Earlier Neolithic mark making in southern England

The earliest evidence for mark making, around 4050 cal. bc, comes from flint mines, such as Harrow Hill and Cissbury, Sussex, southern England (see Whittle et al. Reference Whittle, Healy and Bayliss2011, 257). The Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates from Harrow Hill by Frances Healy and colleagues (Reference Healy, Bayliss, Whittle, Whittle, Healy and Bayliss2011) indicates that flint was worked at Harrow Hill between 4250 and 3705 cal. bc (95 per cent probability), probably 4020–3785 cal. bc (68 per cent probability), and working at the mine ceased 3750–3395 cal. bc (95 per cent probability), probably 3695–3580 cal. bc (68 per cent probability). Intercutting linear and curvilinear marks are found on the walls of flint mines, such as shaft 21, Harrow Hill. Digital analysis indicates at least two phases of marking on the panel from Harrow Hill. These marks are typically at important juncture points in mine galleries or to mark rich seams of flint (Teather Reference Teather2011).

From the thirty-seventh to thirty-fifth centuries cal. bc we also find intercutting linear marks on chalk plaques in the causewayed enclosures of southern and central England. A good example of this is the chalk plaque from Whitehawk (Fig. 2). The four circuits of the Whitehawk enclosure, Brighton, Sussex, begin life between the mid thirty-seventh century and the end of the thirty-sixth cal. bc, with a 95 per cent probability of primary use for 75–260 years (Whittle et al. Reference Whittle, Healy and Bayliss2011, 226). Dating from the later activity at the site is the ‘chequerboard’ incised chalk plaque from the third ditch which dates to 3660–3560 cal. bc (95 per cent probability), probably 3650–3600 cal. bc (68 per cent probability) (Whittle et al. Reference Whittle, Healy and Bayliss2011, 225). The decorated artefacts associated with causewayed enclosures are probably produced as the monuments are being constructed and are discarded (sometimes formally) in the backfill deposits at these sites. Good examples of this are the chalk artefacts, such as chalk balls and phalli, associated with the secondary deposits of the enclosure at Windmill Hill, Wiltshire (Smith Reference Smith1965; Whittle et al. Reference Whittle, Healy and Bayliss2011, 81–96), which date to 3365–3295 cal. bc (94 per cent probability), probably in 3355–3325 cal. bc (68 per cent probability).

Figure 2. RTI images of the chequerboard incised chalk plaque from the third ditch of the Whitehawk enclosure (Brighton, Sussex). (Image: Marta Díaz-Guardamino. Courtesy of Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove.)

Middle Neolithic mark making across Britain

After the thirty-fifth century and down to the twenty-ninth cal. bc, we observe a florescence of mark-making activities, not only in southern England but in eastern Ireland, northern Scotland, Wales, East Anglia and Orkney. This is manifested in a series of different phenomena including the decorated antler mace heads deposited in the Thames, consistently dating to between 3500 and 2900 cal. bc (see Loveday et al. Reference Loveday, Gibson, Marshall, Bayliss, Bronk Ramsey and van der Plicht2007, 389), the antler mace head from Garboldisham, Norfolk, decorated with three spiral designs, dating to 3240–3104 cal. bc (56.4 per cent probability) (Jones et al. Reference Jones, Díaz-Guardamino, Gibson and Cox2017) (Fig. 3), the decorated chalk block from Monkton Up Wimborne, Dorset, dating to 3500–3100 cal. bc (Green Reference Green, French and Lewis2007, 118), and the decorated stone plaque from the stone axe quarry at site B, Graig Lwyd, north Wales (Williams & Davidson Reference Williams and Davidson1998) (Fig. 4), which can be stratigraphically associated with a cache of fresh stone flakes relating to axe making dating to 3110–2910 cal. bc (Williams & Kenney Reference Williams and Kenney2011, 16). In several of these cases we observe evidence for the repetitive reworking of artefacts, or for the making and rapid disposal of decorated artefacts (Jones & Díaz-Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 167–83).

Figure 3. Antler and flint mace heads mentioned in the text. (1) Antler macehead from the Thames, Windmill Lane, Brentford (O1154D): to the left, detail of the faceted decoration and to the right, detail of the furrowed surface; (2) Airdens mace head: RTI images showing details of the ridge- and lozenge-shaped decoration patterns; (3) Urqhuart mace head: at the centre, regular photographs showing the colored texture of the surface and, at the sides, the RTI images of both faces, showing details of the ridge- and lozenge-shaped decoration patterns at the edges; (4) Garboldisham macehead, photographs of the mace head from different angles showing the spiral decoration; (5) Knowth mace head: at the top right, normal photograph; at the bottom, RTI images revealing the low-relief decoration (including spirals); at the top left, detail of the lozenge-shaped decoration of the top and bottom of the mace head. (Photographs and RTIs: Marta Díaz-Guardamino, by permission, respectively, of the Thomas Layton Trust/Museum of London, © National Museums Scotland, © National Museums Scotland, © Moyse's Hall Museum, © National Museum of Ireland.)

Figure 4. Graig Lwyd plaque, RTI and annotation. (Images: Marta Díaz-Guardamino. © National Museum of Wales.)

Mark making in Irish passage tombs and Orcadian settlements

These artefacts emerge as local responses to an emergent mark-making tradition. One of the most striking examples of this tradition is the carved passage tombs of eastern Ireland, particularly those in the cemeteries of the Boyne valley and Loughcrew, Co. Meath. Bayliss and O'Sullivan (Reference Bayliss, O'Sullivan, O'Sullivan, Scarre and Doyle2013, 55–62) assessed the dates from a series of passage tombs across Ireland and produced dates for first construction of 5240–3100 cal. bc (95 per cent probability), probably 3910–3120 cal. bc (68 per cent probability), with an end date for primary use of 3090–2905 cal. bc (95 per cent probability), probably in 3025–2935 cal. bc (51 per cent probability). More precise dates for the use of passage tomb 1, Knowth, indicate the use of the tomb beginning from 3275–3110 cal. bc and ending 2875–2840 cal. bc (95 per cent probability) (Schulting et al. Reference Schulting, Bronk Ramsey, Reimer, Eogan, Cleary, Cooney, Sheridan, Eogan and Cleary2017, 370). Analysis by Guillaume Robin (Reference Robin2010) of the tombs of Knowth and Newgrange (Fig. 5), in the Boyne valley complex, demonstrates the close association between the production of passage-tomb art and the sequential construction of Irish passage tombs. The initial construction of passage tombs begins with the interior chamber. This is followed by a succession of extensions to the passage that enters the chamber. During construction, intensive mark making occurs at the junction points of the passages. This intensive working continues throughout the use of these monuments, and we can detect up to five phases of cumulative carving and re-carving in the interior of the monuments, beginning with linear and geometric marks and culminating in three-dimensional sculptural designs (Cochrane Reference Cochrane, Thomas and Oliveira Jorge2009; Jones Reference Jones, Cummings and Fowler2004).

Figure 5. Reworked passage tomb art, Newgrange. (Image © Ken Williams.)

A similar set of mark-making practices also occurs in the passage tombs and settlements of Orkney. Here, Antonia Thomas (Reference Thomas2016; Reference Thomas, Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019) has identified a series of episodes of marking at the passage tomb of Maes Howe and at the settlement sites of Skara Brae and Ness of Brodgar. At the recently excavated site of the Ness of Brodgar it is possible to determine that episodes of marking occured during the building and rebuilding of these communal settlement structures.

Mark making and rock art in Britain and Ireland

Open-air rock art, found in landscapes in northern England, Scotland and western Ireland, is also sometimes marked with images like those found on Irish passage tombs, as well as being marked with distinctive cup-and-ring designs. Rock-art sites appear to be carved over extensive periods of time, and at these sites designs tend to interlock and extend across the rock surface rather than being erased or reworked, although Joana Valdez-Tullett (Reference Valdez-Tullett2019) has identified evidence of recarving and superimposition at a few sites, such as Barmishaw rock (Rombalds Moor, Yorkshire), Backstone Beck 5 (Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire), Dereeny and the main rock at Derrynablaha (Iveragh peninsula, Co. Kerry, Ireland) and Broughton Mains and Drumtroddan 1 (Galloway, Scotland). Rock art is notoriously difficult to date, though dates of 2920–2860 cal. bc were obtained for primary activity associated with rock-art making at Torbhlaren, Kilmartin, Argyll, Scotland (Jones et al. Reference Jones, Freedman, O'Connor, Lamdin-Whymark, Tipping and Watson2011, 115), while pitchstone artefacts which firmly date to the Neolithic (Ballin Reference Ballin2009) have been discovered at rock-art sites in Ben Lawers, Strathtay (Bradley et al. Reference Bradley, Watson and Anderson-Whymark2012).

The emergence of design and pattern in Later Neolithic Britain

From the thirty-second to thirtieth centuries cal. bc a new kind of pottery emerged in the northern Isles of Orkney: Grooved Ware. For the first time, pottery was decorated with designs, such as spirals, that had previously been reserved for other materials. Grooved Ware is typically decorated with organized design patterns, some of which relate to basketry. After the twenty-ninth century cal. bc, artefacts are also decorated with more organized kinds of designs; these artefacts are typically associated with Grooved Ware pottery. Good examples of this include the round slate plaque from Woodcock Corner, Truro, Cornwall (Fig. 6), associated with Grooved Ware pottery and with dates of 2880–2570 cal. bc and 2900–2630 cal. bc (Taylor Reference Taylor2019, 95). One side of this plaque is incised with a chequerboard design, while the opposite face is lightly incised with infilled lozenge and triangle designs (Jones & Díaz-Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 60–61). Similarly, the slate plaques from Ronaldsway and Ballavarry, Isle of Man, are decorated with lozenge designs and a series of registers of zig-zag motifs; analysis of these designs using digital imaging techniques indicates that they are repeatedly incised and erased from the plaques (Jones et al. Reference Jones, Díaz-Guardamino and Crellin2016). Recent dates for these artefacts suggest that they date to between the thirty-first and twenty-fourth centuries cal. bc (Crellin Reference Crellin2014, 215). The two chalk plaques from Amesbury, Wiltshire, are also incised with lozenge designs and a complex infilled rectangular design (Harding Reference Harding1988): dating these artefacts is difficult, but on the basis of similar plaques from Durrington Walls, Wiltshire, they are likely to date from 2525–2470 cal. bc (Parker-Pearson Reference Parker-Pearson2012, 110). Probably the most complex designs relate to those on the Folkton Drums, Yorkshire (Fig. 7). These are three chalk cylinders, each of which is intensely decorated with complex infilled triangular and lozenge designs; these artefacts are also extensively revised and erased (Jones et al. Reference Jones, Cochrane, Carter, Dawson, Díaz-Guardamino, Kotoula and Minkin2015). These artefacts, associated with a child burial, also hint at ambiguous representational imagery as each drum is decorated with ‘eyebrow’ motifs that resemble the human face. The Folkton Drums remain undated, but a single date of 2814–2678 cal. bc was derived from a similar artefact from Lavant, Sussex (Jones & Díaz-Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 75).

Figure 6. The Truro round slate plaque (Cornwall), RTI snapshots. (Images: Marta Díaz-Guardamino. © Duchy of Cornwall, Cornwall Archaeological Unit.)

Figure 7. Folkton Drums, Yorkshire, and detail of erased eyebrows on Drum 2, RTI and annotation. (Images: Marta Díaz-Guardamino and Eleni Koutoula. © Trustees of the British Museum.)

Figuration in Later Neolithic Britain

Alongside the emergence of more organized designs we also observe the appearance of figuration. There are several human figurines of stone from the settlement at the Links of Noltland, Westray, Orkney. On the basis of a recent Bayesian modelling programme (Marshall et al. Reference Marshall, Clarke and Sheridan2016), the occupation of the Links of Noltland site began 3160–2870 cal bc (95 per cent probability) and took place for 55–350 years (95 per cent probability); the occupation ended 2850–2640 cal bc (95 per cent probability). The best known of the figurines from the Links of Noltland (the so-called ‘Orkney Venus’) has similar eyebrow motifs to those of the Folkton Drums, as well as distinct dots for eyes. The obverse of this same figurine is decorated with a series of rectangular designs that may resemble clothing; it is evident that this figurine has been revised on several occasions, as have the other figurines from the same site (Jones & Díaz-Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 137–8). Another striking human figurine, this time carved in ash wood (Fig. 8), was deposited below the Bell B trackway within a cluster of pegs that were part of Bell A Track in the Somerset Levels (Coles Reference Coles1968; Coles & Coles Reference Coles and Coles1986); radiocarbon dates from a Bell B track ash traverse (Gak-1600, 4840±100 bp) and pegs of the Bell A track (BM-382, 4266±131 bp, and BM-383, 4021±103 bp) (Coles & Dobson Reference Coles and Dobson1989) indicate that the figurine could have been deposited between 3337 and 2287 cal. bc (95 per cent).

Figure 8. Somerset levels ‘God dolly’. (Image: Marta Díaz-Guardamino. Reproduced with thanks to the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology. Accession no. 1968.6.)

In addition to the appearance of human figurines, chalk phalli and chalk balls continued to be made and deposited during the Late Neolithic. Some of the most spectacular of these artefacts are derived from henge sites in Dorset, such as Wyke Down, Maumbury Rings and Mount Pleasant. At Maumbury the largest chalk phallus, measuring some 222.6 mm, was deposited midway up an infilled chalk shaft (shaft 10), in close association with a red deer skull; this was one of several shafts dug around the perimeter of the enclosure (Fig. 9) (Bradley Reference Bradley1975). At Mount Pleasant a collection of chalk artefacts, including chalk balls and up to five chalk phalli are deposited in the enclosure ditch, palisade trench and the ditch of the smaller, site IV enclosure in the middle of the monument (Wainwright Reference Wainwright1979). These artefacts, particularly those associated with site IV and the palisade, are closely associated with the basal deposits. It seems likely that the artefacts from Mount Pleasant and Maumbury are derived from local chalk and were fashioned when the monuments were constructed; indeed, the large scale of the Maumbury phallus is probably due to its manufacture from the large chalk blocks encountered when the 10 m deep chalk shafts were dug into the lower chalk stratigraphy.

Figure 9. Chalk phallus and worked chalk from Maumbury, and site plan of Maumbury. The phallus was deposited mid-way up shaft 10, while the carved object was found at the base of shaft 14. (Artefact images: Marta Díaz-Guardamino. Site plan: Richard Bradley (Reference Bradley1975). Courtesy of Dorset County Museum.)

Skeuomorphs in Neolithic Britain and Ireland

We have mainly discussed the material basis of Neolithic mark making. We now turn to another related form of material practice: the production of skeuomorphs. While at first sight skeuomorphs may seem to set up a relationship of referentiality between prototype and copy, the relationship established during the Neolithic appears to be relational and is based on common, shared properties among materials (see Conneller Reference Conneller, Alberti, Jones and Pollard2013 for a similar argument). For example, from c. the thirty-fourth to twenty-ninth centuries cal. bc we find a class of carved flint mace heads from Scotland, Wales and Ireland whose form and colour resembles that of a series of similar carved mace heads in antler from the Thames valley in southern England (Fig. 3) (Jones & Díaz Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 123–30).

Skeuomorphism appears to be especially significant in the Irish Neolithic and there are many marked and carved artefacts produced of different substances and scales in this region (Jones & Díaz-Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 83–102). Bone pins are an important feature of cremation deposits in passage-tomb contexts; these pins are often decorated with a series of grooves running at regular, spaced intervals around their circumference. These pins are typically made from sheep or cattle metacarpals or metapodials and as such have a natural medullary channel running longitudinally along the pin. Interestingly, pins of deer antler, such as the example from Fourknocks I passage tomb (Hartnett Reference Hartnett1957), are decorated in the same fashion and also have a carved groove running the length of their shafts; these antler pins are then skeuomorphs of bone pins. The same features can be observed on the large sandstone object deposited at the entrance to the western tomb, Knowth 1 (Cleary et al. Reference Cleary, Eogan, Little, Warren, Goodhue, McCormick, Sevastopulo, Eogan and Cleary2017, 444–6). This object is also decorated with a series of grooves around its circumference, while the reverse of the object has a channel carved running along its length; a replication of the medullary cavity of bone pins. Although this object is several magnitudes greater in size than bone pins, it is nevertheless also a skeuomorph. Other skeuomorphs include the clay beads from Knowth fashioned to resemble in miniature the form of type 4b Scottish carved stone balls (Cleary et al. Reference Cleary, Eogan, Little, Warren, Goodhue, McCormick, Sevastopulo, Eogan and Cleary2017, 421; Jones Reference Jones2012, 45–8; Sheridan Reference Sheridan, Arbogast and Greffier-Richard2014) and miniature pestle mace heads of stone and clay (see Jones Reference Jones2012, 45–8) that resemble their larger counterparts.

The significance of skeuomorphs and design during the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland

The relational practice of skeuomorph making is important, as skeuomorphs are a species of generative material images that grow, transform and metamorphose as fresh iterations are made. This relational mode of making emerges from the thirty-fourth century cal. bc onward, but comes to the fore by the Late Neolithic, after the twenty-ninth century cal. bc, when a new form of image emerges: the human figurine. At this moment we observe the intra-action of two differing ways of relating to materials: the production of relational skeuomorphic forms and the marking of materials. Some figurines, such as the example in ash wood from the Somerset levels trackways (Fig. 8), remained unmarked and were discarded rapidly after production. Other figurines receive intensive marks, such as the example from Links of Noltland, Westray, Orkney. In addition to the body of this figurine being repeatedly marked, we also observe marks that may represent a face.

As noted above, and particularly associated with Grooved Ware related contexts, we also observe the production of organized designs on marked artefacts, such as the alternating chequerboard designs on the Truro plaque (Fig. 6), the lozenge and zig-zag motifs on the plaques from the Isle of Man, the lozenge and rectangular motifs on the Amesbury chalk plaques and the complex lozenge and triangle motifs on the Folkton Drums (Fig. 7). These have a close resemblance to the kind of systematic patterns produced by basketry and weaving (see e.g https://penelope.hypotheses.org/). It is difficult to establish plausibly a link between these Late Neolithic carved motifs and woven patterns, as the evidence for weaving is sparse during this period in Britain and Ireland. More cautiously, we are perhaps better recognizing that the organized designs of the Late Neolithic are related to basketry or other craft activities. The relationships between Grooved Ware pottery and basket designs have long been noted (Cleal & MacSween Reference Cleal and MacSween1999; see also Hurcombe Reference Hurcombe2008), while there are preserved examples of Irish Neolithic woven baskets from Twyford, Co. Westmeath (Raftery Reference Raftery1970), and Carrigdirty, Co. Limerick; this last example being dated to 3800–3400 cal. bc (O'Sullivan Reference O'Sullivan1997). In rare cases we can see quite direct relationships between woven baskets and Grooved Ware pottery, such as the small Grooved Ware vessel (SF 1890) from house 3, Barnhouse, with a distinct basket impression on its base (Downes & Richards Reference Downes, Richards and Richards2005, 70). Less directly, Teather and Kenney (Reference Teather and Kenney2016, 6) suggest that the Folkton Drums may be skeuomorphic forms of lidded wooden or ceramic containers. We might then regard the relationships established between different materials and substances through the making of organized designs or patterns as a component of a well-established practice of skeuomorphism.

Our account has covered two millennia of mark-making practices, and from this we have learnt a series of things. Firstly, mark making intersects with other activities: with the mining of flint and the quarrying of stone, with the construction of monuments, with burials. Secondly, mark making begins as a localized practice in the south of England, but by the thirty-fifth century cal. bc we see an emerging network of regions become connected by shared designs and mark-making practices (these areas include eastern Ireland, northern Scotland, Wales, southern England, East Anglia); at this juncture the design of marks become more visually complex. From the thirty-second to thirty-first centuries in Orkney, and from the twenty-ninth century in the rest of Britain and Ireland, we note that mark making on artefacts becomes more organized, with distinctive patterned designs appearing; these emerge alongside a new interest in figuration with the appearance for the first time of human figurines.

Most significant, we have found that marks are ephemeral, and there are numerous examples of erasure, overcutting and reworking. In many cases, marked artefacts are also discarded rapidly. Of particular importance is the relationship between mark making and the materials marked. While there is a close relationship between maker, material and place we also need to remind ourselves that, between the thirty-fifth and twenty-ninth centuries cal. bc, each of these artefacts is a component in a more extensive network of connectivity that emerges across a host of regions. Marked artefacts are at once situated in local and inter-regional networks of relationships (Jones Reference Jones2017), though they generally remain in the localities in which they were made. Marked artefacts therefore contrast strongly with unmarked artefacts, such as polished stone axes and polished-edge knives, which are instead widely circulated (Jones & Díaz-Guardamino Reference Jones and Díaz-Guardamino2019, 205–6).