Oxford J Archaeol 27 (1)

The paper considers recent discussions of `deliberate', `formal', `placed', `special', `structured', or `token' deposits on later prehistoric settlements in Britain. It argues that while these concepts have certainly been very important in raising and forefronting the interpretative possibilities that depositional practices might offer, the idea of structured deposition has, at times, been adopted and applied somewhat simplistically; and that, in such instances, exploration of the potential complexity and interpretative scope of depositional histories on later prehistoric settlements has been substantially curtailed. Current understandings of depositional practices involving pottery and burnt human bone are examined, and alternative interpretations offered, through a case study of the evidence recovered from a series of Later Bronze Age settlements at Broom Quarry, Bedfordshire.