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Early Iron Age ‘C’ in Wessex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

John Brailsford
John Brailsford
Affiliation:
Dept. British and Medieval Antiquities, British Museum
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Extract

The Early Iron Age of Wessex has been the study of many distinguished archaeologists, and any fresh investigation is bound to be in large part either a synthesis or a development of the results of earlier workers. Among the latter must be included not only such notable scholars as General Pitt-Rivers, the Cunningtons, Professor Hawkes, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Mr Radford, but a multitude of professional archaeologists and amateurs, whose accumulated labours help to give solidity to the picture. The present writer owes a profound debt to all of these; he would also like to acknowledge personal help especially from Mr Raymond Farrar, Mr J. Stevens Cox, Mr A. L. F. Rivet, Mr J. B. Calkin, and from the Curators of the Museums at Dorchester, Farnham (Dorset), Salisbury, Devizes and Taunton.

The present paper is a study of the ‘C’ cultures, i.e. cultures of the latest phase of the Early Iron Age which are not simply survivals of ‘B’ cultures, in Wessex. For the present purpose I take Wessex to be the area covered by Sheet 11 of the Ordnance Survey ¼ inch map, excluding the area of undoubted Belgic occupation in the East (which I shall attempt to define later), and in addition a westward extension to the River Exe. In other words, it is a study, primarily (Part I) of the ‘Durotrigian’ culture of Dorset and its borders, and also (Part II) of whatever Belgic penetration can be demonstrated in the surrounding area.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 24 , December 1958 , pp. 101 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1958

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References

page 101 note 1 These have been comprehensively studied by Fox, Lady (Roman Exeter, pp. 80 ff.)Google Scholar.

page 102 note 1 The wheel or turn-table technique of the Durotriges was not necessarily adopted from the Belgae. Excellent ‘wheel-made’ pottery of even earlier date occurs close at hand in the Class ‘B’ ware of the Hengistbury Head settlement (pl. xxiii) and the finer Glastonbury ware must have been made on a wheel or turn-table. It is an interesting speculation whether the chalk and limestone flywheels from Hod Hill, one of which at least is pre-Roman, come from potters' wheels.

page 102 note 2 Cf. Camulodunum, Form 253, especially fig. 55, nos. 14–16, Verulamium, fig. 10, no. 9, Canterbury, , Arch. Cant. 1954, p. 105Google Scholar, fig. 3, no. 5, Swarling, pl. ix, no. 33.

page 104 note 1 The occurrence of pottery of Hengistbury Cl. ‘B’ type in the Somerset lake villages is now recognized. In fact, this class of pottery is probably quite widely distributed in the South-west. It occurs, for instance, at Cooper's Hole and the Car Park, Cheddar, and at Wookey Hole. Bowls of the type here considered, derived from the Hengistbury Cl. ‘B’ form, occur at Ham Hill, Hanging Langford Camp, Hod Hill, Maiden Castle, Rotherley and Woodcuts and perhaps at Kingsdown and Yarnbury.

page 104 note 2 Are they possibly derived from prototypes such as the pots from Bodrifty shown in Arch. J. CXIII, fig. 10, nos. 1, 9–15?

page 106 note 1 This list is based on the native material from Woodcuts, Rotherley and Hod Hill, finds from EIA ‘C’ levels at Maiden Castle, and the ‘mass-grave’ material from Spettisbury (Gresham, C.A., Arch. J. XCVI, 114Google Scholar).

page 107 note 1 Other British coins from these sites are those shown in Maiden Castle, pl. xxxviii, nos. 6–14, with the ‘Whaddon Chase’ coin there mentioned on p. 333, and a group from Hod Hill in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Farnham, Dorset.

page 108 note 1 The ‘Belgic’ coins marked south and west of the Wylye in VCH Wilts., vol. 1, pt. 1, Map VII, are really Durotrigian.

page 110 note 1 Part of a second tazza from Woodcuts is in the Pitt-Rivers' Museum at Farnham. It came from the Ditch of the S.E. Quarter, which is apparently of Roman date, and is in typical Durotrigian ware.

page 111 note 1 28 Roman pits out of a total of 95—29.5%—contained 396 out of a total of 1149 fragments of bones of Ox, Sheep and Pigs—34.4%.

page 111 note 2 Arch. J. LVII, p. 52Google Scholar.

page 111 note 3 Richardson, K. M., Ant. J. xx (1940) pp. 429 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 112 note 1 C. A. Gresham, op. cit.

page 112 note 2 Radford, C. A. R., PPS 1954Google Scholar.

page 112 note 3 Warne, , Ancient Dorset, pp. 229 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 112 note 4 Report, pp. 62–4, 118–19, 231–3, 351–60.

page 112 note 5 C. A. Gresham, op. cit.

page 112 note 6 Report, pp. 348–51.

page 113 note 1 Farrar, R. A. H., Proc. Dorset, NH & Arch. Soc., 1954, pp. 90–4Google Scholar.

page 113 note 3 Hawkes, and Dunning, , Belgae, pp. 304–9Google Scholar.

page 115 note 1 There is a coin of Verica from E. Grimstead (information from Mr A. L. F. Rivet), and part of a Durotrigian upright-rim jar from Buckland Rings (Proc. Hants. F.C XIII (1935), p. 156Google Scholar). Mack (op. cit., Map 12) shows a coin of Cunobelin east of Salisbury. This is not included in my map, which is based on Allen in Arch. J. XC. More recent work has not produced any significant changes in the distribution patterns of Belgic and Durotrigian coins in this area demonstrated by Allen.

page 115 note 2 WAM XXXVIII, pp. 85 ff.

page 115 note 3 See also Camulodunum, p. 237, where these forms are dated Augustan-Tiberian.

page 115 note 4 Devizes. Mus. Cat. 1934, pls. xli, B, D, xliv, A–D, for other Belgic types see pls. xli, E; xlii, B, and xliii, E).

page 115 note 5 WAM LIV, pp. 123 ff; rig. 12, nos. 96, 97 and 105–7.

page 115 note 6 WAM XLVI, pp. 198 ff., pls. xv, 1, 3 and xvi, 3.

page 115 note 7 WAM XLVI, p. 603.

page 115 note 8 Unpublished, Newall Collection, Salisbury Museum.

page 116 note 1 B.M. 92, 9–1 … and 93, 6–1 … —Durden Collection.

page 116 note 2 B.M. 1940, 7–1 … —Calkin Collection.

page 117 note 1 Another specimen (B.M. 1940, 7–1, 909) from the stokehole of the kiln, is of abnormal red/brown ware and has probably been burnt after manufacture.

page 117 note 2 Several countersunk-lug jars with everted rims have been found at Ham Hill, Somerset, including one which contained a hoard of Roman coins dating from Augustus to Postumus A.D. 259–67. (Som. Arch. Soc. Procs. XCIV, 161. Taunton Mus.)Google Scholar.

page 119 note 1 Cf. Cl. ‘B’ bowls Hengistbury Report, pl. xvii, nos. 3, 5, 6; pl. xviii, nos. 17, 21, 22, 28, 29.