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Soil Science and Archaeology with Illustrations from some British Bronze Age Monuments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

I. W. Cornwall
I. W. Cornwall
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of London
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Extract

Archaeologists of earlier generations were often interested exclusively in the artifacts of early man. We have now learned that the geological context in which they are found and the natural objects associated with them are often as important as the artifacts themselves for the reconstruction of the way of life of ancient peoples. The soil itself, in which archaeological objects occur, can, in certain cases, tell us something about the way in which it has been formed and therefore about the environment and habits of the people concerned.

This paper is a small selection from our ‘case-book’ in the Department of Environmental Archaeology of the London University Institute of Archaeology, designed to illustrate some of our methods and giving results from a number of Bronze Age monuments which have been studied during the last few years.

This particular material was chosen because the problems presented by the individual sites are linked, in many cases, by a constantly recurring question as to how the climate of the British Bronze Age differed from that of the present day. The amount of soil evidence now accumulating does point, on the whole, to a Bronze-Age climate characteristically different.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , December 1954 , pp. 129 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1953

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References

page 131 note 1 Case, H. J., 1952, ‘The Excavation of two round barrows at Poole, Dorset,’ P.P.S., N.S. XVIII (2), 148–59Google Scholar.

page 132 note 1 In the discussion after this paper was read, Dr Dimbleby pointed out that some species of worms survive even in very acid conditions (pH 4.0). It remains true, however, that the activities of many are inhibited by acidity and that a neutral or alkaline soil is their preferred habitat.

page 133 note 1 Dimbleby, G. W., 1953. Appendix III in Case, H. J., op. cit., p. 158.

page 135 note 1 I am indebted to Mr E. S. Wood for the reference to a parallel case from Yorkshire. Atkinson, J. C., Forty years in a moorland parish, 1891, 147Google Scholar, mentions a barrow in Cleveland with a circular platform of stones 20 feet in diameter, 6 feet deep, with a cist in the centre—‘the entire level surface of it covered, 6 inches deep, with the whitest, snowiest sand.’ This could not have been brought from less than 7 miles away.

page 140 note 1 SirDarwin, C. 1881. Vegetable Mould and Earthworms. London, 298 ppGoogle Scholar.

page 147 note 1 Mr E. S. Wood has kindly pointed out to me that there are many references in Greenwell, , British Barrows, 1877Google Scholar, to composite mounds with white layers (chalk or sand), burial pits filled with sand or chalk, white quartz pebbles associated with burials, etc. These are frequently imported so that their whiteness must have had some peculiar significance.

See also Grinsell, , Ancient Burial Mounds of England, 1953Google Scholar.