Assessing Iron Age Marsh Forts

This volume assesses marsh-forts as a separate phenomenon within Iron Age society through an understanding of their landscape context and palaeoenvironmental development. These substantial monuments appear to have been deliberately constructed to control areas of marginal wetland and may have played an important role in the ritual landscape.

Sutton Common in South Yorkshire is one of the best-known Iron Age multivallate sites in lowland Britain. This volume describes the results of the large-scale excavations undertaken there between 1998 and 2003, which have provided unparalleled insights into the function and meaning of this 4th-century BC 'marsh-fort'. Sutton Common is described as a place where the social identity of the local community was reinforced through the construction of the physical representation of the idea of community, using a bank-and-ditch arrangement that resembles the defences used elsewhere, particularly at hillforts. No houses were found within the enclosure, but some 150 four-post structures were excavated, many containing deposits of charred grain in one or two of their postholes. This well-dated site makes significant contributions to the debates on prehistoric enclosure, cosmology, food storage, and mortuary practices in prehistoric Britain and Europe.

In the Iron Age, more than 3,000 forts were built on top of hills. Find out how hill forts were constructed, what they were used for, and what they tells us about the people who lived over 2,000 years ago. A fascinating look into a past world by Juliet Kerrigan. Copper/Band 12 books provide more complex plots and longer chapters that develop reading stamina.

This book argues that to understand wetlands is to understand human development. Using case studies drawn from three English wetlands, the book moves between empirical research and scholarship to interrogate how these particular ecosystems have played an essential part in the development of our contemporary society; yet inhabit a strange place in our national psyche. Chapters address a range of cultural and environmental wetland concerns. Consideration is given to: the ways in which we have revered, engineered and renaturalised these landscapes throughout history; English wetlands as spaces of beauty, creativity, reflection, rejuvenation and multi-species interactions; accelerating climate change in an age of neoliberalism. The final chapter then is a reflection on our collective lives together alongside other species, exploring what sustainability transitions might mean for human-wetland relationships.

Widely regarded as major visible field monuments of the Iron Age, hillforts are central to an understanding of later prehistoric communities in Britain and Europe. Harding reviews the changing perceptions of hillforts and the future prospects for hillfort research, highlighting aspects of contemporary investigation and interpretation.

Iconoclasm, or the destruction of images and other symbols, is a subject that has significant resonance today. Traditionally focusing on examples such as those from late Antiquity, Byzantium, the Protestant Reformation and the French Revolution, iconoclasm implies intentioned attacks that reflect religious or political motivations. However, the evidence highlights considerable variation in intentionality, the types and levels of destruction and the targets attacked. Such variation has been highlighted in recent iconoclasm scholarship and this has resulted in new theoretical frameworks for its study. This book presents the first analysis of iconoclasm for prehistoric periods. Through an examination of the themes of objects, the human body, monuments and landscapes, the book demonstrates how the application of the approaches developed within iconoclasm studies can enrich our understanding of earlier periods in addition to identifying specific events that may be categorised as iconoclastic. Iconoclasm and Later Prehistory combines approaches from two distinct disciplinary perspectives. It presents a new interpretative framework for prehistorians and archaeologists, whilst also providing new case studies and significantly extending the period of interest for readers interested in iconoclasm.

This volume sets out the results of a detailed programme of non-intrusive geophysical survey conducted across hillforts of Dorset (UK), generating detailed subsurface maps of archaeological features, in the hope of better resolving the phasing, form and internal structure of these iconic sites.