overlying cairn of smaller stones included eleven fairly discrete concentrations of inhumed bone, and seven of cremated bone and pottery. All this material was extremely fragmentary, and was probably derived from later re-use of the cairn.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1987

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ashbee, P., 1960. The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain. Phoenix, London.Google Scholar
Ashbee, P. and R., , 1981. ‘A cairn on Hindlow, Derbyshire: Excavations, 1953’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 101, 941.Google Scholar
Balam, N. D., Smith, K. and Wainwright, G. J., 1982. ‘The Shaugh Moor project: fourth report — environment, context and conclusion’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 48, 203–78.Google Scholar
Balkwill, C., 1978. ‘The ring-ditches and their neighbourhood’, in Parrington, 1978, 2831.Google Scholar
Binney, E. W., 1852. ‘Sketch of the drift deposits of Man-chester and its neighbourhood’, Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester 8, 195234.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. J., 1978. The prehistoric settlement of Britain. Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd, London.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. J., 1984. The social foundations of prehistoric Britain. Longman, Harlow.Google Scholar
Briggs, C. S., 1985. ‘Problems of the early agricultural landscape in Upland Wales, as illustrated by an example from the Brecon Beacons’, in Spratt, D. and Burgess, C. B. (eds), Upland Settlement in Britain. The Second Millennium B.C. and after, 351–64. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 143, Oxford.Google Scholar
Briggs, C. S., 1986. ‘Druid's Circles in Wales; structured cairns and stone circles examined’, Landscape History 8, in press.Google Scholar
Britnell, W., 1982. ‘The excavation of two round barrows at Trelystan, Powys’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 48, 133202.Google Scholar
Bu'lock, J. D., 1961. ‘The Bronze Age in the North-west’, Trans. Lancashire Cheshire Antiq. Soc. 71, 141.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. B., 1979. ‘The background of early metalworking in Ireland and Britain’, in Ryan, M. (ed.), The origins of metallurgy in Atlantic Europe: proceedings of the fifth Atlantic colloquium, Dublin 30th March to 4th April, 1978 207–14. Stationery Office, Dublin.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. B., 1980. The Age ofStonehenge. Dent, London.Google Scholar
Case, H. J., 1966. ‘Were Beaker people the first metallurgists in Ireland?’, Palaeohistoria 12, 141–77.Google Scholar
Chaplin, R. E., 1971. The Study of Animal Bones from Archaeological Sites. Seminar Press, London.Google Scholar
Clark, J. G. D., Higgs, E. S. and Longworth, I. H., 1960. ‘Excavations at the neolithic site at Hurst Fen, Mildenhall, Suffolk (1954, 1957 and 1958)’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 26, 202–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, D. L., 1970. Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Coghlan, H. H. and Case, H. J., 1957. ‘Early metallurgy of copper in Ireland and Britain’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 23, 91123.Google Scholar
Coombs, D., 1973. ‘Perio — the finds’, Durobrivae I, 2526.Google Scholar
Corbet, G. B., 1966. The terrestrial mammals of Western Europe. Foulis, London.Google Scholar
Corbet, G. B. and Southern, H. N., 1977. The Handbook of British mammals. Blackwell, Oxford.Google Scholar
Craddock, P. T., Cowell, M. R., Leese, M. N. and Hughes, M.J., 1983. ‘The trace element composition of polished flint axes as an indicator of source’, Archaeometry 25, 135–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davey, P. J., 1973. ‘Bronze Age metalwork from Lincoln-shire’, Archaeologia 104, 51127.Google Scholar
Day, P. M., 1983. Bronze Age ceramics in the north-west of England: a preliminary thin-section study. Unpublished undergraduate dissertation, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Day, P. M., forthcoming. ‘Petrographic analysis of Bronze Age ceramics from Church Lawton North and South’.Google Scholar
Dobson, D. P., 1931. The archaeology of Somerset. Methuen, London.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G., 1972. Land snails in archaeology. Seminar Press, London.Google Scholar
Fowler, M. J., 1955. ‘The transition from Late Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in the Peak District of Derbyshire and Staffordshire’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 75, 66122.Google Scholar
Fox, C., 1938. ‘Two Bronze Age cairns in South Wales: Simondston and Pond Cairns, Coity Higher Parish, Bridgend (Glamorgan)’, Archaeologia 87, 129–80.Google Scholar
Gerloff, S., 1975. The Early Bronze Age daggers in Great Britain, and a reconsideration of the Wessex Culture. Prähistorische Bronzefunde VI, 2. C. H. Beck, Munich.Google Scholar
Gibson, A. M., 1978. Bronze Age Pottery in the North-east of England. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 56, Oxford.Google Scholar
Grant, A., 1975. ‘The animal bones’, in Cunliffe, B. W. (ed.), Excavations at Portchester Castle: Vol. 2, 262–87. Soc. Antiquaries of London, Res. Rep. 33.Google Scholar
Green, H. S., 1980. The flint arrowheads of the British Isles. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. 75, Oxford.Google Scholar
Grinsell, L. V., 1941. ‘The Bronze Age round barrows of Wessex’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 7, 73113.Google Scholar
Hallam, J., 1970. ‘The prehistory of Lancashire’, Archaeol. J. 127, 232–37.Google Scholar
Harbison, P., 1969a. The axes of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland. Prähistorische Bronzefunde IX, 1. C. H. Beck, Munich.Google Scholar
Harbison, P., 1969b. The daggers and halberds of the Early Bronze Age in Ireland. Prähistorische Bronzefunde VI, 1. C. H. Beck, Munich.Google Scholar
Healey, E., 1982. ‘The flintwork’, in Britnell, , 1982, 173–83.Google Scholar
Henderson, J. D., 1984. The human skeletal remains in Carlisle, Blackfriars Street. Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report No. 4219.Google Scholar
Henshall, A. S., 1963. The Chambered Tombs of Scotland. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Hillman, G., 1982. ‘Charred remains of plants’, in Britnell, 1982, 198200.Google Scholar
Higham, N., 1986. The Northern Counties to AD 1000. Longman, Harlow.Google Scholar
Howard, H., 1983. The bronze casting industry in later prehistoric Southern Britain: a study based on refractory debris. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Howard-Davis, C., 1984. ‘Lancashire sites and monuments record and its computerisation’, Contrebis 11, 325.Google Scholar
Hulthen, B., 1976. ‘Technical investigations for evidence of continuity or discontinuity of ancient ceramic traditions’, in DeLaet, S. J. (ed.), Acculturation and Continuity in Atlantic Europe, 120–29. De Tempel, Brugge.Google Scholar
Jackson, D. A., 1984. ‘The excavation of a Bronze Age barrow at Earl's Barton, Northants’, Northamptonshire Archaeol. 19, 330.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. W., 1909. ‘Preliminary report on the exploration of “Dog Holes” Cave, Warton Crag, near Carnforth, Lancashire’, Trans. Lancashire Cheshire Antiq. Soc. 27, 132.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. W., 1910. ‘Further report on the explorations at Dog Holes, Warton Crag, Lancashire, with remarks on the contents of two adjacent caves’, Trans. Lancashire Cheshire Antiq. Soc. 28, 5981.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. W., 1912. ‘Third report on the explorations at Dog Holes, Warton Crag, Lanes.’, Trans. Lancashire Cheshire Antiq. Soc. 30, 99130.Google Scholar
Jewell, P. A., 1959. ‘Small mammals of the Bronze Age’, Bull. Mammal Soc. 51, 911.Google Scholar
Jones, M., 1978. ‘The plant remains’, in Parrington, 1978, 93110.Google Scholar
Jones, R. T., Wall, S. M., Locker, A. M., Coy, J. and Maltby, M., 1979. Computer-based osteometry data capture user manual (1). Ancient Monuments Laboratory Report No. 3342.Google Scholar
Jowett, A., 1914. ‘The glacial geology of East Lancashire’, Quarterly J. Geol. Soc. London 70, 199231.Google Scholar
Kinnes, I. A., 1976. ‘The Standlow dagger’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 42, 319–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinnes, I. A., 1979. Round barrows and ring-ditches in the British Neolithic. British Museum Occasional Paper 7, London.Google Scholar
Kinnes, I. A. and Longworth, I. H., 1985. Catalogue of the excavated Prehistoric and Romano-British material in the Greenwell Collection. British Museum Publications, London.Google Scholar
Krumbein, W. C., 1934. ‘Size frequency distributions of sediments’, J. Sedimentary Petrology. 4.2, 6577.Google Scholar
Leighton, D. K., 1984. ‘Structured round cairns in West Central Wales’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 50, 319–50.Google Scholar
Limbrey, S., 1975. Soil science and archaeology. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Lowndes, R. A. C., 1963. ‘Celtic fields, farmsteads, and burial-mounds in the Lune Valley’, Trans. Cumberland Westmorland Antiq. Archaeol. Soc. n. ser. 63, 7795.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1970. Prehistoric Anglesey: the archaeology of the island to the Roman Conquest. The Anglesey Antiquarian Society, Llangefni.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1972. ‘Ring-cairns and related monuments in Wales’, Scot. Archeol. Forum. 4, 6180.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1975. ‘Brenig Valley Excavations 1974 (Interim Report)’, Trans. Denbighshire Hist. Soc. 24, 1337.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M., 1979. ‘Ring cairns in Britain and Ireland; their design and purpose’, Ulster J. Archaeol. 3 ser. 42, 119.Google Scholar
Lynch, F. M. wall', Cornish Archaeol. 14, 584.Google Scholar
Morris, E. L., n.d. ‘Petrological analysis of the ceramic material from the excavations at Beeston Castle, prior to 1981 (non-metallurgical)’, manuscript.Google Scholar
Murphy, J. and Riley, J. P., 1962. ‘A modified single solution method for the determination of phosphate in natural waters’, Anal. Chim. Acta 27, 3136.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P., 1983. The Early Bronze Age axeheads of central and southern England. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University College, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P., 1986. ‘Radiocarbon: a means to under-standing the role of Bronze Age metalwork’, in Gowlett, J.A.J. and Hedges, R. E. M. (eds), Archaeological Results from Accelerator Dating, 143–50. Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph 11.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P., forthcoming. ‘Selective deposition in the British Early Bronze Age’, in Nordström, H.-A. (ed.), Proceedings of the British-Scandinavian Bronze Age Colloquium, Stockholm, May 1985. Stockholm Studies series.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P., Lawson, A. J. and Green, H. S., 1985. Early Bronze Age hoards. British Bronze Age Metalwork: Associated Finds Series A1–6. British Museum Publications, London.Google Scholar
North, O. H. and Spence, J. E., 1936. ‘Stone circle, Summer-house Hill, Yealand Conyers’, Trans. Cumberland Westmorland Antiq. Archaeol. Soc. n. ser. 36, 6970.Google Scholar
Norwich Castle Museum, 1977. Bronze Age metalwork in Norwich Castle Museum, 2nd ed. Norfolk Museums Service.Google Scholar
Olivier, A. C. H., 1982. ‘The Ribchester Vicus and its con-text’, in Clack, P. and Haselgrove, S. (eds), Rural Settlement in the Roman North, 133–48. Council Brit. Archaeol. Group 3, Durham.Google Scholar
Parrington, M. (ed.), 1978. The excavations of an Iron Age settlement, Bronze Age ring-ditches and Roman features at Ashville Trading Estate, Abingdon (Oxon.) 1974–6. Council Brit. Archaeol. Res. Rep. 28.Google Scholar
Peacock, D. P. S., 1971. ‘Petrography of certain coarse pottery’ in Cunliffe, B., Excavations at Fishbourne, 1961–69, Vol. 2, 255–59. Soc. Antiquaries of London Res. Rep. 27.Google Scholar
Peacock, D. P. S., 1982. Pottery in the Roman World: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach. London.Google Scholar
Pearson, G. W. and Stuiver, M., 1986. ‘High precision calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, 500–2500 BC’, Radiocarbon 28, 839–62.Google Scholar
Pennington, W., 1965. ‘The interpretation of some Post-glacial diversities at different Lake District sites’, Proc. Roy. Soc. London (B) 161, 310–23.Google Scholar
Pennington, W., 1970. ‘Vegetation history in the North-West of England: a regional synthesis’, in Walker, D. and West, R. G. (eds), The Vegetational History of the British Isles, 4179. University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Petersen, F., 1972. ‘Traditions of multiple burial in Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age England’, Archaeol. J. 129, 2255.Google Scholar
Pettijohn, F. J., Potter, P. E. and Siever, R., 1973. Sand and sandstone. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Pitts, M. W., 1978. ‘Towards an understanding of flint industries in Post-Glacial England’, Bull. Inst. Archaeol. Univ. London 15, 179–97.Google Scholar
Radley, J., 1966. ‘Bronze Age ringworks on Totley Moor and other Bronze Age ringworks in the Pennines’, Archaeol. J. 123, 127.Google Scholar
Riley, D. N., 1966. ‘An early Bronze Age cairn on Harland Edge, Beeley Moor, Derbyshire’, Derbyshire Archaeol. J. 86, 3153.Google Scholar
Ritchie, J. N. G. and MacLaren, A., 1972. ‘Ring-cairns and related monuments in Scotland’, Scot. Archaeol. Forum 4, 117.Google Scholar
Rowlands, M., 1980. ‘Kinship, alliance and exchange in the European Bronze Age’, in Barrett, J. C. and Bradley, R. J. (eds), Settlement and Society in the British Later Bronze Age, 1555. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 83, Oxford.Google Scholar
Saville, A., 1982. ‘Carrying cores to Gloucestershire: some thoughts on lithic resource exploitation’, Lithics 3, 2528.Google Scholar
Schmidt, P. K. and Burgess, C. B., 1981. The axes of Scotland and northern England. Prahistorische Bronzefunde IX, 7. C. H. Beck, Munich.Google Scholar
Silver, I. A., 1969. ‘The ageing of domestic animals’, in Brothwell, D. R. and Higgs, E. (eds), Science in Archaeology, 283302.Google Scholar
Simpson, I. M., 1960. ‘Stone counts in the Pleistocene of the Manchester Area’, Proc. Yorkshire Geol. Soc. 32, 379–88.Google Scholar
Smith, A. G., 1959. ‘The mires of south-western Westmor-land: stratigraphy and pollen analysis’, New Phytol. 58, 105–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, I. F., 1979. ‘The chronology of British stone implements’, in Clough, T. H. Mck. and Cummins, W. A. (eds). Stone axe studies, 1322. Council Brit. Archaeol. Res. Rep. 23.Google Scholar
Smith, K., Coppen, J., Wainwright, G. J. and Beckett, S., 1981. ‘The Shaugh Moor project: third report—settlement and environmental investigations’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 47, 205–74.Google Scholar
Spencer, D. W., 1963. ‘Interpretation of grain size distribution curves of clastic sediments’, J. Sedimentary Petrology 33, 180–90.Google Scholar
Stuart, A. J., 1982. Pleistocene Vertebrates in the British Isles. Longman, London.Google Scholar
Sturdy, D., 1972. ‘A ring-cairn in Levens Park, Westmorland’, Scot. Archaeol. Forum. 4, 5255.Google Scholar
Tanner, J. F., 1970. Till deposition in Lancashire. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester.Google Scholar
Tomalin, D. J., 1983. British Biconical Urns: their character and chronology and their relationship with indigenous Early Bronze Age ceramics. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Southampton.Google Scholar
Tonks, L. H., Jones, R. C. B., Lloyd, W. and Sherlock, R. L., 1931. Geology of Manchester and the South-East Lancashire Coalfield. HMSO, London.Google Scholar
Tooley, M. J., 1978. Sea-level changes: North-west England during the Flandrian stage. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Topping, J., 1955. Errors of observation and their treatment. Chapman and Hall, London (reprinted 1984).Google Scholar
Tringham, R., 1971. Untitled flint report in Powell, T. G. E., Oldfield, F. and Corcoran, J. X. W. P., ‘Excavations in zone VII peat at Storrs Moss, Lancashire, England, 1965–1967’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 37 (i), 121–22.Google Scholar
Tricart, T. and Shaeffer, R., 1950. ‘L'indice d'émoussé des galets. Moyen d'étude des systèmes d'érosion’, Rev. de Géomorph. 1, 151–79.Google Scholar
Tyson, N., 1980. Excavation of a cairn at Wind Hill, Heywood, Lancashire. Greater Manchester Archaeological Group Publications 1.Google Scholar
Varley, W. J., 1938. ‘The Bleasdale Circle’, Antiq. J. 18, 154–72.Google Scholar
Veen, M. van der, 1985. ‘Plant remains’, in Milcet, R., ‘Ritual enclosures at Whitton Hill, Northumberland’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 51, 137–48.Google Scholar
Vyner, B. E., 1984. ‘The excavation of a neolithic cairn at Street House, Loftus, Cleveland’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 50, 151–95.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J., 1979, Mount Pleasant, Dorset: excavations lyjo-iyji. Soc. Antiquaries of London Res. Rep. 37.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J., Fleming, A. and Smith, K., 1979. ‘The Shaugh Moor Project: first report’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 45, 133.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. and Smith, K., 1980. ‘The Shaugh Moor Project: second report’, Proc. Prehist. Soc. 45, 65122.Google Scholar
Ward, A. H., 1977. ‘A re-appraisal of the excavation on the Pwll Mountain stone rings, Marros, Dyfed’, Carmarthen-shire Antiq. 13, 316.Google Scholar
Ward, G. K. and Wilson, S. R., 1978. ‘Procedures for com-paring and combining radiocarbon age determination: a critique’, Archaeometry 20, 1931.Google Scholar
Waterman, D. M., 1951. ‘Quernhow: A Food-Vessel barrow in Yorkshire’, Antiq. J. 31, 124.Google Scholar
Watson, J. P. N., 1978. ‘The interpretation of epiphyseal fusion data’, in Brothwell, D. R., Thomas, K. D. and Clutton-Brock, J. (eds), Research Problems in Zooarchaeology, 97101. Institute of Archaeology Occasional Publication No. 3.Google Scholar
Williams, D. F., 1982. ‘Aspects of prehistoric pottery making in Orkney’, in Freestone, I. C. et al. (eds), Current Research in Ceramics: Thin-section Studies, 913. British Museum Occasional Paper 32.Google Scholar
Woodhouse, B. E., 1974. ‘Aerial survey 1973/4’, Contrebis 2.2, 3738.Google Scholar
Yates, M. J., 1983. ‘Field clearance and field survey: some observations and an illustration from south-west Scotland’, in Reeves-Smyth, T. and Hammond, F. (eds), Landscape Archaeology in Ireland, 341–56. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser., 116. Oxford.Google Scholar
Yalden, D. A., 1977. ‘Small mammals and the archaeologist’, Bull. Peakland Archaeol. Soc. 30, 1825.Google Scholar
Yates, M. J., 1984. Bronze Age round cairns in Dumfries and Galloway. Brit. Archaeol. Rep. Brit. Ser. 132. Oxford.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Olivier supplementary material

Olivier supplementary material

Download Olivier supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 16.7 MB