Younger, Rebecca Kirsty (2015) De-henging the henge: a biographical approach to Scotland's henge monuments. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/6456/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] De-Henging the Henge: A biographical approach to Scotland’s henge monuments Rebecca Kirsty Younger MA, MA Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Archaeology School of Humanities College of Arts University of Glasgow June 2015 © Rebecca K. Younger 2015 2 Abstract Henges are circular earthwork monuments built from the 32nd-17th centuries BC throughout the British Isles. Seen as a discrete monument ‘type’ since the early 1930s, they comprise a morphologically-varied group of sites. Excavations of henges have demonstrated them to be multi-phase sites which were repeatedly returned to, reused and rebuilt over thousands of years. The earthworks so often seen as the defining feature of henge sites are increasingly recognised as a ‘late’ addition to existing sites which were already long-established as significant places in the landscape. The key aim of this thesis is to ‘de-henge’ henges, removing the focus from the final morphology of monuments to instead consider how henge sites were used and transformed throughout their lives. It reinterprets henge sites in Scotland, a previously neglected corpus of sites, using a biographical approach to understand the significance of the transformations effected at henge sites over time, and consider aspects of both tradition/continuity, and change/innovation over time. Henge sites are interpreted as places of commemoration where people encountered, mediated and re-negotiated their pasts and present. The research explores relationships with the past and the creation of memory at henge sites during the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age in Scotland. It is argued that this occurred through monument construction, destruction, rebuilding and reuse; but can be best understood by focusing not only on monumental architecture, but also on the (re)use of materials and material culture, the control and manipulation of sensory experiences of (monumental) spaces, and the relationships between henge sites and other spheres of prehistoric life and death, such as house architecture, farming practices, uses of fire and the burial of (fragments of) people and objects. The thesis discusses these themes through comparison of the biographies of case study sites from Scotland, and contextualises these with reference to henge sites elsewhere in the British Mainland. The reinterpretations of Scottish henges presented in the thesis, and the approaches used, represent a contribution not only to the study of henge monuments, but also have implications for the interpretation and understanding of prehistoric monumentality more generally. 3 Contents Abstract ...................................................................................... 2 List of Tables ................................................................................ 6 List of Figures ............................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements ........................................................................ 11 Author’s Declaration ...................................................................... 12 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................. 13 Research aims ........................................................................... 13 Overview of the structure of the thesis ............................................. 14 Methodology and the selection of the case study sites ........................... 17 Note on terminology and overview of henge sites in Scotland ................... 19 Chapter 2: Henging the Henge .......................................................... 22 Introduction ............................................................................. 22 Research context: traditional descriptions and typology of henges ............. 23 Henge morphology ................................................................... 23 Henges and material culture ....................................................... 24 Chronology and dating of henges in Scotland .................................... 26 Summary .............................................................................. 30 Henging the Henge ..................................................................... 31 Box 1: Interpretations of Orcadian Henges – 1970s approaches ............... 38 Box 2: Interpretations of Orcadian henges – 1990s-2000s ...................... 42 Henges in Scotland ..................................................................... 44 Conclusion ............................................................................... 47 Chapter 3: Theorising the henge ........................................................ 48 Introduction ............................................................................. 48 Traditional interpretations: memorialising and monumentalising ............... 49 Commemoration and Reuse ........................................................... 55 Henging: enclosure, containment and control of the past ....................... 59 Destruction, ruins, commemoration and forgetting ............................... 63 Biographical approaches to objects, monuments and sites ...................... 68 Time and dating ......................................................................... 75 Conclusion ............................................................................... 78 Chapter 4: Commemoration ............................................................. 80 Introduction ............................................................................. 80 Site biography 1: Balfarg Riding School ............................................. 81 Early Neolithic place-making: pit-digging and pottery deposition ............ 82 Building and enclosing: transforming Balfarg .................................... 85 Beyond the Henge: Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age activity in the Balfarg monument complex ........................................................ 91 Summary of BRS biography ......................................................... 92 Site biography 2: North Mains ......................................................... 94 Place-making: pit-digging and cultivation ........................................ 95 Henging ............................................................................... 101 Resumption of funerary activity: later burials at North Mains ............... 103 Summary of North Mains biography .............................................. 106 Site biography 3: Leadketty .......................................................... 107 Place-making: timber structures and settlement during the Late Neolithic ......................................................................................... 107 Henging and re-henging: the henge ditch and recuts.......................... 110 Mounding/sealing/blocking the henge ........................................... 113 Summary of Leadketty biography ................................................. 115 4 Site biography 4: Pict’s Knowe ...................................................... 115 Place-making: Early Neolithic activity at Pict’s Knowe ....................... 116 The henge monument .............................................................. 119 Burial and blocking: the Early Bronze Age at Pict’s Knowe ................... 124 Later Prehistory: Pict’s Knowe in the Iron Age ................................. 124 Summary of Pict’s Knowe biography ............................................. 126 Comments and comparison ........................................................... 127 Early Neolithic activity: pits and deposition .................................... 127 Farming practices at henges and other monuments ........................... 131 Timber settings ...................................................................... 134 Henges and Settlement ............................................................ 136 Enclosure and wrapping ............................................................ 139 Henges and Burial ................................................................... 142 Comparing sequences at henge sites ............................................. 145 Discussion: henge sites as commemorative places................................ 149 Building as remembering ........................................................... 149 Encounters with the past .......................................................... 151 Presencing the past ................................................................. 155 Henges as Heterotopias: containing the past ................................... 158 Conclusion .............................................................................. 161 Chapter 5: Change and Continuity