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Ritual Monuments at Rudston, E. Yorkshire, England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

D. P. Dymond
D. P. Dymond
Affiliation:
Board of Extra-Mural Studies, University of Cambridge
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Extract

An unusual ⊏-shaped earthwork has been known for several generations (Nat. Grid. Ref. TA 099658) just over one mile to the south of the Wold village of Rudston, in the Western angle of two roads. It has often been interpreted as three contiguous long-barrows. Canon Greenwell described the site in 1877 as ‘two long mounds, almost parallel, their northern end gradually losing themselves in the surface-level, but connected together at the southern end by another long mound’. In 1958 when Messrs C. and E. Grantham of Driffield excavated a section across the western ditch, they appreciated that the western and eastern banks continued for a much greater distance than Greenwell had implied, travelling at least ½-mile downhill towards the village.

Aerial reconnaissance in 1961 by Dr J. K. St. Joseph established the existence of two long parallel ditches, extending intermittently for 1½ miles beyond the earthwork. The feature as a whole was recognizable therefore as a cursus, the earthwork being the squared southern end.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 32 , December 1966 , pp. 86 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1966

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References

page 86 note 1 Greenwell, Canon Wm., British Barrows, 1877, 233 (G. LXVI)Google Scholar.

page 86 note 2 Cambridge University Collection, print number ACK 20, 21 (ACK 21 is Plate VII).

page 86 note 3 McInnes, I. J., Antiquity, Sept. 1964, 218Google Scholar.

page 86 note 4 I am indebted to the Secretary of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Eng.) for permission to publish this report, and to Mr H. G. Ramm for his help and encouragement. Thanks are also due to Dr J. K. St. Joseph for permission to use air photographs taken by him and now in the Cambridge University Collection.

page 88 note 1 Cambridge University Collection, ACK 21.

page 88 note 2 ex inf. C. and E. Grantham.

page 89 note 1 Cambridge University Collection, ACK 19 (Plate IX).

page 90 note 1 Cambridge University Collection, ACK 19 (Plate IX).

page 90 note 2 Elgee, F., Archaeology of Yorkshire, 86–7Google Scholar.

page 90 note 3 Greenwell, op. cit., 233 ff.

page 90 note 4 Mr T. G. Manby is at present studying this material in the Grantham collection.

page 91 note 1 Greenwell, op. cit., 257. See also Newbiggin, N., PPS, III, 1937, 212Google Scholar; pl. xiv, nos. 5 and 6, fig. 3, no. 7.

page 91 note 2 Greenwell, op. cit., 253 ff. (G. LXVI).

page 91 note 3 Piggott, S., Neolithic Cultures of the Brit. Isles, 1954, 114 ff.Google Scholar

page 92 note 1 I am grateful for the ready help given by Messrs C. and E. Grantham, 9 North Street, Driffield, Yorks. E.R. Their private museum at that address contains a wealth of archaeological material from E. Yorkshire, including the pottery from the 1958 excavation. My friend Mr T. G. Manby has always been ready to discuss points and to share his knowledge of Yorkshire prehistory. He informs me that a section was dug in 1957 through the western bank of Cursus A, near the 1958 ditch section, and revealed little more than a layer of clay subsoil which had been protected from erosion by the earthwork.

page 92 note 2 ex inf. T. G. Manby. None of the flints is sufficiently distinctive for dating purposes.

page 93 note 1 Fig. 4, no. 1 is closely paralleled in shape and decoration by a Beaker from Heslerton, see Greenwell, op. cit., 144 (B.M. 79.12–9.45).

page 93 note 2 Cambridge University Collection, ACK 10–12 (ACK 12 is Plate VIII).

page 93 note 3 cf. the tapering end of the Thornborough cursus; de M. Vatcher, F., Y.A.J., XL, 1960, 169Google Scholar.

page 93 note 4 The Kilham long-barrow lies 1½ miles west-north-west of this complex of cropmarks. See Greenwell, op. cit., 553 (G. CCXXXIV).

page 93 note 5 Cambridge University Collection, ACK 19.

page 94 note 1 Greenwell, op. cit., 497–501 (G. CCXXIV), 229. From Greenwell's description, it is evident that the double long-barrow is probably in the vicinity of Rudston Grange (Nat. Grid. Ref. TA 07/69). I am indebted to Mr Manby for pointing out this reference and discussing its significance.

page 94 note 2 McInnes, I. J., Antiquity, Sept. 1964, 218Google Scholar.

page 94 note 3 R.C.H.M. (Eng.), A Matter of Time, 1960, 25, fig. 2Google Scholar; de M. Vatcher, F., Y.A.J., XL, 1960, 170Google Scholar, fig. 1.

page 94 note 4 Thomas, N., Y.A.J., XXXVIII, 1955, 425 ff.Google Scholar; Dymond, D. P., Y.A.J., XLI, 1963, 98 ff.Google Scholar A new henge-monument at Yarnbury, Grassington (W.R.) has been recently recognized and excavated by the present writer; publication forthcoming. Yet another has been found recently by aerial photography at Ferrybridge (W.R.); ex inf. R.C.H.M.(Eng.).

page 94 note 5 It must be admitted that the main index of prehistoric population is the incidence of barrows and barrow-groups, and that the settlements may be many miles from the barrows. There is, however, a rough and justifiable equation between barrows and settlement, especially for a large geographical area such as the Yorkshire Wolds, and excavation is beginning to prove the point. Mr Manby is at present working on the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age material and excavation records in the Grantham collection, and will be publishing in due course a full account.

page 95 note 1 R.C.H.M. (Eng.), op. cit., 25, fig. 2.