Brit Archaeol 11

The rite of burying the dead in caves, especially in late Neo-EBA, was more widespread than hitherto recognized. Four main groups are mapped: Peak District, Creswell, Craven, and Cumbria/N Lancs groups. Much material has been lost, but the remainder is being systematically worked over and re-published. On average caves contained three-fifteen burials, in shallow graves or built cists, some burials intact, some defleshed. In these areas caves seem to have been genuinely preferred over formal built tombs.

All the purported reconstructions of prehistoric buildings are constructs, the physical products of a deductive process. The Pimperne reconstruction, even if inaccurate in minor details, proves itself to enclose the right volume with the right materials - including over 200 trees (showing the Iron Age need for coppice), 10 tons of clay, 15 tons of straw. All these have implications for Iron Age farming practice and professionalism. But it is still not 'an Iron Age house'. The rotting of its porch posts after eight years explained the excavation evidence, but the structure as a whole would last many generations. It provides a unique classroom and a full-scale experiment.