Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-5g6vh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T23:53:20.069Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Henge Too Far? Reinterpreting the Neolithic Monument Complex at Milfield, Northumberland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2014

Benjamin Edwards
Benjamin Edwards*
Affiliation:
University of Durham, Department of Archaeology, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, B.g.edwards@durham.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This paper reinterprets the archaeological evidence from the Neolithic monument complex in the Milfield Basin, Northumberland; a palimpsest landscape of earlier Neolithic enclosures, later Neolithic henges and Early Bronze Age burial monuments. Recent interpretative accounts of the Early Neolithic use of this complex have stressed economic factors as the driving-forces behind enclosure construction, whilst the six major later Neolithic henges have been integrated into a scheme of ritual processions. These interpretations are critically evaluated and the sites are placed in their regional and national context in an attempt to provide a new framework for the use and development of the complex. It is concluded that, far from having simplistic economic functions, the earlier Neolithic enclosures could be unique to the area. Representing the formalisation of a community's attempts to ensure social reproduction in times of change, through the articulation of the difference between circular and linear monumental forms. The re-examination of the later Neolithic evidence raises interesting questions as to how far we can ‘read’ monument complexes, and critically evaluates the extent to which we can argue a unity of purpose for these enigmatic accumulations of the past. Importantly, the reinterpretation of the Neolithic activity in this area exposes how readily archaeologists export social models from other regions, such as Wessex, and attempt to fit very diverse evidence into their framework. This paper concludes that we must continue the definition of the British Neolithic on a more regional basis and accept that core-periphery models, even if not explicitly articulated, have no place in archaeological explanation.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 73 , 2007 , pp. 59 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barclay, A. & Harding, J. (eds). 1999. Pathways and Ceremonies: The cursus monuments of Britain and Ireland. Oxford: OxbowGoogle Scholar
Barclay, J.G. 2001. ‘Metropolitan1 and ‘parochial’/‘core’ and ‘periphery’: a historiography of the Neolithic of Scotland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 67, 1–18Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1993. Altering the Earth. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph 8Google Scholar
Bradley, R. 1998. The Significance of Monuments. London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Bradley, R. 2002. The land, the sky and the Scottish stone circle. In Scarre, C. (ed.), Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe, 122–38. London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Brophy, K. 1998. Cursus monuments and the bank barrows of Tayside and Fife. In Barclay, G.J. & Maxwell, G.S. (eds), The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour. Monuments in the Neolithic of Tayside, 92–108. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series 13Google Scholar
Brophy, K. 1999. The cursus monuments of Scotland. In Barclay, & Harding, (eds) 1999, 119–29Google Scholar
Burgess, C. 1976. Meldon Bridge: a Neolithic defended promontory complex near Peebles. In Burgess, C. & Miket, R. (eds), Settlement and Economy in the Third and Second Millennia BC, 113–42. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 33Google Scholar
Burgess, C. 1984. The prehistoric settlement of Northumberland: a speculative survey. In Miket, R. & Burgess, C. (eds), Between and Beyond the Walls, 126–75. Edinburgh: John Donald.Google Scholar
Chapman, H.P. 2003. Rudston Cursus A — engaging with a Neolithic monument in its landscape setting using GIS. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 22(4), 345–56Google Scholar
Clare, T. 1978. Recent work on the Shap ‘Avenue’. Transactions of the Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeological Society 78, 5–15Google Scholar
Corcoran, J.X.W.P. 1969. The Cotswold-Severn Group 1. Distribution, morphology and artefacts. In Powell, T.G.E., Corcoran, J.X.W.P., Lynch, F. & Scott, J.G. (eds), Megalithic Enquiries in the West of Britain, 13–72. Liverpool: University PressGoogle Scholar
Edmonds, M. 1995. Stone Tools and Society. London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Exon, S., Gaffney, V., Woodward, A. & Yorston, R. 2000. Stonehenge Landscapes. Journeys Through Real and Imagined Worlds. Oxford: ArchaeopressGoogle Scholar
Ferrell, G. 1990. A reassessment of the prehistoric pottery from the 1952-62 Excavations at Yeavering. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series 18, 29–50Google Scholar
French, C.A.I. & Pryor, F. 1992. Floodplain gravels: buried Neolithic and Bronze Age landscapes along the fen margins. In Fulford, M. & Nichols, E. (eds), Developing Landscapes of Lowland Britain. The Archaeology of the British Gravels: a review, 3-77. London: Society of Antiquaries Occasional Paper 14Google Scholar
Gillings, M. & Pollard, J. 2004. Avebury. London: DuckworthGoogle Scholar
Harding, A.F. 1981. Excavations in the prehistoric ritual complex near Millfield, Northumberland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, 87–135Google Scholar
Harding, J. 1997. Interpreting the Neolithic: the monuments of North Yorkshire. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 16(3), 179–295Google Scholar
Harding, J. 1998. Recent fieldwork at the Neolithic monument complex of Thornborough, North Yorkshire. Northern Archaeology 15/16, 27–38Google Scholar
Harding, J. 2000. Later Neolithic ceremonial centres, ritual and pilgrimage. In Ritchie, A. (ed.), Neolithic Orkney in its European Context, 31–46. Cambridge: McDonald InstituteGoogle Scholar
Harding, J. & Barclay, A. 1999. An introduction to the cursus monuments of Neolithic Britain and Ireland. In Barclay, & Harding, (eds), 1999, 1–8Google Scholar
Harding, J., Frodsham, P. & Durden, T. 1996. Towards an agenda for Neolithic Studies. Northern Archaeology 13/14, 189–201Google Scholar
Hedges, J.D. & Buckley, D.G. 1981. The Springfield Cursus and the Cursus Problem. Chelmsford: Essex County Council Occasional Paper 1Google Scholar
Holtorf, C.J. 1996. Towards a chronology of megaliths: understanding monumental time and cultural memory. Journal of European Archaeology 4, 119–52Google Scholar
Hope-Taylor, B. 1977. Yeavering: an Anglo-British centre of early Northumbria. London: Department of the Environment Archaeological Report 7Google Scholar
Horne, P.D., MacLeod, D. & Oswald, A. 2001. A probable Neolithic causewayed enclosure in northern England. Antiquity 75, 17–18Google Scholar
Lelong, O. & Pollard, A. 1998. The excavation and survey of prehistoric enclosures at Blackhouse Burn, Lanarkshire. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 128, 13–53Google Scholar
Loveday, R. 1999. Dorchester-on-Thames — ritual complex or ritual landscape? In Barclay, & Harding, (eds), 1999, 49–66Google Scholar
McCord, N. & Jobey, G. 1971. Notes on air reconnaissance in Northumberland and Durham — II. Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th series, 49, 119–30Google Scholar
Mercer, E.J.F. 1997. The Application of an Integrated Prospection Technique over a Neolithic Droveway, Milfield, Northumberland. Unpublished Msc Thesis, Bradford UniversityGoogle Scholar
Miket, R. 1976. The evidence for Neolithic activity in the Milfield Basin, Northumberland. In Burgess, C. & Miket, R. (eds), Settlement and Economy in the Third and Second Millennia BC, 113–42. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 33Google Scholar
Miket, R. 1981. Pit alignments in the Milfield Basin and the excavation of Ewart I. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47, 137–46.Google Scholar
Miket, R. 1985. Ritual enclosures at Whitton Hill, Northumberland. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 51, 137–48Google Scholar
Mook, W.G. 1986. Business meeting: recommendations/resolutions adopted by the twelfthlnternational Radiocarbon Conference. Radiocarbon 28, 799Google Scholar
Mudd, A. 1994. The excavation of a Later Bronze Age site at Coldharbour Road, Gravesend. Archaeologia Cantiana 114, 363–410Google Scholar
Newman, T.G. 1976. A crop-mark site at Hasting Hill, Tyne and Wear, NZ335 541. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series, 4, 183–4Google Scholar
O'Brien, C. & Miket, R. 1991. The early-medieval settlement of Thirlings, Northumberland. Durham Archaeological Journal 7, 57–92Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. & Ramilisonina, . 1998. Stonehenge for the ancestors: the stones pass on the message. Antiquity 72, 308–26Google Scholar
Powesland, D., Haughton, C. & Hanson, J. 1986. Excavations at Heslerton, North Yorkshire 1978–82. Archaeological Journal 143, 53–173Google Scholar
Pryor, F. 2001. The Flag Fen Basin, Archaeology and Environment of a Fenland Llandscape. Swindon: English HeritageGoogle Scholar
Richards, C. 1996. Monuments as landscape: creating the centre of the world in late Neolithic Orkney. World Archaeology 28(2), 190–208Google Scholar
Richards, C. 1998. Centralising tendencies? A re-examination of social evolution in Late Neolithic Orkney. In Edmonds, M. & Richards, C. (eds), Understanding the Neolithic of North-Western Europe, 516–32. Glasgow, Cruithne PressGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Reimer, P.J. 1986. A computer program for radiocarbon age calibration. Radiocarbon 28, 1022–30Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 1999. Understanding the Neolithic. London: RoutledgeGoogle Scholar
Thomas, N. 1955. The Thornborough Circles, near Ripon, North Riding. Yorkshire Archaeological Journal 38, 424–45Google Scholar
Tilley, C. 1994. A Phenomenology of Landscape. Oxford: BergGoogle Scholar
Waddington, C. 1996a. Putting rock art to se. A model of Early Neolithic transhumance in north Northumberland. Northern Archaeology 13/14, 147–77Google Scholar
Waddington, C. 1996b. The 1995 excavation on the Coupland enclosure and associated ‘droveway’ in the Milfield Plain, Northumberland. University of Durham & University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Archaeological Reports 1995, 9–14Google Scholar
Waddington, C. 1998. An update of the Milfield Basin Archaeological Landscape Project. University of Durham & University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne Archaeological Reports 1997, 23–6Google Scholar
Waddington, C. 1999. A Landscape Archaeological Study of the Mesolithic-Neolithic in the Milfield Basin. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 291Google Scholar
Waddington, C. 2001. Breaking out of the morphological straightjacket: Early Neolithic enclosures in northern Britain. Durham Archaeological Journal 16, 1–14Google Scholar
Waddington, C. & Davies, J. 2002. An Early Neolithic settlement and Late Bronze Age burial cairn near Bolam Lake, Northumberland. Archaeologia Aeliana, 5th series 30, 1–48Google Scholar
Waddington, C., Blood, K. & Crow, J.G. 1998. Survey and excavation at Harehaugh Hillfort and possible Neolithic enclosure. Northern Archaeology 15/16, 87–108Google Scholar
Young, R. 2004. Peat, pollen and people. Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in Northumberland National Park. In Frodsham, P. (ed.), Archaeology in Northumberland National Park, 156–70. York: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 136Google Scholar