Making a significant place: excavations at the Late Mesolithic site of Langley’s Lane, Midsomer Norton, Bath and North-East Somerset

Lewis, Jodie; Rosen, Caroline; Booth, Rona; Davies, Paul; Allen, Martyn; Law, Matthew

doi:10.1080/00665983.2019.1551507

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…BC) and was probably deliberately placed into the spring, hinting at the re-use of faunal remains in ritualistic associations with previous Mesolithic cultures, who may have been the first to establish the spring/palaeochannel as an area of importance. This is similar to other spring sites such as Blick Mead, Wiltshire (Jacques et al 2018) and Langley's Lane, Somerset (Lewis et al 2019). The roe deer headdresses seen in the same context, also have their most obvious counterparts in the Mesolithic, and further remains from both roe deer and red deer were found in the Neolithic contexts.…”

Section: The Significance Of the Springssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…This is similar to other spring sites such as Blick Mead, Wiltshire (Jacques et al . 2018) and Langley’s Lane, Somerset (Lewis et al . 2019).…”

Section: The Significance Of the Springsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), Nine Wells in Cambridgeshire (Boreham et al . 2020), and Langley’s Lane, Somerset (Lewis et al . 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hudson et al 2022. ), Nine Wells in Cambridgeshire (Boreham et al 2020), and Langley's Lane, Somerset (Lewis et al 2019). In the early Neolithic, springs are found inside causewayed enclosures such as Freston, Suffolk (Carter et al 2022) and are closely associated with many of the large, monumental mounds seen in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age such as those at Silbury Hill, Marlborough Hill and Hatfield Barrow (Leary et al 2010(Leary et al , 2012, and stone monuments (e.g.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Neolithic forest farming at Seven Springs, Martlesham, Suffolk inferred from sedaDNA and pollen

Hudson,

Allen,

Alsos

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The importance of small wetlands and springs to Mesolithic cultures is well established. However, few studies have focused on their significance and use by Early Neolithic agro-pastoralists. Here we present a multiproxy palaeoenvironmental analysis, including sedaDNA, of the site of Seven Springs, Martlesham, UK, demonstrating that springs provided an attractive location for pastoral and ritual activity around a palaeochannel surrounded by dense woodland. The site is posited to have begun as a known location for the hunting of aurochs (Bos primigenius) and later became a site for the watering and pasturing of domestic animals, as well as hunting-related ritual deposition.

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Section: The Significance Of the Springssupporting

confidence: 82%

“…This is similar to other spring sites such as Blick Mead, Wiltshire (Jacques et al . 2018) and Langley’s Lane, Somerset (Lewis et al . 2019).…”

Section: The Significance Of the Springsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…), Nine Wells in Cambridgeshire (Boreham et al . 2020), and Langley’s Lane, Somerset (Lewis et al . 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Early Neolithic forest farming at Seven Springs, Martlesham, Suffolk inferred from sedaDNA and pollen

Hudson,

Allen,

Alsos

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…Certainly, the importance of the site regionally in the Mesolithic is attested to by its vast and diverse collection of Mesolithic struck flint, some of which, such as a slate microlith, may have originated from >100 km away [ 2 ] The site would have likely provided excellent access to a variety of habitats and floodplain resources, such as those of nearby riverine, woodland, and woodland edge environments. Moreover, the presence of nearby spring-water, which aside from any functional use may have been used ritually to deposit flint and bone [ 3 ] as at other similar Mesolithic spring sites [ 60 ], was likely another attraction to the site. The creation of a stone surface in the Late Mesolithic ( S1 Text ) that covered both the wetland and terrace parts of the site may be linked to this spring activity, allowing easier access onto the wetland for hunting, butchery and object deposition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life before Stonehenge: The hunter-gatherer occupation and environment of Blick Mead revealed by sedaDNA, pollen and spores

et al. 2022

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The Neolithic and Bronze Age construction and habitation of the Stonehenge Landscape has been extensively explored in previous research. However, little is known about the scale of pre-Neolithic activity and the extent to which the later monumental complex occupied an ‘empty’ landscape. There has been a long-running debate as to whether the monumental archaeology of Stonehenge was created in an uninhabited forested landscape or whether it was constructed in an already partly open area of pre-existing significance to late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. This is of significance to a global discussion about the relationship between incoming farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherer societies that is highly relevant to both Old and New World archaeology. Here we present the results of plant sedaDNA, palynological and geoarchaeological analysis at the Late hunter-gatherer site complex of Blick Mead at the junction of the drylands of Salisbury Plain and the floodplain of the River Avon, on the edge of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site. The findings are placed within a chronological framework built on OSL, radiocarbon and relative archaeological dating. We show that Blick Mead existed in a clearing in deciduous woodland, exploited by aurochsen, deer and hunter-gatherers for approximately 4000 years. Given its rich archaeology and longevity this strongly supports the arguments of continuity between the Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers activity and Neolithic monument builders, and more specifically that this was a partially open environment important to both groups. This study also demonstrates that sediments from low-energy floodplains can provide suitable samples for successful environmental assaying using sedaDNA, provided they are supported by secure dating and complementary environmental proxies.

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Britain In or Out of Europe During the Late Mesolithic? A New Perspective of the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition

et al. 2022

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Lacking well-dated fifth millennium Mesolithic evidence and based on a consensus that late Mesolithic Britain was isolated from the continent, discussion of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition has focused on the centuries around 4000 BC. This discourse has over-simplified complex neolithisation processes. New, high-quality evidence from 460,000 lithics found at Bexhill, Sussex, SE England, helps to redress this. Here, well-dated Mesolithic microliths (5500–4300 BC) may demonstrate continental links with neolithised communities. Alongside other sites, this offers exciting opportunities to contribute to debates on an isolated late Mesolithic during the transition. As a result, this work also provides additional explanations of new evidence proposing European influences on British Neolithic DNA. Instead of an isolated island, with this lithic evidence, we propose that the late Mesolithic Britain was culturally connected to the neolithised continent in the fifth millennium. Therefore, the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition of Britain was a longer, more complex, and nuanced process than previously thought.

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Making a significant place: excavations at the Late Mesolithic site of Langley’s Lane, Midsomer Norton, Bath and North-East Somerset

Cited by 3 publications

References 27 publications

Early Neolithic forest farming at Seven Springs, Martlesham, Suffolk inferred from sedaDNA and pollen

Early Neolithic forest farming at Seven Springs, Martlesham, Suffolk inferred from sedaDNA and pollen

Life before Stonehenge: The hunter-gatherer occupation and environment of Blick Mead revealed by sedaDNA, pollen and spores

Britain In or Out of Europe During the Late Mesolithic? A New Perspective of the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition

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