Towards a New Stone Age: aspects of the Neolithic in south-east England Edited by Jonathan Cotton and David Field CBA Research Report 7 Council for British Archaeology 2004
Contents Contents v List of figures ix List of tables xii List of contributors xiii Foreword by Richard Bradley xv Preface xvii A Note on the Dating Summary (English, French and German) xix xxi 1 'Rubbishy pots instead of gold': a brief history of the Neolithic of the South East by Martyn Barber 1 Introduction 1 The personality of the Neolithic 1 The significance of monuments 3 Discoveries and personalities 4 11 2 Food for thought: a late Mesolithic site at Charlwood, Surrey by Roger Ellaby 12 Introduction 12 Topography The site Excavation The pits 15 Radiocarbon dating 17 The flints 18 Discussion 22 23 3 Managing change: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in south-east England by Robin Holgate 24 Introduction The palaeoenvironmental sequence 24 24 Flintwork analysis The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in south-east England 26 27 4 Neolithic land use in south-east England: a brief review of the soil evidence by Richard I Macphail and Johan Linderholm 29 Introduction and database Soil science methods 29 29 Experimental studies 31 European background 32 The forest soils of the Neolithic and Mesolithic-Neolithic transition 33 Herding soils of the Neolithic 34 Occupation soils of the Neolithic 35 Discussion 36 Conclusions 36 37 5 The central London Thames: Neolithic river development and floodplain archaeology by Jane Sidell and Keith Wilkinson 38 Introduction 38 The river The ecology of the floodplain 38 41 The archaeology 43 Discussion 47 Conclusions 48 49
VI 6 Landscape evolution in the Lower Thames Valley: implications for the archaeology of the earlier Holocene period by Martin R Bates and Kenneth Wh ittaker 50 Introduction 50 Landscape change and sequence development in the Lower Thames area 51 The distribution of Mesolithic and Neolithic sites in the Lower Thames area 56 Key concepts for an integrated approach to the archaeological record 58 Conclusions 64 65 Appendix 1: Selected gazetteer of sites in the Lower Thames and Thames Estuary: Mesolithic and Neolithic 66 7 Aerial survey and its contribution to understanding the Neolithic of the South East by Bob Bewley, Simon Crutchley, and Damian Grady 71 Introduction 71 Recent aerial reconnaissance 71 Interpretation, mapping, and syntheses 71 Conclusion 74 8 Oval barrows on Thanet by Dave Perkins 76 Introduction 76 The small oval barrows 76 Discussion 80 Notes 81 81 9 Opening the wood, making the land: the study of a Neolithic landscape in the Dorney area of the Middle Thames Valley by Tim Allen, Alistair Barclay, and Hugo Lamdin-Whymark 82 Introduction 82 Chronology and definitions 82 Archaeological context 82 Themes 84 A brief outline of results 85 Interpretation at the local level 85 Conclusion 98 98 10 Neolithic occupation at Cippenham, Slough, Berkshire by Steve Ford and Kate Taylor 99 Introduction 99 The excavations 99 Earlier Neolithic 99 Later Neolithic 102 Discussion 103 11 Perry Oaks - Neolithic inhabitation of a west London landscape by John S C Lewis and Ken Welsh 105 Introduction 105 Location and archaeological background 105 The transformation of hunter-gatherer landscapes 105 109 12 A note on Neolithic human remains from south-east England by S A Mays 110 Introduction 110 Sites yielding human remains 110 Neolithic populations 1 114 Causewayed enclosures: monumentality, architecture, and spatial distribution of artefacts - the evidence from Staines, Surrey by Philippa Bradley 115 Introduction 115 Staines causewayed enclosure 115 Spatial patterning of material culture at Staines 115 Monumentality, architecture, and design at Staines 118
Causewayed enclosure architecture, deposition, and patterning 119 Conclusions 122 123 14 The Chelsea club: a Neolithic wooden artefact from the River Thames in London by Mike Webber, with Helen Ganiaris 124 Introduction 124 Description 124 Discovery 124 Conservation Helen Ganiaris 124 Discussion 126 Depositional context 126 15 Two decorated Peterborough bowls from the Thames at Mortlake and their London context by Jonathan Cotton, with Rosemarie Johnson 128 Introduction 128 The sherds 128 Discussion 4 Conclusion 146 146 Appendix: the fingertip casts 147 16 A bone 'scoop' and Grooved Ware vessel from a pit in the Lower Colne Valley, Surrey by Phil Jones and Kathryn Ayres 148 Introduction 148 Pit 22 149 Note on the excavations 152 Discussion 152 17 Sacred geographies in the Neolithic of south-east England by David Field 154 Introduction 154 The forest 155 The coast 157 The rivers 158 An open landscape 161 Land use, space, and movement 161 163 18 Franks' Sandpit, Betchworth, Surrey: a site of special significance? by David Williams 164 Introduction 164 The site 164 19 The treachery of images: deconstructing the early Neolithic monumental architecture of the South Downs by Miles Russell 168 Introduction..-.;...' 168 Rene Magritte and the art of asking questions 168 Supposition 1: 'this is not a burial monument' 169 Supposition 2: 'this is not an industrial monument' 171 Supposition 3: 'this is not a ceremonial monument' 172 'The cultivation of ideas' 174 Conclusion 175 176 20 The South Downs flint mines: towards an ethnography of prehistoric flint extraction by Pete Topping 177 Introduction 177 The ethnographic data 177 General observations 180 The comparative framework 180 The English prehistoric flint mines 181 Cissbury, shaft 27 183 Comparative analysis 186 Conclusion 189 vu
vm 190 Notes 190 21 Trans-manche: l'entente cordiale or vive la difference by Ian Kinnes 191 Background 191 Material culture 192 Monuments 193 Economy and settlement 194 Bibliography 196 Index 227