Exploring Ritual Deposits in a Well at Rothwell Haigh, Leeds

Abstract

During the summer of 1977, rescue excavations of a square, ditched enclosure were undertaken at Rothwell Haigh Colliery, Leeds. Relatively few discrete features were identified, but a 12.3 m-deep well situated within the enclosure was fully excavated. Pottery from the well, which was waterlogged fromc. 7 m, indicates rapid infilling most likely in the early to mid-fourth century. Waterlogged wooden objects include a yew bucket, ash spade with iron shoe and ash drinking vessels, while the disposal of complete pottery vessels, a quern disc rough-out, articulated animal parts and a human skull highlight the potential for symbolic deposition. An exploration of the apparently more mundane items shows that they deviate from the normal domestic patterns seen on local sites, suggesting that selection for ritual deposition may have covered areas of material culture not normally associated with such activity.

Tankards of the British Iron Age

“…Stave-built yew buckets appear contemporaneously with tankards in Late Iron Age Britain and the Continent (see below). Similar buckets also appear in a large number of Anglo-Saxon graves (see Cook 2004). It is also worth noting the use of yew in early medieval reliquaries or caskets from Northern Europe (Edwards 2013, 138).…”

“…The wood species in all examples noted (11 examples), is exclusively that of the European yew ( Taxus baccata ). Yew was an extremely uncommon choice for vessel construction in general (Cool & Richardson 2013, 211). Functionally it is a durable wood which is resistant to decay when wet.…”

Life beyond life: Repair, reuse, and recycle—the many lives of wooden objects and the mutability of trees

“…The question here is whether such spokes are being treated in a similar way at the end of their life in the wheel, possibly suggesting more routine recycling practices. Cut spoke ends at Vindolanda (Figure 12) and at other sites in Britain (Allen, 2017, Figure 33; Cool & Richardson, 2013, Figure 8), as well as a possible example found at the Roman legionary fort of Vindonissa, Switzerland (Fellmann, 2009, 27 & 143), may begin to attest to this. In Cool and Richardson's paper, the object is described as a jointed piece, and in Fellmann's work the object is identified as a bung.…”

Lessons from love-locks: The archaeology of the contemporary assemblage

“…The symbolic custom of dropping the love-lock’s key into a watery place does necessitate a body of water. The significance of the watery place will not, of course, be lost on the archaeologist, with so many prehistoric and historic hoards, assemblages and deposits having been discovered in rivers and marshlands (see Aitchison, 1988; Bord and Bord, 1985; Bradley, 1990; Cool and Richardson, 2013; Fulford, 2001; Laing, 1969; Merrifield, 1987). Focusing on the Bronze Age, David Fontijn (2002: 264) proposes a number of possible reasons for this: ‘purity, pollution, regeneration, fertility’, as well as the status of the river as a boundary between peoples and worlds, and as a ‘central element in people’s perception of landscape’ (p. 263).…”