‘Of Human Remains and Weapons in the Neighbourhood of London’: New AMS<sup>14</sup>C Dates on Thames ‘River Skulls’ and their European Context

Bradley, Richard

doi:10.1080/00665983.2013.11021001

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Firstly, cutting attacks became prominent alongside stabbing attacks. Secondly, they required a high investment in skill and material resources and so, rather than constituting a rank-and-file weapon subordinate in status to swords (Schulting & Bradley, 2013: 50), spears may have come to be held in equal esteem. Thirdly, diversity of form and function was not random and represents intentional choices that were neither spatially nor temporally bounded.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By the Middle Bronze Age (MBA hereafter), Ireland can be considered part of the general ‘Atlantic Bronze Age’ tradition (Briard, 1965; Cunliffe, 2001; Harrison, 2004: 11), which includes dispersed settlement with isolated roundhouses (but see Ginn & Rathbone, 2012), hillforts in some areas (Grogan, 2005), mortuary practices with poor archaeological visibility (Schulting & Bradley, 2013), and a predisposition towards ‘male’ objects in the bronze industry (Sørensen, 1998: 262; Harrison, 2004). The island has the densest concentration of Bronze Age swords in Europe, and probably weaponry more generally, and a high proportion of the bronze consumed went into weapons and tool-weapons (Chapman, 1999; Harding, 2006, 2007; Becker, 2013).…”

Section: Historical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Molloy

2017

Eur. j. archaeol.

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Warfare is increasingly considered to have been a major field of social activity in prehistoric societies, in terms of the infrastructures supporting its conduct, the effects of its occurrence, and its role in symbolic systems. In the Bronze Age many of the weapon forms that were to dominate battlefields for millennia to come were first invented—shields and swords in particular. Using the case study of Ireland, developments in Bronze Age warfare are traced from the Early to the Late Bronze Age. It is argued that during this period there was a move from warfare that made use of projectiles and impact weapons to warfare that used both defensive and cutting weapons. This formed the basis for a fundamental reorganization in combat systems. This in turn stimulated change in the social organization of warfare, including investment in material and training resources for warriors and the development of new bodily techniques reflecting fundamental changes in martial art traditions. Metalwork analysis of bronze weapons and experimental archaeology using replicas of these are used to support this position. The article explores how developments in fighting techniques transformed the sociality of violence and peer-relations among warriors and proposes that these warriors be regarded as a category of craft specialist exerting significant social influence by the Late Bronze Age.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Historical Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Molloy

2017

Eur. j. archaeol.

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“…2011) and at Raven Scar Cave, Yorkshire (Leach 2005) to the Late Bronze Age further supports the use of caves in funerary rites during this period. The dating of human crania and bones found in rivers and lakes to the Late Bronze Age in Britain implies the potential contemporaneous importance of funerary rites in watery contexts (Bradley & Gordon 1988; Schulting & Bradley 2013). Human crania and bone fragments were also found in Late Bronze Age–earliest Iron Age levels in the substantial midden sites of Potterne (Lawson 2000) and East Chisenbury (McOmish 1996), Wiltshire, England.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the Curious Date of the Rylstone Log-Coffin Burial

Melton

Montgomery

Roberts

et al. 2016

Proc. Prehist. Soc.

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The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Rylstone coffin and textile were radiocarbon dated to confirm that the burial was Early Bronze Age and not an Early Medieval coffin inserted into an earlier funerary monument.Unexpectedly, the dates were neither Early Bronze Age nor Early Medieval but c. 800 BC, the cusp of the Bronze Age-Iron Age transition in Britain. The burial at Rylstone is, therefore, one of only two sites in Britain, and is unparalleled elsewhere in north-western Europe at a time when disposal of the dead was primarily through dispersed cremated or unburnt disarticulated remains.

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“… 69 For example Allison 2013; Esmonde Cleary 2000, 135; Loe 2003; Redfern and Bonney 2014; Schulting and Bradley 2013; Taylor 2010.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 70 Bradley and Gordon 1988; Edwards et al . 2009; Knűsel and Carr 1995; Marsh and West 1981; Schulting and Bradley 2013; Redfern and Bonney 2014; Perring 2017; Harward et al 2015.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Body in the Ditch: Alternative Funerary Practices on the Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire?

et al. 2019

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Disarticulated human remains were recovered from a first-century fort ditch at Vindolanda on the north-west frontier of the Roman Empire. Ancient DNA analysis revealed the skeleton to be that of a male individual and forensic taphonomic analysis suggested a primary deposition of the body in a waterlogged environment with no obvious evidence of formal burial. Occurrences of disarticulated human remains outside a cemetery context are often overlooked in Roman bioarchaeology. This discovery adds to the growing body of literature regarding alternative funerary practice in the Empire, highlighting that the concept of burial and disposal of the dead is more complex than ancient historical sources suggest. Details of the DNA analysis are provided in the Supplementary Material available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068113X1900014X.

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‘Of Human Remains and Weapons in the Neighbourhood of London’: New AMS¹⁴C Dates on Thames ‘River Skulls’ and their European Context

Cited by 15 publications

References 60 publications

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

On the Curious Date of the Rylstone Log-Coffin Burial

The Body in the Ditch: Alternative Funerary Practices on the Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire?

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‘Of Human Remains and Weapons in the Neighbourhood of London’: New AMS14C Dates on Thames ‘River Skulls’ and their European Context

Cited by 15 publications

References 60 publications

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

Hunting Warriors: The Transformation of Weapons, Combat Practices and Society during the Bronze Age in Ireland

On the Curious Date of the Rylstone Log-Coffin Burial

The Body in the Ditch: Alternative Funerary Practices on the Northern Frontier of the Roman Empire?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

‘Of Human Remains and Weapons in the Neighbourhood of London’: New AMS¹⁴C Dates on Thames ‘River Skulls’ and their European Context