Barrows to Bog Bodies
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ImagesImages courtesycourtesy of:of: CheshireThe British County Museum Council ChesterBritish City CouncilWool Marketing Archaeological Board Service EnglishCheshire Heritage County Photographic Council Library TheChester Grosvenor City Council Museum, Archaeological Chester City Service Council The GrosvenorIllustrations Museum, by Chester Dai Owen City Council Warrington Library, Museum and Archive Service Illustrations by Dai Owen Manors, Barrows to Moats and Bog Bodies OrdnanceOrdnance Survey Survey StatementStatement ofof PurposePurpose Monasteries TheThe Ordnance Ordnance Survey Survey mapping mapping within within this this documentdocument is is provided provided by by Cheshire Cheshire County County CouncilCouncil under under licence licence from from the the Ordnance Ordnance Survey.Survey. It It is is intended intended to to show show the the distribution distribution StoneMedieval Age | Bronze Age | Iron Age ofof archaeological archaeological sites sites in in order order to to fulfil fulfil its its 14 publicpublic function function to to make make available available Council Council held held publicpublic domain domain information. information. Persons Persons viewing viewing thisthis mapping mapping should should contact contact Ordnance Ordnance Survey Survey CopyrightCopyright for for advice advice where where they they wish wish to to licencelicence Ordnance Ordnance Survey Survey mapping/map mapping/map data data forfor their their own own use. use. The The OS OS web web site site can can be be foundfound at at www.ordsvy.gov.uk www.ordsvy.gov.uk Who Lived in Cheshire? 50,000-10,000 BC 10,000-4000BC 4000-2500BC 2500-800BC 800BC-43AD Old Stone Age Middle Stone Age New Stone Age Bronze Age Iron Age (Palaeolithic) (Mesolithic) (Neolithic) Barrow builders Tribal kingdoms In the beginning... Survival The early farmers Until around 10,000 The Ice Age was not These people hunted Farming began in In the Bronze Age, The people of Britain years ago, Cheshire continuous. There animals, fished and mainland Europe in permanent were divided into lay under ice. When were times when the gathered roots, nuts around 6500BC. By settlements were well tribes. The inhabitants this melted, it left climate warmed and and seeds to survive. 4000 BC the idea of established. People of Cheshire at this behind a landscape vegetation thrived, farming had arrived in were not time were of marshy lowlands creating the ideal Britain. People started moving called the scattered with small habitat for our early to grow crops and around all the Cornovii. The lakes and divided ancestors. keep animals, creating time and they skills to by high sandstone a reliable source of acquired more produce and ridges. belongings. shape iron People may have Flint tool food. This meant that been living in instead of moving were Thick forest covered Cheshire by 50,000 around to hunt High quality developed in the land so people BC, as a Stone Age Their weapons and food, permanent metal tools and this period. Iron chose areas with hand axe has been tools have been found settlements were ornaments and is easier to work lighter woodland found at the eastern scattered across built. highly decorated than bronze and is cover to live in, such edge of the county. Cheshire. These are pottery were more useful for tools. as high ground and mostly small flint Early varieties of made. lakeshores. blades, fixed to bone wheat, barley and Above: or antler to create oats would have been Gawsworth beaker arrows and the main crops. spears. Bones of animals Left: Soay sheep thought to resemble breeds like Soay sheep and Dexter Tatton axe cattle have been found. The Stone Age Where did they live? Stone…the prehistoric toolkit Temporary camps Stone axes would have been an essential part Excavations at Tatton Park have found a of prehistoric life. Cheshire sandstone does Middle Stone Age flint working site. About not make good axes so stone tools were 900 flints were recovered and the remains of imported. Prehistoric “axe factories” a shelter were identified. There is evidence existed in Cumbria, Wales and Cornwall. that people were making flint tools in a cave Stone was quarried here, roughed out into Attached to long wooden in Carden Park. axe shapes and then taken away to be handles, these axes were finished and traded. Axes of all these types used to clear the thick of stone have been found in Cheshire. forests to allow crop cultivation and grazing. Some axes were never used and are thought to have been symbols of power and status such as this jadeite axe, imported from continental Europe. Flint was used to make smaller tools such as arrowheads, Cave in Carden Park scrapers (used for working Early farms animal hides) and knives. Excavations at Tatton found evidence of brief New Stone Age farming. A scatter of flint artefacts and burnt grain was recovered with a radiocarbon date of around 2600BC. At Did you know... Oversley Farm in Wilmslow, the remains of a Stone Age timber longhouse were found You can chop a tree down in 30 along with grain storage pits. minutes using a polished stone axe. Don’t try this at home! The Stone Age continued Pottery The Bridestones Tiny fragments of plain hand-made Stone Age The Bridestones is a Stone pottery have been found in Cheshire though Age chambered cairn, a there are no examples of complete vessels. burial mound of loose We know what this pottery would have stones over stone burial looked like (below), as we can compare the chambers. This kind of fragments to complete vessels from other structure is associated with parts of Britain. high status burials. Records show that in 1764 the tomb was 100 metres long and 11 metres wide. The stones that made up the cairn were later removed for road building, revealing the chamber inside . Today you can see the remains of one of three chambers and the portal stones at the southern entrance. Death and burial In Stone Age Britain this is characterised by monumental tombs for the dead. There are three Stone Ages burial sites in Cheshire. They are a crop mark of a suspected mortuary enclosure at Churton, a possible long barrow at Somerford and the Bridestones at Congleton. The Bridestones, Congleton Stone Age Cheshire Warrington © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Cheshire County Council Licence No. 100019582. 2004 Oversley Runcorn Tatton Farm Ellesmere Port Northwich Macclesfield Chester Somerford Bridestones Congleton Churton Carden Key Nantwich ● Findspots of Neolithic ● stone axes ● Sites mentioned in ● the text The Bronze Age Where did they live? knew where to find it too. The open cast or antler handle. Some axes had loops to help An early Bronze Age farmstead and trackway copper mines of Alderley Edge tie the axe head into place. were found at Oversley Farm, Wilmslow, before date back to prehistoric times. the second Manchester Airport runway was Not everyone would have used the new metal built. This is an important discovery as we have tools. Stone and flint implements were still little information about lowland settlements of important and most people would have this period. There is also evidence of Bronze known how to make them. Age occupation at the upland sites of Beeston Castle and Eddisbury Hillfort. Masters of Metal…Bronze Age tools Bronze Age axe The first metal to be worked was copper. from Twemlow Copper ore is green or blue in colour and the The style of bronze axes metal can be extracted by heating with changed over time. The earliest charcoal. The resulting metal is soft enough to form was a flat axe cast in an be hammered into shape. Copper mixed with open mould. Palstaves were tin makes bronze, which can be cast to create cast in two piece Socketed axe more elaborate tools. Not only did our moulds and from Helsby ancestors discover how to work metal, they socketed axes and spear heads were cast around a clay core to give a Arrowhead hollow centre. from Brereton Axes of all types have been found in Cheshire. Like the stone axes before them, these Alderley Edge copper mines metal axes needed to be fixed to a wooden The Bronze Age continued Pottery Hand-made pots were used for storing and cooking food, but it is their use as containers for cremation burials that has ensured the survival of complete vessels over Bronze Age urn thousands of years. from Betchton Death and burial During the Bronze Age, round barrows were a common method of honouring the dead. These are distinctive circular burial sites created by digging a circular ditch and placing earth and stones in a mound over a burial or cremation. In Cheshire, these mounds are usually sand. A single barrow could be re-used for several later burials. There are over 140 Bronze Age barrows in Cheshire. Few survive to any great height and some are visible only as ring ditch cropmarks. Both cremations and burials have Barrow excavation at been found in Southworth Hall, Croft these graves. Reconstruction of a Bronze Age barrow Bronze Age and Iron Age Cheshire Warrington © Crown copyright. All rights reserved. Cheshire County Council Licence No. 100019582. 2004 Oversley Farm Runcorn Lindow Alderley Edge Macclesfield Ellesmere Port Northwich Eddisbury Chester Congleton Bruen Stapleford Beeston Key Nantwich ● Findspots of Baddiley Mere ● Bronze Age axes ● Sites mentioned in text ● Bronze Age burials ● Iron Age hillforts The Iron Age Where did they live? Making a living The settlements of Iron Age Cheshire Growing crops and raising animals was an can be separated into upland and important part of everyday life. As well as lowland. In the late Bronze Age farming, salt production was an important the population sought out the activity in Iron Age Cheshire. Brine from higher ground and this continued the springs of central Cheshire was boiled into the Iron Age.