Divisions of floodplain space and sites on riverine 'islands': functional, ritual, social, or liminal places?

Brown, A. G.

doi:10.1179/jwa.2003.3.1.3

Cited by 13 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…It seems possible that the liminal location of the Fiskerton structure – its ‘betwixt and between’ situation – may have made it particularly suitable as a place for carrying out ritual deposition (Field and Parker Pearson 2003, 193), and it is furthermore possible that it was this quality that made lake settlements favoured places for the construction of monumental houses as products of the merging of ritual and domestic spheres of life. As Brown has noted, islands can be thought of as both within and outside the domestic and agricultural sphere, thus combining the ritual and the social, and furthermore signifying power since they can be ‘seen but not touched’ (Brown 2003, 10).…”

Section: Discussion: Lake Settlement Ritual and Domesticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Bronze and Iron Age Lake Settlement in Scotland and Ireland: The Development of the ‘Crannog’ in the North and West

Cavers¹

2006

Oxford J Archaeology

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This paper considers the evidence for the origins and development of the lake settlement tradition of Scotland and Ireland in the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. Considering a crannog 'event horizon' around the mid-first millennium BC, dating and structural evidence are compared and contrasted, and the evidence for non-domestic activity including ritual and votive deposition is contextualized. It is argued that the concurrent appearance of crannogs with the flourish of domestic monumentality in Scotland and Ireland can be seen as a consequence of the fusion of ritual and domestic spheres of life in the later first millennium BC, integrating the themes of architectural monumentality and the Iron Age reverence of water.introduction The longevity of the chronology of crannogs has been known for some time (Morrison 1982). Since the discovery of Eilean Domhnuill on North Uist it has been considered a possibility that lake settlement forms in Scotland have been in existence since the Neolithic (Armit 1996), while in Ireland the existence of related lake 'platform' structures dating to the Mesolithic has been established (O'Sullivan 1998;Fredengren 2002). However, closer analysis of the dating evidence for crannogs has indicated that the majority of sites belong to the 'Later Prehistoric' period, broadly taken to be the period 1000 BC to AD 500 (Crone 1993; Henderson 1998). The aim of this paper is to identify the evidence for the origins of lake settlement forms in Scotland and Ireland, considering the likely origin of the concept of the 'crannog', as well as the physical evidence for the structure of early lake settlements and their relationship to contemporary terrestrial settlements.The archaeology of lake settlement in the late second and early first millennium BC is better documented in Ireland than in Scotland, where so far the earliest dates for a fully developed 'crannog' structure come from Loch Tay, from the contemporary sites at Oakbank and Fearnan Hotel that may be as early as the ninth century BC (Dixon 1982). Lake settlement in the Later Bronze Age is well represented in Ireland, and several large-scale excavations have meant that the nature of this early horizon of lake and wetland habitation is relatively well documented. Besides a range of sites which have been demonstrated to have been constructed, inhabited and abandoned in the Later Bronze Age (e.g. Cullyhanna, Hodges 1958; Lough Eskragh, Collins and OXFORD JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY 25(4) 389-412 2006

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Section: Discussion: Lake Settlement Ritual and Domesticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Bronze and Iron Age Lake Settlement in Scotland and Ireland: The Development of the ‘Crannog’ in the North and West

Cavers¹

2006

Oxford J Archaeology

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“…This separateness of islands appears to have attracted attention in prehistory and later periods, providing foci for religious beliefs and other activities ( cf . Webster, 1995; Brown, 2003). That these islands, and associated religious beliefs, also became part of the urban topography is an indication of the complexity of cultural values that could be associated with urban spaces.…”

Section: Islandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water and the Urban Fabric: a study of towns and waterscapes in the Roman period in Britain

Rogers

2012

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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This paper highlights the ways in which components of waterscapes—rivers, lakes, pools, wetlands and waterfronts—formed elements of the urban fabric in the Roman period. Urban archaeology has focused mainly on features relating to land, while nautical archaeology, studying rivers, ports and harbours, trade and seafaring, reminds us of the importance of watery contexts. By examining waterscapes in the urban setting we can start to break down some of the traditional dichotomies in archaeology between land and water. Water could form an integral part of the lived environment and acquire cultural meanings that can be studied archaeologically. © 2012 The Author

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“…The recovery of such material fits into a wider pan‐European phenomenon of prehistoric finds from rivers (Bonnamour, 1976; Blanchet and Lambot, 1977; Bradley, 1979; York, 2002). Rivers also formed part of wider pre‐Christian ritual landscapes, with sites such as megalithic tombs, barrows and cursus monuments often occurring in river valleys, indicating a physical or spiritual link with water (Newman, 1999; Brophy, 2000; Brown, 2004). This ritual significance is carried into the early Christian period when islands in lakes or larger rivers become favoured sites for ecclesiastical establishments (Brown, 2004: 12).…”

Section: What Is Riverine Archaeology?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rivers also formed part of wider pre‐Christian ritual landscapes, with sites such as megalithic tombs, barrows and cursus monuments often occurring in river valleys, indicating a physical or spiritual link with water (Newman, 1999; Brophy, 2000; Brown, 2004). This ritual significance is carried into the early Christian period when islands in lakes or larger rivers become favoured sites for ecclesiastical establishments (Brown, 2004: 12). This extremely wide coverage makes this collection of site‐types a balanced and very valuable sample of the full range of cultural‐heritage sites in Northern Ireland.…”

Section: What Is Riverine Archaeology?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Riverine Archaeology in Northern Ireland: an evaluation

McNeary¹

2011

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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Divisions of floodplain space and sites on riverine 'islands': functional, ritual, social, or liminal places?

Cited by 13 publications

References 17 publications

Late Bronze and Iron Age Lake Settlement in Scotland and Ireland: The Development of the ‘Crannog’ in the North and West

Late Bronze and Iron Age Lake Settlement in Scotland and Ireland: The Development of the ‘Crannog’ in the North and West

Water and the Urban Fabric: a study of towns and waterscapes in the Roman period in Britain

Riverine Archaeology in Northern Ireland: an evaluation

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