Article1982

Cemeteries and Settlement Patterns of the Iron Age on the Yorkshire Wolds

46 citations0/0 files storedProceedings of the Prehistoric Society

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Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies Archaeology and ancient environmental studies Archaeological and Geological Studies

Abstract

The Yorkshire Wolds hold an air of mystery for students of the Iron Age. As is well known these chalk hills lie at the heart of the largest group of Early Iron Age burials in Britain, the ‘Arras Culture’, so-called after the first and richest cemetery to be excavated (fig. 1; Stead 1979). Although these burials are often quoted in general discussions and formed an important piece of evidence in the ‘invasion controversy’, it is only in the last few years that up to date illustrations of the material have begun to appear in textbooks (Cunliffe 1978; Champion 1979) following the publication of interim excavation reports (Brewster 1976; Stead 1977). Little is known of the settlements which these cemeteries served and even less is published. The present paper is an attempt to trace settlement patterns by an examination of the funerary material in conjunction with the domestic evidence which was found in the very large-scale excavations in Garton and Wetwang Slacks (Brewster 1981; Dent 1982). A heavy funerary bias in the material is further exaggerated because the distinctive square-plan barrows of the ‘Arras Culture’ are readily identifiable from the air whereas settlement can rarely be dated without excavation. Many hundreds of barrows are now known in this way (Ramm 1973; 1974; Loughlin and Miller 1979) and all but the most recently excavated have been catalogued (Stead 1979). An essential requirement for a discussion of these is the ability to date the material involved, either in absolute or in relative terms. It would be useful if distinctive groups could be recognized among the pottery from these sites since the metalwork is rare in domestic contexts, whereas even poor sites usually produce some sherds. Unfortunately there is virtually no decorated pottery and the plain jars which are found in graves cannot at present be used as a basis for a chronology. It is the metalwork which presents the best opportunity for such a classification.

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References

2006Iron Age Communities in Britain 1905Forty years' researches in British and Saxon burial mounds of East Yorkshire 1978The Glass Beads of the Prehistoric and Roman Periods in Britain and Ireland 1941Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles 1972Soldier and Civilian in Roman Yorkshire.1941Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles. By V. Gordon Childe.1979Introduction to British prehistory 1964Cultural Grouping within the British pre-Roman Iron Age

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1992Plas Gogerddan, Dyfed: A Multi-Period Burial and Ritual Site 1991Prehistoric and Early Medieval Cemeteries at Tandderwen, near Denbigh, Clwyd 2012CHARIOTS AND CONTEXT: NEW RADIOCARBON DATES FROM WETWANG AND THE CHRONOLOGY OF IRON AGE BURIALS AND BROOCHES IN EAST YORKSHIRE 2010A 5th Century bc Iron Age Chariot Burial from Newbridge, Edinburgh 2019The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland 1985Three cart burials from Wetwang, Yorkshire

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