Download or read book Thornhill Farm Fairford Gloucestershire written by David Jennings and published by Oxford University School of Archaeology. This book was released on 2004 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over 500 years, from the middle Iron Age to the early Roman period, the 1st gravel terrace of the river Thames at Thornhill Farm appears to have been lived in and worked as a cattle ranch. Extensive excavations by Oxford Archaeology between 1986 and 1989 revealed large parts of the settlement, including paddocks, stock enclosures and droveways, all designed to control and manage the herds of animals. Evidence for domestic houses points to small family groups living at the site and tending to the livestock. The surrounding gravel terraces and floodplain would have formed open pastureland, upon which lay a number of other settlements, some of which were also operating specialist pastoral economies. The settlement at Thornhill Farm was constantly being developed and remodelled until the early 2nd century AD, when it was replaced by a series of trackways and some of the earliest hay meadows in Britain. What happened to the inhabitants of Thornhill Farm at this time is unknown, but it seems likely that the whole settlement was subsumed into a larger agricultural estate based at neighbouring Claydon Pike. The excavations at Thornhill Farm formed part of a co-ordinated archaeological response to the threat posed by gravel extraction during the creation of the Cotswold Water Park. This book presents the results of this phase of work, and discusses the significance of the site within the local and regional landscape.
Download or read book The Fields of Britannia written by Stephen Rippon and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It has long been recognized that the landscape of Britain is one of the 'richest historical records we possess', but just how old is it? The Fields of Britannia is the first book to explore how far the countryside of Roman Britain has survived in use through to the present day, shaping the character of our modern countryside. Commencing with a discussion of the differing views of what happened to the landscape at the end of Roman Britain, the volume then brings together the results from hundreds of archaeological excavations and palaeoenvironmental investigations in order to map patterns of land-use across Roman and early medieval Britain. In compiling such extensive data, the volume is able to reconstruct regional variations in Romano-British and early medieval land-use using pollen, animal bones, and charred cereal grains to demonstrate that agricultural regimes varied considerably and were heavily influenced by underlying geology. We are shown that, in the fifth and sixth centuries, there was a shift away from intensive farming but very few areas of the landscape were abandoned completely. What is revealed is a surprising degree of continuity: the Roman Empire may have collapsed, but British farmers carried on regardless, and the result is that now, across large parts of Britain, many of these Roman field systems are still in use.
Download or read book Prehistoric Gloucestershire written by Timothy Darvill and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2011-07-15 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book charts the story of Gloucestershire's landscape and its inhabitants over a period spanning more than half a million years.
Download or read book Prehistoric Britain written by Timothy Darvill and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-07-02 with total page 592 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Britain has been inhabited by humans for over half a million years, during which time there were a great many changes in lifestyles and in the surrounding landscape. This book, now in its second edition, examines the development of human societies in Britain from earliest times to the Roman conquest of AD 43, as revealed by archaeological evidence. Special attention is given to six themes which are traced through prehistory: subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society, and population. Prehistoric Britain begins by introducing the background to prehistoric studies in Britain, presenting it in terms of the development of interest in the subject and the changes wrought by new techniques such as radiocarbon dating, and new theories, such as the emphasis on social archaeology. The central sections trace the development of society from the hunter-gatherer groups of the last Ice Age, through the adoption of farming, the introduction of metalworking, and on to the rise of highly organized societies living on the fringes of the mighty Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. Throughout, emphasis is given to documenting and explaining changes within these prehistoric communities, and to exploring the regional variations found in Britain. In this way the wealth of evidence that can be seen in the countryside and in our museums is placed firmly in its proper context. It concludes with a review of the effects of prehistoric communities on life today. With over 120 illustrations, this is a unique review of Britain's ancient past as revealed by modern archaeology. The revisions and updates to Prehistoric Britain ensure that this will continue to be the most comprehensive and authoritative account of British prehistory for those students and interested readers studying the subject.
Download or read book The Development of an Iron Age and Roman Settlement Complex at The Park and Bowsings near Guiting Power Gloucestershire Farmstead and Stronghold written by Alistair Marshall and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2020-07-31 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excavations near Guiting Power in the Cotswolds reveal evidence of occupation until the late 4th century AD: a relatively undefended middle Iron Age farmstead was abandoned, followed by a mid to later Iron Age ditched enclosure. This latter site perhaps became dilapidated, with a Romanised farmstead developing over the traditional habitation area.
Download or read book A Biography of Power Research and Excavations at the Iron Age oppidum of Bagendon Gloucestershire 1979 2017 written by Tom Moore and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2020-07-30 with total page 626 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the changing nature of power and identity from the Iron Age to the Roman period in Britain. It provides fresh insights into the origins and nature of one of the lesser-known, but perhaps most significant, Late Iron Age 'oppida' in Britain: Bagendon in Gloucestershire.
Download or read book Dress and Identity in Iron Age Britain written by Elizabeth Marie Foulds and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through an analysis of glass beads from four key study regions in Britain, the book aims to explore the role that this object played within the networks and relationships that constructed Iron Age society.
Download or read book The Materiality of Magic written by Ceri Houlbrook and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2015-12-31 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The subject of ‘magic’ has long been considered peripheral and sensationalist, the word itself having become something of an academic taboo. However, beliefs in magic and the rituals that surround them are extensive – as are their material manifestations – and to avoid them is to ignore a prevalent aspect of cultures worldwide, from prehistory to the present day. The Materiality of Magic addresses the value of the material record as a resource in investigations into magic, ritual practices, and popular beliefs. The chronological and geographic focuses of the papers presented here vary from prehistory to the present-day, including numinous interpretations of fossils and ritual deposits in Bronze Age Europe; apotropaic devices in Roman and Medieval Britain; the evolution of superstitions and ritual customs – from the ‘voodoo doll’ of Europe and Africa to a Scottish ‘wishing-tree’; and an exploration of spatiality in West African healing practices. The objectives of this collection of nine papers are twofold. First, to provide a platform from which to showcase innovative research and theoretical approaches in a subject which has largely been neglected within archaeology and related disciplines, and, secondly, to redress this neglect. The papers were presented at the 2012 Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference in Liverpool.
Download or read book Iron Age Societies in the Severn Cotswolds written by Tom Moore and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2006 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on the following theme: an examination of the processes of change in Iron Age social organisation and identity on a regional scale using the Severn-Cotswolds, England, as a case study.
Download or read book Agriculture and Industry in South Eastern Roman Britain written by David Bird and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2016-12-31 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient counties surrounding the Weald in the SE corner of England have a strongly marked character of their own that has survived remarkably well in the face of ever-increasing population pressure. The area is, however, comparatively neglected in discussion of Roman Britain, where it is often subsumed into a generalised treatment of the ‘civilian’ part of Britannia that is based largely on other parts of the country. This book aims to redress the balance. The focus is particularly on Kent, Surrey and Sussex account is taken of information from neighboring counties, particularly when the difficult subsoils affect the availability of evidence. An overview of the environment and a consideration of themes relevant to the South-East as a whole accompany 14 papers covering the topics of rural settlement in each county, crops, querns and millstones, animal exploitation, salt production, leatherworking, the working of bone and similar materials, the production of iron and iron objects, non-ferrous metalworking, pottery production and the supply of tile to Roman London. Agriculture and industry provides an up-to-date assessment of our knowledge of the southern hinterland of Roman London and an area that was particularly open to influences from the Continent.
Download or read book Coates s Herd Book written by Henry Strafford and published by . This book was released on 1898 with total page 848 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Attitudes to Disposal of the Dead in Southern Britain 3500bc AD43 written by P. H. W. Bristow and published by British Archaeological Reports. This book was released on 1998 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extended piece of research aimed at discovering prehistoric attitudes towards treatment of the dead, and mortuary processes. Includes a gazetteer of sites, indexes and statistical tables 3500BC - AD43.
Download or read book Prehistoric and Medieval Occupation at Moreton in Marsh and Bishop s Cleeve Gloucestershire written by Martin Watts and published by Cotswold Archaeological Trust. This book was released on 2007 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Two reports are published in this volume: excavations in 2003 at Blenheim Farm, Moreton-in-Marsh (by Jonathan Hart and Mary Alexander) and excavations in 2004 at 21 Church Road, Bishop's Cleeve (by Kate Cullen and Annette Hancocks). Significant remains recorded at Moreton-in-Marsh include a Middle Bronze Age settlement of four post-built circular structures partly enclosed by a segmented ditch, and a series of medieval fields and paddocks with a possible sheepcote structure. A Middle Palaeolithic handaxe was also recovered. The Iron Age and medieval remains recorded at Bishop's Cleeve add to our understanding of past settlement in and around the village, where extensive development has resulted in a number of significant excavations in recent years.
Download or read book The Social Context of Technology written by Leo Webley and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 571 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Context of Technology explores non-ferrous metalworking in Britain and Ireland during the Bronze and Iron Ages (c. 2500 BC to 1st century AD). Bronze-working dominates the evidence, though the crafting of other non-ferrous metals – including gold, silver, tin and lead – is also considered. Metalwork has long played a central role in accounts of European later prehistory. Metals were important for making functional tools, and elaborate decorated objects that were symbols of prestige. Metalwork could be treated in special or ritualised ways, by being accumulated in large hoards or placed in rivers or bogs. But who made these objects? Prehistoric smiths have been portrayed by some as prosaic technicians, and by others as mystical figures akin to magicians. They have been seen both as independent, travelling ‘entrepreneurs’, and as the dependents of elite patrons. Hitherto, these competing models have not been tested through a comprehensive assessment of the archaeological evidence for metalworking. This volume fills that gap, with analysis focused on metalworking tools and waste, such as crucibles, moulds, casting debris and smithing implements. The find contexts of these objects are examined, both to identify places where metalworking occurred, and to investigate the cultural practices behind the deposition of metalworking debris. The key questions are: what was the social context of this craft, and what was its ideological significance? How did this vary regionally and change over time? As well as elucidating a key aspect of later prehistoric life in Britain and Ireland, this important examination by leading scholars contributes to broader debates on material culture and the social role of craft.
Download or read book Transactions Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society written by Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Twenty five Years of Archaeology in Gloucestershire written by Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twenty-five years is a long time in the study of prehistory and these papers, given at a conference in Cheltenham in 2004, seek to review the excavations, surveys, chance finds and serious investigations carried out over two and a half decades.
Download or read book A Narrow View Across the Upper Thames Valley in Late Prehistoric and Roman Times written by Thomas Wilson and published by British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited. This book was released on 2008 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The report on excavations which took place as a result of the laying of a gas pipeline from Charlgrove to Ilsley. Two large and thirty-two small sites were identified, predominantly late prehistoric in date, with Iron Age deposits being the most abundant. The two larger sites were occupied from the Iron Age into the early Roman period.
