Settlement, Landscape and Social Identity: The Early‐Middle Bronze Age Transition in Wessex, Sussex and the Thames Valley

Abstract

In southern England, the end of the Early Bronze Age is marked by the appearance of archaeologically visible farmsteads and field systems. This paper explores and critiques the widespread idea that these changes are the direct result of a need to intensify agricultural production. Such discussions have implicitly drawn on evolutionist images of economic maximization and environmental exploitation that do not sit easily with our knowledge of other aspects of Bronze Age society. In this paper, I shall consider economic change as a consequence rather than the cause of wider changes to the social fabric at this time. A review of the Early and Middle Bronze Age settlement evidence provides insights into how society became transformed over the period and begins to hint at some of the reasons why subsistence practices changed so visibly. BACKGROUND At the end of the Early Bronze Age, a transformation took place in the nature of society across much of southern England. In the archaeological record, this is documented by a cessation in the building and use of monuments such as henges, stone circles and elaborate round barrows, and by the emergence, c.1500 BC, of new types of site, notably substantial, enclosed settlements and field systems. Archaeologists have often implicitly interpreted these changes as the replacement of a landscape structured around ritual activities with one dominated by everyday, economic concerns. Although this way of conceptualizing the Early-Middle Bronze Age transition has been challenged, it continues to have a major impact on ways in which this period of social change is explained. This paper aims to explore and critique our current understanding of the Early-Middle Bronze Age transition and to build on recent discussions by suggesting new ways of thinking about social change during this period. DESCRIBING THE EARLY-MIDDLE BRONZE AGE TRANSITIONArchaeological knowledge of Early Bronze Age society derives largely from the ritual monuments that dominate the archaeological record of this period. Evidence for settlement and data on the economy are sparse. In contrast, there is something deceptively familiar about the settlements and field systems of the Middle Bronze Age (Fig. 1).

Later prehistoric vegetation dynamics and Bronze Age agriculture at Hobbister, Orkney, Scotland

“…Extensive field systems were established in both lowland and upland regions (Bradley 1978;Barber and Brown 1984;Evans 1990;Carter 1993;Pryor 1996Pryor , 2001Smith 1996;Yates 1999Yates , 2007Brück 2000;Fleming 2008), representing a significant change in the nature and organisation of the agricultural landscape. Recent archaeological literature interprets these field systems as either evidence for the development of a hierarchical society that required production of an agricultural surplus and therefore new ways of controlling and managing farming (Yates 1999;Fleming 2008), or as the formalisation of pre-existing territorial boundaries reflecting an increasing concern with structuring time and space in response to social fragmentation (Brück 2000;Johnston 2005). More traditional interpretations of land division in upland regions of Britain have focused on the perceived marginality of these areas, suggesting that their exploitation was a consequence of an increase in population which, coupled with a deteriorating climate, increased pressure on resources and led to a greater requirement for management and control of agricultural land (e.g.…”

“…In southern Britain, various hypotheses regarding the social transformations that led to the development of field systems have been put forward, ranging from the emergence of an elite class requiring support from an agricultural surplus which would in turn have required new farming methods to facilitate intensification (Yates 1999;Fleming 2008), to the formalisation of territorial boundaries in response to social fragmentation (Brück 2000;Johnston 2005). …”

Historical context and chronology of Bronze Age land enclosure on Dartmoor, UK

“…Enclosure of the landscape during the Bronze Age suggests the emergence of new forms of land tenure in which patterns of social division were becoming more pronounced (Fleming, 1984;Barrett, 1993;Yates, 1999;Brück, 2000). The earthworks of extensive late prehistoric field systems recorded across British uplands such as Dartmoor (Fleming, 1988), Bodmin Moor (Johnson and Rose, 1994) and Wessex downland (McOmish, 2005) are some of the most visible evidence of this process preserved within the British landscape.…”

“…Bradley, 1980;Burgess, 1984). This Malthusian approach to the explanation of subdivision of the uplands is now considered unlikely and, at least in some areas, Bronze Age subdivision of the landscape is believed to represent the formalisation of pre-existing territories under changing social conditions (Brück, 2000;Johnston, 2005). The biographies of the upland landscapes within which the process of enclosure took place are often unclear and the precise chronologies and periods of use of upland field systems are difficult to establish through excavation.…”

<em>Longhouses</em>, biografía de la casa y complejidad social en el noroeste peninsular en la alta edad media

“…El objetivo de este trabajo será el estudio de una serie de construcciones singulares de notables dimensiones realizadas con materiales efímeros halladas en los 4 cambios y permanencias espaciales (procesos de desplazamiento, reconstrucción y perduración de las estructuras domésticas) en la prehistoria reciente son particularmente iluminantes desde esta perspectiva (Brück 2000;Gerritsen 2007). Por último, tanto las longhouses como otras estructuras asociadas no se presentan aisladas, sino que forman parte de espacios domésticos articulados y cambiantes, por lo que la escala de análisis de referencia es la parcela doméstica (Vigil-Escalera 2015: 522-526).…”