| Title: |
Monuments and memories set in stone:
|
| Subtitle: |
a Cornish Bronze Age ceremonial complex in its landscape (on Stannon Down) |
| Issue: |
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 72 |
| Series: |
The Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
|
| Volume: |
72
|
| Page Start/End: |
341 - 365 |
| Biblio Note |
Please note that this is a bibliographic record only, as originally entered into the BIAB database.
The ADS have no files for download, and unfortunately cannot advise further on where to access hard copy or digital versions.
|
| Publication Type: |
Journal
|
| Abstract: |
Report on three seasons of archaeological fieldwork carried out in 1998--2000 within the Imerys Stannon China Clay Works, Bodmin Moor. The first two seasons involved the excavation of an Early Bronze Age cairn group and Middle Bronze Age and Middle Iron Age settlement activity. The third season on the Northern Downs involved the evaluation of a number of cairns, field systems, and palaeoenvironmental sites. The cairn group consisted of three earlier Bronze Age ring-cairns and two `tailed' cairns. One ring-cairn continued to be used as a ceremonial monument in the Middle Bronze Age and was reused during the Iron Age as a dwelling. An artefact assemblage including Bronze and Iron Age pottery and stonework was recovered. Two prehistoric beads, one of faience, the other of amber, were also found. Ten Bronze Age radiocarbon determinations spanning 2490--1120 cal BC and two Iron Age determinations 370--40 cal BC) were obtained from three of the cairns. Two pollen columns on the Northern Downs were also dated. Significantly, a series of eight determinations was obtained from a single column, which provided environmental information from the Mesolithic through to the early medieval period. The radiocarbon dating showed that impact on the vegetation of the Down commenced during the Neolithic, with larger-scale clearance during the Bronze Age. Widespread open grassland was established by the Middle Bronze Age. It is suggested here that use of space within the cairn group was structured and that the cairns formed a monument complex which was part of a wider landscape cosmology, involving groupings of particular monument types and the referencing of rocky outcrops and tors. The investigations on Stannon Down were important as an opportunity to study an Early Bronze Age ceremonial landscape and reconsider how later Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age peoples on Bodmin Moor might have engaged with and interpreted the materiality of earlier prehistoric monuments. French, German and Spanish summaries are provided. |
| Year of Publication: |
2006
|
| Subjects / Periods: |
| Cairn (Auto Detected Subject) |
| Ceremonial (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
SHERD
(Object England)
|
|
|
| Ceremonial Landscape (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
SETTLEMENT
(Monument Type England)
|
|
|
| Cairns (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
|
| Beads (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Cal Bc (Auto Detected Temporal) |
|
|
| Cairns Field Systems (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
|
| Radiocarbon Dating (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
|
| Pollen Columns (Auto Detected Subject) |
|
|
|
|
| Ringcairns (Auto Detected Subject) |
| Stonework (Auto Detected Subject) |
| Bronze (Auto Detected Temporal) |
|
| Note: |
[OS SX 132 803]
|
| Source: |
BIAB
(The British & Irish Archaeological Bibliography (BIAB))
|
| Created Date: |
01 Feb 2007 |
