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Early Pre-Roman Iron Age Communities in Eastern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Barry Cunliffe
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Extract

The pre-Roman Iron Age communities of eastern England have not received the attention afforded to those of other parts of the British Isles. Admittedly, individual sites such as West Harling and Fengate have been published in detail, and the affinities of their materials have been discussed, but little attempt has been made to study the region as a whole. The nature of the problem, however, was vividly underlined by the admirable summary published by Clarke thirty years ago (Clarke, 1939). Although at the time many scraps of evidence were available, few sites had been adequately excavated, and still fewer published. In recent years the situation has improved and it is now possible to offer a tolerably coherent consideration of the earliest phases in the Iron Age occupation of the region. Even so, the evidence is thin and without support from further controlled excavations the framework offered below can be regarded only as a basis for further discussion.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , September 1968 , pp. 175 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1968

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References

page 176 note 1 The quoted date is 450 ± 150 B.C. (BM–63) calculated on the half-life of 5568. By correcting for the new half-life of 5730 a date of about 530 B.C. is produced. Other corrections for real, as opposed to calculated, age are not relevant at this time (see Bucha and Neustupny, Nature, 215 (July 1967), 261–3, and Suess, ‘Bristlecone Pine Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time Scale’—a paper read to the Monaco Conference).

page 177 note 1 I hope to discuss this point more fully elsewhere.

page 177 note 2 The term ‘Fengate-Cromer’ is used here to distinguish the group from the Neolithic Fengate ware.

page 178 note 1 There are too many continental parallels to quote in detail, but see Modderman, 1961, Afb. 18, and De Laet and Marien, 1950. A general discussion of the pottery of the period occurs in Roosens and Beex, 1960. See also Marien, 1961 for pottery from Spiennes.

page 179 note 1 The technique is also common on coarse pottery types found in the Low Countries.