Barrows at the Core of Bronze Age Communities argues exactly that.
Round barrows do not just represent the death side of Early Bronze Age
communities placed in set-a-side ritual landscapes, but were instead
central to existence in many ways. This study of the Rother Region,
where the Weald meets the Wessex massif, reports the results of the
People of the Heath project, 2014-18. It integrates a wealth of data
from comprehensive field study of all relevant sites in the region with
that from excavations into one of its major cemeteries - Petersfield
Heath, Hampshire. Fourteen of 21 surviving barrows were sampled by
excavation, one of the fullest records for such a cemetery in modern
times. In addition to diverse burial rites, the site yielded a range of
'other significant deposits' and totally novel insights into the organic
artifact repertoire thanks to mineral replacement.
Amongst the supplementary material in this volume are: a crucial new
analysis of enclosure barrows in Wessex; further analyses regarding
barrow morphologies, condition, cemetery formation, and siting;
observations on damage and recommendations on the future management of
the archaeology of Petersfield Heath; detailed context descriptions for
the block-lifted urns and log-coffin burial subjected to pioneering
stratigraphic micro-excavation; summaries of palaeoenvironmental
evidence from the region; the full report on quartz optical dating; a
major re-assessment of the excavated ring-ditch at Heath End, Duncton;
further detail on finds; and details on various methodologies and
definitions employed in the volume.
Together the two volumes contain much new for those researching the
period, early burial practices and the prehistoric occupation of the
western Weald. They will also galvanize debates about variations in the
character of barrowscapes across Britain and the place of the Wessex
barrow foci.
