Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T22:25:18.201Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inscribing Space: Formal Deposition at the Later Neolithic Monument of Woodhenge, Wiltshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

Joshua Pollard
Joshua Pollard
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper presents evidence for intentionally structured deposition at the later Neolithic earthwork and timber setting of Woodhenge, near Amesbury, Wiltshire. Deposition is seen as a process through which a variety of connotations and symbolic references were incorporated in the monument, in addition to contributing towards a complex classification of space that served to order ceremonial and ritual practices. The evidence for formal deposition is also considered in the context of comparable, contemporary, activity at two other extensively excavated monuments in the region — Durrington Walls and Stonehenge I. Finally, complementarity and contrast in such special practices are viewed in relation to individual monument histories and the possiblity that, whilst the product of a general sacred tradition, the way in which each of the monuments was used was structured by different sets of meanings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 61 , 1995 , pp. 137 - 156
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1995

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

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Atkinson, R. J. C., Piggott, C. M. andSandars, N. K. 1951. Excavations at Dorchester, Oxon. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. C. 1994. Fragments from Antiquity: an archaeology of social life in Britain; 2900–1200 BC. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Barrett, J. C., Bradley, R. and Green, M. 1991. Landscape, Monuments and Society: the prehistory of Cranborne Chase. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, M. 1984. Ritual and prestige in the prehistory of Wessex c. 2200–1400 bc: a new dimension to the archaeological evidence. In Miller, D. and Tilley, C. (eds), Ideology, Power and Prehistory, 93–110. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, A. G. 1991. Structured deposition and technological change among the flaked stone artefacts from Cranborne Chase. In Barrett, J., Bradley, R. & Hall, M. (eds), Papers on the Prehistoric Archaeology of Cranborne Chase, 101–33. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Burl, A. 1987. The Stonehenge People: life and death at the world's greatest stone circle. London: Dent.Google Scholar
Clarke, D. L. 1970. The Beaker Pottery of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Cleal, R. M. J. 1991. Cranborne Chase — the earlier prehistoric pottery. In Barrett, J., Bradley, R. & Hall, M. (eds), Papers on the Prehistoric Archaeology of Cranborne Chase, 134–200. Oxford: Oxbow Books.Google Scholar
Cleal, R. M. J., Walker, K. & Montague, R. 1995. Stonehenge in its Landscape. London: English Heritage Archaeological Report 10.Google Scholar
Connerton, P. 1989. How Societies Kemember. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunnington, M. E. 1927. Prehistoric timber circles. Antiquity 1, 92–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cunnington, M. E. 1929. Woodhenge. Devizes: Simpson.Google Scholar
Evans, J. G. & Wainwright, G. J. 1979. The Woodhenge excavations. In Wainwright, , 1979, 72–4.Google Scholar
Evens, E. D., Grinsell, L. V., Piggott, S. & Wallis, F. S. 1962. Fourth report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries on the petrological identification of stone axes. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 28, 209–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gell, A. S. R. 1949. Grooved Ware from West Runton, Norfolk. Antiquaries Journal 29, 81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goddard, E. H. 1934. Iron or Bronze? A reply by Lt-Col. R. H. Cunnington. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 46, 532–3.Google Scholar
Harding, P. 1988. The Chalk Plaque Pit, Amesbury. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 54, 320–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1921. Stonehenge: interim report on the exploration. Antiquaries Journal 1, 19–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1922. Second report on the excavations at Stonehenge. Antiquaries Journal 2, 36–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1923. Third report on the excavations at Stonehenge. Antiquaries Journal 3, 13–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1924. Fourth report on the excavations at Stonehenge. Antiquaries Journal 4, 30–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1925. Report on the excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1923. Antiquaries Journal 5, 21–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1926. Report on the excavations at Stonehenge during the season of 1924. Antiquaries Journal 6, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawley, W. 1928. Report on the excavations at Stonehenge during 1925 and 1926. Antiquaries Journal 8, 149–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoare, R. C. 1810. The Ancient History of South Wiltshire. London: William Miller.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. 1989. This is not an article about material culture as text. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8, 250–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodder, I. 1990. The Domestication of Europe. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Ingold, T. 1986. The Appropriation of Nature. Manchester: University Press.Google Scholar
Kendrick, T. D. & Hawkes, C. F. C. 1932. Archaeology in England and Wales, 1914–1931. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Longworth, I. H., Wainwright, G. J. & Wilson, K. E. 1971. The Grooved Ware site at Lion Point, Clacton. British Museum Quarterly 35, 93–124.Google Scholar
Moore, H. L. 1982. The interpretation of spatial patterning in settlement residues. In Hodder, I. (ed.), Symbolic and Structural Archaeology, 74–9. Cambridge: University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, H. L. 1986. Space, Text and Gender. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Pollard, J. 1992. The Sanctuary, Overton Hill, Wiltshire: a re-examination. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58, 213–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, J. 1993. Traditions of Deposition in the Neolithic of Wessex. Unpublished. Ph.D thesis. University of Wales College of Cardiff.Google Scholar
RCHM(E) 1979. Stonehenge and its Environs: monuments and land use. Edinburgh: University Press.Google Scholar
Richards, C. and Thomas, J. 1984. Ritual activity and structured deposition in later Neolithic Wessex. In Bradley, R. & Gardiner, J. (eds), Neolithic Studies: a review of some current research, 189–218. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports 133.Google Scholar
Richards, J. 1990. The Stonehenge Environs Project. London: English Heritage.Google Scholar
Serjeantson, D. 1995. Animal Bones. In Cleal, et al. 1995, 437–51.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F. 1956. The Decorative Arts of Neolithic Ceramics in South-Eastern England and its Relations. Unpublished Ph.D thesis. University of London.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F. 1965a. Excavation of a bell barrow, Avebury G55. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 60, 24–46.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F. 1965b. Windmill Hill and Avebury: excavations by Alexander Keiller 1925–1939. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Smith, I. F. & Simpson, D. D. A. 1966. Excavation of a round barrow on Overton Hill, North Wiltshire. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 32, 122–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, J. F. S. 1935. Some discoveries at Ratfyn, Amesbury, and their bearing on the date of Woodhenge. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 47, 55–67.Google Scholar
Stone, J. F. S. & Young, W. E. V. 1948. Two pits of Grooved Ware date near Woodhenge. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 52, 287–306.Google Scholar
Thomas, N. 1952. A Neolithic chalk cup from Wilsford in the Devizes Museum: and notes on others. Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine 54, 452–62.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 1991. Rethinking the Neolithic. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. 1979. Mount Pleasant, Dorset: excavations 1970–1971. Report of the Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wainwright, G. J. & Longworth, I. H. 1971. Durrington Walls: excavations 1966–1968. Report of the Research Commitee of the Society of Antiquaries of London 29.Google Scholar
Warren, S. H., Piggott, S., Clark, J. G. D., Burkitt, M. C., Godwin, H. & Godwin, M. E. 1936. Archaeology of the submerged land-surface of the Essex coast. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 2, 178–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, A. W. R., Atkinson, R. J. C., Chambers, R. & Thomas, N. 1992. Excavations in the Neolithic and Bronze Age complex at Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire, 1947–1952. and 1981. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 58, 143–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar