The excavations led by Margaret and Tom Jones on the Thames gravel terraces at Mucking, Essex, undertaken between 1965 and 1978 are legendary. The largest area excavation ever undertaken in the British Isles, involving around 5000 participants, recorded around 44,000 archaeological features dating from the Beaker to Anglo-Saxon periods and recovered something in the region of 1.7 million finds of Mesolithic to post-medieval date. While various publications have emerged over the intervening years, the death of both directors, insufficient funding, many organisational complications and the sheer volume of material evidence have severely delayed full publication of this extraordinary palimpsest landscape.Lives in Land is the first of two major volumes which bring together all the evidence from Mucking, presenting both the detail of many important structures and assemblages and a comprehensive synthesis of landscape development through the ages: settlement histories, changing land-use, death and burial, industry and craft activities. The long time-gap since completion of the excavations has allowed the authors the unprecedented opportunity to stand back from the density of site data and place the vast sum of Mucking evidence in the wider context of the archaeology of southern England throughout the major periods of occupation and activity.Lives in Land begins with a thorough evaluation of the methods, philosophy and archival status of the Mucking project against the organisational and funding background of its time, and discusses its fascinating and complex history through a period of fundamental change in archaeological practice, legislation, finance, research priorities and theoretical paradigms in British Archaeology. Subsequent chapters deal with the prehistoric landscape, each focusing on the major themes that emerge by major period from analysis and synthesis of the data. The authors draw on archival material including site notebooks and personal accounts from key participants to provide a detailed but lively account of this iconic landscape investigation.

Ireland’s First Settlers tells the story of the archaeology and history of the first continuous phase of Ireland’s human settlement. It combines centuries of search and speculation about human antiquity in Ireland with a review of what is known today about the Irish Mesolithic. This is, in part, provided in the context of the author’s 50 years of personal experience searching to make sense of what initially appeared to be little more than a collection of beach rolled and battered flint tools. The story is embedded in how the island of Ireland, its position, distinct landscape and ecology impacted on when and how Ireland was colonised. It also explores how these first settlers evolved their technologies and lifeways to suit the narrow range of abundant resources that were available. The volume concludes with discussions on how the landscape should be searched for the often ephemeral traces of these early settlers and how sites should be excavated. It asks what we really know about the thoughts and life of the people themselves and what happened to them as farming began to be introduced.

The past few years have seen an upsurge in the numbers of known Neolithic settlements in Ireland. Many of these sites have been excavated by archaeologists based in field units, but few are well-known to the wider archaeological community. The papers in this volume which were presented at a conference held at Queen's University, Belfast in 2001, provided a forum for a discussion of the new Neolithic material from Ireland in its wider geographical context. Although the bulk of the emerging Irish settlement evidence relates to substantial houses, many of these papers consider wider themes, including issues of contact and communication along the sea routes and coastal margins of north-west Europe, questions of diversity and regional patterns of sedentism and mobility, and variations in regional food production strategies. The volume includes twenty-six papers representing a series of studies ranging geographically from Orkney to the French Atlantic facade. Contents: Introduction ( Ian Armit, Eileen Murphy, Eiméar Nelis and Derek Simpson ); French Connections I: Spreading the marmites thinly ( Alison Sheridan ); French Connections II: Of cows and men ( Anne Tresset ); Contemplating some awful(ly interesting) vistas: Importing cattle and red deer into prehistoric Ireland ( Peter Woodman and Margaret McCarthy ); Terminology, time and space: Labels, radiocarbon chronologies and a 'Neolithic' of small worlds ( Patrick Ashmore ); Rooted or routed? Landscapes of Neolithic settlement in Ireland ( Gabriel Cooney ); The early farming settlement of south western England in the Neolithic ( Roger Mercer ); Neolithic settlement in the lowlands of Scotland: A preliminary survey ( Gordon Barclay ); Once upon a time Skara Brae was unique ( David Clarke ); The Drowners: Permanence and transience in the Hebridean Neolithic ( Ian Armit ); Neolithic Northton: A review of the evidence ( Eileen Murphy and Derek Simpson ); Billown and the Neolithic of the Isle of Man ( Timothy Darvill ); The Early Neolithic and the Manx environment ( Peter J Davey and Jim B Innes ); Rheast Buigh, Patrick: Middle Neolithic exploitation of the Manx uplands? ( Peter J Davey and Jenny Woodcock ); What do we mean by Neolithic settlement? Some approaches, 10 years on ( Alex Gibson ). The Irish 'house boom'. Irish Neolithic houses ( Ian Armit, Eileen Murphy, Eiméar Nelis and Derek Simpson ); Excavations at Thornhill, Co. Londonderry ( Paul Logue ); Neolithic houses in Ballyharry townland, Islandmagee, Co. Antrim ( Dermot G Moore ); Neolithic structure at Drummenny Lower, Co. Donegal: An environmental perspective ( Cathy Dunne ); The excavation of a Neolithic house at Enagh townland, Co. Derry ( Cormac McSparran ); Archaeological excavations of a Neolithic settlement at Coolfore, Co. Louth ( Cóilín O Drisceoil ); A Neolithic house in Cloghers, Co. Kerry ( Jacinta Kiely ); Neolithic beginnings on Roughan Hill and the Burren ( Carleton Jones ). Irish Neolithic settlement architecture: A reappraisal ( Sarah Cross ); Donegore and Lyles Hill, Neolithic enclosed sites in Co. Antrim: The lithic assemblages ( Eiméar Nelis ); Neolithic expectations ( Richard Bradley ).

Newgrange in Ireland is a world famous monument not only because of its vast scale and elaborate megalithic art, but also because of its renowned alignment to the sun on the winter solstice. Yet the origins of Newgrange remain somewhat mysterious. Across Ireland over two hundred similar passage tombs are found, some of which are considerably older than Newgrange. These less investigated monuments reveal that the origins of Newgrange may be hidden in plain sight. A progression in the scale and sophistication of construction of these passage tombs, developments in the styles of megalithic art, and an increase in the scale and craftsmanship of associated artefacts may be observed, which taken together indicate a lengthy process of development. In short, Robert Hensey uncovers an untold history at Newgrange; an island-wide story of incremental changes over hundreds of years, of a society in evolution, perhaps in extremis, who left behind such a rich, enigmatic and patterned legacy. This book not only charts the earlier history of Newgrange, but addresses why it was constructed, what was its purpose. In the Boyne Valley, through Newgrange and related sites at Brúna Bóinne, we have evidence not only of extraordinary physical accomplishments, but of tremendous acts of imagination; a testament to rich and developed inner worlds. In this book, it is proposed that the concept of an otherworld which could be embodied by and accessed through passage tombs was a central motivator in passage tomb construction from its earliest beginnings. Newgrange is at the end of a long tradition of monuments dedicated to the religious needs of Neolithic communities, from small-scale monuments built by early farming groups; to potent otherworld centres of ritual training at the edge of society; eventually to temple-like monuments standing at the very heart of the religious and political sphere in Neolithic Ireland. Challenging both orthodox archaeological opinions and popular conjecture, this will be an important book for anyone interested in Neolithic archaeology.

The exotic and impressive grave goods from burials of the ‘Wessex Culture’ in Early Bronze Age Britain are well known and have inspired influential social and economic hypotheses, invoking the former existence of chiefs, warriors and merchants and high-ranking pastoralists. Alternative theories have sought to explain how display of such objects was related to religious and ritual activity rather than to economic status, and that groups of artefacts found in certain graves may have belonged to religious specialists. This volume is the result of a major research project that aimed to investigate Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age grave goods in relation to their possible use as special dress accessories or as equipment employed within ritual activities and ceremonies. Many items of adornment can be shown to have formed elements of elaborate costumes, probably worn by individuals, both male and female, who held important ritual roles within society. Furthermore, the analysis has shown that various categories of object long interpreted as mundane types of tool were in fact items of bodily adornment or implements used in ritual contexts, or in the special embellishment of the human body.Although never intended to form a complete catalogue of all the relevant artefacts from England the volume provides an extensive, and intensively illustrated, overview of a large proportion of the grave goods from English burial sites.

Between 2008 and 2011 excavations were undertaken by the Cornwall Archaeological Unit at Tremough, near Penryn, Cornwall. The site is situated on a plateau overlooking the Carrick Roads, historically one of the busiest waterways in Cornwall.The excavations led to a large number of significant archaeological features being uncovered ranging from Neolithic pits to Bronze Age structures and late prehistoric enclosures. Foremost of these sites were a Middle Bronze roundhouse (circa 1500-1300 cal BC) and a large circular Late Bronze Age enclosure (circa 1000-800 cal BC).Importantly, the roundhouse was found to contain stone moulds associated with the production of socketed tools and pins, and traces of metalworking were found inside the building. As such, the excavations have provided the first evidence for metalworking inside a Middle Bronze Age roundhouse in southern England, as well as radiocarbon dating for a range of metalwork forms. As part of the project finds of metalwork from other roundhouses in the South West region have been reassessed.The Late Bronze Age enclosure is the first of its type to found in the South West of Britain. It encircled a large number of pits and postholes, some of which were associated with rectangular post-built structures. A carefully made cairn of burnt stone beside a large pit and a second large pit containing burnt stone and pottery were also investigated. These may have been associated with cooking or perhaps with a small-scale episode of metalworking, as the tip of a sword mould was found in one of the pits.The significance of the investigated sites is fully discussed with regard to their relationships with other prehistoric sites on the plateau and in terms of their wider context with other sites in the South West and beyond.

The Archaeology of Caves in Ireland is a ground-breaking and unique study of the enigmatic, unseen and dark silent world of caves. People have engaged with caves for the duration of human occupation of the island, spanning 10,000 years. In prehistory, subterranean landscapes were associated with the dead and the spirit world, with evidence for burials, funerary rituals and votive deposition. The advent of Christianity saw the adaptation of caves as homes and places of storage, yet they also continued to feature in religious practice. Medieval mythology and modern folklore indicate that caves were considered places of the supernatural, being particularly associated with otherworldly women. Through a combination of archaeology, mythology and popular religion, this book takes the reader on a fascinating journey that sheds new light on a hitherto neglected area of research. It encourages us to consider what underground activities might reveal about the lives lived aboveground, and leaves us in no doubt as to the cultural significance of caves in the past. Winner of the Current Archaeology Book of the Year 2016 award. Winner of the Tratman 2015 Award.

This collection of 24 papers aims to reconsider the nature and significance of the Irish Sea as an area of cultural interaction during the Neolithic period. The traditional character of work across this region has emphasised the existence of prehistoric contact, with sea routes criss-crossing between Ireland, the Isle of Man, Anglesey and the British mainland. A parallel course of investigation, however, has demonstrated that the British and Irish Neolithics were in many ways different, with distinct indigenous patterns of activity and social practices. The recent emphasis on regional studies has further produced evidence for parallel yet different processes of cultural change taking place throughout the British Isles as a whole. This volume brings together some of these regional perspectives and compares them across the Irish Sea area. The authors consider new ways to explain regional patterning in the use of material objects and relate them to past practices and social strategies. Were there practices that were shared across the Irish Sea area linking different styles of monuments and material culture, or were the media intrinsic to the message? The volume is based on papers presented at a conference held at the University of Manchester in 2002.

The prehistories of Britain and Ireland are inescapably entwined with continental European narratives. The central aim here is to explore ‘cross-channel’ relationships throughout later prehistory, investigating the archaeological links (material, social, cultural) between the areas we now call Britain and Ireland, and continental Europe, from the Mesolithic through to the end of the Iron Age. Since the separation from the European mainland of Ireland (c. 16,000 BC) and Britain (c. 6000 BC), their island nature has been seen as central to many aspects of life within them, helping to define their senses of identity, and forming a crucial part of their neighbourly relationship with continental Europe and with each other. However, it is important to remember that the surrounding seaways have often served to connect as well as to separate these islands from the continent. In approaching the subject of ‘continental connections’ in the long-term, and by bringing a variety of different archaeological perspectives (associated with different periods) to bear on it, this volume provides a new a new synthesis of the ebbs and flows of the cross-channel relationship over the course of 15,000 years of later prehistory, enabling fresh understandings and new insights to emerge about the intimately linked trajectories of change in both regions.

This volume is an integrated overview and synthesis of available data relating to the Quaternary evolution of the River Trent. It provides detailed descriptions of the Pleistocene sedimentary records from the Trent, its tributaries and related drainage systems - a sedimentary record that spans a period of approximately half a million years - and the biostratigraphical and archaeological material preserved therein. Significant new data are presented from recently discovered sites of geological and archaeological importance, including previously unrecognised fluvial deposits, as well as novel analyses, such as mathematical modelling of fluvial incision as recorded by the river terrace deposits. In combination with a thorough review of the literature on the Trent, these new data have contributed to revised chronostratigraphical and palaeogeographical frameworks for central England and revealed the complexity of the Pleistocene fluvial and glacial records in this region. The fragmentary Trent terrace sequence is an important element of wider reconstructions of Pleistocene palaeodrainage in Britain, providing a link between the records preserved in the English Midlands and those in East Anglia.

The Irish Neolithic has been dominated by the study of megalithic tombs, but the defining element of Irish settlement evidence is the rectangular timber Early Neolithic house, the numbers of which have more than quadrupled in the last ten years. The substantial Early Neolithic timber house was a short-lived architectural phenomenon of as little as 90 years, perhaps like short-lived Early Neolithic long barrows and causewayed enclosures. This book explores the wealth of evidence for settlement and houses throughout the Irish Neolithic, in relation to Britain and continental Europe. More importantly it incorporates the wealth of new, and often unpublished, evidence from developer-led archaeological excavations and large grey-literature resources. The settlement evidence scattered across the landscape, and found as a result of developer-funded work, provides the social context for the more famous stone monuments that have traditionally shaped our views of the Neolithic in Ireland. It provides the first comprehensive review of the Neolithic settlement of Ireland, which enables a more holistic and meaningful understanding of the Irish Neolithic.

This volume presents the results of investigations undertaken by Oxford Archaeology between 2003 and 2011 in advance of construction of the Banbury Flood Alleviation Scheme, Oxfordshire. The main element of these investigations was an excavation at the site of a borrow pit for clay to be used in constructing the flood defences. Geophysical surveys of two other areas that revealed dense concentrations of buried archaeological remains not subsequently affected by the scheme are also reported. The excavation uncovered a multi-period landscape containing a regionally significant Neolithic occupation site, as well as later features. The Neolithic remains comprised 35 pits that produced large assemblages of flint and pottery, mainly Peterborough Ware of middle Neolithic date (associated with radiocarbon dates of c 3350-2650 BC). A single substantial but enigmatic middle Bronze Age ditch contained few finds, but these included a radius from an aurochs, one of the latest examples of this species in Britain.Late pre-Roman Iron Age occupation was represented by an oval double-ditched enclosure which, following a brief hiatus, was succeeded toward the end of the 1st century AD by a more extensive low-status farmstead. The settlement was redeveloped during the 2nd century before finally being abandoned in the early-mid 3rd century. Artefactual and palaeoenvironmental assemblages, as well as the spatial arrangement of the settlement, provided evidence regarding the economy, status and social organisation of the community. The volume includes a consideration of the results of the project in the context of Iron Age and Roman settlement of the Cherwell Valley.

The Weymouth Relief Road crosses an area of intricately varied geology and one of the richest and most important cultural landscapes in England, which preserves a wealth of archaeological and historical remains. Extensive fieldwork in advance of construction of the Weymouth Relief Road yielded evidence of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age settlement and funerary activity, along with vestiges of Roman occupation.The main sites were located at Ridgeway Hill, located on the edge of South Dorset Ridgeway, at the northern end of the scheme and at Southdown Ridge close to the southern end. At Ridgeway Hill a sequence of Neoltihic pits was investigated, along with several groups of early Bronze Age inhumation and cremation burials in pits and cists. The burials were probably originally associated with barrows that belonged to the Ridgeway Hill group, one of the densest concentrations of Bronze Age round barrows in Britain. At Southdown Ridge a settlement that spanned the late Bronze Age/early Iron Age to the late Iron Age was discovered lying adjacent to a cross-ridge dyke and prehistoric field enclosures. The inhabitants engaged in shale-working activity as well as agriculture until the settlement was abandoned and converted to a cemetery in which the dead were buried in the distinctive south Dorset tradition, accompanied by grave goods, and later in the Roman tradition of coffined burial.

This volume examines the evolution of a rural landscape in north Kent from the Late Mesolithic (c 7500 BC) to the 19th century, as revealed by analysis of the results of excavation on a site overlooking the marshes and tributaries of the River Medway, near Sittingbourne. Particular emphasis is placed on the prehistoric pottery assemblage and on understanding the site in terms of local and regional developments. Slight evidence for Late Mesolithic and Neolithic activity (residual finds only) was followed by the creation of a field system. This was well established by the Late Bronze Age, when pitting and refuse disposal suggests the presence of a nearby settlement. There are inconclusive indications from associated pottery that some field boundaries may have had Middle Bronze Age origins and that some structured deposition was taking place. A period of abandonment, possibly related to rising sea levels, preceded the construction of a Middle Iron Age unenclosed farmstead represented by four roundhouses constructed at some time after c 300 BC and the re-establishment of a field system. The local field boundaries were reorganised in the Late Iron Age, and remained in use during the 1st century AD, but were abandoned thereafter, with no archaeological evidence for subsequent land use until a new farm was established in the 11th to mid 13th centuries.

Alfred’s Castle is a small enclosed site south of the Ridgeway on the Berkshire Downs, excavated between 1998 and 2000 by a team from Oxford University. This was the third site excavated by the Hillforts of the Ridgeway project (after White Horse Hill and Segsbury). Although small, Alfred’s Castle displayed a long and complex history, starting with early Bronze Age round barrows on which later Bronze Age linear ditches were aligned, these in turn were used to form enclosures in the Iron Age. In the early Roman period a small villa house was built inside the smaller enclosure, which then shows some use in the early medieval period. The long use of the site raises questions of memory, history and continuity, leading us to wonder how earlier phases of use affected later ones. This volume contains the results of excavations at Alfred’s Castle and an account of an art project by Simon Callery. This is the third volume dedicated to our hillfort excavations on the Berkshire Downs and it ends with an account of the area more broadly, which sees complicated developments from the Bronze Age into the medieval period through the constructions of barrows, field systems, linear ditches and sites of various forms and sizes. How these combined into communities of the living and of the dead are considered using all the evidence currently available.

Querns are special artefacts as they are concerned with subsistence and supporting life in a manner which few other artefacts can emulate: they transform raw material into a usable consumable commodity. Their association with women, the production of food and the movement of the upper stone, suggests symbolical links between querns and life cycles - agricultural, human and building. They can also be read in terms of gender relations and the turning of the heavens. It is not surprising therefore that they have a special symbolic role in early societies.In 1995 JD Hill published his seminal thesis that many of the rubbish pits commonly found on Wessex Iron Age sites, were carefully ‘structured’ deposits, with meaning reaching far beyond the mere disposal of refuse. He mentioned the special role of querns, but as his thesis focussed on animal bones this idea was not followed up – until now. This book analyses the deposition of querns in prehistoric south-western England, cataloguing how and where they are buried, the associated artefacts and their possible significance. The discussion is broader, however, exploring the object biography and symbolism of querns, taking the reader to unfamiliar territories around the world. This is a new ground-breaking work, which with its full bibliography will stimulate fresh studies and at the same time set the agenda for a new field of investigation. A long standing interest in querns led to the author taking a degree in archaeology as a mature student at the University of Exeter. This was followed by the in-depth research presented in this book, which formed the basis of a thesis for which she was awarded her doctorate at Exeter in 2012. She has studied and reported on querns from a wide range of sites, from Wharram Percy in Yorkshire to Dichin in Bulgaria, and has presented papers at both national and international conferences on the object biography and the function and symbolism of querns and millstones. She compiled the Data Sheet on querns for the Finds Research Group and has written and co-authored several articles. She lives in Devon with her husband, Martin, a leading molinologist, and two black cats.