The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

The Neolithic period
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though some had restricted occupation within them, perhaps intensifying in later phases of use.
They do not generally appear defensive, though the developed circuits of Crickley Hill, on the
western Cotswold scarp, and Hambledon Hill (Dorset) may have been so designed. Rather, they
too stood for a series of ideas, and were the focus for intense participatory ceremonialism which
celebrated key aspects of the earlier Neolithic lifestyle.
Causewayed enclosures too evoked the past, brought people together in their construction
and enhanced attachment to place. Their layouts presented a potentially complex and ambiguous
symbolism, playing on ideas of inside and outside, access and restriction, belonging and exclusion.
There are only limited signs of internal occupation, though artefact scatters and pits do occur,
and perhaps even some structures. Within the inner circuit of Hambledon Hill, selected and
separate groups of artefacts, including stone axeheads and red deer antler, were deposited in pits.
At Etton in Cambridgeshire, deliberately placed deposits including human cremations were found
in one internal zone, while occupation traces were recorded in the other; placed deposits in the
ditches seem approximately to repeat this zonation.
Such internal deposits were apparently part of a broader use that encompassed the surrounding
ditches. In these, there are frequently numerous and varied finds: lithic artefacts and pottery,
some human remains, charcoal, some charred plant remains, and, above all, animal bones, especially
those of cattle. Few of these categories are regularly represented by whole finds. There are
sherds rather than whole pots, and pieces of human skeleton (some complete child burials occur);
animal bone deposits often consist of selected parts
of more than one animal of more than one species.
Such material may have been middened or stored
elsewhere before its deposition. It must come from
gatherings, rites and feasting, sometimes involving
the large-scale slaughter of animals. Such deposits
seem to celebrate various dimensions of the social
world: subsistence, eating, sharing, gift giving,
relations with neighbours and others, and dealings
with ancestors and spirits.
The quantities and character of this material vary
from site to site. They can also change from primary
to secondary levels within their ditches, as at Maiden
Castle (Dorset). They also vary spatially in some
enclosures, as already noted at Etton and
Hambledon Hill. At Windmill Hill, there is varying
emphasis in the three ditch circuits on different
deposits and treatment; there are greater quantities
of material and more highly processed bone in the
innermost circuit, while the outermost has more
unusual deposits, including infant burials. The arena
of bounded space may have served, either from the
outset or as the outcome of repeated deposition, to
map major conceptual concerns.
Cursus monuments were another innovation of
the Middle Neolithic. Ditched and banked linear
enclosures, these often appear to have been
constructed in stages, and some at least appear
unfinished, with open terminals. They range from
Figure 4.6 The Dorset Cursus on Bottlebush Down, seen
from the air (Martin Green).