The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
Page 68
Activity around the tallest monolith in the British Isles at Rudston in eastern Yorkshire provides one of the clearest pictures of cult development. The standing stone is boxed around by four cursuses with combined lengths in excess of 9,730m. Along with the huge Dorset and Greater Stonehenge cursuses, these are the largest in a tradition of massive monuments and clearly exceeded the labour and surplus land capacity of a purely local community. In view of their house referencing plans and long mound antecedents it seems probable that they materialized greatly expanded group identities generated through assemblies, festivals, and collective labour (Loveday 2006a). Rudston may additionally have been marked by a natural phenomenon—the springs of the very intermittent Gypsey Race that Defoe records in the eighteenth century AD unpredictably bursting out ‘with great violence, spouting up a huge heighth’, causing awe and foreboding amongst the local population (1971, 531–532). Powerful male and female elements were perhaps perceived in the conjunction of monolith and springs, conceivably elevated to the union of earth and sky deities familiar worldwide from creation myths. The fact that the monolith is of axe-like shape gives additional significance to the remarkably dense concentration of axes found in the surrounding area. Group VI stone axes, highly specialized waisted flint axes, and polished rectangular flint ‘knives’ achieve their densest concentrations here, the former coming from the highest points in the Lake District 200km west (Bradley and Edmonds 1993), the latter two from local flint deposits but finding their closest morphological parallels in European copper flat axes.
Importantly, waisted axes occur as grave goods with a novel feature of the region—burials of fully articulated individuals under round barrows (Kinnes 1979). They have been dated to 3300–2900 BC, overlapping or just subsequent to most southern cursuses (Barclay and Bayliss 1999; Loveday et al. 2007; Gibson and Bayliss 2009). Although there are no dates from the Rudston cursuses, it seems unlikely that the elevation of individuals to positions justifying separate burial with fine grave goods was distinct from the great monument complex. Indeed that process may have centred on ritual control (Loveday 2009). Since the belief that ritual powers are hereditary and thus the monopoly of particular lineages appears older than kingship (Mair 1977, 24–25), a person belonging to a lineage that was identified with the cult site (e.g. the Quraysh at Mecca), or who was championed by its elders, would appear particularly favoured for elevation. Sanctioning at an inter-regional gathering would avoid the perception of sectional interest. Sacral-kings personified their kingdom and ensured the fulfilment of collective ritual objectives identical to those at the heart of the festival-pilgrimage phenomenon—the harmonization of natural and social worlds that guaranteed fertility and welfare for all (Quigley 2005). But why might such a development have occurred? Drucker-Brown (2005) has suggested that it was ethnic heterogeneity that distinguished the former Mamprusi kingdom in Ghana from neighbouring chiefless or non-centralizing societies whose political organization rested on the assumption of common kinship. Kingship in Africa is often associated with confrontations of diverse peoples that are resolved by the kin-like relationship with all his people conferred on the king at his installation ceremony, a situation aided by the fact that founding kings are often recorded as outsiders (de Heusch 2005).
The unusual situation of two apparently contemporary collective burial traditions (beneath long and round mounds) and two ceramic traditions in eastern Yorkshire in the mid-fourth millennium BC chimes with this picture (Harding 1996). In addition, the presence of outside elements is hinted at by a number of items that now make their first appearance and possess continental antecedents: boar tusk blades, antler maceheads, ochre, necked globular flasks. These could relate to the suggested arrival of copper axes in Britain (Loveday 2009). Control of both the ceremonial at an inter-regional sanctuary and prestige items would be vital to a perception of ‘otherness’ and membership of such an elite might be signalled by possession of a flint copy of a rare copper axe.
Across southern England cursus complexes with their concentrations of hengiform sites (arguably in many cases plough-razed early round barrows) appear to have materialized new ideas. The fact that they display the common pilgrimage phenomenon of replication (Fig. 24.1) points to long-distance articulation rather than spontaneous regional invention at communal pasture locales. That is also true of the unprecedented expansion of one ceramic tradition—Peterborough Ware—to cover almost all of Britain south of the Yorkshire Wolds. Its recovery (albeit rarely) from the primary levels of cursuses in England lends weight to the idea that pilgrimage was the agency underlying convergence (Loveday 2006a, 154–157). Rituals, dancing, and feasting at a distant centre can overcome provincial fears and antagonisms, whilst collective involvement in monument construction may cement a broader identity. Cursuses, with their vastly expanded house-like plans, seem likely, then, to have been metaphors for new expansive genealogies, encouraged or usurped by individuals claiming ritual power.
LATE NEOLITHIC BRITAIN (C. 3000–2400 BC)—AN AGE OF IDEOLOGY
The advent of a new ceramic—Grooved Ware—seems on current evidence to have ushered in a marked and, perhaps, sudden change. All burial evidence (individual and collective) now disappears with the exception of rare cremations, a single ceramic tradition covers the entire British Isles, new monument types (post circles, stone circles, and henges) proliferate, a distinctive iconography appears (spiral and circular elements combined with lozenges and zigzags), pit deposits often become highly structured, and feasting characterizes some major monument complexes. An all-pervasive ideology is indicated (cf. Harding, this volume).
The domestic context
Hearths were the primary, defining elements of house construction at Barnhouse in Orkney and aligned toward the annual solar extremes (Richards 2005, 60), whilst the consistent placing of a ‘dresser’ (shrine?) opposite each house entrance could have fulfilled a similar ritual requirement. In the south, carefully selected and placed deposits in pits located adjacent to shallower features with fills of mundane, abraded material point to small-scale household rituals (e.g. an axe and a pig’s jaw at Down Farm, Woodcuts, Dorset (Green 2000, 69–71); three large cobbles covered by smashed, decorated pottery of varied forms placed in a matrix of charcoal-rich soil at Yarnton, Oxfordshire (Hey et al. 2003, 86–87)).
Clear religious iconography now appears. Simple criss-cross markings (at Skara Brae, Orkney) might be dismissed as decorative doodles, but elaborate engraved and pecked designs of triangles and lozenges have been found with such markings at Ness of Brodgar on stones often intentionally hidden at key moments in a building’s history (Thomas 2014). A broken slab (200mm by 135mm) found in a very large pit containing abundant Woodlands-style Grooved Ware at Rothley, Leicestershire, was undoubtedly deliberately decorated (Fig. 24.2). The lightly incised composition includes eyebrow and oculi elements within a frame that confirms deliberation (Cooper and Hunt 2005). The resultant face depiction finds an approximate parallel in carved chalk drums from Folkton, Yorkshire, but more strikingly in the small ‘face slabs’ of southern France and Italy and the schist plaques of Iberia (d’Anna 1977). Whilst the missing organic component could be critical, it is noteworthy that oculi-like designs, in the form of linked (spectacle) spirals, dominate the artistic repertoire of Orkney. Interestingly this motif is absent from Irish passage tombs, normally regarded as the source of the Orcadian tradition, but finds a close parallel in spectacle spiral ornaments of copper circulating amongst Alpine communities at this time and depicted on a statue stela from Sion, Switzerland (Loveday 2004). Alison Sheridan (2004, 17), arguing in favour of long-distance connections in the Neolithic, has drawn attention to genetic evidence that indicates the distinctive Orkney vole (found at Skara Brae and the Links of Noltland) can only have arrived from either France or Iberia travelling, it seems, in a single step (Thaw et al. 2004). Plausibility is given to the idea of such long-distance seaborne contact by the close connections of the exotic decorative style of the tomb
of Gavrinis, Morbihan to elements at Knowth, Knockroe, and Newgrange (K52) in Ireland (O’Sullivan 1997), itself set against a background of more generalized Iberian elements in the Irish repertoire.
FIG. 24.2. The incised slab from a Grooved Ware pit at Rothley, Leicestershire.
©Courtesy of Leicestershire University Archaeological Services.
Orkney—a paradigm
Dates potentially as early as 3400 BC leave little doubt that the Grooved Ware phenomenon, which was to cover the British Isles c. 2800–2400 BC, originated in Orkney. Renfrew (1985, 255–256), seeking to explain the associated monumental florescence there and its interconnections, was the first to propose pilgrimage as a mechanism. He couched his discussion in terms of equivalence—peer polity interaction—but a number of novel and highly distinctive features (e.g. drains and ovens in houses; tub-like flat-bottomed and scalloped rim pottery), when coupled with the presence of amulet-like pendants of Orcadian-style pestle maceheads in Irish passage tombs and the spread of the Grooved Ware ‘package’ southwards in Britain, point to a more one-sided relationship. But why originating this far north?
Agricultural advantage over the neighbouring Caithness coastal plain or Aberdeenshire seems implausible, as does geographical nodality at this extreme. But the islands do possess one notable feature—liminality. This would have been most dramatically obvious to those following the eastern seaboard where Grooved Ware is in fact concentrated. There, only the diminutive Farnes lie offshore until the coast’s dramatic westerly turn at Duncansby Head. The fact that from this point, on the brief luminous night of midsummer, the sun appears to descend into and then rise again from Orkney (solar maxima broadly aligning with its western and eastern extremities) is likely to have increased the otherworldly aspect of the archipelago and the threshold (limin) quality of the Pentland Firth. On entering Scapa Flow, the great inland sea of Orkney, the iconic portal-like profile presented by the hills of Hoy probably confirmed this; it is surely no coincidence that the major Stenness-Brodgar complex is situated in that part of the main island where this dividing southern skyline dominates (Fig. 24.3). Circumstantial indications of possible precocious copper working by Grooved Ware users (Loveday 2004) suggests a motive for intrusion by outsiders—the quest for an elusive material with properties of the sun on islands seemingly uniquely connected with it, perhaps in stories spread south on a coastal information chain. It also suggests the nature of the esoteric knowledge that would set them apart as ‘others’ in a land already possessed of a thriving population. Construction of an exotic ceremonial complex to enshrine an attendant ideology would be expected.
FIG. 24.3. The profile of the island of Hoy seen from the Stones of Stenness, Orkney.
‘Maes Howe is one of the supreme achievements of Neolithic Europe and stands apart because of its very excellence’ (Henshall 1985, 96). That excellence has now been demonstrated by excavation to have been shared with structures in the neighbouring settlements of Barnhouse and the Ness of Brodgar (Brophy, this volume), the latter site and the tomb sharing the extremely unusual feature of chisel-dressed (in addition to pick-dressed) stonework. Structure 10 of the final major phase at the Ness of Brodgar closely matches the great tomb in size and plan, and, significantly, was aligned upon it. The huge numbers of cattle bones placed into its surrounding paved passage, perhaps following a ‘decommissioning’ feast, confirm its ritualized role (Card 2010). The conceptual roots of Maes Howe have generally been assumed to lie amongst the Irish Boyne tombs, but their construction is crude in comparison and there are differences of burial rite, tomb concentration, and ceramic tradition. Viewed independently, Maes Howe presents most convincingly as a skeuomorph of a timber chamber—great beams of rock being employed to lock the sides together in preference to smaller, more manageable pieces, and mighty, but structurally irrelevant (Richards 2005, 245), corner buttress stones seeming to imitate roof pillars, perhaps symbolically (e.g. as world pillars). As would befit elements of a formative cult centre, similar quartet settings suggest replication far afield in later Grooved Ware contexts: in wood at Durrington Walls in Wiltshire, Down Farm in Dorset, Dorchester upon Thames XIV in Oxfordshire, and Knowth in Co. Meath, and perhaps in stone close to the great Hindwell enclosure in Powys. Interestingly, marine shell has been recorded from all the English structures and as a dominant ceramic inclusion (Cleal et al. 1994).
The mound of Maes Howe itself seems likely to be echoed by the great barrows that were constructed alongside several henge and henge-like enclosure complexes (e.g. Dunragit, Galloway; Gib Hill and Arbor Low, Derbyshire; Knowlton, Dorset; Marden and Avebury, Wiltshire), whilst enlargement of the Duggleby Howe round mound to proportions quite distinct from normal middle Neolithic practice (Kinnes 1979) probably also dates to this period. Repetition suggests we must look beyond functional, site-specific roles (e.g. as raised viewing platforms) to a deeper meaning embedded in Grooved Ware cosmology, perhaps as representations of a first earth/primal mound. The Stones of Stenness (3000–2800 BC) also belongs amongst the earliest henges (Harding 2003, 7–23). These monuments enshrine a major symbolic shift from linear to circular monuments. This may in part relate to a change of house plan (Richards et al. 2005), but domestic space is as likely to reflect as to generate core cosmology. In view of the solar emphasis incorporated in many of the new monuments’ orientations, the sun disc probably has a stronger claim.
Transmission
Sheer distance and the rigours of the journey by sea must have severely restricted the number of successful ‘pilgrim’ encounters with the Orcadian complex. That would undoubtedly have added greatly to the renown of the achievement and could have aided social elevation (cf. Helms 1988; Kristiansen and Larsson 2005), but direct transmission of a new ideology from this northern outpost is also credible. The Oro cult, spread from Raiatea to other Polynesian islands in the eighteenth century AD, furnishes a possible parallel. Priests at Opoa (the claimed birthplace and dwelling of Oro) organized a society of travelling performers to spread the new cult with its claimed supernatural powers. Chiefs of other islands vied for the patronage of these powerful and demanding specialists and used membership of the cult to justify their own political elevation, forcing the construction of monumental marae to Oro copying that at Opoa (Bellwood 1987). The clear structuring of many pit deposits that appears with Grooved Ware in Britain (Green 2000, 69–71; Garrow 2007, 14–15) strongly suggests a magico/religious element not previously in evidence, whilst apparent replication of the key structural components of the ‘package’ noted above could likewise result from transmission of the origin myths of a cult.
In this process it could be predicted that the major cursus complexes would have been targeted as secondary centres. Large ceremonial henges laid out across or beside earlier cursuses seem to indicate this (Fig. 24.1). One complex where this is evident, Thornborough in the Vale of Mowbray, furnishes clear evidence for pilgrimage. The three massive, equally spaced henges, along with four others strung out over 43km to the south, are all but identical and of very unusual double-ditched plan (Fig. 24.4). Their closest parallel lies 300km south at the Dorchester upon Thames complex (Fig. 24.1). This strikingly recalls the pattern of monument replication along pilgrimage routes. Additional evidence comes from lithic scatters located about 1km beyond the clear zone around the Thornborough monuments. The largest of these contained few tools but a range of materials from distant sources, including low-grade Pennine chert that is unlikely to have been traded or to have been a material of choice locally. A transitory influx of distant people is suggested (Harding 2003, 62, 99), probably associated with ceremonies related to the winter solstice sunrise alignment of the monuments (Harding et al. 2006). The potentially late date of this type of henge, however (Whittle et al. 1992, 191), advises caution in assigning a role in primary ideological transmission. Rather, continued respect and small-scale construction is initially indicated (e.g. by a hengiform site and a post circle dated c. 2900–2500 BC placed along the axis of
the Dorchester upon Thames cursus). New ideas perhaps first spread through appeals to more localized, less dominant interests and through monuments that have more ephemerally scored the landscape—post circles and post enclosures (Gibson 2004).
FIG. 24.4. Henges in the vales of Mowbray and York.
(A. North Thornborough; B. Central Thornborough; C. South Thornborough; D. Nunwick; E. Hutton Moor; F. Cana Barn; G. Newton Kyme) © Courtesy of J. Harding.
Wessex
Rapid development in the mid-third millennium BC, which witnessed the construction of the great henge enclosures of the Wessex chalk, resulted in far closer placement of monuments than had been the case in the middle Neolithic: c. 30km (15km in the case of Marden) as against 90–120km between the great cursus complexes of the Midlands. This is almost identical to the spacing of medieval market towns in Wessex and suggests comparably local roles, probably as the ceremonial centres of separate polities. It need not imply permanent residence, as evidence for extravagant seasonal consumption, but not production, at the extensive settlement at Durrington Walls demonstrates (Parker Pearson 2008). Assembly in association with events tied to the solar extreme alignments built into its Southern Circle seems probable (Parker Pearson et al. 2007), but patterning of deposits there, and at other Wessex henges, points to additional complex associations and ideas (Bradley 2000, 123–127). The fact that the mega-henge permutation of great post enclosures—usurping ceremonial architectural form—is restricted to Wessex could instead suggest that these sites represent regional centres of a single galactic polity where power was legitimated through monopolization of the supernatural. Pilgrimage in such a context may have been indistinguishable from tribute assembly (cf. Arcona in the eleventh century AD: Stupecki 1997).