This volume is concerned with the investigation of three complexes of prehistoric ceremonial monuments in the immediate environs of Dumfries in the south-west of Scotland, conducted between 1994 and 1998. These were the Pict's Knowe henge, the Holywood cursus complex, and the post alignments/cursus at Holm. The field research was designed in such a way as to recognise that prehistoric monuments often have complex and individual sequences of construction and use, while also acknowledging that detailed studies of particular sites and local contexts will ultimately advance our understanding of monumentality in prehistoric Europe. The three sites of the Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm have proved especially helpful in addressing questions of how particular places maintained their importance over long periods of time. In each instance the location was characterised by features which possess a high degree of archaeological visibility. In the former case it was the upstanding earthwork of the bank and ditch that identified the site as a henge monument, while Holywood and Holm were discovered through aerial photography. Each of the sites investigated had complex sequences of development, in which the structural elements that were recognised prior to fieldwork were not necessarily the most important or the most long-lived. This book considers the details of the excavated features, environmental and artefactual evidence, as well as more general concerns. The first part of the volume concentrates on the Pict's Knowe, while the second looks at the more spatially and typologically related sites of Holywood and Holm.

The Cotswold Water Park Project is a landscape study centred upon parts of the Upper Thames Valley within what is now the Cotswold Water Park. The report is based upon four key excavated rural settlements, the most extensive being that at Claydon Pike, which dated primarily from the middle Iron Age to the late Roman period. A number of middle Saxon burials were also found. The other Water Park settlements dated to the late Iron Age-Roman period and the 2nd to 3rd century AD. The report has incorporated the results of these excavations into a wider synthesis of landscape development in the region, including aspects of material culture, environment and the economy.

It is just over forty years since the start of the excavations of the Ascott-under-Wychwood long barrow (1965-69) under the direction of Don Benson. The excavations belonged to the latter part of a great period of barrow digging in southern Britain, which was ending just as, by striking contrast, intensified investigation and fieldwork at causewayed enclosures were beginning. Although a long gap has passed since the excavations took place, they have nonetheless produced a rich and important set of results, and the analysis has been enhanced by more recent techniques. The site now joins Burn Ground and Hazleton North as one of only three Cotswold long barrows or cairns to have been more or less fully excavated. The barrow had been built in two main stages, in a series of bays defined by lines of stakes and stone, and filled mainly with earth and turf, with some stone; it was enclosed or faced by stone walling, the outermost being of very fine quality. The barrow contained two opposed pairs of stone cists, each with a short passage from the long sides of the monument. The cists and passages contained the remains of some 21 people (of all ages and both sexes), probably deposited in a variety of forms from fleshed inhumations to incomplete secondary remains and cremations. The barrow was built in the 38th century cal BC and was probably one of the earliest such constructions in the region. It was probably in use for only three to five generations, lasting into the 37th century cal BC. Occupation features from the early fourth millennium cal BC included small pits, hearths and two small timber post structures, and there were finds of pottery, flint, axe fragments, stone querns and animal bone. People used cattle, sheep and pigs, and there is a range of wild species, especially in the midden. The authors of this report not only document the finds and research, but also address wider questions of how the early Neolithic inhabitants viewed their society through the barrow, and how the development of the site reflected memory and interaction with a changing world.

Archaeological work in advance of pipeline construction culminated in excavation at four sites on the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire border by the Carrant Brook and River Isbourne. Geophysical and cropmark evidence has been used to enhance interpretation of the excavated 'slices' across these sites, revealing a changing pattern of human activity and density of settlement from the Mesoltihic to the medieval period. Early features, including a possible Early Neolithic flat grave, suggest that activity in the area prior to the Middle Iron Age was largely ritual in nature. From the Middle Iron Age onwards substantial settlement enclosures were constructed and remained in use to the end of the 1st century AD, when an increased level of activity saw some enlarged and others abandoned and replaced. All four sites were typical of low status Iron Age and Roman rural settlement in southern England, and all were abandoned by the 4th century AD, but with some evidence for later Anglo-Saxon and medieval activity. These excavations add considerably to our understanding of life and death in the late prehistoric and Roman periods, and of the distribution of archaeological remains of all periods, in an area of known archaeological significance close to the confluence of two major rivers: the Severn and Avon.

Twenty-five years is a long time in the study of prehistory and these papers, given at a conference in Cheltenham in 2004, seek to review the excavations, surveys, chance finds and serious investigations carried out over two and a half decades.

Two reports are published in this volume: excavations in 2004 at Henbury School, Bristol (by Derek Evans, Neil Holbrook and E.R. McSloy) and excavations in 2005 at Hewlett Packard, Filton, South Gloucestershire (by Kate Cullen, Neil Holbrook, Martin Watts, Anwen Caffell and Malin Holst). Excavations in 2004 at Henbury School, Bristol, revealed the truncated remains of 21 inhumation burials, making a total of 28 burials recorded at the site since 1982. Of these, 24 burials formed a dispersed cemetery of crouched inhumations, the vast majority of which were aligned north/south and lay on their left sides, with equal numbers of males and females (where sex could be determined) and only one child. Poor bone survival rendered radiocarbon dating invalid, and the cemetery is dated by only one grave good: a finger ring from the mid to late Iron Age. However, the cemetery clearly pre-dated a later rectangular enclosure of very late Iron Age (early 1st-century AD) date. Crouched inhumations from the later Iron Age are known from the region but usually from pits or scattered, so the presence of this cemetery at Henbury is significant. Inhumation cemeteries of this date are rare in Western Britain, although they may have been quite widespread. Despite the dearth of surviving features within the subsequent enclosure, the scale of the ditches suggests it was a farmstead, and environmental evidence hints at both livestock rearing and cereal cultivation. Subsequent Roman activity was clearly intensive, and included a further four burials; although difficult to interpret, it adds to a substantial amount of evidence for Roman activity to the north-west of Bristol. Excavations in 2005 at Hewlett Packard, Filton, revealed the truncated remains of 51 inhumation burials within an isolated post-Roman cemetery. All of the burials were extended and east-west aligned, and were arranged in rows and groups. The tradition of east/west-aligned graves is a common late Roman and post-Roman practice, and these were not necessarily Christian. The largest group comprised 24 burials clustered around a central grave that contained an unusual skeleton and evidence for a distinctive burial rite. Overall there were slightly more females than males (where sex could be determined) and ten children. Adult stature could only be calculated in a few cases; males were generally taller that the early medieval average, females shorter. No grave goods were recovered, but four radiocarbon dates obtained from human bone suggest a period of use sometime between the 5th and 7th centuries AD. There was no evidence for contemporary settlement within the immediate vicinity. Other post-Roman cemeteries that are culturally distinct from Anglo-Saxon influenced burials are known from the region. The absence of Anglo-Saxon cemeteries in South Gloucestershire suggests this area remained under British control in the 5th and 6th centuries. The abandonment of this cemetery may have been the result of changes in the religious landscape once the area finally came under Saxon control in the late 7th century.

Set in the context of this project's innovative landscape surveys, four extraordinary sites excavated at Haddenham, north of Cambridge chart the transformation of Neolithic woodland to Romano-British marshland, providing unrivalled insights into death and ritual in a changing prehistoric environment. The highlight of Volume I is the internationally renowned Foulmire Fen long barrow, with its preserved timber burial chamber and façade. The massive individual timbers allow detailed study of Neolithic wood technology and the direct examination of a structure that usually survives only as a pattern of post holes.

Set in the context of this project's innovative landscape surveys, four extraordinary sites excavated at Haddenham, north of Cambridge chart the transformation of Neolithic woodland to Romano-British marshland, providing unrivalled insights into death and ritual in a changing prehistoric environment. Volume II moves on to later periods, and reveals how Iron Age and Romano-British communities adapted to the wetland environment that had now become established.

The Raunds Area Survey forms part of the Raunds Area Project - a major programme of archaeological research into landscape development in Northamptonshire and the wider midland region of England. The Project includes extensive open area excavations of early prehistoric ritual and burial monuments beside the River Nene, Iron Age and Roman settlement at Stanwick, and Saxon and medieval settlement in north Raunds and West Cotton, as well as complementary landscape, historical and biological studies. A series of monographs are planned to cover each aspect of the study. The present volume gathers the results of a detailed fieldwalking survey, cropmark analysis, magnetometer surveys and excavations, accompanied by allied environmental and documentary researches to provide a dynamic picture of landscape development. The study considers the distribution of worked flint scatters and has identified favoured locations for prehistoric activity. A model for the gradual intensification of settlement and land-use throughout the Iron Age and Roman period including greater exploitation of the Boulder Clay plateau is suggested. Good survival of early-middle Saxon pottery in the plough soil indicates that settlement at this time was mostly confined to the flanks of the Nene valley and tributary streams. The Survey, aided by documentary research, complements the open area excavations and provides a comprehensive model for the creation and early development of villages and open fields.

The site at Whitecross Farm, including timber structures located on the edge of the eyot, and a substantial midden and occupation deposit has been securely radiocarbon-dated to the late Bronze Age. The late Bronze Age artefact assemblages are suggestive of a high-status site, with a range of domestic and ritual activities represented. The bank of the Grim's Ditch earthwork was found to have preserved evidence of earlier settlement, dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, and a sequence of cultivation, including ard marks and 'cord-rig' cultivation ridges. Pottery and radiocarbon analysis dated the earthwork to the end of the late Iron Age or the early Roman period. A multi-period settlement, consisting of pits, a waterhole, postholes, gullies and field systems, was identified at Bradford's Brook, Cholsey. The main periods represented are late Bronze Age and Romano-British, while a small quantity of Saxon pottery indicates limited Saxon activity. A large pit containing late Bronze Age pottery, a cattle skull, waterlogged wood and plant remains, a complete loomweight and flint flakes has been interpreted as a waterhole. A series of radiocarbon dates were obtained for deposits within this feature. All three sites are discussed individually as well as within their local, regional and national contexts. Chapter 7 provides an overall discussion of later Bronze Age themes that have arisen through the excavation and analysis of these sites.

This book presents a short history of human habitation in East London, based on archaeological findings at gravel sites between 1963 and 1999. To find the beginning of this story we have to go back half a million years, to the time when advancing ice sheets pushed the Thames southwards to its present course, depositing the river gravels that exist across East London today. Archaeological work on the East London gravels began when finds from gravel pits were given to local collectors and museums. Many spectacular discoveries were made in the era when gravel was dug by hand; they include a Roman stone coffin found near Dagenham in 1928 and the rich Early Saxon cemetery with glass drinking horns from Gerpin's Pit, Rainham, uncovered in 1937. The archaeological sites which make up this story have names which speak of a time before London's urban sprawl reached eastwards: Manor Farm, Great Sunnings Farm, Whitehall Wood, Great Arnold's Field and Fairlop Quarry, to name but a few. Discoveries have revealed the ancient landscapes of East London and a history of human occupation from the third millennium BC right up to the 19th century. The finds include evidence of where people lived, and how they made a living and viewed themselves. These settlement patterns, economic systems and cultural identities changed over time and contributed to the form of today's East London.

British Iron Age swords and scabbards are here catalogued in detail for the first time. They are grouped on the basis of typologies of components and are discussed with special reference to their decoration, context and chronology. Artefact studies have been neglected for many years, and this subject was last tackled in a paper published in 1950. Since then, the material available for study has tripled, from 93 to 274 items, and new archaeological discoveries include several elaborately decorated scabbards. Illustrations include 71 full pages of line drawings, while additional contributions examine the technology of some of the swords and provide a discussion of their enamelled decoration. Contents: Introduction; Typology and terminology; Group A: Swords of medium length and scabbards with open chape ends; Group B: Swords of medium length and scabbards with closed chape ends; Group C: Long swords and scabbards with campanulate mouths; Group D: Long swords and scabbards with straight mouths; Group E: Earlier swords and scabbards in the north; Group F: Later swords and scabbards in the north; Group G: Short swords in the south and the north; Group H: Swords and scabbards of mixed traditions; Discussion; Appendices; The technology of some of the swords; Weapons and fittings with enamelled decoration; The Isleworth sword: a note on the brass foils; A technical report on the Orton Meadows scabbard; The scientific examination of the Asby Scar sword and scabbard; The extraction of swords from their scabbards; Catalogue; Bibliography.

A long-term, low-cost rescue project was undertaken in response to gravel quarrying at Maxey between 1983 and 1990. Throughout, the archaeological focus was the more or less concurrent excavation taking place at the Etton causewayed enclosure, a site which was effectively a central point within this part of the lower Welland valley. The Etton Landscape consists of the relict river systems, former floodplain and lowermost parts of the Welland First Terrace gravels between the modern villages of Maxey, Etton and Northborough. Situated on the fringe of this seasonally wet landscape was a series of later Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments and more enigmatic areas of occupation. The principal monuments, other than the Etton causewayed enclosure, were three small henges which exhibited several phases of re-modelling, a C-shaped enclosure, the Etton Woodgate contour ditched enclosure and associated settlement, and four barrows (out of many more that are in the vicinity). The occupation areas were relatively few and ephemeral, often only consisting of a spread of occupation or midden material within the buried soil, a few post-holes and/or pits in no apparent pattern or structure. There is also evidence of field demarcation on the floodplain edge in the later Neolithic. All of these sites straddled the period of later use of the causewayed enclosure, in the third millennium and early second millennium BC. There seems to have been at this time a mosaic of old and new environments, ranging from old woodland to pasture and small zones of scrubby, fen-like carr, with the stream zones being affected by seasonal freshwater flooding and the minor deposition of silty clay alluvium. By the middle part of the second millennium BC, field systems laid out at right angles to the contemporary streams were in use, with successive versions of the same general layout continuing on into the Roman period. Throughout the last two millennia BC there was a gradual opening up of the landscape, on the face of it largely pasture, but probably with some arable cultivation on the higher and better drained ground. By the later Roman period, it appears that the area was more and more affected by the seasonal deposition of alluvium and overbank flooding, which led to the establishment of a loose and scattered layout of farmsteads and associated field systems on the higher parts of the first terrace. By medieval times, the higher parts of the terrace were completely given over to ridge and furrow cultivation, with villages established to the north and south, and the lowest zones occupied by infilled stream courses still remaining seasonally wet and possibly used as seasonal, unenclosed pasture. This more or less remained the case until 1953, when the enlargement of the Maxey Cut effectively drained the lowest parts of the terrace and permitted an expansion of arable agriculture onto the most thickly alluviated parts of the lower Welland valley between Maxey and the fen-edge.

This volume describes the two seasons of excavation at Segsbury Camp which form a part of Oxford University's Hillforts of the Ridgeway Project . It contains background material and a series of interpretations of the site at different scales finishing with a discussion of the Lambourn Downs landscape in later prehistoric and Romano-British times. The evidence suggests that the large hillfort of Segsbury was used during the period 6th to 2nd century BC but was not densely and permanently occupied. It also seems that Segsbury was constructed in a new and previously unused area of the Downs. Alternative interpretations are explored within a framework of trying to understand what is meant by 'community' and how Segsbury interacted with other hillforts in the area. The detail provided by the excavation of several hillforts on the Lambourn Downs suggests that they were different forms of monument and argues against trying to understand hillforts as a single category.

Excavations conducted between 1981 and 1986 in advance of gravel extraction in Gravelly Guy field, Stanton Harcourt, Oxfordshire, revealed archaeological evidence spanning from the Neolithic through to the Saxon period. Neolithic and early Bronze Age activity is represented by pit scatters and a series of ring ditches with associated burials. The Iron Age and early Roman periods witnessed the continuous development of a linear settlement, consisting of a dense area of pits, gullies, circular structures, four-posters and boundary ditches in the mid to late Iron Age phase and a series of rectilinear enclosures and unusual 'ramped hollows' and wells in the late Iron Age/early Roman period. Excavation of a section at the junction of the floodplain and the gravel terrace has also provided information regarding the changing land use and contemporary environment in the vicinity of the site. Gravelly Guy remains one of the most thoroughly excavated sites of this period in the Thames Valley. As well as the vast amount of structural evidence, the considerable quantities of artefacts and environmental information recovered, together with a series of ten radiocarbon dates, have resulted in a detailed study of the site, its position in the landscape and relationship to the contemporary archaeology of the surrounding area.

This paper reports on the excavation of a Bronze Age burnt mound discovered in a woodland clearing in the Fens. A number of waterlogged features were also found in association with it, including a pit containing wooden planks and Beaker pottery. Much of the paper focuses on the finds and environmental remains with specialist reports on the worked flint, pottery, faunal remains, plant remains, molluscs, soil and the tight sequence of radiocarbon dates. The book also reports on the Neolithic features beneath the mound.