Books by Leo Webley
Prehistoric Society Research Paper 11, 2020
The first comprehensive assessment of non-ferrous metalworking craft in later British prehistory ... more The first comprehensive assessment of non-ferrous metalworking craft in later British prehistory within a social and technological framework. The Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals-including gold, silver, tin and lead-is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling 'entrepreneurs', and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking. This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris. The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.
A Dodd, S Mileson and L Webley (eds) 2020. The Archaeology of Oxford in the 21st Century. Boydell & Brewer, 2020
Bradley, R., C. Haselgrove, M. Vander Linden and L. Webley 2015. The Later Prehistory of Northwest Europe: the evidence of development-led fieldwork. Oxford: Oxford University Press
The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe provides a unique, up-to-date, and easily accessible sy... more The Later Prehistory of North-West Europe provides a unique, up-to-date, and easily accessible synthesis of the later prehistoric archaeology of north-west Europe, transcending political and language barriers that can hinder understanding. By surveying changes in social forms, landscape organization, monument types, and ritual practices over six millennia, the volume reassesses the prehistory of north-west Europe from the late Mesolithic to the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age. It explores how far common patterns of social development are apparent across north-west Europe, and whether there were periods when local differences were emphasized instead. In relation to this, it also examines changes through time in the main axes of contact between the various regions of continental Europe, Britain, and Ireland.
Key to the volume's broad scope is its focus on the vast mass of new evidence provided by recent development-led excavations. The authors collate data that has been gathered on thousands of sites across Britain, Ireland, northern France, the Low Countries, western Germany, and Denmark, using sources including unpublished 'grey literature' reports. The results challenge many aspects of previous narratives of later prehistory, allowing the volume to present a distinctively fresh perspective.
Webley, L., M. Vander Linden, C. Haselgrove and R. Bradley (eds) 2012. Development-led Archaeology in Northwest Europe. , 2012
Many countries in northern Europe have seen a huge expansion in development-led archaeology over ... more Many countries in northern Europe have seen a huge expansion in development-led archaeology over the past few decades. Legislation, frameworks for heritage management and codes of practice have developed along similar but different lines. The Valetta Convention has had considerable impact on spatial planning and new legislation on archaeological heritage management within EC countries as well as on the funding, nature and distribution of archaeological fieldwork. For the first time these 12 papers bring together data on developer-led archaeology in Britain, Ireland, France, the Low Countries, Germany and Denmark in order to review and evaluate key common issues relating to organisation, practice, legal frameworks and quality management.
An investigation into the nature and workings of the household in one part of northern Europe (in... more An investigation into the nature and workings of the household in one part of northern Europe (in Western Denmark), focusing on the Early Iron Age (c 500 BC-AD 200), considering the household unit and its internal social relations. It includes an introduction to the geographical and archaeological context and the dataset, chapters on the nature of the household group and its relationship to the wider community, analysis of the structure and use of space within the Early Iron Age farmstead, the architecture of the longhouse, and the domestic space outside the house and depositional practices.
This volume describes the results of archaeological investigations carried out between 2003 and 2... more This volume describes the results of archaeological investigations carried out between 2003 and 2006 on behalf of the Northmoor Trust in the parishes of Little Wittenham and Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire. The work included examination of cropmarks, large-scale geophysical surveys, fieldwalking and excavations. Geophysical survey was concentrated in and around the scheduled hillfort at Castle Hill, Little Wittenham (Oxfordshire SAM No. 208), and revealed a smaller enclosure within the hillfort dated by excavation to the late Bronze Age.The survey also suggested that otherwise archaeological features within the hillfort were relatively sparse. A section across the hillfort ditch and rampart did not produce a clear construction date, though in the interior both early and middle Iron Age pits were found, some containing human burials or bones. The hillfort ditch appears to have been cleaned out throughout the Iron Age, the spoil probably used to enhance the outer bank. The hillfort was also used in the late Roman period (4th century AD), when very large rectangular pits were dug, and midden material was piled up behind and over the Iron Age rampart. People were also buried in the interior at this time. Saxon finds were very few, but a medieval pit and a quarry indicate occupation in the 12th/13th centuries AD. Coring of peat deposits beside the Thames north of Castle Hill provided evidence of the environmental succession from the early Iron Age onwards. On the plateau below the hillfort cropmarks and geophysical survey revealed a dense settlement stretching west, to Hill Farm and beyond. This included a late Bronze Age and early Iron Age midden some 50 m across, a middle Iron Age curving boundary ditch down the middle with smaller sub-rectangular enclosures either side, and early and middle Iron Age penannular enclosures, four-post structures and pits. Settlement seems to have shifted southwards and westwards in the middle Iron Age, and late Iron Age or early Roman ditches were also found near to Hill Farm. The Roman settlement was mainly 2nd–3rd century AD, and probably consisted of four enclosures, one of which contained a masonry building (now largely destroyed) with a tiled roof, decorated with mosaic tesserae and painted wall plaster. This enclosure was approached by a ditched trackway, with a second larger enclosure alongside. A third enclosure was partly revealed north of Hill Farm, and a fourth enclosure (not investigated) lay alongside Roman field boundaries west of Hill Farm. Despite earlier finds at Hill Farm, no Saxon evidence was found in these excavations. The project has revealed a unique combination of late Bronze Age hilltop enclosure, external settlement and an adjacent midden. In the early Iron Age the hilltop enclosure was replaced by the hillfort, where feasting occurred, while the adjacent settlement around the midden grew to be one of the largest in the region.The midden was abandoned in the middle Iron Age, and a long boundary ditch may have divided this ancestral area off from settlement to the south and west. There was also more middle Iron Age activity within the hillfort, including a number of human burials. In the Roman period the settlement probably included a small villa, while the hillfort itself was probably reoccupied in the later 4th century AD. Intriguingly both Roman cremations and inhumations were buried around and within the hillfort, suggesting a continuity of burial location spanning 1000 years. Geophysical survey and evaluation trenches were also dug across a cropmark complex at Neptune Wood east of Long Wittenham, revealing an early Iron Age enclosure ditch, a Roman trackway and associated fields, and a pair of large middle Saxon pits or waterholes.
During 2004–2005 Oxford Archaeology carried out a series of archaeological excavations along the ... more During 2004–2005 Oxford Archaeology carried out a series of archaeological excavations along the proposed route of the A421 Great Barford Bypass, Bedfordshire (NGR TL 102 513–TL 159 554). The route extends from the Black Cat roundabout on the A1 and runs to the north and west of Great Barford linking up at its western end to the A421 Bedford Southern Bypass near Water End. A total of nine sites (Sites 1–9) were investigated in detail revealing evidence of activity from early prehistoric times through to the post-medieval period. Earlier prehistoric activity was sparse and largely evidenced through a light flint scatter over the entire route and a single early Neolithic pit on Site 2. Isolated early Bronze Age pits were located at Sites 2 and 6. Following an apparent hiatus in the middle Bronze Age small-scale activity reappeared at Site 2 in the later Bronze Age-early Iron Age. More widespread occupation and associated activities were apparent from the middle Iron Age and have been documented at Sites 2, 4, 6 and 7. Three of these sites (2, 4 and 6) continued to be occupied into the later Iron Age. By the early Roman period Site 6 had become abandoned shortly followed by Site 2, but activity was still evident at Sites 1, 4, 7 and 8. Of these only Site 8 continued to be inhabited into the later Roman period, although a late Roman cemetery was excavated at Site 4, suggesting continued occupation nearby. Site 8 also saw some post-Roman activity as did the adjacent site at Site 9 where a small hamlet was established in the late Saxon/early medieval period possibly over an earlier mid-late Saxon settlement. Two new sites (Sites 3 and 5) saw small settlements established dating to the 10th–13th and 12th centuries respectively.
The excavations at Fairfield Park revealed a later Bronze Age hilltop enclosure and an extensive ... more The excavations at Fairfield Park revealed a later Bronze Age hilltop enclosure and an extensive early Iron Age settlement. The evidence sheds much light on issues of the organisation of settlement space and practices of ritual deposition. The settlement dates to around the 5th-4th centuries BC, and incorporated enclosures, roundhouses and numerous storage pits. The large artefact assemblages included high status metalwork, pottery with unique forms of decoration, and a set of 49 bone weaving tools from a single pit. Human remains and animal burials had been placed in several other pits. Good environmental evidence was also obtained.
Taking its inspiration from Cyril Fox's groundbreaking 1923 study of its namesake, and with its f... more Taking its inspiration from Cyril Fox's groundbreaking 1923 study of its namesake, and with its first volume issued to mark the 85th anniversary of his book, this series is dedicated to the archaeology of Cambridge's hinterland. In recent years an enormous amount of fieldwork has occured within the City's environs, to the point that it must now rank as one of the most intensively investigated landscapes in southern England.
This volume reports the 2002/03 Hutchinson Site excavations beside Addenbrooke's Hospital. While primarily concerned with its Iron Age/Roman Conquest-Period dynamics, there was also significant later Bronze Age and Middle Saxon occupation.
The site's sequence both informs, and is informed by, the results of an evaluation survey extending over 200ha west to the River Cam, which led to the recovery of some 15 new sites. Thereafter, three other landscape evaluation case-studies are presented, drawn both from the County's southern chalklands and also its western and northern clays. Seeing comparable site-discovery rates, this enormous increase in known site densities has fundamental implications for understandings of early land-use and settlement/population levels, and allows archaeologists to appreciate for the first time what is, in effect, the past fabric of the land . The case is made that such grand-scale surveys should be considered as 'stand-alone' programmes of investigation in their own right.
This volume presents the results of two excavations on the gravel terraces of the lower Kennet Va... more This volume presents the results of two excavations on the gravel terraces of the lower Kennet Valley, at Green Park (Reading Business Park) Phase 3 and Moores Farm, Burghfield, Berkshire.
The Green Park excavations uncovered a field system and occupation features dating to the middle to late Bronze Age. Five waterholes or wells were distributed across the field system, the waterlogged fields of which preserved wooden revetment structures and valuable environmental evidence. The pottery from the waterholes makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the middle to late Iron Age boundaries, a late Iron Age cremation burial, a Romano-British field system and post-medieval trackways.
The Moores Farm excavations revealed occupation from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, middle Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The middle Bronze Age settlement included pits, ovens and possible post structures, and was again situated within a contemporaneous field system dotted with waterholes.
As well as discussing these two sites, the volume provides an overview of all of the work to date in the Green Park Farm/Reading Business Park area, exploring the developments of this important prehistoric landscape.
Papers: Later Prehistoric Europe by Leo Webley
In C. Haselgrove, P. Wells and K. Rebay-Salisbury (eds) The Oxford Handbook to the European Iron Age. Oxford University Press., 2018
The household and the local community are widely viewed as fundamental building blocks of Iron Ag... more The household and the local community are widely viewed as fundamental building blocks of Iron Age societies. They provided the context for much of daily life, and as such they were arguably the social arenas with the greatest day-to-day significance for Iron Age people. Recent years have seen increasing interest in exploring the social dynamics of the household and the local community, providing a challenge to traditional narratives of social change during the Iron Age, in which these spheres are often portrayed as peripheral or irrelevant.
This chapter will examine how the household and the community were constituted in different Iron Age societies, and attempt to grasp their internal social relations. Evidence will be drawn mainly from the ways that people ordered and inhabited their houses and settlements.
Historical Metallurgy, 2018
Excavation of an Iron Age settlement at Westwood in the English Midlands recovered a ceramic cruc... more Excavation of an Iron Age settlement at Westwood in the English Midlands recovered a ceramic crucible of a hitherto unknown form, with a hollow pouring spout. XRF analysis of the crucible detected enrichment in copper, tin and silver. A find of a solitary crucible in a roundhouse is typical of the period but the form of this example is extraordinary and emphasises the diversity in Iron Age metalworking practices
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2016
Bivalve bronze moulds were used for casting bronze and lead objects – mainly axes – during the mi... more Bivalve bronze moulds were used for casting bronze and lead objects – mainly axes – during the middle and late Bronze Age. These remarkable artefacts, which were sometimes beautifully decorated, have been surprisingly little studied. This paper discusses the bronze moulds from Britain, outlining the range of possibilities that existed for the life courses of these objects during the three broad stages of manufacture, use and deposition. Two points will be emphasised. Firstly, it will be shown that the biographical pathways available to bronze moulds differed significantly from those of moulds made from stone or clay, which may relate to the differing properties and conceptual associations of these three materials. Secondly, the relationships between the life courses of bronze moulds and the artefacts cast in them will be explored, focusing particularly on cases in which moulds and their castings were deposited together in the same hoard. It will be suggested that the 'genealogical' link between a mould and its 'offspring' could have formed a significant element of the biography of both objects.
Haselgrove, C., M. Vander Linden and L. Webley 2016. Modern borders and the later prehistory of northwest Europe, in R. Crellin, C. Fowler and R. Tipping (eds) Prehistory without borders, 16-24. Oxford: Oxbow, 2016
This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities involved in writing narratives of northwest... more This paper discusses the challenges and opportunities involved in writing narratives of northwest European later prehistory that transcend modern borders. The explosion in data from development-led fieldwork over the last two decades should put us in a better position to compare the evidence from different regions. We must however ensure that we are comparing like with like. Variations in the methodologies and administrative practices of archaeology in different regions strongly influence the kinds of evidence recovered. By allowing for such factors we can filter out some of the ‘noise’ created by modern practices, and begin to recognise the real patterns in the data.
Published in: in C. Haselgrove and S. Krmnicek (eds) 2016. The Archaeology of Money, 85-113. Leicester: Leicester University Press., 2016
This paper examines the archaeological contexts of Iron Age coin finds from settlements across we... more This paper examines the archaeological contexts of Iron Age coin finds from settlements across western Europe. We have tended to assume that these coins were predominantly casual losses, especially at the large oppida, but analysis of stratified finds from selected major sites including Manching, Basel, Titelberg, Martberg and Acy-Romance, implies a strong element of intentional deposition. Similar tendencies are apparent at smaller rural sites in France and southern England. The nature of specific depositional practices involving coins, however, varies quite noticeably across Europe and even between contemporary settlements within the same region, while in some areas where only precious metal coins circulated, off-site deposition appears to be the norm. Such deliberate deposition may often have had a ritual significance, both on and off sites, although this need not be the only reason.
In H. Anderson-Whymark, D. Garrow and F. Sturt (eds) 2015. Continental Connections: Exploring Cross-Channel Relationships from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age, 122-44. Oxford: Oxbow., 2015
Britain has long had a marginal status in the study of the European Iron Age. The dominant narrat... more Britain has long had a marginal status in the study of the European Iron Age. The dominant narrative holds that the beginning of the Iron Age was marked by a sharp decline in contacts between Britain and the near Continent, with the breakdown of the long-distance networks of metal exchange that had been so important during the Bronze Age. Contacts are thought to have remained fairly limited up until the last two centuries of the pre-Roman Iron Age, when there was a resurgence of cross-Channel ‘trade’. This presaged the Roman conquest which brought (southern) Britain into a new European system.
I will argue here that this narrative is misleading. The impression of limited cross-Channel contact through most of the Iron Age comes from a narrow focus on the evidence of portable material culture, and certain kinds of ‘high-status’ artefacts in particular. This skews our perspective towards particular kinds of interactions. When we consider a broader range of Iron Age practices, connections between the communities either side of the Channel and North Sea become more evident. Britain was firmly embedded in the wider European Iron Age.
L. Webley, M. Vander Linden, C. Haselgrove and R. Bradley (eds), Development-led Archaeology in Northwest Europe, 1–8. Oxford: Oxbow., 2012
Oxford Journal of Archaeology 26, 127–44, 2007
It has recently been demonstrated that a number of roundhouses of the early first millennium BC i... more It has recently been demonstrated that a number of roundhouses of the early first millennium BC in southern England show a concentration of finds in the southern half of the building. It has thus been argued that this area was used for domestic activities such as food preparation, an idea which has formed the basis for discussion of later prehistoric ‘cosmologies’. However, reconsideration of the evidence suggests that this finds patterning does not relate to the everyday use of the buildings, being more likely to derive from a particular set of house abandonment practices. Furthermore, evidence can be identified for the location of domestic activities within contemporary roundhouses that appears to contradict the established model.
In C. Haselgrove and T. Moore (eds) The Later Iron Age in Britain and Beyond, 454–67. Oxford: Oxbow., 2007
In J. Humphrey (ed.) Re-searching the Iron Age, 59–68. Leicester University Monographs., 2003
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Books by Leo Webley
Key to the volume's broad scope is its focus on the vast mass of new evidence provided by recent development-led excavations. The authors collate data that has been gathered on thousands of sites across Britain, Ireland, northern France, the Low Countries, western Germany, and Denmark, using sources including unpublished 'grey literature' reports. The results challenge many aspects of previous narratives of later prehistory, allowing the volume to present a distinctively fresh perspective.
This volume reports the 2002/03 Hutchinson Site excavations beside Addenbrooke's Hospital. While primarily concerned with its Iron Age/Roman Conquest-Period dynamics, there was also significant later Bronze Age and Middle Saxon occupation.
The site's sequence both informs, and is informed by, the results of an evaluation survey extending over 200ha west to the River Cam, which led to the recovery of some 15 new sites. Thereafter, three other landscape evaluation case-studies are presented, drawn both from the County's southern chalklands and also its western and northern clays. Seeing comparable site-discovery rates, this enormous increase in known site densities has fundamental implications for understandings of early land-use and settlement/population levels, and allows archaeologists to appreciate for the first time what is, in effect, the past fabric of the land . The case is made that such grand-scale surveys should be considered as 'stand-alone' programmes of investigation in their own right.
The Green Park excavations uncovered a field system and occupation features dating to the middle to late Bronze Age. Five waterholes or wells were distributed across the field system, the waterlogged fields of which preserved wooden revetment structures and valuable environmental evidence. The pottery from the waterholes makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the middle to late Iron Age boundaries, a late Iron Age cremation burial, a Romano-British field system and post-medieval trackways.
The Moores Farm excavations revealed occupation from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, middle Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The middle Bronze Age settlement included pits, ovens and possible post structures, and was again situated within a contemporaneous field system dotted with waterholes.
As well as discussing these two sites, the volume provides an overview of all of the work to date in the Green Park Farm/Reading Business Park area, exploring the developments of this important prehistoric landscape.
Papers: Later Prehistoric Europe by Leo Webley
This chapter will examine how the household and the community were constituted in different Iron Age societies, and attempt to grasp their internal social relations. Evidence will be drawn mainly from the ways that people ordered and inhabited their houses and settlements.
I will argue here that this narrative is misleading. The impression of limited cross-Channel contact through most of the Iron Age comes from a narrow focus on the evidence of portable material culture, and certain kinds of ‘high-status’ artefacts in particular. This skews our perspective towards particular kinds of interactions. When we consider a broader range of Iron Age practices, connections between the communities either side of the Channel and North Sea become more evident. Britain was firmly embedded in the wider European Iron Age.
Key to the volume's broad scope is its focus on the vast mass of new evidence provided by recent development-led excavations. The authors collate data that has been gathered on thousands of sites across Britain, Ireland, northern France, the Low Countries, western Germany, and Denmark, using sources including unpublished 'grey literature' reports. The results challenge many aspects of previous narratives of later prehistory, allowing the volume to present a distinctively fresh perspective.
This volume reports the 2002/03 Hutchinson Site excavations beside Addenbrooke's Hospital. While primarily concerned with its Iron Age/Roman Conquest-Period dynamics, there was also significant later Bronze Age and Middle Saxon occupation.
The site's sequence both informs, and is informed by, the results of an evaluation survey extending over 200ha west to the River Cam, which led to the recovery of some 15 new sites. Thereafter, three other landscape evaluation case-studies are presented, drawn both from the County's southern chalklands and also its western and northern clays. Seeing comparable site-discovery rates, this enormous increase in known site densities has fundamental implications for understandings of early land-use and settlement/population levels, and allows archaeologists to appreciate for the first time what is, in effect, the past fabric of the land . The case is made that such grand-scale surveys should be considered as 'stand-alone' programmes of investigation in their own right.
The Green Park excavations uncovered a field system and occupation features dating to the middle to late Bronze Age. Five waterholes or wells were distributed across the field system, the waterlogged fields of which preserved wooden revetment structures and valuable environmental evidence. The pottery from the waterholes makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the middle to late Iron Age boundaries, a late Iron Age cremation burial, a Romano-British field system and post-medieval trackways.
The Moores Farm excavations revealed occupation from the Mesolithic, Neolithic, middle Bronze Age and early Iron Age. The middle Bronze Age settlement included pits, ovens and possible post structures, and was again situated within a contemporaneous field system dotted with waterholes.
As well as discussing these two sites, the volume provides an overview of all of the work to date in the Green Park Farm/Reading Business Park area, exploring the developments of this important prehistoric landscape.
This chapter will examine how the household and the community were constituted in different Iron Age societies, and attempt to grasp their internal social relations. Evidence will be drawn mainly from the ways that people ordered and inhabited their houses and settlements.
I will argue here that this narrative is misleading. The impression of limited cross-Channel contact through most of the Iron Age comes from a narrow focus on the evidence of portable material culture, and certain kinds of ‘high-status’ artefacts in particular. This skews our perspective towards particular kinds of interactions. When we consider a broader range of Iron Age practices, connections between the communities either side of the Channel and North Sea become more evident. Britain was firmly embedded in the wider European Iron Age.
The remains of the former Shenley Common Farm North – demolished without record in the mid 20th century – were also investigated. The excavations demonstrated a late 18th century origin for the farm, and revealed details of its construction, layout and development.
During the late 3rd to early 4th century the settlement expanded to the north, although the shrine to the west of the road fell into disuse at this time. The religious focus may have shifted to a small ‘temple’ at the northern periphery of the settlement. The settlement (or at least the excavated part of it) was abandoned during the second half of the 4th century, with the buildings being subjected to stone robbing, a process that continued into the post-Roman period.