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The Early Neolithic Tor Enclosures of Southwest Britain

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The Early Neolithic Tor Enclosures of Southwest Britain The Early Neolithic Tor Enclosures of Southwest Britain By Simon R. Davies A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the degree of Ph.D. Funded by the AHRC. i University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract Along with causewayed enclosures, the tor enclosures of Cornwall and Devon represent the earliest enclosure of large open spaces in Britain and are the earliest form of surviving non-funerary monument. Their importance is at least as great as that of causewayed enclosures, and it might be argued that their proposed associations with settlement, farming, industry, trade and warfare indicate that they could reveal more about the Early Neolithic than many causewayed enclosure sites. Yet, despite being recognised as Neolithic in date as early as the 1920s, they have been subject to a disproportionately small amount of work. Indeed, the southwest, Cornwall especially, is almost treated like another country by many of those studying the Early Neolithic of southern Britain. When mentioned, this region is more likely to be included in studies of Ireland and the Irish Sea zone than studies concerning England. Perhaps this is due, in part, to interpretations of Carn Brea and Helman Tor as defended settlements of people who relied upon agriculture for the bulk of their subsistence, conducted economic trade with other areas, and formed a quasi-political unity through warfare. This interpretation does not sit well with post-processual suggestions of a mobile, wild resource based early Neolithic, with the emphasis on cultural change, in neighbouring Wessex chalkland areas. The aim of this thesis is to re-examine the evidence from the southwest and to interpret it with reference to and in contrast with the potentially radically different interpretations of the Early Neolithic in nearby Wessex. By understanding the southwestern landscapes before the tors were enclosed, placing the tor enclosures in their cultural landscape contexts, using ethnographic analogy and re-examining the existing archaeological record, it is possible to achieve a better understanding of tor enclosures and to demonstrate their importance for understanding other elements of the Early Neolithic in Britain. Front page images: Notter Tor as seen from Stowe’s Pond. The walls of Whittor. The walls of Stowe’s Pound upper enclosure. ii Contents ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................................................ II CONTENTS ......................................................................................................................................................III FIGURES .......................................................................................................................................................... V TABLES .......................................................................................................................................................... VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ VIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: THE EARLY NEOLITHIC OF THE SOUTHWEST – AN OVERVIEW OF HISTORICAL AND CURRENT UNDERSTANDINGS .................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 PREVIOUS WORK ON THE NEOLITHIC OF THE SOUTHWEST .......................................................................................... 2 1.2 MONUMENTS, SITES AND ARTEFACTS .................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 THE IMPORTANCE OF TOR ENCLOSURES ................................................................................................................ 10 1.4 RESEARCH AIMS .............................................................................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 2: THE TOR ENCLOSURE SITES: DESCRIPTIONS, COMPARISONS AND DATES ................................... 15 2.1 FORMS AND CONSTRUCTIONAL ELEMENTS ............................................................................................................ 15 2.2 LOCATIONS IN THE PHYSICAL AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPE ......................................................................................... 38 2.3 MATERIAL CULTURE ......................................................................................................................................... 44 2.4 DATING ......................................................................................................................................................... 47 2.5 SPATIAL PATTERNS AND CHOICE OF TOR ............................................................................................................... 55 2.6 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. 64 CHAPTER 3: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE TORS BEFORE ENCLOSURE ................................................................ 66 3.1 MESOLITHIC AND EARLIEST NEOLITHIC TRADITIONS: USE BEFORE ENCLOSURE? ............................................................ 67 3.2 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. 74 CHAPTER 4: LANDSCAPE AND MOVEMENT .................................................................................................... 76 4.1 TORS IN THE LANDSCAPE ................................................................................................................................... 76 4.2 LOCALISED MOVEMENT: ROUTEWAYS ONTO AND OFF HIGHLAND AREAS ..................................................................... 76 4.3 REGIONAL MOVEMENT ..................................................................................................................................... 85 4.4 COMPARISONS WITH OTHER PARTS OF COUNTRY AND THE ETHNOGRAPHIC RECORD ...................................................... 87 4.5 GEOLOGY AND GREENSTONE SOURCES ................................................................................................................. 90 4.6 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................................................. 93 CHAPTER 5: PRE-ENCLOSURE MEANINGS ....................................................................................................... 95 5.1 THE HIGHLAND EDGE THRESHOLD: HEIGHT, VIEWS AND INTERFACE ............................................................................ 95 5.2 BEING THERE ................................................................................................................................................ 104 5.3 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................ 126 CHAPTER 6: ACTS OF ENCLOSURE ................................................................................................................ 128 6.1 ENCLOSURE AND THE LANDSCAPE ..................................................................................................................... 128 6.2 NEW RELATIONSHIPS WITH DEATH AND THE ANCESTORS ........................................................................................ 133 6.3 CEREMONIES OF AGGREGATION: NEGOTIATION OF STATUS AND IDENTITY ................................................................. 135 6.4 THE ACT OF BUILDING .................................................................................................................................... 141 6.5 ENCLOSURE AS STRUCTURE.............................................................................................................................. 144 6.6 BEING THERE: HOW THE WALLS CHANGE THE EXPERIENCE OF THE TORS .................................................................... 151 6.7 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................ 156 CHAPTER 7: ENCLOSURE, SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY .............................................................................. 157 7.1 AGRICULTURE AND SETTLEMENT ....................................................................................................................... 157 7.2 TRADE AND INDUSTRY .................................................................................................................................... 166 7.3 CONFLICT AND POWER ................................................................................................................................... 169 iii 7.4 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................................
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