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Is There a British Chalcolithic? People, Place and Polity in the Later 3Rd Millennium

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Is There a British Chalcolithic? People, Place and Polity in the Later 3Rd Millennium THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY Is there a British Chalcolithic? People, place and polity in the later 3rd millennium edited by Michael J. Allen, Julie Gardiner and Alison Sheridan Prehistoric Society Research Paper No. 4 CD CONTENTS THE PREHISTORIC SOCIETY Series Editors: Michael J. Allen and David McOmish Managing Editor: Julie Gardiner OXBOW BOOKS 2012 Oxford and Oakville CONTENTS OF CD 1 Case and Place for the British Chalcolithic By STUART NEEDHAM......................................................................................................................................... CD 1 Appendix 1.1: Key Chalcolithic grave groups............................................................................................. CD 2 Appendix 1.2: Selected radiocarbon dated ceremonial sites mentioned in the text............................ CD 10 Bibliography for Appendix 1.2 .................................................................................................................... CD 16 10 Chronology, corpses, copper and lithics By FRANCES HEALY .......................................................................................................................................... CD 20 Table 10.4 Radiocarbon measurements used in models and/or cited in the text, in laboratory number order .................................................................................................................. CD 21 Figures 10.3a, 10.3b, 10.3c, 10.3d, 10.3e, 10.5b, 10.5c, 10.5d, 10.5d, 10.5e, 10.5f, 10.5g, 10.5h, and 10.5i................................................................................................................................................... CD 64 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................... CD 75 15 The Beaker People Project: an interim report on the progress of the isotopic analysis of the organic skeletal material By MANDY JAY, MIKE PARKER PEARSON, MIKE RICHARDS, OLAF NEHLICH, JANET MONTGOMERY, ANDREW CHAMBERLAIN, and ALISON SHERIDAN................................................... CD 81 Table 15.1: List of individuals included in the Beaker People Project for isotope analysis............... CD 82 16 The Regionality of Beakers and Bodies in North-East Scotland: creating a Chalcolithic By NEIL CURTIS and NEIL WILKIN .................................................................................................................. CD 92 Appendix 16.2: .............................................................................................................................................. CD 93 2.1 Modelled dates for Low-Carinated (‘continental-style’) Beakers and the earliest Short- Necked Beakers in eastern Scotland (Fig. 16.9)......................................................................... CD 93 2.2 Modelled dates for burials associated with Beakers from eastern Scotland sharing motifs with lunulae (Fig. 16.10).................................................................................................... CD 94 2.3 Modelled dates for ‘Archery’ burials (Fig. 16.11) ...................................................................... CD 95 2.4 Modelled dates for butrials associated with bronze daggers in eastern Scotland (Fig. 16.12)....................................................................................................................... CD 96 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................... CD 96 17 Stepping out together: men, women and their Beakers in time and space By ALEXANDRA SHEPHERD ................................................................................................................................CD 97 Figure 17.1 Map indicating areas covered by the two core Beaker-using areas: north-east Scotland and the east Yorkshire Wolds.............................................................................................. CD 97 Case studies..................................................................................................................................................... CD 98 Case studies from North-east Scotland...................................................................................................... CD 98 1. Borrowstone Cists 1 & 2 (Figs 17.11 & 17.12) .......................................................................... CD 98 2. Borrowstone Cists 4, 5 & 6 (Fig. 17.13).................................................................................... CD 100 3. Broomhend of Crichie cist 2 (Fig. 17.14) ................................................................................. CD 101 4. Broomhend of Crichie cist 1 (Fig. 17.15) ................................................................................. CD 102 Figure 17.16 detail of paired Beakers from single burials at Whitehouse, Skene (LESM), and Uppermill, Cruden, Ardiffery (?L – – M), Aberdeenshire ................................ CD 103 Case studies from east Yorkshire ............................................................................................................. CD 104 5. Garton Slack 163 (Fig. 17.17) ..................................................................................................... CD 104 6. Painsthorpe Wold 4 (Fig. 17.18)................................................................................................. CD 105 7. Huggate and Warter Wold 254 (Fig. 17.19).............................................................................. CD 107 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................. CD 107 1 Case and Place for the British Chalcolithic Stuart Needham A part of the late 3rd millennium BC, two to three centuries in duration (c. 2450/2400–2200/2150 BC), can be defined as the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, terms that have historically been eschewed in British prehistory. However, the definition and labelling of this period are arguably essential if we are to lay terminological confusion to rest, and the growth of a reliable radiocarbon dataset eases the task of chronological definition. This contribution sets out to characterise the British Chalcolithic by focusing on key aspects of the two cultural complexes that were involved – the insular Late Neolithic Grooved Ware culture and the continentally derived Beaker culture, the latter initially brought by incomers and progressively adopted by indigenes. Early Beaker grave assemblages with distinctive goods are separated into three Association Groups, largely of temporal significance. The broad trajectory of insular ceremonial monument construction throughout the 3rd millennium BC is set out and the span of the Chalcolithic located within it. It is argued that, despite their radically different outlook on the world, these coexistent cultures interrelated with one another from the outset and thereby set in train a highly dynamic situation as disparate interests were melded into common goals. It is this dynamism as much as any other feature which characterises the British Chalcolithic. CD 1 Appendix 1.1: Key Chalcolithic Grave Groups The grave groups included here are necessarily selective – those most useful for identifying patterns in associations that might have a chronological, geographical or social basis. In general they contain two or more types judged (subjectively) to be ‘diagnostic’ (eg, Beaker plus belt-ring). This is not an attempt to list all burials datable by typology or radiocarbon to the Chalcolithic. Other burials more or less securely dated to this period can be found listed in Sheridan 2007, Needham 2005 and this volume. All radiocarbon dates are on human bone or teeth from the specified burials, unless otherwise stated. Definitions of burial positions: Flexed: legs slightly bent; contracted: knees bent at acute angle; tightly contracted: legs acutely bent and knees drawn up close to torso; crouched: degree of contraction unspecified (no plan available) Abbreviations: diam – diameter; int d – internal diameter Association Group Ia (defined on combinations of Low-Carinated Beakers, flat narrow bracers, tanged daggers/knives types A1, A2, A3, gold disc and basket ornaments, copper or bone pins, bone or antler spatulae or rods) Site Grave goods Gender/age/orientation Burial structure 14C date BP Key references Boscombe Down West, 3 Beakers (2 LC, 1 low-bellied SP); parts of 2 more Male, 35–50 yrs, flexed, left In timber chamber 3895±32 OxA-13541 Fitzpatrick 2011, 69164, table 13 (context 1289; Beakers; tanged dagger, A1; 2 tanged knives, A2; 2 gold side, head WNW within oblong grave [pig tusks: 3877±33 ‘Amesbury Archer’), basket ornaments; 2 flat narrow bracers (both 2-hole); OxA-13540 Amesbury, Wiltshire bone wing-headed pin; ‘cushion’ stone; shale belt-ring; 2 3866±28 OxA-13623] SU 1631 4044 antler spatula; antler rod; 4 pig tusks; 17 barbed and tanged arrowheads & 2 blanks; 5 flint knives; 8 flint scrapers; 2 flint strikers; flake tool; 39 flakes & blades; pyrites nodule; perforated oyster shell Grave fill/sieving: Beaker sherd; 2 pyrites nodules; 47 flints (various); oval fossil Chilbolton (primary, LC Beaker; tanged knife, A2; 4 gold basket ornaments; Male, 25–30 yrs, contracted, In timber chamber 3935±32 Russel 1990; Kinnes 1994, A17 context 16), Hampshire gold tubular ?bead; 55 (min.) shale disc-beads; antler
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