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

• 84 • Mike Parker Pearson
Late Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age is that the
ceramic repertoires might be considered as ‘dialects’
in material culture, mirroring or playing off linguistic
shifts firstly between Britain and the Continent (Food
Vessels and Collared Urns) and latterly within the
British Isles (Tomalin in Kinnes and Varndell 1995).
In other words, they may be the only surviving traces
of growing regional differences in local dialects and
customs.
It is in south-west and southern Britain that we
get the clearest picture of pottery production and
distribution. Food Vessels and Collared Urns in
Cornwall were predominantly produced from the
high-quality and distinctive gabbroic clays of the
Lizard peninsula of Cornwall, indicating a centralized
production and distribution pattern very different
from Beaker wares. Cornish Trevisker Ware was
similarly derived from the Lizard gabbro, though
Trevisker pottery in Devon probably came largely
Figure 5.6 Assemblage variation within the Trevisker from two sources of south Devon clay not far from
series: (from large to small) the large two-handled storage
Dartmoor. Trevisker pots made on the Lizard were
pot (Style 1); the multiple-lugged storage pot (Style 2); the
cooking pot (Styles 3 and 4) and the small serving pot even moved by sea along the south coast to Wessex
(Style 5).
(such as the cremation container at Sturminster
Source: Peter Dunn
Marshall, Dorset) and across the Channel to the Pasde-Calais
at Hardelot (Parker Pearson in Kinnes and
Varndell 1995). Armorican vases à arises came the other way from Brittany to the Isle of Wight and
Wessex. Thus the pots support the picture of cross-Channel trade in metalwork (the Salcombe
[Devon] and Dover wreck sites) and seafaring as shown by the recent discovery of a Middle
Bronze Age sewn plank boat at Dover (see Figure 6.8).
Pots are one of the key artefacts, however lowly, in marking social relationships and rites of
passage. They accompanied the corpse (or its burnt remains) to the final resting place; they were
involved in the daily rites and routines of food preparation and consumption; and they signalled
regional, age, gender and no doubt other social identities. Whilst they were employed in the activities
of storage, cooking and serving of food, those essential practices of daily life and relationships,
archaeologists can only guess at the complexities of the engendered and status relationships in
which they were used. This is partly due to the paucity of excavated settlements and houses.
HOUSES
There are very few well-preserved Early Bronze Age settlements excavated in Europe, and most
of the house remains are found in the western regions of Britain. These are very ephemeral and
survive only in exceptional circumstances of preservation or where the scarcity of wood has led
to their construction partly in stone. The locality with the greatest potential for preservation is
the Western Isles of Scotland, where houses, mostly with stone walls revetted into sand, have
been excavated at Northton, Barvas, Dalmore, Alt Chrysal, Cill Donnain and Rosinish (Figure
5.7) (Armit 1996:88–94; Simpson in Burgess and Miket 1976). Other Earlier Bronze Age stone
houses have been excavated in Shetland at Brouster, Ness of Gruting, Yoxie, Stanydale and Benie