Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T01:36:39.133Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Food, Sex and Death: Cosmologies in the British Iron Age with Particular Reference to East Yorkshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 October 2009

Mike Parker Pearson
Mike Parker Pearson
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology & Prehistory, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The British Iron Age had an enduring set of traditions involving the east– west axis of the sun's path, the sunwise progression of movement and the classification of animals. Although these traditions were manifested regionally in slightly different ways and were modified, contested and restructured during the Iron Age, they provide us with a key to unlock aspects of the symbolism and practices of daily life. The significance of westerly orientations and of pigs in embodying and expressing associations of high status and other social differences were principal features of a strongly hierarchical society whose social differences were otherwise largely muted in terms of material culture distinctions. The cemeteries of East Yorkshire provide a detailed insight into the ordering of these social differences which were, even then, only rarely expressed through grave goods and mortuary elaboration. The burials of the Yorkshire elite are suggestive of a conception of sacred leadership or kingship, which included the symbolic spearing of certain individuals. Animal offerings were used in the structuring of social differences, with pig portions and sheep bones marking thedead of elite and commoner groups respectively.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 9 , Issue 1 , April 1999 , pp. 43 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1999

References

Almagro-Gorbea, M. & Gran-Aymerich, J., 1991. El estancjue monumental de Bibracte (Mont Beuvray, Borgoña). Madrid: Editorial Complutense.Google Scholar
Armit, I., 1996. The Archaeology ofSkye and the Western Isles. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Armit, I. & Dunwell, A., 1992. Excavations at Cnip, sites 2 and 3, Lewis, 1989. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 122, 137–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ashdown, R. & Evans, C., 1981. Mammalian bones, in Skeleton Green: a Late Iron Age and Romano-British Site, by Partridge, C.. London: Britannia Monograph Series, 235–41.Google Scholar
Ballin Smith, B., 1994. Howe: Four Millennia of Orkney Prehistory. (Monograph 9.) Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Barrett, J.C., 1994. Fragments from Antiquity: an Archaeology of Social Life in Britain, 2900–1200 BC. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bevan, W., 1999. The dead can dance: the landscape context of square barrow cemeteries in the East Yorkshire Iron Age, in The Loved Body's Corruption: Archaeological Contributions to the Study of Human Mortality, eds Downes, J. & Pollard, T.. Glasgow: Cruithne Press, 69–93.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P., 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewster, T.C.M., 1976. Garton Slack. Current Archaeology 51, 104–16.Google Scholar
Brewster, T.C.M., 1982. The Excavation of Garton and Wetwang Slacks. London: National Monuments Record (microfiche).Google Scholar
Britnell, W., 1989. Collfryn hill enclosure. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 55, 89–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buckley, D.G. & Hedges, J., 1988. The Bronze Age and Saxon Settlement at Springfield Lyons, Essex: an Interim Report. (Occasional Paper 5.) Chelmsford: Essex County Council Archaeology Section.Google Scholar
Campbell, E., 1991. Excavations of a wheelhouse and other Iron Age structures at Sollas, North Uist, by RJ.C. Atkinson in 1957. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 121, 117–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Champion, T.C., 1980. Settlement and environment in Later Bronze Age Kent, in Settlement and Society in the British Later Bronze Age, eds. Barrett, J.C. & Bradley, R.. (BAR British Series 83.) Oxford: BAR, 223–46.Google Scholar
Champion, T.C. & Collis, J.R. (eds.), 1996. The Iron Age in Britain and Ireland: Recent Trends. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Chapman, R., Kinnes, I. & Randsborg, K., 1981. Tlte Archaeology of Death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coles, J.M. & Minnitt, S., 1995. Industrious and Fairly Civilized: the Glastonbury Lake Village. Exeter: Somerset Levels Project and Somerset County Council.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W., 1991. Iron Age Communities in Britain. 3rd edition. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W., 1993. Danebury. London: Batsford and English Heritage.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W., 1995. Iron Age Britain. London: Batsford and English Heritage.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B.W., 1996. Danebury: an Iron AgeHillfort in Hampshire, vol. 6: A Hillfort Community in Perspective. (CBA Research Report 102.) London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Dent, J.S., 1982. Cemeteries and settlement patterns of the Iron Age on the Yorkshire Wolds. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 48, 437–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dent, J.S., 1983. A summary of the excavations carried out in Garton Slack and Wetwang Slack, 1964–80. East Riding Archaeologist 7, 1–14.Google Scholar
Dodgshon, R.A., 1985. Symbolic classification and the development of early Celtic landscape, in Duality, ed. Lyle, E.. Edinburgh: Traditional Cosmology Society.Google Scholar
Fairhurst, H., 1971. The wheelhouse site at A'Cheardach Bheag on Drimore machair. Glasgow Archaeological Journal 2, 72–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fasham, P.J., 1985. The Prehistoric Settlement at Winnall Down, Winchester. (Monograph 2.) Winchester: Hampshire Field Club.Google Scholar
Fasham, P.J., Farwell, D.E. & Whinney, R.J.B., 1989. The Archaeological Site at Easton Lane, Winchester. (Monograph 6.) Winchester: Hampshire Field Club.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A., 1994. Outside in: the structure of an Early Iron Age house at Dunston Park, Thatcham, Berkshire, in Fitzpatrick & Morris (eds.), 68–72.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A., 1997. Everyday life in Iron Age Wessex, in Gwilt & Haselgrove (eds.), 73–86.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, A. & Morris, E. (eds.), 1994. The Iron Age in Wessex: Recent Work. Salisbury: Trust for Wessex Archaeology.Google Scholar
Frazer, J.G., 1911. The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, part III: The Dying God. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Giddens, A., 1984. The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. London: Polity.Google Scholar
Giles, M. & Parker, M. Pearson, in press. Learning to live in the Iron Age: dwelling and praxis, in Northern Exposure: the Iron Age in Northern Britain., ed. Bevan, W.. Leicester: Leicester University Press.Google Scholar
Gilmour, S. & Cook, M., 1998. Excavations at Dun Vulan: a reinterpretation of the reappraised Iron Age. Antiquity, 72 327–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gingell, C., 1982. The excavation of an Iron Age enclosure at Groundwell Farm. Wiltshire Archaeological Magazine 76, 33–75.Google Scholar
Green, M., 1992. Animals in Celtic Life and Myth. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Guilbert, G., 1982. Post-ring symmetry in roundhouses at Moel Y Gaer and some other sites in prehistoric Britain, in Structural Reconstruction, ed. Drury, P.J.. (BAR British Series 110.) Oxford: BAR, 67–86.Google Scholar
Gwilt, A., 1997. Popular practices from material culture: a case study of the Iron Age settlement at Wakerley, in Gwilt & Haselgrove (eds.), 153–66.Google Scholar
Gwilt, A. & Haselgrove, C. (eds.), 1997. Reconstructing Iron Age Societies: New Approaches to the British Iron Age. (Oxbow Monograph 71.) Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Hawkes, S., 1994. Longbridge Deverill Cow Down, Wiltshire, House 3: a major round house of the Early Iron Age. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 13, 49–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, J.W., 1987. Bu, Gurness and the Brochs of Orkney. (BAR British Series 163.) Oxford: BAR.Google Scholar
Hill, J.D., 1996. Hill-forts and the Iron Age of Wessex, in Champion & Collis (eds.), 95–116.Google Scholar
Hingley, R., 1989. Rural Settlement in Roman Britain. London: Seaby.Google Scholar
Hingley, R., 1990a. Domestic organisation and gender relations in Iron Age and Romano-British households, in The Social Archaeology of the House, ed. Samson, R.. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 125–48.Google Scholar
Hingley, R., 1990b. Iron Age ‘currency bars’: the archaeological and social context. Archaeological Journal 147, 91–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hingley, R., 1997. Iron, ironworking and regeneration: a study of the symbolic meaning of metalworking in Iron Age Britain, in Gwilt & Haselgrove (eds.), 9–18.Google Scholar
James, S. & Rigby, V., 1997. Britain and the Celtic Iron Age. London: British Museum Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, J., 1993. Prehistory of Denmark. Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark.Google Scholar
King, A., 1991. Food production and consumption—meat, in Roman Britain: Recent Trends, ed. Jones, R.F.J.. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 15–20.Google Scholar
Lévi-Strauss, C., 1968. Structural Anthropology. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Lewis, G., 1980. Day of Shining Red: an Essay on Understanding Ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltby, M., 1994. Animal exploitation in Iron Age Wessex, in Fitzpatrick & Morris (eds.), 9–10.Google Scholar
Maltby, M., 1996. The exploitation of animals in the Iron Age: the archaeozoological evidence, in Champion & Collis (eds.), 17–27.Google Scholar
Manby, T.G. 1986. Thwing: Excavation and Field Archaeology in East Yorkshire. Unpublished interim report.Google Scholar
Megaw, R. & Megaw, V., 1997. Do the ancient Celts still live? An essay on identity and contextuality. Studia Celtica 31, 107–23.Google Scholar
Meniel, P., 1987. Chasse et élevage chez les Gaulois. Paris: Errance.Google Scholar
Metcalf, P. & Huntington, R., 1991. Celebrations of Death: the Anthropology of Mortuary Ritual. 2nd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oswald, A., 1997. A doorway on the past: practical and mystic concerns in the orientation of roundhouse doorways, in Gwilt & Haselgrove (eds.), 87–95.Google Scholar
Pader, E-J., 1982. Symbolism, Social Relations and the Interpretation of Mortuary Remains. (BAR Supplementary Series 130.) Oxford: BAR.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., 1993. The powerful dead: archaeological relationships between the living and the dead. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 3(2), 203–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., 1996. Food, fertility and front doors: houses in the first millennium BC, in Champion & Collis (eds.), 117–32.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. & Richards, C., 1994a. Architecture and order: spatial representation and archaeology, in Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space, eds. Parker Pearson, M. & Richards, C.. London: Routledge, 38–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. & Richards, C., 1994b. Ordering the world: perceptions of architecture, space and time, in Architecture and Order: Approaches to Social Space, eds. Parker Pearson, M. & Richards, C.. London: Routledge, 1–37.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., Sharpies, N. & Mulville, J.A., 1996. Brochs and Iron Age society: a reappraisal. Antiquity 70, 57–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker Pearson, M. & Sharpies, N., with Mulville, J. & Smith, H., 1999. Between Land and Sea: Excavations at Dun Vulan. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Parker Pearson, M., Mulville, J.A., Sharpies, N. & Smith, H., in press. Decoding dirt and deposition: the Iron Age broch settlement of Dun Vulan, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, in L'Age du Fer sur la Manche: l'Habitat et l'Occupation du Sol en Europe, ed. Collis, J.R.. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Reid, M.L., 1989. A room with a view: an examination of round-houses, with particular reference to northern Britain. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 8, 1–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, T., 1986. Stones of Aran: pilgrimage. Harmonds-worth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Ross, A., 1967. Pagan Celtic Britain. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Scott, W.L., 1948. Gallo-British colonies: the aisled roundhouse culture in the North. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 14, 46–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharpies, N., 1991. Maiden Castle: Excavation and Field Survey 1985–1986. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Stead, I.M., 1979. The Arras Culture. York: Yorkshire Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Stead, I.M., 1991. Iron Age Cemeteries in East Yorkshire. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Tierney, J.J., 1960. The Celtic ethnography of Poseidonius. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 60 (Section C), 189–275.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G.J., 1979. Gussage All Saints: an Iron Age Settlement in Dorset. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Wait, G., 1985. Ritual and Religion in Iron Age Britain. (BAR British Series 149.) Oxford: BAR.Google Scholar
Whimster, R., 1981. Burial Practices in Iron Age Britain. (BAR British Series 90.) Oxford: BAR.Google Scholar
Whitehouse, R. & Whitehouse, D., 1974. The fauna, in Croft Ambrey, by Stanford, S.C.. Hereford: privately printed, 215–21.Google Scholar
Williams, R.J. & Zeepvat, R.J., 1994. Bancroft: a Late Bronze Age/Iron Age Settlement, Roman Villa and Temple Mausoleum, vol. 1: Excavations and Building Materials. (Monograph 7.) Aylesbury: Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society.Google Scholar
Young, A., 1953. An aisled farmhouse at the Allasdale, Isle of Barra. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 87, 80–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Young, A. & Richardson, K.M., 1960. A'Cheardach Mhor, Drimore, South Uist. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 93, 135–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar