Research Publications for the School of Archaeology

2007

2020

The excavation of Clandon Barrow by the antiquarian Edward Cunnington in 1882 is most notable for a rich assemblage of artefacts recovered from within it. The artefacts have been described by Stuart Needham and Ann Woodward as ….. " the bringing together of the most cosmologically-charged materials of contemporary culture"…. by a local elite (Needham and Woodward, 2008, 44). The excavation itself and subsequently its interpretation has been at least partially compromised by the lack of clarity in the structural and contextual detail of the barrow mound recorded by Cunnington, made more difficult in the knowledge that the primary deposits of the monument were never reached. In an attempt to provide greater clarity upon the structural deposits through non-intrusive techniques the authors conducted a series of detailed topographic and geophysical surveys at the site in 2009 and 2011. The results provide additional data on the mounds composition including some clarity of the presence of a primary mound that was later 'aggrandised' by a secondary mound constructed above it. This secondary mound was slightly offset to the original and the results of the survey confirms that its construction consists of layered strata (as implied in the excavation archive) although the time scale of such layering and its purpose remains speculative. The presence of a flint cairn lying atop the primary mound is further considered in the light of data recovered from the surveys which provides further insight into the continuing use and re-use of funerary monuments in the late 3rd millennium BC.

Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 2018

The nature of landscape use and residence patterns during the British earlier Neolithic has often been debated. Here we use strontium and oxygen isotope analysis of tooth enamel, from individuals buried at the Hambledon Hill causewayed enclosure monument complex in Dorset, England to evaluate patterns of landscape use during the earlier Neolithic. Previous analysis suggests that a significant proportion of the artefacts found at the site may originate from lithology of Eocene and Upper to Middle Jurassic age that the enclosures overlook to the immediate west and south. The excavators therefore argued that the sector of landscape visible from Hambledon Hill provides an approximate index for the catchment occupied by the communities that it served. Most of the burial population exhibit isotope ratios that could be consistent with this argument. Connections between Hambledon Hill and regions much further afield are also hypothesised, based on the presence of artefacts within the assemb...

A.M. Chadwick (ed.) Stories from the Landscape: Archaeologies of Inhabitation. BAR (International Series) S1238. Oxford: Archaeopress, pp. 179-256., 2004

In this paper, I used theories of embodiment, identity, materiality and landscape dwelling to write an interpretative archaeology of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods on Cranborne Chase in Dorset. The paper also featured fictional vignettes intended to provide possible insights into very different past lives, world views and understandings of landscape. It was also illustrated with imaginative drawings by Cornelius Barton and Erica Hemming. The paper was an avowedly experimental exercise in interpretative narrative, to try and create a bridge between sometimes dense theoretical treatments, and more populist accounts. Inspired by some of Mark Edmonds' fictional accounts of working wood and flint, I tried to portray something of people's beliefs and cosmologies, a difficult task in which I was only partly sucessful. I was particularly keen to try and envisage a Mesolithic world of animist, relational ontologies. I also wished to focus on ideas of identity, including possible multiple genders; and the activities and taskscapes of women and children, which the illustrations too supported. I would love to continue these fictional thought experiments at a future date, perhaps in a graphic novel set during the British later Iron Age. This paper represents the final Word text, with some remaining typos, but not the final paginated typeset Archaeopress formatted article. I have also removed the illustrations, but have retained the glossary of theoretical terms included at the rear of the book, one of the aims of which was to try and explain complex theoretical concepts in more accessible terms. There is also a bibliography for suggested further reading, though of course this is only valid up to 2004, and there have subsequently been many important contributions to landscape archaeology, cultural geography and archaeological discussions of identity.

Geoarchaeology, 1998

There are few books that focus specifically on archaeological sediments and soils and even fewer that clearly make the distinction between the two. This edited volume is the final publication for the 1989 Tenth Anniversary Conference Proceedings of the Association for Environmental Archaeology. The papers exemplify the distinguished interdisciplinary history originating at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, focusing on the geology, sedimentology, and pedology of archaeological sites. The conceptualization and identification of lithostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic, and biostratigraphic units, at a variety of scales, is an essential foundation of geoarchaeology and a significant theme throughout this collection. Most of the papers concentrate on the appropriate application of analytical techniques in the context of archaeological stratigraphy and the kinds of data these techniques produce. The majority of the sites used to illustrate these methods and approaches understandably are found in the UK.

The Impact of Aerial Reconnaissance on Archaeology. …, 1983

This report describes soil micromorphological and field characteristics of profiles from the Parknabinnia Neolithic court tomb, County Clare, Ireland, and discusses how they relate to the history of the monument, its locality and the region. The tomb is located on a junction of two soil profile types, both overlying the Lower Carboniferous limestone pavement of the Burren. Despite the presence of a thick covering of soil inside the tomb before excavation, a rendzina on limestone, the typical modern soil profile for the area, is present under much of the tomb. Where the site overlies a slight hollow, however, a red clay-rich deposit is found overlain by a clayey brown earth profile. The latter appears to have derived from a localised occurrence or survival of more shale-rich or mixed limestone/shale breccia, as described for soils immediately to the south of the area (Moles & Moles 2002), although its relationship to those soils cannot be verified without further study. The hollow profile shows a change in chemistry and/or aeration with depth, with mollusc-rich and slightly calcareous organic topsoil overlying a moist parent material rich in oxidised iron and clay. The presence of this deeper profile could be taken to support general models that soils were thicker in this landscape in ancient times. One caveat, however, is that recent geoarchaeological work in other limestone areas (French et al. 2001), suggests that even by the Neolithic period theorised thicker soils may have existed only in locations where glacial/periglacial deposits survived, and/or where topography allowed deeper soil accumulation (e.g. in hollows). This could mean that surviving thick profiles represent only small fragments of the later prehistoric landscape, i.e. that any major extensive change in soil type occurred well before Neolithic monuments were constructed. It seems reasonable to assume that both soils discussed here have been relatively protected from subsequent major land use changes (they have not seen later deforestation, ploughing or significant grazing), due to their location underneath the tomb. The presence of a rendzina soil in those parts of Chamber 1 that do not fall over a hollow, adjacent to a thicker clay-rich profile over that hollow, highlights the importance of catenary position, especially topographic factors, in pedogenesis. The rendzina contains microscopic indicators of a potential clay-rich ancestral profile, but it is hard to explain how the rest of this profile was 'lost' after protection by tomb construction, especially since it survived and developed over the adjacent hollow. If there was a pedogenetic, possibly culturally induced, change from thicker soils to thinner ones across the Burren in general, the evidence from this site suggests that this happened well before the construction of this monument. This has major implications for models suggesting that shallow soil profile development on the Burren dates to the Neolithic period or later. Alternately and/or additionally, extensive soil 'degradation' postulated to relate to later prehistoric cultural land use may need to be rethought along more site-specific lines. More extensive, detailed and localised investigation into ancient soil types and possible erosion patterns is greatly needed, along with reassessment of models of how ancient settlement and land use are linked to these soil changes.

This paper, co-authored with Dr Joshua Pollard of the University of Bristol, was another interim report on the Gray Hill Landscape Research Project intended for Archaeology in Wales 44. It followed on from interim accounts of previous years' investigations that had been published in Past and Archaeology in Wales (Chadwick et al. 2002, 2003). Unfortunately, the editor demanded a series of additional illustrations, including a detailed long section across the ring cairn that we had excavated, and how it fitted into typological schemes (something Josh and I were actually keen to avoid). By this time I had already lost my job with the University of Wales Newport and was having to concentrate on my PhD research whilst my other UWN colleagues were having to cope with the winding down and closure of the archaeology department at UWN; and Josh was extremely busy with his new post at the University of Bristol. There was therefore no time to make produce any additional publication quality illustrations from our field drawings, and so this interim was abandoned. Joshua Pollard has recently organised post-excavation analyses of soil and charcoal samples at Bristol and after years of moving around the country working full-time in commercial archaeology I may finally have some time to contribute to post-excavation work myself, so hopefully work can resume on the archive and we can publish the results of the Gray Hill project in the next few years.

The results of a programme of geophysical survey, test pitting and excavation at Rough Leaze, immediately to the east of the Avebury henge, are here described. Intended to examine evidence for settlement and other activities pre-dating or contemporary with the henge, the fieldwork revealed a moderate density scatter of mostly Neolithic flintwork, colluvial build-up against the henge bank, stake-holes, and a series of Neolithic tree-related features, one of which had been modified. Molluscan analysis indicates that activity here during the early and middle Neolithic took place within a woodland setting. Other evidence relating to the pre-henge settlement history and environment is reviewed. Wiltshire archaeological & natural history Magazine, vol. 05 (202), . archaeology, university of southampton, southampton, so7 bf; 2. aea, redroof, codford, Warminster, ba2 0nW; 3. alexander Keiller Museum, avebury, sn8 rf; 4. taLits, the crown inn, 60 Wilcot road, Pewsey, sn9 5eL; 5. archaeology, university of central Lancashire, Preston, Pr 2he the Wi L t s h i r e a r c h a e oL o g i c aL a n D n a t u r aL h i s t o r y M a g a z i n e

The Journal of Geology, 2008