Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:32:42.841Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Iron Age burial in southern Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

Rowan Whimster
Rowan Whimster
Affiliation:
Committee for Aerial Photography, University of Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Over 45 years have now elapsed since attention was first drawn to an apparent paucity of pre-Roman Iron Age funerary sites in southern Britain (Hawkes and Dunning 1930). This remarkable lacuna, contrasting with a wealth of Bronze Age burial forms, received little further attention until Hodson defined an absence of burials as a ‘negative type-fossil’ of his insular and otherwise prolific Woodbury Culture and emphasized the cultural implications of this uncomfortable gap in the archaeological record (Hodson 1964). With the exception of supposedly intrusive continental disposal forms in restricted areas of Yorkshire and south-eastern England and a third rather hazy rite from the extreme south-west, the British Iron Age was characterized by an embarrassingly invisible method of disposal that could neither be compared nor contrasted with contemporary continental traditions. Although efforts have been made to explain this absence in terms of hypothetical practices that would leave no archaeologically recognizable traces, there have been few attempts to consider in detail the scattered references to human remains that have slowly accumulated in the literature. A reconsideration of this evidence in the light of more recently excavated material suggests that the dearth of funerary remains is to an extent illusory and that further distinctive disposal rituals can now be added to those already recognized. It is also apparent that certain shared characteristics may force a general reconsideration of the origins of these different rites.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 43 , December 1977 , pp. 317 - 327
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1977

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

Aitken, G. M., 1967. ‘Third interim report of excavations at Whitcombe’, Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Arch. Soc., 89, 126–7.Google Scholar
Alcock, L., 1970. ‘Excavations at South Cadbury Castle, 1969’, Ant. J., 50, 14–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashbee, P., 1954. ‘Excavations of a cist-grave cemetery and associated structures near Hughtown, St Mary's, Isles of Stilly’, Arch. J., III, 1–25.Google Scholar
Bailey, C. J., 1967. ‘An Early Iron Age-Romano-British site at Pin's Knoll, Litton Cheney, Dorset’, Proc. Dorset Nat. Hist, and Arch. Soc., 89, 147–59.Google Scholar
Bate, C. S., 1866. ‘On the discovery of a Romano-British cemetery near Plymouth’, Archaeologia, 40, 500–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellowes, J., 1881. ’On some bronze and other articles found near Birdlip’, Trans. Bristol and Gloucs. Arch. Soc., 5, 137–41.Google Scholar
Birchall, A., 1965. ‘The Aylesford-Swarling culture: the problem of the Belgae reconsidered’, PPS, 31, 241–367.Google Scholar
Bretz-Mahler, D., 1971. ‘La civilisation de La Téne I en Champagne’, Paris.Google Scholar
Bullen, R. A., 1912. Harlyn Bay. (3rd edition). Harlyn Bay.Google Scholar
Collis, J. R. C., 1968. ‘Excavations at Owslebury, Hants, an interim report’, Arch. J., 48, 1968, 18–31.Google Scholar
Collis, J. R. C., 1972. ‘Burials with weapons in Iron Age Britain’, Germania, 50, 121–33.Google Scholar
Crawford, O. G. S., 1921. ‘The ancient settlements at Harlyn Bay’, Ant. J., 1, 281–99.Google Scholar
Crawford, O. G. S., 1928. ‘Stone cists’, Antiquity, 2, 418–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunnington, M. E., 1933. ‘Excavations in Yarnbury Castle Camp, 1932’, W.A.M., 46, 198–213.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B. W., 1974. Iron Age communities in Britain. London.Google Scholar
Dechelette, J., 1927. Manuel d'Archeologie, vol. V, Le Second Age du Fer. Paris.Google Scholar
Dryden, H., 1885. ‘Hunsbury, or Danes Camp, and the discoveries made there’, Repts. Associated Architectural Societies, 18, 53–61.Google Scholar
Dudley, D. and Jope, E. M., 1965. ‘An Iron Age cist-burial with two brooches from Trevone, North Cornwall’, Cornish Archaeology, 4, 18–23.Google Scholar
Dunning, G. C., 1966. Deal Castle. H.M.S.O., London.Google Scholar
Dymond, C. W., 1902. Worlebury: An ancient stronghold in the County of Somerset. Bristol.Google Scholar
Fox, C., 1923. The Archaeology of the Cambridge Region. Cambridge.Google Scholar
Giot, P-R., 1973. ‘Armoricains et Bretons: perspectives nouvelles sur les Bretons’, Annales de Bretagne, 80, 129–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, H. St G., 1925. ‘Excavations at Ham Hill, South Somerset’, Proc. Somerset Arch. Soc., 71, 57–76.Google Scholar
Harding, D. W., 1972. The Iron Age of the Upper Thames Basin. Oxford.Google Scholar
Harding, D. W., 1974. The Iron Age in Lowland Britain. London.Google Scholar
Hartley, B. R., 1956. ‘The Wandlebury Iron Age hillfort, excavations of 1955–6’, Proc. Cambridge Ant. Soc., 50, 1–28.Google Scholar
Hawkes, C. F. C. and Dunning, G. C., 1930. ‘The Belgae of Gaul and Britain’, Arch. J., 87, 150–335.Google Scholar
Hencken, H. O'N., 1932. Cornwall and Scilly. London.Google Scholar
Hodson, F. R., 1964. ‘Cultural groupings in the British pre-Roman Iron Age’, PPS, 30, 99–110.Google Scholar
Hooley, R. W., 1929. ‘Excavation of an Early Iron Age village on Worthy Down, Winchester’, Proc. Hants Field Club, 10, 178–92.Google Scholar
Kendrick, T. D., 1928. Archaeology of the Channel Islands, vol. 1: The Bailiwick of Guernsey. London.Google Scholar
Piggott, S., 1950. ‘Swords and scabbards of the British Early Iron Age’, PPS, 16, 1–28.Google Scholar
Pitt-Rivers, A. H. L. F., 1887. Excavations in Cranborne Chase, vol. I.Google Scholar
Pitt-Rivers, A. H. L. F., 1889. Excavations in Cranborne Chase, vol. II.Google Scholar
Pitt-Rivers, A. H. L. F., 1892. Excavations in Cranborne Chase, vol. III.Google Scholar
Richmond, I. A., 1968. Hod Hill, vol. 2. H.M.S.O., London.Google Scholar
Rogers, J. J., 1873. ‘Romano-British or Late Celtic remains at Trelan Bahow, St Keverne, Cornwall’, Arch. J., 30, 267–72.Google Scholar
Stead, I. M., 1965. The La Téne Cultures of eastern Yorkshire. York.Google Scholar
Stead, I. M., 1967. ‘A La Téne III burial at Welwyn Garden City’, Archaeologia, 101, 1–62.Google Scholar
Trollope, E., 1860. ‘Roman remains in the vicinity of Padstow, Cornwall’, Arch J., 17, 311–6.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J., 1968. ‘The excavation of a Durotrigian farmstead near Tollard Royal in Cranborne Chase, southern England’, PPS, 34, 102–47.Google Scholar
Warne, C., 1872. Ancient Dorset.Google Scholar
Way, A., n.d. Unpublished manuscript note, Society of Antiquaries Library, London.Google Scholar
Wheeler, R. E. M., 1943. Maiden Castle. (Society of Antiquaries Report, No. 12). London.Google Scholar
Williams, A., 1951. ‘Excavations at Beard Mill, Stanton Harcourt, Oxon, 1944’, Oxoniensia, 16, 5–23.Google Scholar