Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:42:45.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Redating Rams Hill and reconsidering Bronze Age enclosure

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Stuart Needham  and
Janet Ambers
Stuart Needham
Affiliation:
British Museum, London WC1B 3DG
Janet Ambers
Affiliation:
British Museum, London WC1B 3DG
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A new set of radiocarbon measurements for the three phases of Bronze Age enclosure at Rams Hill allows refinement of their chronology. Phase 1 is radiocarbon dated for the first time and appears, contrary to previous indications, not to be very much earlier than phases 2 and 3. The dates are on carefully selected bone samples and give a rather later timespan overall than an earlier set of dates on charcoal, within the 13th–10th centuries cal BC. This span bridges the formal Middle–Late Bronze Age transition, overlapping the use ofPenard and Wilburton metalwork. The opportunity is taken to clarify some confused aspects of Bronze Age periodization.

The development of Bronze Age enclosure in Britain is reviewed. A former suggestion that Rams Hill is representative of a class of Middle Bronze Age high-status enclosure is re-examined. Current evidence does not support the idea of a coherent set of sites either functionally or chronologically. It is considered likely that Rams Hill represents an emergent state of larger-scale enclosure, perhaps after the regular embanking of small domestic sites. However, the precise role of Rams Hill in the regional economy remains enigmatic.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , 1994 , pp. 225 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ambers, J., Matthews, K. & Bowman, S. 1989. British Museum natural radiocarbon measurements 21. Radiocarbon 31(1), 15–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ambers, J., Bowman, S., Gibson, A. & Kinnes, I. 1992. Radiocarbon results for the British Beakers. Radiocarbon 34(3), 916–927.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Avery, M. & Close-Brooks, J. 1969. Shearplace Hill, Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset, House A: a suggested reinterpretation. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 35, 345–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J. 1975. The later pottery: types, affinities, chronology and significance. In Bradley, R. & Ellison, A. 1975, 101–118.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. 1980a. The evolution of later Bronze Age settlement. In Barrett, J. and Bradley, R. (eds) 1980, 77–100.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. 1980b. The pottery of the later Bronze Age in lowland England. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 46, 297–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J. & Bradley, R. (eds) 1980. Settlement and Society in the British Later Bronze Age. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrett, J., Bradley, R. & Green, M. 1991. Landscape, Monuments and Society: the Prehistory of Cranborne Chase. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowman, S. G. E. 1990. Radiocarbon Dating. London: British Museum Publications.Google Scholar
Bowman, S., Ambers, J. & Leese, M. N. 1990. Re-evaluation of British Museum radiocarbon dates issued between 1980 and 1984. Radiocarbon 32(1), 59–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R. 1986. The Bronze Age in the Oxford area — its local and regional significance. In Briggs, G., Cook, J. & Rowley, T. (eds), The Archaeology of the Oxford Region, 35–48. Oxford: University Department for External Studies.Google Scholar
Bradley, R. & Ellison, A. 1975. Rams Hill: a Bronze Age Defended Enclosure and its Landscape. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C. B. 1968. The later Bronze Age in the British Isles and north-western France. Archaeological Journal 125, 1–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C. B. 1969. Chronology and terminology in the British Bronze Age. Antiquaries Journal 49, 22–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burgess, C. B. 1980. The Age of Stonehenge. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. B. 1988. Britain at the time of the Rhine–Swiss group. In Brun, P. & Mordant, C. (eds), Le groupe Rhin–Suisse–France Orientale et la Notion de Civilisation des Champs d'Urnes, 559–573. Nemours: Mémoires du Musée de Préhistoire d'Ile-de-France 1.Google Scholar
Burgess, C. B. & Coombs, D. 1979. Preface. In Burgess, C. B. & Coombs, D. (eds) Bronze Age Hoards Some Finds Old and New, i–vii. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 67.Google Scholar
Butler, J.J. & Smith, I.F. 1956. Razors, urns, and the British Middle Bronze Age. Annual Report of the Institute of Archaeology, London 13, 20–52.Google Scholar
Carter, H.H. 1975. Animal bones. In Bradley, R. & Ellison, A. 1975, 118–122, 229–237.Google Scholar
Coombs, D. 1992. Flag Fen platform and Fengate Power Station post alignment — the metalwork. Antiquity 66, 504–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, P. 1989. Norton Fitzwarren hillfort: a report on the excavations by Nancy and Philip Langmaid between 1968 and 1971. Somerset Archaeology and Natural History 133, 1–74.Google Scholar
Ellis, P. 1993. Beeston Castle, Cheshire: a Report on the Excavations 1968–85, by Laurence Keen and Peter Hough. London: English Heritage. Archaeological Report 23.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. 1980. Settlements and regional exchange: a case study. In Barrett, J. and Bradley, R. (eds) 1980, 127–140.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. 1981. Towards a socioeconomic model for the Middle Bronze Age in southern England. In Hodder, I., Isaac, G. & Hammond, N. (eds) Pattern of the Past: Studies in Honour of David Clarke, 413–438, Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Ellison, A. & Rahtz, P. 1987. Excavations at Hog Cliff Hill, Maiden Newton, Dorset. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 53, 223–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J. G. 1975. The land Mollusca from Rams Hill: environmental changes on a chalk hilltop during the first and second millennia BC. In Bradley, R. and Ellison, A. 1975, 139–149 Google Scholar
Ford, S. 1982. Fieldwork and excavation on the Berkshire Grims Ditch. Oxoniensa 47, 13–36.Google Scholar
Ford, S., Bowden, M., Mees, G. & Gaffney, V. 1988. The date of the ‘Celtic’ field-systems on the Berkshire Downs. Britannia 19, 401–404.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gent, H. 1983. Centralised storage in later prehistoric Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 49, 243–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerloff, S. 1981. Westeuropische Griffzungenschwerter in Berlin: zu Chronologischen Problemen der britischen Sptbronzezeit. Acta Praehistorica et Archaeologica 11/12, 183–217.Google Scholar
Gingell, C. 1992. The Marlborough Downs: a Later Bronze Age Landscape and its Origins. Devizes: Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society Monograph 1.Google Scholar
Gomez, J. 1992. Le fondeur, le trafiquant et les cuisiniers. La broche d'Amaronthe de Chypre et la chronologie absolue du Bronze final Atlanique. In Chevillot, C. and Coffyn, A. (eds), L'Age du Bronze Atlantique: Actes du 1er Colloque du Pare Archéologique du Beynac, 369–373. L'Association des Musées du Sarladais.Google Scholar
Guilbert, G. 1981. Double-ring roundhouses, probable and possible, in prehistoric Britain. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 47, 299–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irving, W.N. & Harrington, C. R. 1973. Upper Pleistocene radiocarbon dated artefacts from the Northern Yukon. Science 179, 335–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kinnes, I., Gibson, A., Ambers, J., Bowman, S., Leese, M. & Boast, R. 1991. Radiocarbon dating of the British Beakers: The British Museum programme, Scottish Archaeological Review 8, 35–68.Google Scholar
Lambrick, G. H. 1987. Wallingford by-pass. South Midlands Archaeology 17, 99–100.Google Scholar
Long, A., Wilson, A. T., Ernst, R. D., Gore, B. H. & Hare, P. E. 1989. AMS radiocarbon dating of bones at Arizona. Radiocarbon 31, 231–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longworth, I. H. 1984. Collared Urns of the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Mook, W. G. 1986. Business meeting: recommendations/resolutions adopted by the twelfth International Radiocarbon Conference. Radiocarbon 28, 799.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musson, C. R. 1969. House-plans and prehistory. Current Archaeology 2.21, 267–275.Google Scholar
Musson, C. R. 1991. The Breiddin Hillfort: a Later Prehistoric Settlement in the Welsh Marches. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 76.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P. 1982. The Ambleside Hoard: a Discovery in the Royal Collections. London, British Museum Occasional Paper 39.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P. 1991. Excavation and Salvage at Runnymede Bridge 1978: the Late Bronze Age Waterfront Site. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Needham, S. P. 1992. The structure of settlement and ritual in the Late Bronze Age of south-east Britain. In Mordant, C. & Richard, A. (eds), L'Habitat et l'Occupation du Sol à l'Age du Bronze en Europe. 49–69. Actes du Colloque de Lons-le-Saunier. Paris: Edition du Comité des Travaux historique et scientifique; Documents Préhistoriques 4.Google Scholar
Neve, J. 1992. An interim report on the dendrochronology of Flag Fen and Fengate. Antiquity 66, 470–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, B. 1991. Metalwork, chronology and affinities. In Barrett, J. 1991, 161–164.Google Scholar
Peake, H. 1936. Air photographs of a long barrow in Hampshire and an earthwork on the Berkshire Downs. Transactions of the Newbury District Field Club 7, 192–194.Google Scholar
Pearson, G. W., Pilcher, J. R., Baillie, M. G. L., Corbett, D. M. & Qua, F. 1986. High-precision 14C measurements of Irish Oaks to show the natural 14C variations from AD 1840–5210 BC. Radiocarbon 28(2B), 911–934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, G.W. & Stuiver, M. 1986. High–precision calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, 500–2500 BC. Radiocarbon 28(2B), 839–862.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piggott, C.M. 1942. Five Late Bronze Age enclosures in North Wiltshire, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 8, 48–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piggott, S. & Piggott, C.M. 1940. Excavations at Rams Hill, Uffington, Berks. Antiquaries Journal 20, 465–480.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pryor, F. 1992. Discussion: the Fengate/Northey landscape. Antiquity 66, 518–531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Randsborg, K. 1991. Historical implications: chronological studies in European archaeology c. 2000–500 B.C. Acta Archaeologica 62, 89–107.Google Scholar
Reid, M. 1987. Root-holes or Stake-holes? a re-examination of the evidence at Rams Hill, Berkshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 53, 489–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, J. 1984. The excavation of a Late Bronze Age settlement and ditch at Beedon Manor Farm, Berkshire. In Catherall, P.D., Barnett, M. & McClean, H. (eds), The Southern Feeder: the Archaeology of a Gas Pipeline, 56–70. London: British Gas.Google Scholar
Sperber, L. 1987. Untersuchungen zur Chronologie der Urnenfelderkultur im nördlichen Alpenvorland von der Schweiz bis Oberösterreich. Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Polach, H.J. 1977. Discussion: Reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3), 355–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Reimer, P. J. 1987. Users guide to the programs CALIB and DISPLAY, Rev 2.1. Washington: Quaternary Isotope Laboratory, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Wilson, A. E. 1940. Report on the excavations at Highdown Hill, Sussex, August 1939. Sussex Archaeological Collections 81, 173–203.Google Scholar
Wilson, A.E. 1950. Excavations at Highdown Hill, 1947. Sussex Archaeological Collections 89, 163–178.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. 1989. The prehistoric pottery. In Ellis, P. 1989, 39–53.Google Scholar