In its early decades, Antiquity regularly featured the subject of linear earthworks that criss-cross the British landscape. Subsequently, however, discussion has been largely relegated to period-specific and local journals. As a result, interpretations of these imposing but often poorly dated earthworks have been drawn in the contrasting research traditions of later prehistory and the early medieval period. Here, the authors propose a comparative dialogue as a means for reinterpreting these landscape features, and as a lens through which to explore social complexity. Combined with advances in archaeometrical dating, this new approach promises to reinvigorate the study of some of Britain's largest archaeological monuments.

Land divisions are ubiquitous features of the British countryside. Field boundaries, enclosures, pit alignments, and other forms of land division have been used to shape and delineate the landscape over thousands of years. While these divisions are critical for understanding economies and subsistence, the organization of tenure and property, social structure and identity, and their histories of use have remained unclear. Here, the authors present the first robust, Bayesian statistical chronology for land division over three millennia within a study region in England. Their innovative approach to investigating long-term change demonstrates the unexpected scale of later ‘prehistoric’ land demarcation, which may correspond to the beginnings of increasing social hierarchy.