The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca
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• 114 • Colin Haselgrove<br />
votive finds <strong>from</strong> east-flowing rivers<br />
like the Thames and Witham, or<br />
come <strong>from</strong> hoards <strong>of</strong> late date. Even<br />
small items like brooches (Figure<br />
7.1) —useful for dating due to their<br />
affinities with the continental<br />
Hallstatt and La Tène cultures—do<br />
not become common until the very<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the period. By default,<br />
pottery generally forms the basis <strong>of</strong><br />
settlement chronology, but outside<br />
southern and eastern England and<br />
the Scottish islands, it, too, is s<strong>ca</strong>rce<br />
and shows little typologi<strong>ca</strong>l change<br />
over several centuries. Its place was<br />
presumably taken by organic<br />
Figure 7.1 Selected Iron Age brooch types: 1. Early La Tène; 2. Involuted: containers which survive only in<br />
3. Penannular; 4. Nauheim; 5. Boss-on-bow; 6. Aucissa.<br />
exceptional conditions. Be<strong>ca</strong>use <strong>of</strong><br />
soil acidity, sizeable assemblages <strong>of</strong><br />
animal bone are similarly missing <strong>from</strong> sites in northern and western <strong>Britain</strong>. A further contrast<br />
with the south and east is the near-total absence <strong>of</strong> grain storage pits, common in chalk and<br />
limestone areas, where they form a major source <strong>of</strong> artefactual and environmental data.<br />
Based on changes in decorated pottery styles, the Iron Age to the south and east <strong>of</strong> a line<br />
drawn <strong>from</strong> the Bristol Channel to the Humber is <strong>of</strong>ten sub-divided into three phases: Early<br />
(c.800/700–300 BC), Middle (c.300–100 BC) and Late (c.100 BC-AD 43/84). To the north and<br />
west, the period is difficult to divide into meaningful phases, except at purely lo<strong>ca</strong>l levels. It is<br />
sufficient here to distinguish between an Earlier Iron Age, lasting until the fourth century BC,<br />
which shares many attributes with the Later Bronze Age, and a Later Iron Age, starting c.300 BC,<br />
when insular societies entered a new period <strong>of</strong> transition. This reached its climax in the first<br />
century AD, after Julius Caesar’s conquest <strong>of</strong> northern France and invasions <strong>of</strong> <strong>Britain</strong> had<br />
brought the south into direct contact with the Roman world.<br />
THE RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF IRON AGE STUDIES<br />
Until the 1960s, perceptions <strong>of</strong> the period were shaped by Fox’s (1932) classic division <strong>of</strong> <strong>Britain</strong><br />
into Highland and Lowland zones. With its poorer soils and climate, the Highland zone was<br />
thought to have been sparsely occupied by pastoralists, in contrast to the Lowland zone which<br />
was densely populated by mixed farmers. This latter region, nearer the Continent, was also seen<br />
as relatively open to externally induced cultural change, unlike the conservative Highland zone<br />
where innovations were taken up at best gradually. This emphasis on continental influence accorded<br />
with Caesar’s mention <strong>of</strong> Belgic immigrants <strong>from</strong> northern France, whom archaeologists like<br />
Hawkes (1960) saw as responsible for introducing coinage, cremation and wheel-made pottery in<br />
the first century BC (during Hawkes’ Iron Age C). Earlier invaders were similarly credited with<br />
the <strong>introduction</strong> <strong>of</strong> iron and <strong>of</strong> hillforts (Iron Age A), and with the subsequent imposition <strong>of</strong><br />
continental Early La Tène culture in certain regions (Iron Age B).<br />
In the 1960s, this model was challenged as intellectual fashions changed. In a seminal study,<br />
Hodson (1964) argued that few <strong>of</strong> the supposed invasions were represented by clear-cut