British Archaeology 145

A ninth season of fieldwork on the Ness of Brodgar, Orkney, was completed in August 2015. Here archaeologists have been excavating floor levels and wall foundations within a mound of collapsed stone buildings and refuse some 5,000 years old. Preliminary analysis of the structures, the oldest of their kind in the world, is revealing a complexity of design and build in stone that is unmatched in Neolithic Europe. Some of the excavation findings are outlined in this article and their significance is discussed. Traces of older structures have also been found at the site, and future excavation is likely to reveal further surprises: in places there are significant amounts of built-up ground below the present standing walls. LD

Evidence from geophysical survey has suggested that up to two hundred large stones once stood in a sinuous row along the course of the southern and western edges of the late Neolithic Durrington Walls henge, three kilometres north-east of Stonehenge in Wiltshire. The discovery, from work undertaken as part of the Stonehenge Hidden Landscapes Project, was first announced a year ago, but further analysis has indicated that the row extends for at least six hundred metres and is thus more than twice as long as originally thought. This short article discusses the findings, which could significantly affect our understanding of Stonehenge and its landscape setting. LD

Round-up of archaeological news from around Britain. LD

In 2000, archaeologists excavated a row of exceptionally well preserved late Bronze Age roundhouses at Cladh Hallan on South Uist, in the Western Isles of Scotland. Among four burials beneath the house floors were two that were each found to be made up from parts of three different people. This article explains how the conclusion was reached that the bodies had been mummified prior to their reassembly and eventual burial. Subsequent research by Tom Booth for a masters degree at the University of Sheffield sought further evidence for mummification in prehistoric Britain, but concluded that of the criteria used, only the examination of bone microstructures might consistently identify skeletonised mummies in the archaeological record. Funding from the Arts & Humanities Research Council enabled him to further investigate the relationship between bacterial bioerosion and funerary treatment as a PhD project. The results suggest that mummification was a widespread and long-lived practice during the British Bronze Age, although not during other prehistoric periods. The final section of this article considers how mummification was achieved and reasons why it might have been done. LD

In 2014 an Egyptian statue that formed part of the collections of Northamptonshire County Council's Museums Service was sold at auction. Although the UK government initially placed an export bar on the 4,500-year-old statue, it is believed that the item has now been released to its anonymous overseas buyer. This article discusses ethical issues around the sale, which faced widespread opposition; the question of legal title; and the consequences for Northampton Museums. It is hoped that a change in the law can be brought about in order to ensure that objects of recognised importance are protected even after sales such as this. LD

A major research programme, The Fields of Britannia, has investigated what happened to the landscape when Britain ceased to be part of the Roman empire, and the origins of today's countryside. Researchers at the University of Exeter looked at pollen sequences and other palaeoenvironmental data to reveal patterns of land-use, and undertook a quantified analysis of dated late Roman field systems and the countryside that followed, and how the relationship between the two varied across different regions. Overall, it was found that there is a wide range of evidence to suggest that landscapes evolved gradually from Roman to medieval times, with neither complete continuity nor a dramatic discontinuity. Communities adapted to the changing socio-economic circumstances of the fifth century AD in different ways, one result of which was growing diversity in agricultural practices. A more significant period of change appears to have been from around the eighth century, when open fields were created. LD

In the late 1960s a buried structure was discovered by a farmer in Poulton, a hamlet on the bank of the river Dee five miles south of Chester, and this ultimately led to the investigation of a significant multi-period landscape. A small excavation conducted by the farmer recovered a decorated medieval floor tile and a human mandible. Over twenty years later, in 1995, excavation by Chester Archaeological Services and the University of Liverpool revealed the remains of a small chapel that had been enlarged from an earlier single-celled structure. Documentary research attested to a short-lived Cistercian abbey in the area, established in the 1150s AD and falling out of use in 1214. The investigation developed into a community-based research project which has included the excavation of almost 800 individuals from a secular graveyard with an estimated 2,000 burials, as well as a programme of resistivity survey, test-pitting and open-area excavation. The work has revealed intensive occupation spanning wide areas of the field, including indications of probable prehistoric settlement covering several hectares. To date, eleven Iron Age roundhouses have been at least partially uncovered, with intercutting features indicating a pattern of demolition and rebuilding. The combined archaeological and landscape evidence suggests strongly that one of the roundhouses was a meat-processing building, possibly part of a larger trading settlement and distribution centre. An extensive Roman landscape succeeded the Iron Age occupation. In addition, several hundred Mesolithic flints have been recovered from the site, with continuity into the Neolithic and Bronze Age tentatively indicated by a smaller scatter of flints and a few other artefacts. Decades of work are still needed in order to achieve a full understanding of human interaction with this landscape. LD

This article considers how archaeology has been defined since the mid-20th century and discusses how the modern emphasis on 'heritage' is problematical for archaeologists. Archaeology is a dynamic, dramatic, creative discipline, whilst 'heritage' characterises the past not by human achievements and stories, but by antiquity -- simply by being old. It is important for the future of the profession to communicate this distinction today, aligning archaeology with the creative industries, science and the future. LD