Overview

Barrows at the Core of Bronze Age Communities argues exactly that. Round barrows do not just represent the death side of Early Bronze Age communities placed in set-a-side ritual landscapes, but were instead central to existence in many ways. This study of the Rother Region, where the Weald meets the Wessex massif, reports the results of the People of the Heath project, 2014-18. It integrates a wealth of data from comprehensive field study of all relevant sites in the region with that from excavations into one of its major cemeteries - Petersfield Heath, Hampshire. Fourteen of 21 surviving barrows were sampled by excavation, one of the fullest records for such a cemetery in modern times. In addition to diverse burial rites, the site yielded a range of ‘other significant deposits’ and totally novel insights into the organic artefact repertoire thanks to mineral replacement. Amongst the supplementary material in this volume are: a crucial new analysis of enclosure barrows in Wessex; further analyses regarding barrow morphologies, condition, cemetery formation and siting; observations on damage and recommendations on the future management of the archaeology of Petersfield Heath; detailed context descriptions for the block-lifted urns and log-coffin burial subjected to pioneering stratigraphic micro-excavation; summaries of palaeoenvironmental evidence from the region; the full report on quartz optical dating; a major re-assessment of the excavated ring-ditch at Heath End, Duncton; further detail on finds; and details on various methodologies and definitions employed in the volume. Together the two volumes contain much new for those researching the period, early burial practices and the prehistoric occupation of the western Weald. They will also galvanise debates about variations in the character of barrowscapes across Britain and the place of the Wessex barrow foci.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stuart Needham ,  George Anelay
Publisher:   Sidestone Press
Imprint:   Sidestone Press
ISBN:  

9789464260465

ISBN 10:   9464260467
Pages:   258
Publication Date:   28 February 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Appendix 1.1: Detailed observations on damage to monuments and recommendations on the future management of the archaeology of Petersfield Heath George Anelay and Stuart Needham   Appendix 1.2: Synopsis of the People of the Heath project (2014) Stuart Needham and George Anelay   Appendix 1.3: List of consulted maps showing Petersfield Heath Robert Banbury and George Anelay   Appendix 5.1: Calculations for the area of land stripped to make the western tump in Barrow 4 Stuart Needham   Appendix 7.1: Modern mounds and ‘enclosures’ on the Heath and the islands in the Pond Stuart Needham   Appendix 8.1: Matrix of micro-excavated contexts at the base of the log coffin, Barrow 19, grave [406] Carol Hartzenberg and Stuart Needham   Appendix 8.2: Special finds (SF) associated with the base of the log coffin, Barrow 19 Carol Hartzenberg   Appendix 9.1: Special finds (SF) associated with the urn burials Jane King   Appendix 9.2: Summary table of micro-excavated contexts for Urn 1, Barrow 8 Jane King   Appendix 9.3: Summary table of micro-excavated contexts for Urn 2, Barrow 19 Jane King   Appendix 9.4 Summary table of micro-excavated contexts for Urn 3, Barrow 19 Jane King   Appendix 9.5: Summary table of micro-excavated contexts for Urn 4, Barrow 14 Jane King   Appendix 11.1: Spreadsheet for human bone identifications Emily Carroll   Appendix 12.1: Selected drawings of Late Upper Palaeolithic (LUP) and Mesolithic flintwork Mary Haskins   Appendix 12.2: Site 23 microlithic component Anthony Haskins   Appendix 12.3: Gazetteer of Mesolithic sites within the study area Robert Banbury   Appendix 13.1: Appendix 13.1 Other post-medieval to modern finds George Anelay, Ken Mordle and Dave Bullock   Appendix 13.2: Details of unworked stone material and daub Stuart Needham, with identifications by David Bone   Appendix 13.3: Petrographic analysis of eight stone objects Patrick Sean Quinn   Appendix 13.4: Lipid analysis of sherds from Petersfield Heath Julie Dunne   Appendix 13.5: Further details on mineral-replaced organics and other soil forms Stuart Needham   Appendix 13.6: Report on the compositional analysis of the Bronze Age beads Lore Troalen   Appendix 13.7: Virtual model of the Barrow 13 cremation-sack handle Marta Diaz-Guardamino   Appendix 13.8: Processing, recording and conserving the mineral-replaced wooden handle, ORG13 Stuart Needham   Appendix 13.9: Further details of wood from Barrows 19 and 24 Stuart Needham   Appendix 14.1: Further aspects of the excavated soils Stuart Needham   Appendix 15.1: Quartz optical dating report Mark Bateman   Appendix 16.1: Register of barrows and potential barrows in the Rother Region Stuart Needham and Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 16.2: Barrow register fields: definitions and notations Stuart Needham and Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 16.3: Field methods and database creation for the Regional Barrow Survey Stuart Needham   Appendix 16.4: Summary table of the landscape relationships of potential enclosure barrows Stuart Needham   Appendix 16.5: Further aspects of barrow morphology Stuart Needham   Appendix 16.6: Comparative analysis of enclosure barrows in Wessex Stuart Needham   Appendix 16.7: Effects of denudation and damage on dimensions, including volume Stuart Needham   Appendix 17.1: Barrow occurrence in relation to geology Stuart Needham and Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 17.2: Further detail on soils in the Rother Region Stuart Needham   Appendix 17.3: Further aspects of topographic siting Stuart Needham   Appendix 17.4: Definition of barrow groups, subgroups, pairs and singletons Stuart Needham and Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 17.5: Barrow-group formations and their topographic setting Stuart Needham   Appendix 18.1: Descriptions of barrow groups, pairs and singletons by Zone Stuart Needham and Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 18.2: Details on the mapping of land-use categories Stuart Needham   Appendix 19.1: Bronze Age burial evidence from the Rother Region Stuart Needham and Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 19.2: Re-assessment of the Heath End Duncton ring-ditch (9618/13) Stuart Needham   Appendix 19.3: Evaluation of radiocarbon dates from West Heath Common Stuart Needham   Appendix 20.1: Summaries of palaeo-environmental evidence from sites in the Rother Region Stuart Needham   Appendix 20.2: Summary table of diagnostic Neolithic flintwork from the Rother Region Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 20.3: Notes on the transcription of boundaries and other features shown in text Figures 20.8‑20.13 Stuart Needham   Appendix 20.4: Neolithic to Earliest Iron Age non-funerary structures and material culture in the Rother Region Stuart Needham   Appendix 20.5: Summary table of later prehistoric flintwork assemblages from the Rother Region Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 20.6: Summary table of diagnostic Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age flintwork from the Rother Region Sabine Stevenson   Appendix 20.7: Summary table of Bronze Age metalwork from the Rother Region Sabine Stevenson and Stuart Needham   Appendices 8.2; 9.1; 11.1; 12.3; 13.7; 16.1; 20.5; 20.6; 20.7 are spreadsheets, this dataset is available online

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Author Information

Stuart Needham, formerly curator of the European Bronze Age at The British Museum, is now an independent researcher and Honorary Research Fellow of Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales. Amongst his recent publications are Encompassing the sea: ‘Maritories’ and Bronze Age maritime interactions (in Bronze Age Connections: Cultural Contact in Prehistoric Europe, Oxbow), Claimed by the Sea: Salcombe, Langdon Bay and other marine finds of the Bronze Age (Council for British Archaeology, Research Report 173), The lost cultures of the halberd-bearers (in Celtic from the West 3, Oxbow). George Anelay has been, since 2001, Director of West Sussex Archaeology Ltd, and was, from 2004 until 2012, also Heritage Outreach Officer for Chichester District Council. In both these roles he has directed a number of large-scale research excavations, including those at Middle Barn (The Selhurst Park Project: Middle Barn, Selhurstpark Farm, Eartham, West Sussex 2005–2008, Oxbow), Liss Roman Villa (2005-7), and Chichester city walls (2009-2010). He is a Member of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists.

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