The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

• 82 • Mike Parker Pearson
argument that Neolithic people were
dolichocephalic (their skulls were
longer than they were wide) and
Beaker incomers were brachycephalic
(short, rounded skulls) has suggested
that such changes could result from
environmental and genetic changes
within an indigenous population
(Brodie 1994). Beaker pottery in
Britain is not restricted to burials or
ceremonial complexes but regularly
turns up in settlements from the
Hebrides southwards (Gibson 1982).
In south-west England, where the
geology is suitable for ceramic
petrological sourcing, Beakers were
made locally and perhaps
Figure 5.4 A Beaker and associated non-perishable grave goods from the domestically, and were deposited
Green Low round barrow in Derbyshire: (from the left) a bone point; a bone within no more than a few miles of
toggle; two bone spatulae; two fragments of bone; a flint scraper; three flint their likely places of manufacture.
blades; five barbed-and-tanged flint arrowheads; a small flint dagger; a large
flint dagger; and two large flint flakes.
Unlike Beakers, Food Vessels and
Source: Sheffield City Museum
Collared Urns are not found on the
Continent (Figure 5.5). Food Vessels
were used throughout much of the
British Isles, predominantly with inhumations (in Yorkshire, Scotland and Ireland) and cremation
burials (in Wales and north-western England), since settlement sites survive so rarely. They are
nearly always found in secondary associations to Beakers, but associated radiocarbon dates indicate
a probable chronological overlap of 300–400 years. They are narrow-bottomed pots with straight
or bowed sides and an out-turned mouth, and are decorated on their upper parts with twisted
cord impressions, incised lines, stabmarks, fingermarks and bone impressions. They divide into
three overlapping sizes, the largest perhaps for storage, the middle for cooking and the smaller
for eating from.
Collared Urns are similar in shape, decoration and size to Food Vessels, except that the rim is
in-turned and slopes down to an external, overhanging collar. Their radiocarbon date range indicates
that they appeared some centuries after the first Food Vessels but that use of both forms overlapped
in time. When they are found in burial mounds with Food Vessels, they are always in secondary or
later deposits within the mound. Such differences may have been social rather than simply
chronological. Collared Urns are similarly found throughout Britain.
Cordoned Urns, Encrusted Urns, Biconical Urns and Trevisker pottery are specifically regional
styles within the Earlier Bronze Age. Towards the end of this period, a variety of cruder, mainly
undecorated bucket-shaped styles appeared, notably Deverel-Rimbury wares in southern England
and the Green Knowe style in southern Scotland and northern England. We might also class
northern Food Vessel Urns as a regional variant. Cordoned Urns are found in Scotland and
Ireland, Encrusted Urns (broadly a style of encrusted decoration used on enlarged Food Vessels)
in Scotland, northern England and Ireland, Biconical Urns in lowland England and Trevisker
pottery in south-west England. By the end of the Earlier Bronze Age, the repertoire of vessel
sizes and forms had increased from twofold or threefold divisions to complex divisions for
DeverelRimbury and Biconical assemblages of coarse heavy-duty, coarse everyday, cups/bowls and