The Earlier Iron Age In Britain And The Near Continent

Seeks to establish what we now know (and do not know) about Earlier Iron Age communities in Britain and their neighbours on the Continent. The authors look at how communities of the Late Bronze Age transform into those of the Earlier Iron Age, and how we understand the social changes of the later first millennium BC.

This book was written at a time when the older conventional diffusionist view of prehistory, largely associated with the work of V. Gordon Childe, was under rigorous scrutiny from British prehistorians, who still nevertheless regarded the ‘Arras’ culture of eastern Yorkshire and the ‘Belgic’ cemeteries of south-eastern Britain as the product of immigrants from continental Europe. Sympathetic to the idea of population mobility as one mechanism for cultural innovation, as widely recognized historically, it nevertheless attempted a critical re-appraisal of the southern British Iron Age in its continental context. Subsequent fashion in later prehistoric studies has favoured economic, social and cognitive approaches, and the cultural-historical framework has largely been superseded. Routine use of radiocarbon dating and other science-based applications, and new field data resulting from developer-led archaeology have revolutionized understanding of the British Iron Age, and once again raised issues of its relationship to continental Europe.

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\deflang2057{\fonttbl{\f0\fswiss\fprq2\fcharset0 Calibri;}{\f1\fnil\fcharset0 Verdana;}}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\f0\fs22 The British chariot burials, mainly concentrated in East Yorkshire, reveal a strong link with continental Europe, which has led some scholars to believe that this burial rite was introduced by immigrants from northern Gaul. Other scholars do not accept migration as the key explanation for cultural changes and argue that new rites and customs may also be adopted through social networks that often stretch over great distances. To determine which model best explains the introduction of new burial rites in East Yorkshire in the third century BC, this book describes the similarities and differences between the British chariot burials and those of contemporary chariot burials in northern Gaul. The comparison shows that elite networks, and possibly religious networks, lie at the basis of the emergence of new burial rites in East Yorkshire. This book also discusses various types of long-distance contacts that can forge and maintain social networks.\par\f1\fs17\par}

Over the years, there has been a major shift in Iron Age studies. This volume contains thirty-one papers, which covers the Later Iron Age that is taken to be circa 400/300 BC until the Roman Conquest.

The Iron Age in Northern Britain examines the archaeological evidence for earlier Iron Age communities from the southern Pennines to the Northern and Western Isles and the impact of Roman expansion on local populations, through to the emergence of historically-recorded communities in the post-Roman period. The text has been comprehensively revised and expanded to include new discoveries and to take account of advanced techniques, with many new and updated illustrations. The volume presents a comprehensive picture of the ‘long Iron Age’, allowing readers to appreciate how perceptions of Iron Age societies have changed significantly in recent years. New material in this second edition also addresses the key issues of social reconstruction, gender, and identity, as well as assessing the impact of developer-funded archaeology on the discipline. Drawing on recent excavation and research and interpreting evidence from key studies across Scotland and northern England, The Iron Age in Northern Britain continues to be an accessible and authoritative study of later prehistory in the region.

The Atlas of Hillforts of Britain and Ireland project (2012-2016) compiled a massive database on hillforts by a team drawn from the Universities of Oxford, Edinburgh and Cork. This volume outlines the history of the project, offers preliminary assessments of the online digital Atlas and presents initial research studies using Atlas data.

In this volume, Harding examines the deposition of Iron Age human and animal remains in Britain and challenges the assumption that there should have been any regular form of cemetery in prehistory, arguing that the dead were more commonly integrated into settlements of the living than segregated into dedicated cemeteries.

This is the first practical archaeological study of Irish Iron Age lorinery. The horse and associated equipment were very much at the heart of the social changes set in motion by contact with the Roman Empire; the examination of the snaffles and bosals allows us to bring the people of the Late Iron Age in Ireland into focus.