Overview

This first of two volumes presents the archaeological evidence of a long sequence of settlement and funerary activity from the Beaker period (Early Bronze Age c. 2000 BC) to the Early Iron Age (c. 500 BC) at the unusually long-occupied site of Cladh Hallan on South Uist in the Western Isles of Scotland. Particular highlights of its sequence are a cremation burial ground and pyre site of the 18th–16th centuries BC and a row of three Late Bronze Age sunken-floored roundhouses constructed in the 10th century BC. Beneath these roundhouses, four inhumation graves contained skeletons, two of which were remains of composite collections of body parts with evidence for post-mortem soft tissue preservation prior to burial. They have proved to be the first evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain. Cladh Hallan's remarkable stratigraphic sequence, preserved in the machair sand of South Uist, includes a unique 500-year sequence of roundhouse life in Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain. One of the most important results of the excavation has come from intensive environmental and micro-debris sampling of house floors and outdoor areas to recover patterns of discard and to interpret the spatial use of 15 domestic interiors from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. From Cladh Hallan’s roundhouse floors we gain intimate insights into how daily life was organized within the house - where people cooked, ate, worked and slept. Such evidence rarely survives from prehistoric houses in Britain or Europe, and the results make a profound contribution to long-running debates about the sunwise organisation of roundhouse activities. Activity at Cladh Hallan ended with the construction and abandonment of two unusual double-roundhouses in the Early Iron Age. One appears to have been a smokery and steam room, and the other was used for metalworking.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mike Parker Pearson ,  Jacqui Mulville ,  Helen Smith ,  Peter Marshall
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
Volume:   8
ISBN:  

9781789256932

ISBN 10:   1789256933
Pages:   568
Publication Date:   15 August 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS   1. The Cladh Hallan excavations and their context M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith 1.1 The site of Cladh Hallan and its environs 1.2 The Bronze Age to Early Iron Age settlement at Cladh Hallan 1.3 Previous discoveries 1.4 Survey, test excavations and trial-trenching 1988–1996 1.5 The evolving research design 1.6 The 1997–2003 excavations   2. Beaker cultivation, Cordoned Urn layers and Early Bronze Age cremation burials (phases 1–3) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by C.A.I. French and H. Manley 2.1 Beaker-period cultivation and activity (phase 1) 2.2 Early Bronze Age settlement remains at Cladh Hallan (phase 2) 2.3 The cremation cemetery (phase 3) 2.4  The gully or ditch under Houses 1370 and 401 (phase 3) 2.5 The cremation platform and pyre (phase 3) 2.6 Area B: the stone structure (phase 3) 2.7 Area C: a disturbed inhumation burial (phase 3) 2.8 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   3. The first houses: Late Bronze Age occupation (phases 4–7) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by C.A.I. French, A. Hale and H. Manley 3.1 The boat-shaped house (2835; phase 4) and its destruction (phase 5) 3.2 The sheep burial in the north-central zone of Area A (phase 4) 3.3 Ard-marks, a post-built structure and an exploratory pit (phases 5–6) 3.4 The cigar-shaped structure (2477; phase 7) 3.5 The tiny roundhouse (3260; phase 7) 3.6 The pit alignment (phases 6–7) 3.7 Pottery from the pits, Structure 2477 and House 3260 (phases 5–7) M. Parker Pearson 3.8 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   4. The construction of the row of roundhouses and digging of the features beneath them (phase 8) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by T. Booth, A. Chamberlain, O. Craig, , J. Evans, J. Hiller, J. Montgomery and C. Willis 4.1 Beneath House 801 4.2 Beneath House 401 4.3 Beneath House 1370 4.4 The double pit outside House 1370 4.5 The sub-floor human burials: a summary 4.6 Construction of House 801 4.7 Construction of House 401 4.8 Construction of House 1370 4.9 The pottery M. Parker Pearson 4.10 Stratigraphic relationships of the skeletons, their contexts of deposition and the house floors M. Parker Pearson 4.11 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   5. The primary occupation of the Late Bronze Age roundhouses (phase 9) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by A. Hale and H. Manley 5.1 House 801: the southern roundhouse 5.2 House 401: the middle roundhouse 5.3 House 1370: the northern roundhouse 5.4 The front yard of the settlement 5.5 The area behind the houses (west of House 401) 5.6 Area D: the southern edge of the settlement and House 2049 5.7 Area C: the midden 5.8 The pottery from phase 9 M. Parker Pearson 5.9 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   6. The sand-blow and the second phase of roundhouse occupation (phase 10) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by A. Hale and H. Manley 6.1 The windblown sand 6.2 Gullies, pits and spademarks over the ruins of House 801 6.3 House 2190 6.4 House 401 in phase 10: its second phase of occupation 6.5 House 1370 in phase 10 6.6 Area C: the midden 6.7  The pottery from phase 10 M. Parker Pearson 6.8 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   7.  The third phase of roundhouse occupation (phase 11) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by A. Hale and H. Manley 7.1 Round the back: above the ruins of House 801 and west of House 401 7.2 House 401 in phase 11: its third phase of occupation 7.3 The end of House 1370 7.4 The pottery from phase 11 M. Parker Pearson 7.5 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   8. A single roundhouse at the bronze–iron transition (phase 12) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by A. Hale, H. Manley and J. Peto 8.1 The southern end of Area A: above House 2190 and the deep windblown sand layer 8.2 House 401 in phase 12: its fourth phase of occupation 8.3 The later use of the areas to the front and rear of House 401 8.4 The northern part of the settlement 8.5 The pottery from phase 12 M. Parker Pearson 8.6 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   9. The single roundhouse into the Iron Age (phase 13) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by A. Hale and H. Manley 9.1 House 401in phase 13: its fifth phase of occupation 9.2 After abandonment 9.3 The pottery from phase 13 M. Parker Pearson 9.4 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   10. The double roundhouse in Area C (phases 13–16) M. Parker Pearson, J. Mulville and H. Smith 10.1 House 150: the double roundhouse in Area C 10.2 The pottery from House 150 M. Parker Pearson 10.3 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   11.  Final occupation of the roundhouses in the Iron Age (phases 14–16) M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith 11.1 House 401 in phase 14: its sixth phase of occupation 11.2 House 401 in phase 15: its seventh phase of occupation 11.3 House 401 in phase 16: its eighth and final phase of occupation 11.4 House 1500: phase 14 11.5 The pottery from phases 14–16 (House 401 and House 1500) M. Parker Pearson 11.6 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   12. House 640: a double roundhouse (phase 16) in Area A M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith with contributions by A. Hale and S. Rhodes 12.1 House 640: a smokery and steam room? 12.2 The pottery from House 640 M. Parker Pearson 12.3 Conclusion M. Parker Pearson   13. Thin-section soil micromorphology L.E. Hamlet and I.A. Simpson 13.1 Research questions 13.2 Methodology 13.3 Descriptions and analyses 13.4 Discussion 13.5 Conclusion   14. Scientific dating P. Marshall, M. Parker Pearson, J.-L. Schwenninger and G. Cook 14.1 Dataset, objectives and sampling strategy 14.2 Methods, presentation of results and chronological modelling 14.3 The chronological model 14.4 The stratigraphic model   15. Pottery and ceramic artefacts V. Parsons, M. Parker Pearson and H. Manley 15.1 Introduction M. Parker Pearson 15.2 Pottery fabrics H. Manley 15.3 Potting clay M. Parker Pearson 15.4 The pottery V. Parsons and M. Parker Pearson 15.5 Artefacts of fired and baked clay M. Parker Pearson 15.6 Overview – chronology and change M. Parker Pearson

Reviews

The first of two promised monographs (the next will feature artefacts, animal bones and environmental and human remains), this rich compendium presents the site's stunning stratigraphy - soils, structures, burials, dating and pottery. * British Archaeology *

Author Information

Mike Parker Pearson is Professor of British Later Prehistory at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. A distinguished prehistorian, he has been involved with many major projects, including leading the recent Stonehenge Riverside Project. Jacqui Mulville is Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University. A distinguished bioarchaeologist, she is a field archaeologist with 35 years of excavation experience whose research focuses on osteoarchaeology, human and animal identities, and island archaeologies concentrated on Britain. Helen Smith has been Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at Bournemouth University, specialising in the analysis of archaeobotanical remains, having completed her PhD in Archaeology at the University of Sheffield on traditional farming practices of the Western Isles. Pete Marshall is a leading specialist in radiocarbon dating and statistical modelling. He is director of Chronologies and works in Historic England’s Policy & Evidence Department as part of the Scientific Dating Team. He has been involved in many iconic archaeological projects over the last twenty years.

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