The Iron Age in East Yorkshire: An analysis of the later prehistoric monuments of the Yorkshire Wold and the culture which marked their final phase 9781407304755, 9781407321776

Table of contents :
01. Prelims.pdf
508 blue half title.pdf
508 blue title.pdf
508 blue verso.pdf
John and Erica Hedges Ltd.
British Archaeological Reports
02. Frontispiece.pdf
03. Authors file.pdf
Preface
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of illustrations
List of Tables
Summary:
PART 1
Introduction
1.1 Introduction: land structure and ancient environments (figs. 1-3)
1.2 The archaeological database
PART 2
Site analysis
2.1 Analysis of aerial photographs (figs. 74-110)
2.1.1 Site classification
Published references
2.1.2 Chronological Framework
Relative sequences
Absolute dating
Burial features
Dating by association
2.2 Core area study: the Rudston district (figs. 13-21)
2.2.1 Neolithic monuments
2.2.2. Later bronze and iron ages
Boundary features
Curvilinear enclosures
Field systems
Open settlements
Iron age burials
Drove-way settlements
2.2.3 Long term landscape history of the core area
2.3 The wider implications of the Rudston study
2.3.1 Neolithic and early bronze age burials and settlement. (figs. 23-26)
2.3.2 Burial in the 1st millennium BC
2.3.3 Linear systems on the Wolds (figs. 28-30)
Cross ridge dykes (fig. 29)
Route way marking systems (fig. 30)
Long range dyke systems (fig. 30)
Rectilinear enclosures and drove-way settlements (figs. 9, 10 and 33)
Synthesis
PART 3
Iron age material culture
3.1 Artefacts (figs. 34-45)
3.1.1 Pottery (fig. 35, 36)
3.1.2 Items worn about the body
Pins (fig. 37, nos. 13 and 14)
Brooches (fig. 37, nos. 1-12)
Other fastening devices
Bracelets (Fig. 39)
Neck ornaments (Fig. 39)
Finger, toe and ear rings
Weapons
3.1.3 Everyday tools
Cloth manufacture (figs. 34 and 42)
Cereal processing
Various tools
Transport
Assemblages
3.2 Settlements (figs. 46-58)
3.2.1 Structural elements
Round houses (figs. 47-50; 52-57)
Double-ring houses
Single ring houses
Function and change
Semi-circular slots
Post squares.
Other settlement features
Pits
Slots, post lines and ditches (figs. 52-54, 56)
3.2.2 Use of Space
Buildings (fig. 46, 47, 55)
Enclosures (figs. 31, 52-54)
Open settlements (figs. 50, 55-57)
Landscapes (figs. 4, 58)
3.3 Burials (figs. 59-66)
3.3.1 Burial rites (figs. 59-60)
3.3.2 Barrow morphology (figs. 61-65)
3.3.3 Anatomical evidence
3.3.4 Cemetery development (fig. 65)
Cowlam (fig. 62)
Burton Fleming (figs. 63)
Wetwang Slack (figs. 64, 65)
Rudston (figs. 63, 65)
Garton Station and Kirkburn (fig. 62)
Arras (fig. 4)
Danes Graves
Eastburn
Scorborough
Regional development
3.3.5 Distribution of wealth (fig. 67)
3.4 Discussion
3.4.1 Monuments and continuity (figs. 13, 15, 17 and 21)
Neolithic - Early Bronze Age
Later Bronze Age
Iron Age
3.4.2 Production and economy
3.4.3 Cultural contacts (fig. 69)
3.4.4 Social organization
3.4.5 Ideology and ritual.
3.4.6 Perspective
PART 4
Appendices
4.1 Aerial photography (fig. 74)
4.1.1 Sample areas (figs. 75-110)
SE 85 35
SE 85 40
SE 80 45
SE 80 50
SE 85 50
SE 85 55
SE 80 60
SE 85 65
SE 80 70
SE 85 70
SE 95 25
SE 90 30
SE 95 35
SE 90 40
SE 95 40
SE 90 45
SE 95 45
SE 90 50
SE 95 50
SE 90 55
SE 95 55
SE 95 60
SE 95 65
SE 90 70
SE 95 70
TA 05 60
TA 00 65
TA 05 65
TA 05 70
TA 00 75
TA 10 60
TA 10 65
TA 15 65
TA 10 70
TA 15 70
TA 10 75
4.2 Chronology (tables 1-6)
4.2.1 Carbon 14 dates (tables 5, 6)
Long barrows
Garton Slack (Manby 1988)
Hanging Grimston (Manby 1988)
Kemp Howe (Manby 1988)
Kilham (Manby 1988)
Ling Howe, Walkington (Dent)
Raisthorpe (Manby 1988)
Seamer Moor (Manby 1988)
Willerby Wold (Manby 1988)
Later neolithic sites
Easington (Manby 1988)
Garton Slack site 28 (Manby 1988)
Grindale barrow 1, phase 2 (Manby 1988)
Low Caythorpe (Manby 1988)
Wetwang Slack, area 15 (Dent)
Wetwang Slack, area 7 (Dent)
Round barrows, ring ditches and related burials
Boynton barrow 1 (Manby 1988)
Callis Wold 275 (Manby 1988)
Grindale barrow 1(Manby 1988)
Whitegrounds (Manby 1988)
Whitegrounds, phase 2 (Manby 1988)
Garton Slack Area 6 (Brewster 1981)
Garton Slack Area 7 (Brewster 1981)
Garton Slack Area 18 (Brewster 1981)
Gristhorpe (Powlesland 1986, 122)
West Heslerton 1R340 (Powlesland 1986, 169)
West Heslerton (Powlesland 1986, 83)
Wetwang Slack Area 8 (Dent)
Wetwang Slack Area 6 (Dent)
Wetwang Slack Area 12(Dent)
Wetwang Slack Area 16 (Dent)
Willy Howe, Cowlam (Powlesland 1986, 122)
Hill forts and palisaded enclosures
Grimthorpe (Manby 1980)
Staple Howe (Brewster 1963, 140)
Thwing (Manby 1985)
Lake dwellings and trackways
Barmston (Manby 1980)
Watton Carr (Dent)
Miscellaneous burials
Garton Slack Area 14 (Brewster 1981)
West Heslerton 1A18 (Powlesland 1986, 113)
Boats and water offerings
North Ferriby (Wright 1978)
Roos Carr (Coles 1990, 326)
Hasholme log boat (Millet and McGrail 1987, 78)
Square enclosure burials
Burton Fleming (Stead 1991a, 169-70)
Garton Slack, Area 7 (Brewster 1981)
Wetwang Slack (Dent)
Settlement remains
Garton Slack Area 5: Pit 14 (Brewster 1981)
Garton Slack Area 9: Grain Silo 1 (Brewster 1981)
Garton Slack Area 9: Pit 2 (Brewster 1981)
Garton Slack Area 18: Pit 1 (Brewster 1981)
North Cave Feature 100: pit or well (Dent)
Wetwang Slack Area 12 (Dent)
Anglian settlement
Wetwang Slack Area 14 (Dent)
Burton Agnes Wold (Abramson, 1996)
4.2.2 Dendrochronological dates
Watton Carr (Dent)
Hasholme (Millett and McGrail 1987)
4,2,3 Thermo-luminescence dates
Hasholme (Millett and McGrail 1987, 78)
4.3 Neolithic and early bronze age ceremonial and funerary sites (figs. 13, 14, 23-25, 112; table 7)
4.3.1 The Great Wold Valley:
Duggleby Howe, Kirby Grindalythe (SE 880 669)
Esh's long barrow, Helperthorpe, Luttons (SE 959 689)
Cross Thorns long barrow, Helperthorpe, Luttons (SE 962 679)
Paddock Hill henge, Thwing (TA 030 707)
Swaythorpe polygonal enclosure, Kilham (TA 035 693)
Wold Newton barrow no.284 (TA 048 726)
Willy Howe, Thwing (TA 061 723)
Burton Fleming Grange, Burton Fleming (TA 060 728)
Vicarage Closes, Burton Fleming (TA 072 724)
Maiden’s Grave long enclosure (TA 001 717)
Maiden's Grave henge, Burton Fleming (TA 096 706)
Bell Slack long enclosure, Grindale (TA 110 717)
West Field long and curvilinear enclosures, Grindale (TA 126 727)
Cursus A, Rudston (TA 013 683 to TA 099 657)
Cursus B, Rudston (TA 080 669 to TA 093 674)
Cursus C, Rudston (TA 073 682 to TA 101 680)
Cursus D, Rudston (TA 102 718 to TA 096 659)
Monolith, Rudston (TA 098 677)
Rudston House long enclosure, Rudston (TA 087 679)
Denby House long barrow A, Rudston (TA 075 677)
Denby House long barrow B, Rudston (TA 076 675)
Denby House ovoid enclosures, Rudston (TA 078 676)
Manor Farm long enclosure, Rudston (TA 097 669)
The Sheepwalk long enclosure A, Rudston (TA 093 660)
The Sheepwalk long enclosure B, Rudston (TA 093 658)
West Field long enclosure, Burton Agnes (TA 095 644)
South Side Mount, Greenwell barrow 67, Rudston (TA 107 665)
Woldgate large circular enclosures (TA 117 662)
Woldgate "occupation" sites, Rudston, Burton Agnes, and Boynton parishes (TA 095 655 to TA 130 670)
High Easton long enclosure, Boynton (TA 157 699)
Barrow 1, Grindale (TA 148 702)
Barrow 1, Boynton (TA 156 704)
4.3.2 The Great Slack:
Station Farm linear monument, Wetwang (SE 941 599)
Grange Farm hengi-form enclosure, Wetwang (SE 945 601)
Garton Slack long barrow 37, Garton (SE 957 597)
Gartonslack Gatehouse "domestic" pits, Garton (SE 960 595)
Low Farm long enclosure, Garton (SE 967 586)
Craike Hill, Kirkburn "domestic" occupation, Garton (SE 972 576)
Garton Slack large ring ditch, Garton (SE 974 578)
Garton Slack barrow 80, Kirkburn (SE 978 577)
Garton Slack barrow 79, Kirkburn (SE 979 577)
Garton Slack barrow 81, Kirkburn (SE 979 575)
Eastburn Warren long enclosure, Kirkburn (SE 980 576)
Garton Slack long barrow 134 (SE 988 576)
Garton Slack barrow 112, Kirkburn (SE 987 578)
Garton Slack barrow 137, Kirkburn (TA 002 562)
Driffield "domestic" occupation (TA 021 575)
4.3.3 Other neolithic monuments
Long barrows
Round barrows
Long enclosures
4.4 Later prehistoric land enclosure: linear boundaries (figs. 6, 28-32; table 8)
4.4.1 Boundaries (Class 1a and 1b)
Cross ridge dykes of the Wolds watershed (fig. 29)
Western Wolds
Toisland Wold. length: 1 km
Vessey Pasture. length: 1 km
Birdsall Brow length: 0.7 km
Aldro length: 0.2 km
Acklam Wold length: 0.4 km
Queen Dyke length: 0.8 km
Callis Wold length: 1.3 km
Greenwick length: 0.6 km
Huggate Wold length: 0.5 km
Huggate Dykes length: 0.8 km
Blanch length: 0.4 km
Northern Wolds
Folkton Brow length: 0.3 km
Flixton Brow length: 0.5 km
Binnington Wold length: 0.2 km
Potter Brompton length: 0.6 km
East Heslerton length: 1 km
West Heslerton length: 0.4 km and 0.7 km
Other cross dykes of the Wolds escarpment
Cot Nab length: 0.6 km
Millington Grange length: c.0.6 km originally
Cold Skin length: 1 km
Fridaythorpe length: 1 km
Major systems (fig. 30, 31)
1. Acklam Wold-Duggleby-Folkton Wold; length: 32 km
1a Acklam Wold to Birdsall East Wold
1b. Birdsall East Wold to Duggleby
1c. Bug Dale to Potter Brompton Wold
1d. Potter Brompton Wold to Folkton Wold.
2. Millington-Garton Wold-Driffield Wold-
Ruston Parva-Woldgate; length 28 km
2a. Millington to Huggate Dykes.
2b Huggate Dykes to Wetwang
2c. Wetwang to Elmswell Slack.
2d. Elmswell Slack to Kilham.
2e Kilham to Woldgate
3. Woldgate-Reighton; length: 7.5 km
4. Woldgate-Boynton; length: 3 km
5. Burton Fleming-Sledmere-
-Fridaythorpe--Millington length: 35 km
5a Burton Fleming to Paddock Hill
5b Paddock Hill to Sledmere
5c Sledmere to Fimber
5d Fimber to Fridaythorpe
6. Foxholes - Kilham; length: 9 km
6.1 Foxholes to Octon
6b Octon to Kilham (1)
6c Octon to Kilham (2)
7. The Broachdale-Rudston Grange group
length: 3.2 km
8. The Broachdale-Bell Slack group length: 7 km
9. Greenlands-Littlethorpe group length: 2.5km
4.4.2 Linear trackways (Class 1c)
10. Western watershed: Birdsall-
Riplingham; length: 35 km
10a Birdsall to Wayrham
10b Huggate to Warter
10c Warter to Arras
10d Arras to Newbald
10e High Hunsley to Riplingham
11. The Great Wold Valley route length: 36 km
11a Wharram le Street to Weaverthorpe
11b Weaverthorpe to Wold Newton
11c Wold Newton to Rudston
11d Rudston to Bridlington
12. Great Slack route from Fimber to
Elmswell length: 10 km
12a Fimber to Wetwang
12b Wetwang - Elmswell
13. The Great Wold Valley
D-shaped enclosures length: 7 km
4.4.3 Excavated linear features
Bell Slack (TA 110 709 to TA 109 724)
Cat Babbleton (TA 002 751)
Caythorpe Gas Pipeline (TA 122 679 to TA 092 653)
Cowlam (SE 983 667)
Garton-Wetwang (SE 969 598 to SE 940 597)
Huggate Dykes (SE 858 559)
Lockington (TA 028 465)
North Cave (SE 879 331)
Thwing (TA 026 707)
Welton Wold (SE 971 281)
West Heslerton (SE 917 765)
Wharram Percy (SE 857 645)
4.5 Settlement sites (figs. 46-58; tables 9-10)
4.5.1 Irregular curvilinear enclosures (Class 2b: fig. 52)
Paddock Hill henge, Thwing (TA 030 707)
Devil's Hill, Heslerton (SE 919 756)
Staple Howe, Knapton (SE 898 750)
Grimthorpe, Bishop Wilton (SE 816 535)
Greenlands, Rudston(TA 115 683)
4.5.2 Rectilinear enclosures (Class 3b: figs. 53, 54)
Bell Slack, Burton Fleming (TA 110 709 to TA 109 724)
Blealands Nook (SE 919 598)
Brantingham (SE 931 288)
Garton Slack-Wetwang Slack (SE 969 598 to SE 940 597)
Langton (SE 815 676)
North Cave (SE 879 331)
Rudston villa (TA 090 667)
Sewerby (TA 214 692)
Welton Wold (SE 971 281)
Wharram Percy Project (SE 857 645)
4.5.3 Pit sites:(Class 5c)
East Site, Burton Agnes (TA 104 653)
West Site, Burton Agnes (TA 090 652)
Pit Site, Burton Agnes (TA 099 642)
West Field, Kilham (TA 019 646)
Hanging Cliff, Kilham (TA 022 655)
Tuft Hill, Kilham (TA 090 654)
Wold House Farm, Driffield Wold, Nafferton (TA 011 615)
Low Cowlam, Cottam (SE 968 648)
Field House, Tibthorpe (SE 931 549)
North Dalton (SE 928 524)
North Wood, Rudston (TA 110 686)
Denby, Rudston (TA 075 682)
Rudston House, Rudston (TA 093 672)
4.5.4 Round houses, semi-circular structures and post squares (Classes 2d and 4c)
4.6 Iron age burials (figs. 27, 59-66)
Acklam Wold, Acklam
Arras, Market Weighton and Sancton
Blealands Nook, Wetwang
Boythorpe, Foxholes
Bugthorpe
Burton Fleming
Caythorpe
Cowlam, Cottam
Danes Graves, Kilham and Nafferton
Kirkburn
Garton Slack, Garton on the Wolds
Garton Station, Garton on the Wolds
Grimthorpe, Millington
Huntow, Grindale
Hunmanby
Middleton on the Wolds
North Grimston
Potter Brompton
Rudston
Scorborough
Thorpe Hall, Rudston
Westwood, Beverley
Wetwang Slack, Wetwang
Bibliography
04. Endpapers.pdf
Front Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Acknowledgements
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Summary
PART 1: Introduction
PART 2: Site Analysis
PART 3: Iron Age Material Culture
PART 4: Appendices
Bibliography

Citation preview

BAR 508 2010  DENT  THE IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

The Iron Age in East Yorkshire An analysis of the later prehistoric monuments of the Yorkshire Wolds and the culture which marked their final phase

John Strickland Dent

BAR British Series 508 9 781407 304755

B A R

2010

The Iron Age in East Yorkshire

The Iron Age in East Yorkshire An analysis of the later prehistoric monuments of the Yorkshire Wolds and the culture which marked their final phase

John Strickland Dent

BAR British Series 508 2010

ISBN 9781407304755 paperback ISBN 9781407321776 e-format DOI https://doi.org/10.30861/9781407304755 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

BAR

PUBLISHING

Square barrows under excavation ahead of gravel quarrying, Wetwang Slack 1975 (Photo: Author)

Burial 454 at Wetwang Slack: a woman with dismantled chariot (Photo: Tony Pacitto).

i

This book is dedicated to the memory of John William Dent, 1909-1990, my father.

ii

Preface This work was originally titled Aspects of the Iron Age in East Yorkshire and was submitted as a doctoral thesis to the University of Sheffield in 1995. It pursued in greater depth a number of issues which I had considered earlier (Dent 1982) and brought together results of many years’ aerial photography and fieldwork by a host of individuals. My own part in all this groundwork was limited to some aerial sorties and a number of excavations on behalf of Humberside Archaeology Unit, notably at the iron age settlements of Wetwang, Brantingham and North Cave between 1975 and 1989. The years since 1995 have seen an intensification of interest in the Yorkshire Wolds in the form of field work and post-graduate research. Cathy Stoertz’s Ancient Landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds (Stoertz 1997) for the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England and Val Rigby’s Pots in Pits: the British Museum Yorkshire Settlements Project 1988-92 (Rigby 2004) are two key pioneering works which established a solid basis for future research into many aspects of the later prehistory of East Yorkshire. The former makes generally available accurate plots of crop marks for the entire chalk massif, in place of the unpublished 1:10,000 scale 5km x 5km OS map sheets which formed the basis of my analysis of sites, described below. The latter expands enormously on the preliminary conclusions which Rigby had reached in 1995 and not only provides a landmark analysis of later bronze age and iron age pottery in the region, through a robust corpus of material, but also shows its association with a wide variety of non-ceramic everyday artefacts. A number of excavation reports add to the detail of site types discussed below and of these the two volumes of Christine Haughton’s and Dominic Powlesland’s West Heslerton: the Anglian cemetery (Haughton and Powlesland 1999) are particularly welcome for the light they throw on the significance of early ceremonial landscapes for later settlers. Various shorter accounts of fieldwork, too numerous to list here, have appeared in volumes of the East Riding Archaeologist and the Yorkshire Archaeological Journal. Peter Halkon’s Archaeology and Environment in a Changing East Yorkshire Landscape: the Foulness Valley c.800 BC to c.AD 400 (Halkon 2008) condenses the results of his many years’ fieldwork in the lowlands adjacent to the western Wolds, while a number of post-graduate researchers have contributed discursive publications based on their own analysis of the raw data. Some of these publications could have benefited from wider accessibility to my own research, which has for too long been confined to the University Library in Sheffield. For example, the chapter on the iron age in The Archaeology of Yorkshire (Mackey 2003) indicates that ideas which I have otherwise attempted to convey in lectures or published notes require fuller treatment to a wider audience. However, in remedying this fault, which lies entirely at my door, I am not sufficiently persuaded by such new data as has appeared in the last fifteen years as to alter my original text. This remains much as submitted in 1995, save for only minor modifications for clarity or footnotes to appraise the reader of more recent information.

John Dent Lilliesleaf, Roxburghshire January 2010

iii

iv

Acknowledgements This book would never have been written without the encouragement, over five decades, of staff of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England. David Dymond of the Commission’s York office first kindled my interest in archaeology in the 1950s by visits to excavations at Wharram Percy and Catterick and field walking at Crambeck. Jeffrey Radley kindly tolerated frequent interruptions to attend to me and my fellow members of Bootham School Archaeology Society in the 1960s. Ron Butler and Herman Ramm first took me to meet Tony Brewster at Wetwang Slack in 1975 and thereafter encouraged me in my excavations there, while also putting the Commission’s aerial photographic records at my disposal. Finally, in the 1990s Cathy Stoertz generously made available to me transcriptions of her computer-rectified plots of aerial photographs, the result of years of painstaking work, ahead of her own publication. In their time I was privileged to know and learn from Yorkshire archaeologists George Willmot, Tony Brewster, Eric Grantham, Tony Pacitto and Don Spratt and to fly with Jim “Ginger” Lacey, to whom I owe a particular debt for his skill in executing a successful forced landing near Sir Tatton Sykes’ monument in 1980. For many years I carried out fieldwork in total reliance on the skill and support of Roger Simpson, Glyn Storry and Ken Turnbull with whom I shared the varied pleasures and trials of all-year round digging through some warm summers and cold winters. Although I have had the opportunity to discuss aspects of Yorkshire archaeology with many colleagues, and it would be impossible to recall and name them all, I am particularly grateful to Peter Cardwell, John Collis, Dave Evans, Mike Griffiths, Peter Halkon, Rodney Mackey, Terry Manby, Dominic Powlesland, Val Rigby and Ben Whitwell for all that I have learned from them and also to Alex Bayliss for her advice on radiocarbon dates and their use. Special mention must be made of Ian Stead, who introduced me to the Arras Culture as a student in 1970 and has unfailingly provided friendship, sound advice and support in the decades since. Ann and George Dent deserve medals for their patience and understanding during the long period of social dislocation which this research originally entailed, and for their unfailing support, encouragement and participation in a host of archaeological pursuits before and since.

v

vi

Table of contents Frontispiece Dedication Preface Acknowledgements Table of contents List of illustrations List of Tables Summary:

i ii iii v vii ix xi xiii

PART 1

1

Introduction

1 1 3

1.1 Introduction: land structure and ancient environments (figs. 1-3) 1.2 The archaeological database

PART 2

5

Site analysis 2.1 Analysis of aerial photographs (figs. 74-110) 2.1.1 Site classification 2.1.2 Chronological Framework 2.2 Core area study: the Rudston district (figs. 13-21) 2.2.1 Neolithic monuments 2.2.2. Later bronze and iron ages 2.2.3 Long term landscape history of the core area 2.3 The wider implications of the Rudston study 2.3.1 Neolithic and early bronze age burials and settlement. (figs. 23-26) 2.3.2 Burial in the 1st millennium BC 2.3.3 Linear systems on the Wolds (figs. 28-30)

5 5 5 11 15 16 17 24 25 26 29 31

PART 3

37

Iron age material culture

37 37 37 39 44 48 48 57 63 64 65 66 68 74 76 76 77 79 80 82 83

3.1 Artefacts (figs. 34-45) 3.1.1 Pottery (fig. 35, 36) 3.1.2 Items worn about the body 3.1.3 Everyday tools 3.2 Settlements (figs. 46-58) 3.2.1 Structural elements 3.2.2 Use of Space 3.3 Burials (figs. 59-66) 3.3.1 Burial rites (figs. 59-60) 3.3.2 Barrow morphology (figs. 61-65) 3.3.3 Anatomical evidence 3.3.4 Cemetery development (fig. 65) 3.3.5 Distribution of wealth (fig. 67) 3.4 Discussion 3.4.1 Monuments and continuity (figs. 13, 15, 17 and 21) 3.4.2 Production and economy 3.4.3 Cultural contacts (fig. 69) 3.4.4 Social organization 3.4.5 Ideology and ritual. 3.4.6 Perspective

vii

PART 4

85

Appendices 4.1 Aerial photography (fig. 74) 4.1.1 Sample areas (figs. 75-107) 4.2 Chronology (tables 1-6) 4.2.1 Carbon 14 dates (tables 5, 6) 4.2.2 Dendrochronological dates 4,2,3 Thermo-luminescence dates 4.3 Neolithic and early bronze age ceremonial and funerary sites (figs. 13, 14, 23-26, 109; table 7) 4.3.1 The Great Wold Valley: 4.3.2 The Great Slack: 4.3.3 Other neolithic monuments 4.4 Later prehistoric land enclosure: linear boundaries (figs. 6, 28-32; table 8) 4.4.1 Boundaries (Class 1a and 1b) 4.4.2 Linear trackways (Class 1c) 4.4.3 Excavated linear features 4.5 Settlement sites (figs. 46-58; tables 9-10) 4.5.1 Irregular curvilinear enclosures (Class 2b: fig. 52) 4.5.2 Rectilinear enclosures (Class 3b: figs. 53, 54) 4.5.3 Pit sites:(Class 5c) 4.5.4 Round houses, semi-circular structures and post squares (Classes 2d and 4c) 4.6 Iron age burials (figs. 27, 59-66)

Bibliography

85 85 86 97 97 103 103 104 104 107 109 110 110 117 119 122 122 122 125 126 129 131

viii

List of illustrations Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7. Fig. 8. Fig. 9. Fig. 10. Fig. 11. Fig. 12. Fig. 13. Fig. 14. Fig. 15. Fig. 16. Fig. 17. Fig. 18. Fig. 19. Fig. 20. Fig. 21. Fig. 22. Fig. 23. Fig. 24. Fig. 25. Fig. 26. Fig. 27. Fig. 28. Fig. 29. Fig. 30. Fig. 31. Fig. 32. Fig. 33. Fig. 34. Fig. 35. Fig. 36. Fig. 37. Fig. 38. Fig. 39. Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 42. Fig. 43. Fig. 44. Fig. 45. Fig. 46. Fig. 47. Fig. 48. Fig. 49. Fig. 50. Fig. 51. Fig. 52. Fig. 53. Fig. 54. Fig. 55. Fig. 56. Fig. 57. Fig. 58.

Location of the Yorkshire Wolds and adjacent areas The ‘Great Slack’ looking eastwards from Wetwang parish Soils and ancient woodland Crop marks on the Wolds watershed at Arras near Market Weighton Gross distribution of Class 1 linear features Huggate Dykes Gross distribution of Class 2curvilinear features Class 2 ring ditch under excavation Gross distribution of Class 3rectilinear features Group of Class 3 rectilinear enclosures at Blealands Nook, Wetwang Gross distribution of Class 4rectilinear features Class 4 rectilinear enclosures at Cowlam Rudston core area: neolithic and early bronze age Rudston Monolith Rudston core area: model for early land use Rudston core area: settlements and boundaries Rudston core area: iron age settlement and burials Rudston: details of fields and settlements Iron age burials at Burton Fleming A Class 3b domestic rectilinear enclosure under excavation Rudston core area: model for iron age land use Hornsea Mere Neolithic and early bronze age barrows and movement Beaker burial from the Great Slack at Wetwang Ceremonial and funerary monuments in the Great Slack Neolithic timber structure at Driffield Iron age chariot burial from Kirkburn Gross distribution of linear systems Distribution of cross ridge dykes Distribution of major linear systems Paddock Hill, Thwing Class 2(a) hill fort Great Wold Valley crescentic enclosures Distribution of drove way settlements Iron age artefacts from domestic contexts at Wetwang Iron age pottery Late iron age hand-made and wheel-turned vessels Dress fastenings Coral inlaid brooch with glass bead necklace Glass bead necklace, bracelet and tweezers Sword scabbards Types of spear head Cloth manufacture Base of a rotary quern Linch pins Terrets Reconstruction of a round house Round house plans Round house sizes Round house at North Cave Round houses and post squares at West Heslerton Settlement enclosure ditch at Wetwang Grarnge Enclosed settlements: curvilinear enclosures Enclosed settlements: rectilinear enclosures 1 Enclosed settlements: rectilinear enclosures 2 Unenclosed round houses at Wetwang Slack Open settlement at North Cave Open settlement at Garton-Wetwang Settlement and land use

ix

1 2 3 5 7 7 8 8 9 9 12 12 14 15 16 18 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 47 48 49 50 52 53 54 55 56 58 59 60 61 62

Fig. 59. Fig. 60. Fig. 61. Fig. 62. Fig. 63. Fig. 64. Fig. 65. Fig. 66. Fig. 67. Fig. 68. Fig. 69. Fig. 70. Fig. 71. Fig. 72. Fig. 73. Fig. 74. Fig. 75. Fig. 76. Fig. 77. Fig. 78. Fig. 79. Fig. 80. Fig. 81. Fig. 82. Fig. 83. Fig. 84. Fig. 85. Fig. 86. Fig. 87. Fig. 88. Fig. 89. Fig. 90 Fig. 91. Fig. 92. Fig. 93. Fig. 94. Fig. 95. Fig. 96. Fig. 97. Fig. 98. Fig. 99. Fig. 100. Fig. 101. Fig. 102. Fig. 103. Fig. 104. Fig. 105. Fig. 106. Fig. 107. Fig. 108. Fig. 109. Fig. 110. Fig. 111. Fig. 112. Fig. 113.

Typical iron age crouched inhumation Iron age burial types A, B, C and D Barrow morphology and grave goods Cemetery plans: Cowlam, Garton Station and Kirkburn Cemetery plans: Rudston and Burton Fleming Cemetery plan: Wetwang Slack Cemetery plans: Wetwang Slack and Burton Fleming Distribution of major cemeteries Distribution of wealth Iron industry at North Cave Distribution of triangular clay weights The Wetwang “bean tin” Wounds on a skull from Acklam Wold “Ritual killing” of a corpse at Garton Station Chalk figurine from Wetwang Slack Aerial photographic plots: sampling strategy and location of core area SE 85 35 SE 85 40 SE 80 45 SE 80 50 SE 85 50 SE 85 55 SE 80 60 SE 85 65 SE 80 70 SE 85 70 SE 95 25 SE 90 30 SE 95 35 SE 90 40 SE 95 40 SE 90 45 SE 95 45 SE 90 50 SE 95 50 SE 90 55 SE 95 55 SE 95 60 SE 95 65 SE 90 70 SE 95 70 TA 05 60 TA 00 65 TA 05 65 TA 05 70 TA 00 75 TA 10 60 TA 10 65 TA 15 65 TA 10 70 TA 15 70 TA 10 75 Axe marks on timber from Watton Carr Neolithic long barrows and long enclosures Burials and enclosure ditches at Blealands Nook

x

63 63 65 67 69 70 71 73 75 78 79 80 81 82 83 85 86 86 86 86 87 87 87 87 88 88 88 89 89 89 89 90 90 90 90 91 91 91 92 92 92 92 93 93 93 93 94 94 95 95 95 96 101 104 123

List of Tables Table 1. Table 2. Table 3. Table 4. Table 5. Table 6. Table 7. Table 8. Table 9. Table 10.

Feature classes Relative dating Absolute dating Dating by association Radiocarbon dates for neolithic and early bronze age sites Radiocarbon dates for 1st millennium BC sites Ring ditches in Garton Slack Cross ridge dykes and associations Drove way settlements Rectilinear enclosures at Wharram Percy

xi

6 11 12 13 99 99 108 111 123 123

xii

Summary: The rural archaeology of East Yorkshire is represented by thousands of sites, known mainly from upstanding earthworks or aerial photographs, of which a small sample only has been excavated. Most of these sites are made up of linear earthworks (totalling hundreds of kilometres), plough-levelled barrows and settlement enclosures. This study looks at the different forms of site represented by computer rectified plots of aerial photographs, and information obtained by excavation. The gross distributions of different classes of site indicate that the higher Wolds were not centres of population, and that most types of monument are particularly well represented in the Great Wold Valley at Rudston, a place famous for four neolithic cursus monuments and the tallest standing stone in Great Britain. Monument distributions suggest that from the neolithic period, if not before, there were recognized "special" places in the landscape, and some of these continued to attract ritual activities for millennia. These were marked successively by barrow concentrations and linear earthworks, and were located on ridge ways or in valleys where people on the move were obliged to pass by physical geography. During the later 2nd and early 1st millennia BC immense earthwork boundaries were constructed across the hills from the Vale of York to the sea, and the location close to them of the few known hill forts suggests an overall design indicative of developing politics in the region. The iron age saw agricultural expansion on an unprecedented scale, with the development of large villages and open fields across earlier community boundaries. New settlements extended to the western watershed in places, and this process of expansion may have continued after the Roman occupation of the region. 1st millennium BC settlement forms were based around a limited architectural range that consisted of the multi-purpose “round house” and small square "granary". Although early palisaded settlements are known, open settlements lacked the fence or ditch-defined enclosures that became increasingly common in the course of the iron age. A wide range of domestic and personal artefacts made up a material culture which was shared with other parts of Britain. The "Arras" burial tradition was a distinct local feature, which may have originated elsewhere, but only developed in East Yorkshire. Its chief characteristic was the combination of square ditched barrows with crouched burials, in rare cases accompanied by a dismantled chariot. From this cultural evidence can be discerned a stratified, perhaps quasi-feudal society, with wealthy leaders who enjoyed long distance exchange links and whose burials were concentrated around the upper Hull valley. The rituals practised by these people recognized in part the monuments of previous millennia, but showed a distinct shift in emphasis from the Rudston area to the headwaters of the River Hull west of Driffield, an area which retained its importance into the early medieval period.

xiii

xiv

PART 1 Introduction

Fig. 1 Location of the Yorkshire Wolds and adjacent areas.

drains the southern part of the Vale of York and originally emptied into the historic Walling Fen, a tidal inlet during later prehistory which was still "16 miles in cumpace" in c.1540 (Millet and McGrail 1987, Woodward 1985, 12). Only in the northern Wolds do streams flow direct to the sea, and the largest of these is the Gypsey Race (a local name for seasonal streams) which rises near the western escarpment and flows along the Great Wold Valley and into Bridlington Bay. Further south the Wolds water table flows underground, and a series of dry valleys lead down to springs which drain into the Hull valley. The largest of these valleys, or “slacks” has a different name in every parish through which it runs: Garton, Wetwang, Fimber - but for the purpose of this study will be called the "Great Slack" (fig. 2).

1.1 Introduction: land structure and ancient environments (figs. 1-3) The Yorkshire Wolds are a prominent massif of chalk rock 50km by 50km amid low lying vales of clay and sand. The Chalk is the uppermost layer of a series of Mesozoic strata which also form the Howardian Hills to the west and the Tabular Hills to the north (fig. 1). These strata are tilted and dip south-eastwards, so that harder rocks form abrupt northward and westward facing escarpments. The Wolds escarpment runs in a crescent from the Humber estuary on the south to the North Sea at Flamborough Head on the east. The summit of the chalk is at a height of 246m at Wilton Beacon on the western escarpment. Around the Wolds are three main low lying areas: the Vales of Pickering and York on the north and west, and the Plain of Holderness on the east.

Fluvio-glacial deposits surround the Wolds - particularly in Holderness which is formed from glacial drift - and some of these overlie the chalk on the east. Boulder clay on Flamborough Head thins out westwards until it survives only in

The region is drained almost entirely by the River Humber and its tributaries, the Ouse, Derwent, Hull and Foulness. The last

1 1

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 2 The ‘Great Slack’ looking eastwards from Wetwang parish towards Garton on the Wolds. The chalk massif is typified by dry valleys or ‘slacks’ partly filled with fluvio-glacial gravels, which here have been largely removed by the quarry in the middle foreground. (Photo: Author).

small hollows and patches around the head waters of the River Hull. Many meres and ponds formed in the post-glacial period on less porous subsoils, and some are still indicated by their medieval names (e.g. Bursea in the Vale of York, Rotsea in the Hull valley, and Withernsea on the coast), although only one survives to this day: at Hornsea (Sheppard 1957, 1966). Peaty soils suggest that shallow meres may also have existed in the Great Wold valley at Wold Newton and Boynton (Bush and Ellis 1987) and the name "Sledmere" suggests a body of open water located at the very heart of the Wolds. The value of surface water on the Wolds is illustrated by the "Battle of Waterloo", which was fought in 1826 between villagers of Fimber and Fridaythorpe over the use of a pond (Hicks 1978, 3-4).

mixed deciduous woodland on the Wolds (Manby 1988, 3942), although a higher proportion of grasses and herbs than normal from Willow Garth at Boynton (Bush and Ellis, op. cit.) suggests that forest growth could have been retarded through human activity in the mesolithic (J Flenley, pers. comm.). Barrows at Kilham and Willerby Wold were constructed in open land which had been cultivated (Evans and Dimbleby in Manby 1976, 150-156; Cornwall and Castell in Manby 1963, 200-202, 204; Manby 1988, 39-42) and neolithic grasslands free from grazing animals are suggested by snails from an enclosure ditch at Kirkburn, and older collections of snails from barrow sites (Thew and Wagner in Stead 1991a, 148151). By contrast the grassland around iron age burial mounds at Kirkburn appears to have been heavily grazed (ibid.). Cereal production is attested in lowland Britain from the Neolithic onwards, both by direct evidence of the plants themselves and by archaeological evidence for their growth, storage and processing (Hillman 1981).

Reconstruction of the ancient vegetation of the Wolds is made particularly difficult by the aerated and eroded nature of the soils, which do not favour organic preservation. Early postglacial colonization by pine and birch, followed by oak, elm and lime in the low lands (Van der Noort and Davies 1993, 3033) is likely to have corresponded with the development of 2 2

INTRODUCTION

Fig. 3 Soils and Ancient Woodland

Place name evidence for woods on the Wolds is sparse, and historical accounts of the 16th and 17th century indicate that woodland was located around, rather than on, the Wolds (Leland and Blome, quoted in Woodward 1985). Surviving ancient woodlands complement this evidence (fig. 3). In the hills patches of old deciduous woodland tend to survive on steep slopes or other land which was unattractive to farmers. In the Vale of York and the Hull Valley their distribution reflects remoteness from the settlements, sometimes at the junction of neighbouring parishes, which suggests a more coordinated management of them for fuel and timber.

1.2

in the 20th (Loughlin and Miller 1979, 15-18). The material has survived through a series of accidents, largely related to past agricultural processes (Manby 1980c), and in many cases excavation has followed accidental discovery. Since the 1960s, however, field work has been directed increasingly by aerial photography. The techniques and history of archaeological aerial photography have been summarized recently by Bewley (Bewley 1993) and the methods are well known. The welldrained chalk soils of the Yorkshire Wolds and the gravels of the valleys provide good aerial photographs, although thicker hill wash soils and glacial till on the eastern Wolds present recognition problems. Similarly, in the low lying areas of the Vales of York and Pickering, the Hull Valley and Holderness sites are recognized most clearly where there are glacial sands and gravels; heavy clays or peat cover tend to reveal little or nothing.

The archaeological database

A rich fund of information now exists about past use of the region. Much of this comes from excavations and other ground-based fieldwork carried out over the past two centuries, particularly by Greenwell and Mortimer in the 19th century, and by a growing number of full-time archaeologists 3 3

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Cathy Stoertz of the Royal Commission on Historical show the existence of archaeological features revealed by the Monuments (England) has spent several years in the patient removal of overlying topsoil for quarrying. production of a computer-rectified plot of the large collection of aerial photographs of the Wolds held by the National These plots are now in the public domain (Stoetz 1997), and Monuments Record. The plots show "crop marks" and soil form a major source of untapped information about the marks; upstanding earthworks are normally indicated on archaeology of the Yorkshire Wolds and their margins. They Ordnance Survey maps. The plots also include information are a fundamental source of information for this study, a large obtained from the very extensive excavations at Gartonpart of which consists of recognition and analysis of site types, Wetwang where aerial photographs were taken regularly to and comparison of these with information gathered on the ground.

4 4

PART 2 Site analysis

Fig. 4 Crop marks on the Wolds watershed at Arras near Market Weighton include all of the basic forms: linear features, curvilinear enclosures, rectilinear enclosures representing “square barrows” and larger domestic enclosures, and “maculae” – in this case two short parallel features in the south-west corner which represent the side ditches of a long barrow.

Bewley (Edis, et al. 1989). This method relies entirely on site morphology for classification, of which one of the most flexible but least satisfactory terms is "macula" ("area crop marks of any shape or size"), but a point is soon reached at which traditional archaeological terms ("long barrow", "square barrow") have to be introduced. This "back to basics" approach is intended to avoid subjective interpretations, and serve as a reminder that, for example, not all ring ditches are ploughed round barrows. After examination of the sample areas, the broader pattern is examined, and, different classes of site are plotted over 100% of the area to examine their gross distributions (figs. 5, 7, 9, 11).

2.1 Analysis of aerial photographs (figs. 74-110) 2.1.1 Site classification The area of the Wolds and their surroundings which has been covered by Stoertz amounts to an area of c.1300 km². My preliminary sampling strategy takes a 4% sample of Stoertz's plotted area by examining one 1km square at the south-west corner of each of fifty-two 1:10560 scale map sheets of twenty-five 1km² grid squares, and notes any Stoertz features, along with any Ordnance Survey recorded earthworks, in each sample square. The results are presented in the form of an Appendix (see 4.1 below). In an attempt to achieve an objective classification of the archaeological features I have adapted, to a more limited extent, the utopian method of Jonathan Edis, David MacLeod and Robert

The distribution of the 52 samples examined is indicated in fig. 74, from which it can be seen that some plotted inform5 5

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Class 1

Large scale linear earthworks

Published references

Class 1 (a)

Single, double and multiple ditches

Brewster 1981; Powlesland 1986; Dent 1982; Grantham and Grantham 1965; Ramm 1984; 1978; Fraser et al. 1992; Challis and Harding 1975; Mortimer 1905; Manby 1980b;

Class 1 (b)

Pit alignments

Cardwell 1989; Fraser et al. 1992; Ehrenberg and Caple 1985;

Class 1 (c)

Drove roads

Ramm 1978; Dent 1982; Hayfield 1987;

Class 1 (d)

Cursus

Dymond 1966; Manby 1988; Riley 1988;

Class 2

Curvilinear enclosures

Class 2 (a)

Henges and hengi-form enclosures

Manby 1988; McInnes 1964; Riley 1988;

Class 2 (b)

Hill forts and palisaded enclosures

Brewster 1963; Stead 1968; Manby 1985; 1986; 1987; Stephens 1986; HAU 1990;

Class 2 (c)

Round barrows (neolithic, beaker/early bronze age, late bronze age, iron age)

Mortimer 1905; Coombs 1974; Manby 1988; Dent 1979; Brewster 1981; Powlesland 1986;

Class 2 (d)

Domestic structures (round houses, "rick stands")

Brewster 1963; 1981; Stead 1980; 1991a; Dent 1982; 1983a; 1989; Powlesland 1986;

Class 3

Rectilinear enclosures

Class 3 (a)

Domestic settlement enclosures (prehistoric, Roman and medieval)

Class 4

Small rectilinear enclosures

Class 4 (a)

Square barrows (iron age funerary enclosures)

Stead 1961; 1979; 1986; 1991a; Dent 1982; 1983a; 1984; 1985; Brewster 1981; Fraser et al. 1992;

Class 4 (b)

"Ceremonial enclosures" (iron age).

Stead 1991a

Class 5

Maculae

Class 5 (a)

Long barrows

Mortimer 1905; Riley 1988; Manby 1963; 1970; 1976; Brewster 1981;

Class 5 (b)

Graves

Mortimer 1905; Stead 1959; Brewster 1981; Powlesland 1986;

Class 5 (c)

Pits

Manby 1974; 1975; Brewster 1981;

Class 5 (d)

Grubenhaüser

Powlesland 1988;

Class 5 (e)

Brewster 1981; Powlesland 1986;

Class 5 (f)

Post holes (various settings, including post squares) Quarries

Class 5 (g)

Wells

Stead 1980; Brewster 1981;

Cladd 5 (h)

Ponds.

Corder and Kirk 1932; Ramm 1978; Stead 1980; Brewster 1981; Dent 1983a; 1989; Hayfield 1987; Rutter and Duke 1958; Phillips 1960;

Table 1: Feature classes.

6 6

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 5 Gross distribution of linear features (Class 1); each dot represents 100m of earthwork.

Fig. 6 Huggate Dykes; linear earthworks elaborated where they cross the Wolds watershed (Photo: Author).

7 7

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 7 Gross distribution of Class 2 curvilinear enclosures.

Fig. 8 Class 2 ring ditch, in this case enclosing early bronze age burials, under excavation at Wetwang Slack 1975 (Photo: Author).

8 8

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 9 Gross distribution of Class 3 rectilinear features.

Fig. 10 Group of Class 3 rectilinear enclosures at Blealands Nook, Wetwang (Photo: Author).

9 9

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 11 Gross distribution of Class 4 rectilinear enclosures.

Fig. 12 Class 4 rectilinear enclosures at Cowlam, Cottam parish on the site of iron age burial mounds (Greenwell 1877, barrows L – LIV; Photo: Author).

10 10

SITE ANALYSIS Burial features Earlier

Boundary features

Settlement features

Technology

long barrows

hand made pottery, stone

ring ditches

hand-made pottery, stone and copper

square ditches

linear features

hand-made pottery, stone, glass, copper alloy and iron rectilinear enclosures

Later

hand-made and wheelmade pottery, stone, glass, copper alloy and iron

Table 2: Relative dating.

ation was available for two thirds of the sample - 35 cases (67%) - as opposed to 17 cases (33%) with none. Of the 35 positive samples:

marks, supported by references to relevant published works (table 1).

2.1.2 Chronological Framework

 31 contained linear systems with ditches and/or alignments of maculae;  18 contained rectilinear enclosures greater than 0.04ha and less than 1ha in area;  14 contained small curvilinear enclosures of 30m or less in diameter;  7 contained small rectilinear enclosures of not more than 20m in width (less than 0.04ha);  2 contained curvilinear enclosures of more than 30m in width;  5 contained clusters of small maculae;  1 contained a pair of large elongated maculae.

The basis of a chronology within which to accommodate these classes of monument is formed by stratigraphical relationships which provide relative sequences, absolute dates provided by scientific techniques, and similarities between contemporary material. Relative sequences Within the region there are specific relationships which, at a fairly basic level, allow broad classes of feature to be put into chronological order. Useful relationships are:  Mortimer barrow 37

From this it can be seen that linear systems, rectilinear enclosures between 0.04ha and 1ha in size, curvilinear enclosures, small rectilinear enclosures of 0.04ha or less, and a variety of maculae were recurrent forms. When these are quantified over the full 1300 km² covered by Stoertz the results are impressive: Linear earthworks Rectilinear enclosures of 0.04ha to 1ha Curvilinear enclosures Rectilinear enclosures of 0.04ha or less

 Wetwang Slack  Wetwang Slack

898km 4033 1342 2659

a round barrow constructed over a long barrow (Brewster 1976, 105; 1981) a round barrow enclosed by linear earthworks, in turn cut by square barrows (Dent 1979, Barrow B) rectilinear domestic enclosures overlying square barrows (Dent 1982; 1983a)

The apparent sequence of structural types which these relationships imply is supported by differences in technology, for associated artefacts reveal that the range of materials and techniques available increased with the passing of time (table 2).

Moreover, gross distributions show that these four main groups recur throughout the Wolds and so typify the archaeology of the region as a whole, although all show distinct concentrations in the Rudston area of the eastern Wolds. Maculae are a much more diverse collection and represent features of many kinds and sizes cut into the subsoil. Two centuries of field work has now shown how these broad classes can be subdivided, with some clear indications of date ranges and functions. On this basis I have developed a working classification of the crop

Absolute dating The advent of the Roman army into Northern England in c.AD71 (Hartley 1966, 9) is a useful historical date upon which

11 11

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Burial features

Technology

Settlement features

hand made pottery, stone

Long Barrows 5500-4700 BP

a) hand-made pottery, stone;

Round Barrows a) 4950-4520 BP (4950-4840 BP) b) 4060-3160 BP (4060-3350 BP)

b) hand-made pottery, stone and copper

Circular Houses 5670-1920 BP (2410-2130 BP)

hand-made pottery, stone, glass, copper, alloy and iron hand-made pottery, stone, glass, copper alloy and iron

Square Ditches 2600-1460 BP (2350-1920 BP)

Rectilinear Enclosures no C14 dates

hand-made and wheel-made pottery, stone, glass, copper alloy and iron

Table 3: Absolute dating. These absolute dates tend to confirm the evidence of stratification among burial monuments noted earlier, although the Carbon 14 dates are not precise enough, and in some cases misleading (see Appendix 2 for complete list). Dates given in italics indicate the full range, while those in bold type represent the main grouping.

to hang relative sequences, but only if the cultural material associated can show the appearance of demonstrably Roman artefacts of AD 71 or later. The principal scientific methods developed to provide absolute dates are Carbon 14 dating, dendrochronology, thermoluminescence and archaeomagnetism (Renfrew and Bahn 1991, 112-148).

use in refining the Carbon 14 date ranges for a possible timber trackway at in the marshes of the Hull valley at Watton, and for the log boat from Hasholme in the Vale of York (see Appendix 4.2.2).

Of these techniques Carbon 14 has led the field longest, partly because suitable samples for the most accurate method, dendrochronology, have been more difficult to obtain and other techniques have been slower to develop. A list of absolute dates for the region is given in Appendix 4.2. When compared with the relative sequence outlined above, Carbon 14 in particular provides clear support for the evidence of vertical and horizontal stratigraphies, but also provides subtler evidence of chronological overlaps, for example in the neolithic and early bronze age (tables 3 and 5). Although these earlier dates present few particular problems, those for square enclosures seem to contradict the evidence of Roman sites which in places succeeded them (table 6). There are problems in providing Carbon 14 dates for the latest prehistoric sites, and these are in part caused by ancient fluctuations in the amount of Carbon 14 in the atmosphere, which is reflected in a loop in the bristle cone pine correction curve (see Appendix 4.2 for references). In practice the method has not been greatly used for the historic period, for much of which increasingly complex and frequent material evidence has provided a better basis for dating by artefact associations. The greater accuracy of dendrochronology cannot yet be used to date sites of the Wolds. This method has, however, been of

Distinctive artefacts found in association with particular sites can identify common cultural links between different classes of monument. The local effect of this dating by association is shown in table 4.

Dating by association

Archaeological evidence from the region is sufficient on its own to establish a working chronology for the prehistoric monuments. Physical relationships between different monuments, scientific dating techniques applied to material from sites, and careful observation of different technologies have provided enough evidence to sort the main forms of burial monument into order, and to relate them to other sites with domestic, or domestic-seeming characteristics. These relationships have been confirmed by what is known of similar material outwith the study region, as is well established in basic text books on the subject (e.g. Megaw and Simpson 1979; Darvill 1987). Although there is a great deal of room for improvement, traditionally accepted chronology provides a useful framework within which to evaluate particular sites, and to take further the classification of the site types which Stoertz's work has revealed.

12 12

SITE ANALYSIS

13 13

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 13 Rudston Core Area: neolithic and bronze age. Long barrows: Long enclosures: Large round barrows: Henges: Other monuments

1 Kilham; 2 Denby House A and B. 3 Cursus D; 4 Bell Slack; 5 West Field, Grindale; 6 Rudston House; 7 Manor Farm, Rudston; 8 Sheepwalk A and B; 9 West Field, Burton Agnes; 10 Vicarage Closes. 11 Wold Newton no. 284; 12 Willy Howe; 13 Southside Mount. 14 Swaythorpe; 15 Burton Fleming Grange; 16 Maiden’s Grave Farm. 17 Cursus A; 18 Cursus B; 19 Cursus C; 20 Cursus D; 21 Rudston monolith.

14 14

SITE ANALYSIS they might reflect overall land use, a pilot study is needed of a sufficiently large core area to provide diversity of land use and topography and contain as many different classes of site as possible. From the gross distribution of monument classes it is clear that the Rudston area of the eastern Wolds contains the greatest concentration of sites of all kinds and is most likely to provide the key to understanding the archaeology of the wider region.

2.2 Core area study: the Rudston district (figs. 13-21) Although arbitrary, an area 10km by 10km centred upon Rudston also includes the modern villages of Burton Fleming, Kilham and Thwing in their entirety, and Burton Agnes and Wold Newton in part. Historic settlements within this area also existed at Pockthorpe, Swaythorpe, Argam and Low Caythorpe, which confirm that the sample area is sufficiently large to contain a number of viable village communities. Geographically the area consists of rolling chalk hills, up to 125m high on the west, and through these passes the valley of the Gypsey Race stream. This enters from the north-west, flows east for 5km or so before it turns south at Burton Fleming and runs 4km to Rudston, where it once again turns east to leave the area. Side valleys running into this Great Wold Valley are Bell Slack and Springdale, which enter from the north-east and west respectively between Wold Newton and Rudston. The valley of Cans Dale debouches into the Great Wold Valley from the north at Burton Fleming, but lies just outside the core area. To the south of Rudston an old road known as Woldgate follows an east-west ridge, which reaches 92m at Rudston Beacon, and separates the Gypsey Race valley from the plain of Holderness to the south. Through a gap in this ridge flows the Lowthorpe Beck, a tributary of the River Hull drainage system, which drains the south-western part of the sample area and rises as two streams, one in Broach Dale to the north of Kilham and the other Middledale to the west. The more southerly Danes Dale just enters the area at its south-west corner.

Fig. 14 Rudston Monolith (Photo: Author) On the basis of this classification (table 1) different features can be recognized as iron age types, or potentially so: Classes 1 (a-c), 2 (b-d), 3 (b), 4 and 5 (b-g). From this point the aerial photographs can be examined in greater detail to examine the relationships between different classes of feature, and to explore a number of issues. Among these would be: 1.

How was land used in the iron age?

2.

Is there any evidence of long term continuity?

3.

How large was the population?

4.

What evidence is there of social structure?

In antiquity the progress of the Gypsey Race seems to have been interrupted by glacial drift east of Caythorpe, and this had the effect of ponding back surface water and may have given the place a special significance. The peat which collected in this area has been the subject of study at Willow Garth and this is one of the rare accounts which we have of the ancient environment of the Wolds (Bush and Ellis 1987). Dark peaty soils also occur to the east of Wold Newton, in an area known as The Ings (another name for water meadows), and open water may also have existed here in antiquity. Mortimer's barrow 284 to the north-west of the Ings consisted largely of peaty soil with many bones of frogs or toads (Mortimer 1905).

The original sample of 1km squares served to identify the basic different site types, but the areas covered were too small in themselves to assess the relationship of the features to the wider landscape. On the other hand, overall distribution maps were too large and specific to a single class of monument. Modern Wolds settlements and their supporting areas can easily cover up to fifty kilometre squares. In order therefore to understand the relationship of ancient features and assess how

The valley, with its stream and occasionally marshy floor, would have been important to mesolithic hunter-gatherers, not only for the flora and fauna which it contained, but also for the access which it provided between Holderness and the Vale of 15 15

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 15 Rudston Core Area: model for early land use based upon the monuments in Fig. 13. This west-east alignment articulated with two southward running axes, marked by the construction of cursus A and D, which extended for part of the way between the Burton Fleming long enclosures and a large trapezoidal enclosure on Burton Agnes Wold (fig. 109, no. 4). This third enclosure was obscured from the north by Woldgate, but the alignments could have been established using rising smoke or the glow of a bonfire against the night sky. These cursus, with B and C bracket the monolith, suggesting that the standing stone was an existing feature. The use of earlier long enclosures and ring ditches to develop the line of a cursus is also attested at Dorchester on Thames (Bradley and Chambers 1988). 1

Pickering, via the Woldgate ridge and Cans Dale or Bell Slack.

2.2.1 Neolithic monuments The Rudston district is well known for its neolithic and early bronze age monuments, which form the largest concentration in the Great Wold Valley and are listed in Appendix 4.3. Although excavations have provided dating for some, many are known only from aerial photographs and are included here on the basis of their characteristic form or position. These monuments include the Rudston monolith (fig. 14), long barrows and long enclosures (figs. 13, 109), four cursus, and a variety of circular or ovoid enclosures. Their distribution and relationships show a remarkable organization of the landscape during the fourth and third millennia BC (figs. 13, 15). The earliest stage of this organization is indicated by the distribution of long barrows, long enclosures and large round or oval barrows, which extend from Woldgate to Bell Slack and Wold Newton. The large barrows of Wold Newton 284 and Willy Howe appear to align on a possible long enclosure (fig. 109, no.10) at the north end of Cursus D and a long enclosure on the east side of Bell Slack (fig. 109, no. 9).

There are three concentrations of Class 2 ring ditches on the periphery of this ceremonial core, and these are likely to represent cemeteries of round barrows. Confirmation of this interpretation in one of the three areas, Woldgate, is provided 1

This is not the place for a fuller discussion of the neolithic alignments of the Rudston area, which can now be seen to include also the enigmatic site of East Leys, Grindale (Durden 1995), located almost 11km east of the Wold Newton barrow on the same axis. From satellite imagery it is now clear that in the Vale of York axes broadly shared by the Hutton Moor and Cana henges and by the Thornborough and Nunwick henges converge at the Devil’s Arrows, Boroughbridge, representing distances of 7.9km and 17.4km respectively.

16 16

SITE ANALYSIS not only through excavations by Greenwell, who worked on the cursus. Even so, of the earlier monuments, the burial mounds site before agriculture had reduced the mounds (Greenwell of the dead, and particularly large barrows like Willy Howe 1877), but by some which still survive as barrows. and Wold Newton barrow remained important landmarks, while one monument still draws visitors today: the Rudston Beyond these concentrations, scattered ring ditches enclose an monolith. outer zone, which is narrowest on Woldgate, where the inner and outer barrow groups come together (figs. 13 and 15). The field monuments of this phase fall into the following Although burials from excavated barrows on this ridge were groups: boundary features, curvilinear enclosures, field associated with beakers or food vessels, the mound material systems, open sites, square barrows and rectilinear enclosures. contained neolithic pottery and flint industry to an extraordinary degree. Greenwell excavated a total of 443 Boundary features barrows in Britain (Kinnes and Longworth 1985: 297 numbered and 146 unnumbered barrows). In addition to Recent excavation of pit alignments (Class 1b) and linear ditches (Class 1a) on Woldgate and near Low Caythorpe burials, he also recovered objects from the mounds in many suggest that some at least of these devices were used in the cases, but in only 17 examples did he recover more than 25 later bronze age (Abramson 1996), and this is corroborated by artefacts or utilized stones. Of these 17 examples, 7 were in evidence from other parts of the Wolds and the Vale of this group on Woldgate. Even the mound of barrow 62, which Pickering (see Appendix 4.4). Even earlier lines of post pits, yielded only 9 finds, produced a further total of 628 pieces of dating from the later neolithic, have been found in flint, pottery in Grimston and Towthorpe styles, and other finds Northumberland (Harding 1981, Miket 1981), and Manby has when re-excavated in 1968 (ibid. 61-68). Although seemingly suggested that such alignments might also be found on the domestic in nature, the number and location of these artefacts Wolds (Manby 1988, 56). Multiple ditches, and especially is anomalous, and may be the result of ceremonial activity on those which also incorporate evidence of pit alignments, this special ridge 2. represent a more complex history than single ditches, and are The focus of this neolithic and early bronze age activity is most likely to provide clues as to how the earliest land likely to have been the monolith, but the crossing from the enclosure began. Great Wold Valley southwards to the Hull Valley and plain of Holderness would have been an important link in the In the core area pit alignments and ditches occur in geography of the Wolds for early settlers, possibly from the combination in the Argam Dykes section of the Woldgatemesolithic period when hunter-gatherers moved between Lake Reighton group (Appendix 4.4, 3), the Woldgate-Boynton Flixton in the Vale of Pickering and Holderness with its group (ibid., 4), the Broachdale-Bell Slack group (ibid., 8), the plentiful meres (Sheppard 1957). The Woldgate ridge offers Burton Fleming-Paddock Hill series (ibid., 5a) and the extensive views southwards over a large tract of low lying land Broachdale-Rudston Grange group (ibid., 7). and along the spine of the southern Yorkshire Wolds to the Lincolnshire Wolds beyond the River Humber. Its historic In addition to these combinations of pit alignments and ditches significance as a viewpoint is surely embodied in one of there are complimentary earthworks which would seem to be Greenwell's barrows, still known as Rudston Beacon from its contemporary, but which lack any known pit component. historic use as a signalling beacon in times of national These include the Kilham-Woldgate group (ibid., 2e), the emergency (although it seems to have been superseded by a Greenlands-Littlethorpe group (ibid., 9) and the Wold Newtonmore extensive system by the Napoleonic Wars: Norfolk 1965, Rudston trackway (ibid., 11c). 30-31). On the basis of geography alone there are grounds for supposing that it would have been a "special place" in Some of these linear systems are boundaries, some are prehistory, and this seems to be born out by the exceptionally trackways, and many combine both features. Their purpose is rich assemblage of archaeological remains which concentrates most likely to be discerned from a study of their relationship to there. other classes of monument, such as, for example, the square barrows that cluster alongside earthworks in places.

2.2.2. Later bronze and iron ages

Curvilinear enclosures

The chronology of the millennium or so which followed the beaker phase does not yet provide a clear context for many of the features in the archaeological record. Whether or not further monuments were added, and how long funerary use of the barrows continued is not known. The first millennium BC saw the construction of many new monumental features in the area, however, and these included large scale linear earthworks which increasingly would have reduced the impact of the four

Although Class 2b hill-fort sized enclosures have been revealed by aerial photography at Swaythorpe and at Greenlands (Caythorpe) neither has been sampled by excavation. The Swaythorpe enclosure lies on the ridge between Broachdale and the Great Wold Valley some 6km to the west of Rudston, and is a circle or polygon c.120m in diameter with an apparent entrance on the east. Greenlands (Caythorpe) is situated 1km east of Argam Dykes and 800m north of the Gypsey Race and is an irregular curvilinear enclosure c.260m by c.210m with a broad outer ditch, a narrower inner ditch or palisade slot, and entrances on the east and south. No excavations have taken

2

This occurrence of an inner and an outer zone of barrows around a strongly ritual focus has now also been suggested in the Stonehenge district (Woodward and Woodward 1996).

17 17

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 16 Rudston Core Area: settlements and boundaries

place at either site, but field walking has been carried out as part of the Caythorpe survey (HAU 1990).

enclosed landscape is confined to the immediate Rudston area, from Woldgate on the south to the Greenlands-Littlethorpe boundary on the north, and from Caythorpe on the east to the Broachdale-Rudston Grange boundary on the west. Outside this zone there are traces of land enclosure, particularly on the north-east towards Grindale, but these are by no means so concentrated as in the Rudston area. There is no indication that these fields are in any special way related to the Roman villa (fig. 17, no. 16) at Rudston (Stead 1980), and the absence of any comparable system from the vicinity of the Harpham villa (fig. 17, no. 17) suggests that the pattern of fields has little to do with Roman agriculture.

Field systems In addition to the longer dykes described in Appendix 4.4 there are many smaller linear systems, some of which incorporate large enclosures and suggest a very complex history of land divisions, communicating trackways and rectilinear fields. One fan-like group of narrow, linear fields, is very reminiscent of the Dartmoor reaves (Fleming 1978; 1983) and is so-shaped because it fills the angle between the Cursus B and C. This 18 18

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 17 Rudston Core Area: iron age settlement and burials. Curvilinear enclosures: Pit concentrations: Linear boundaries: Settlements: Other sites:

1 Swaythorpe; 2 Greenlands, Caythorpe. 3 Burton Agnes West Field; 4 Burton Agnes East Field. 5 Millington-Burton Fleming group; 6 Millington-Woldgate group; 7 WoldgateReighton group; 8 Woldgate-Boynton group; 9 Broachdale-Bell Slack group; 10 Broachdale-Rudston Grange-Springdale-Littlethorpe group. 11 Rudston Grange; 12 Maiden’s Grave Farm; 13 Bell Slack. 14 Makeshift square barrow cemetery; 15 Bell Slack cemeteries; 16 Rudston villa; 17 Harpham villa.

The enclosed landscape depicted by crop marks in Fig. 16 is shown hatched.

The fields are not likely to be post-Roman because they show no correlation with the pattern of anglian or anglo-scandinavian settlements as represented by existing or deserted medieval villages. They are more likely to be pre-Roman, and such a date is suggested by the northern boundary, formed by the Greenlands-Littlethorpe linear ditch system, which was already in existence when the "Makeshift" iron age cemetery grew up

beside it. Also, the area where land enclosure was most intense is that with the most concentrated evidence of neolithic and early bronze age activity, as though this area had for long been the largest clearing in the post-glacial woodland and the monuments clustered there continued to attract the population, not for communal gatherings and ceremony or burial, but to settle and cultivate the land round about. 19 19

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE any trace of enclosure that was thought at the time to be late bronze age in date (Moorhouse 1972, 218), although this dating was not stressed in the final report (Stead 1991a). This structure took the form of a ring groove with additional post holes at the entrance on the south-east side. The Woldgate and Burton Fleming structures, although both apparently circular wood-framed buildings, in their contrasting use of post rings and ring groove construction represent different ways to achieve the same architectural objective. Although there could be chronological reasons for this, equally it may have been no more than the result of different individual approaches, or the necessary response to building materials of differing quality (post rings = standard timber only; ring groove = standard timber/coppice roundwood mix). Both methods of construction have been identified in Garton Slack and Wetwang Slack where they occurred both in the open and inside enclosures (Dent 1983a). The dating evidence for these structures from Garton-Wetwang suggested use in the early iron age, and some related artefacts were paralleled by examples from nearby graves.

Fig 18: Rudston: detail of fields and settlements in the curve of the Broachdale – Rudston Grange boundary system. A north-south axial route, focus of Class 3 rectilinear enclosures, has also been the setting-out line for field blocks on either side.

Open settlements are particularly difficult to recognise from the air, because rings of post holes or shallow ring grooves are less likely to be revealed than the more substantial ditches which normally draw attention to sites. It is notable that the Woldgate and Burton Fleming remains came to light by chance when attention was focused on a pipe line in one case, and on iron age barrows in the other. If large settlements of this type once existed in the Rudston area, they could still escape notice. The open settlements at Garton/Wetwang and West Heslerton would not have been recognized had there not been extensive topsoil removal for mineral extraction.

The curving lines taken by the Broachdale-Rudston Grange and Greenland-Littlethorpe linear groups suggest extension of existing arable into waste or woodland. Bite-like intakes of land could leave the ends of the boundary resting on established limits while the centre is pushed forward into new ground. One of the clearest planned field units is situated within the Broachdale-Rudston Grange curve (fig. 18) and is based upon a north-south ditch, from which four enclosed strips up to 150m wide extend westward. After 250m a second north-south ditch defines the first furlong, beyond which the ditches continue to a third north-south boundary between 600m and 550m from the first. This field system is crossed by an undated multiple linear ditch system, and a small settlement of rectilinear enclosures appears to have formed around the old and new boundaries. These enclosures are not dated, but a late iron age or Roman date seems probable, which would provide a loose terminus ante quem for the field system.

Although there may be cases where buildings are suggested by Class 2d penannular rings, such as the group at Rillington (Dent 1982, pl.33), in the Rudston area the clearest indication of open sites is provided by crop marks of pits (Class 5c). Sites with concentrations of pits have been the subject of recent research by Stead and Rigby, whose work on pottery groups from them has involved examination of several open sites in the Rudston core area. The results of this work, as summarized as Appendix 4.5.3, represent information kindly provided by the excavators in advance of full publication (Rigby 2004). From this it is clear that some of the concentrations of pits in the Rudston core zone were in use during the late bronze age and through the iron age.

Open settlements The earliest evidence for structural remains comes from recent excavations on Woldgate, which uncovered three circles of post holes interpreted as round houses (Abramson in press), and dated to the iron age on the basis of the pottery, although the most diagnostic artefact was a fragment of jet pulley-ring or small vessel rim like examples with late bronze age associations on Rudston Wold (Manby 1980, 324) and Wetwang Slack. Although linear boundaries were located nearby the indications are that these structures had not been enclosed.

The largest of these concentrations is close to Woldgate, on Burton Agnes Wold where the East Site contains at least 450 pits, and the West Site at least 550. Only a small number of these pits was sampled, but this produced pottery akin to that from Staple Howe and West Heslerton, as well as artefacts which included ring-headed pins, shale bracelet fragments and worked bone. Although there are boundary ditches and smaller enclosures in the same area, the distribution pattern shows that the large majority of the pits cannot have been inside enclosures, even though they do appear to respect trackways.

Excavation of the Burton Fleming cemetery in 1971 also uncovered the remains of a Class 2d circular building without

No buildings have been recognized in association with these 20 20

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 19 Iron age burials at Burton Fleming showing as regular lines of grave pits, some clearly enclosed by Class 4a square barrows; a Class 1a linear earthwork passes to the right hand side of the cemetery; (Photo: Author). pits, for the scale of excavation was very limited, and if post built houses had once existed these are likely to have escaped detection from the air. The site was clearly open, and the pits may have operated as storage units, but the scale of the concentrations is quite unlike anything else in the area, and far beyond the needs of the immediate population. The colossal number of pits is difficult to parallel, and even recalls the hill fort at Danebury, Hampshire (2,000+ pits: Cunliffe 1984), although the settlement site at Gravelly Guy, Oxfordshire (800 pits: Lambrick 1990) is closer in scale and nature.

At Burton Agnes too, the everyday artefacts contained in the pit infills could have other significance than as domestic refuse, or in the case of apparently intact and serviceable items, accidental loss. In the light of the Danebury pit contents, and given the richness of the small number of pits sampled, a more complex use along the lines suggested by Cunliffe seems probable. In this case, the location of the two Burton Agnes sites is particularly important, for we have seen already that the Woldgate ridge was an important focus of ritual activity throughout the neolithic period and into the early bronze age. Large scale storage facilities which far outweigh the needs of the immediate population suggest that this ridge was also important in the iron age, and may have formed a central place for a much wider area. The ancient monuments from an earlier age may not have been the primary reason for this focus of interest, although it is notable that the focal axis of neolithic ritual activity lies between the East and West sites. Rather, it is more probable that the geography which originally influenced neolithic monument builders played the important part here, for

The Danebury pits were used to store grain in the view of the excavator of Danebury, who notes that their backfilling included the burial of animal carcasses, whole or in part, and a wide range of artefacts. These deposits he interprets as "propitiatory, belonging to a belief system which involved control by the cthonic deities of the community's seed corn" (Cunliffe 1994, 95).

21 21

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE the crossing point from the Great Wold Valley to Holderness, isolated groups, the most southerly of which grew up beside with its extensive views to the south is also a point where long the Greenland-Littlethorpe ditch system. Other particularly distance dyke systems, represented by the Woldgate and large square barrow concentrations are situated in the upper Argam Dykes, meet. valley of the Lowthorpe Beck on the south-west, and to the east of Burton Fleming, where at Maiden's Grave Farm and in Bell The pottery obtained from the pits on Burton Agnes Wold Slack three distinct cemeteries are located within drove-way included not only finger-printed pottery in Staple Howe settlements. tradition, but sherds characteristic of the "Arras" tradition found with burials in square barrows (Rigby 2004). This Drove-way settlements implies that the use of this ridge as an area of pit deposits continued into the cemetery period. When the distribution of Class 3 small rectangular enclosures are frequently but not exclusively associated with the ditches of field systems. these iron age square barrow burials is examined, the Rudston Occasionally a single enclosure exists in isolation, but area once again shows significant patterning. nucleated groups are more common. A cluster of rectilinear enclosures with internal Class 2d circular structures has been Iron age burials excavated at Rudston villa (Stead 1980) and a single example at Rudston House (Appendix 4.5.3). The enclosure ditches at There are hundreds of square barrows (Class 4a) in the core area, and most of these are concentrated in large cemeteries to both sites were filled up in the 1st century AD or later, and the north of Rudston (fig. 19). Not all square barrows form there is no evidence to suggest that they were in use at the large cemeteries however; some occur singly, and there are same time as square barrow cemeteries. Although features many small groups of fewer than ten. Stead's work on the inside ditched enclosures on Woldgate have been resolved as burials in the parishes of Rudston and Burton Fleming looked probable circular buildings by geophysical survey, they have at several concentrations, and at Caythorpe two graves were not been dated by excavation. encountered in the course of gas pipe line excavations (Abramson 1996). The tendency of rectilinear enclosures to cluster along double ditched axial trackways has given rise to the term drove-way By comparison with the relative chronology at Wetwang Slack settlement (Stead 1980, 35). These vary in length, but are so (Dent 1982; 1984), it is clear that the Rudston and Burton comparable to medieval settlements in their composition that Fleming cemeteries developed over a long period. The date of the term "village" would seem to be appropriate. Some the smaller groups is problematic, although an involuted particularly long examples exist in the core area at Bell Slack brooch from Caythorpe suggests that not all late cemeteries (1.7km), Maiden's Grave Farm (1km), Rudston Grange were large. The relatively late sword from the kitchen garden (1.7km) and Greenlands (1.1km). Maiden's Grave farm is of Thorpe Hall evidently came from a burial, but whether as unusual because it developed along two different boundaries: part of a larger group is unknown. the Great Wold Valley trackway and the Broachdale-Bell Slack boundary. Only the Greenlands settlement is situated within The distribution of square barrows suggests that development the "arable core", and differs from the other three in the extent of the burial tradition in the Rudston area was constrained by of the settlement density. There are wide gaps at Greenlands existing land use, and perhaps by the location of archaic ritual which suggest gradual nucleation, whereas the continuous monuments. In the "arable core”, where there was perhaps the plans of the other three would suggest rapid rather than least freedom to use space for funerary purposes, there were prolonged growth. isolated square barrows or small groups, whereas the large cemeteries developed outside this area, in land which appears The most coherent part of the Greenlands settlement is its to have been uncultivated and probably given to pasture. northern sector, which occupies the hub of the salient bounded by the Greenlands-Littlethorpe linear ditch system. The Some of the burials in the arable core have been constructed possibility that these bite-like elements in the course of the close to ring ditches (= round barrows) and two such groups Broachdale-Rudston Grange and Greenlands-Littlethorpe are situated between the ditches of Cursus "C", and to the east boundaries represent land intakes was discussed earlier. To the of Cursus "D" (Stoertz 1997, fig. 38, nos. 7 and 8). It may be west a series of regular fields occupied part of the land which significant that in both these the squares are not mixed with would have been brought into cultivation by such a project. At rings, even though the existence of earlier mounds is likely to Greenlands, instead of fields the settlement itself could have have influenced the choice of site for new barrows. In this been the reason for the land intake. The settlement, respect, the virtual absence of squares, save for a single surrounding fields, drove-way and boundary are neatly example, from Greenwell's barrow group on Woldgate could arranged as though planned as a unit from the beginning. be due to this zone enjoying special significance, more appropriate in the iron age for rituals which involved pit If the settlement at Greenlands was planned as part of a land deposits rather than burials. intake during the iron age, the regularity and completeness of the Bell Slack, Maiden's Grave and Rudston Grange The larger barrow concentrations are restricted to ground settlements suggests deliberate planning on an even larger outside the arable core. The large cemetery between Rudston scale. Moreover, all three are situated at crossing points and Burton Fleming may have developed from a series of through a major boundary between Broachdale and Bell Slack, 22 22

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 20 A Class 3b domestic rectilinear enclosure under excavation in Bell Slack, Burton Fleming. The site adjoins a Class 1c ditched droveway, which also passes a group of Class 4a square barrows; (Photo: Author).

and two of these completely straddle the line. This suggests that the boundary had become obsolete by the time they were created. In the case of Bell Slack this may have been the case for some time, for there the boundary was only represented by a pit alignment, unlike the robust combination of ditches to the west of the Gypsey Race. That these were completely new settlements is suggested by the virtual absence of small enclosures or field boundaries in the area.

and extended no further from the axial drove-way than the back land plots of the village street (fig. 20). Excavation of one group of burials in Bell Slack (fig. 63) provided evidence for a very early date for one barrow close to the drove-way, and for a very late date for others in the same group. There is some morphological evidence for developing types of barrow (see 3.3.2 below), which suggests that some of the rectilinear areas later marked by ditches in the Roman period were already recognisable when the latest square barrows in the cemetery were constructed among them (Dent 1983b, fig. 2). So far, the evidence of iron age settlement in Bell Slack hinges on the two concentrated cemeteries, a single excavated roundhouse (Stead 1991, 17), some late iron age pottery (Rigby 2004, 47-8 Argam Lane) and resemblance of these elements to the large iron age open settlement excavated at Garton/Wetwang, where roundhouses were spread out along a dry valley (fig. 57).

It is particularly interesting that the Broachdale-Bell Slack boundary should have been chosen for these new settlements, in view of the neolithic antecedents represented by the ring of barrows around the outer zone (compare figs. 15 and 21). The relationship suggests that particular attention was paid to the legacy of earlier monuments, and even though the landscape altered from a great neolithic ceremonial focus to iron age farmland, the opportunity was still taken to bury the dead in a traditionally ritual setting.

The absence of complex field boundaries around these settlements suggests that like medieval villages of the feudal system the arable land around was worked as open fields in common. This contrasts with the earlier picture as represented by the fields of the Rudston arable core, where small enclosures dotted about the landscape or clustered into groups among an organically developed field system are suggestive of a more individualistic approach to agriculture.

The tightly structured square barrow cemeteries at Maiden's Grave Farm and in Bell Slack contrast with the much looser grouping found in the Rudston cemetery, which appears to have grown up in an area of pasture. This would be consistent with continued use of the outer core as pasture-outfield. The cemeteries in the new colonies would have been in new infield or domestic areas, where there would have been good cause to limit the amount of space they occupied (fig. 58). The barrow groups seem to have developed as part of the settlement core,

23 23

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 21 Rudston Core Area: model for iron age land use based on sites shown in fig. 17. Compare with earlier land use suggested in fig. 15.

Some of this enclosure may have taken the form of land intake from woodland, waste or outfield pasture to create arable and provide further domestic living areas. In the early iron age some small groups of, by then ancient, burial mounds provided a focus for the construction of square barrows, although these tended to be close to, rather than actually among the earlier barrows and ritual monuments. Among the enclosed fields rectilinear enclosures mark the sites of isolated homesteads or nucleated settlements. On the Woldgate ridge, round barrows were respected and few new burials were added, but earlier traditions of pit deposit continued in two extensive zones on Burton Agnes Wold.

2.2.3 Long term landscape history of the core area The geographical position of the Rudston area, en route from the eastern Vale of Pickering around Lake Flixton to northern Holderness, and a fertile and watered valley in its own right may have established the importance of Rudston as early as mesolithic times, although flints of that period have so far been claimed only from Kilham long barrow (Manby 1976, 133-7). On the basis of this importance a ritual centre developed here in the neolithic period when inroads were made into the woodland covering. The nature of the monuments would have increased awareness of distance and land form, linking monuments by line of sight, or creating pivotal points in the landscape. The Woldgate ridge was a place of particular importance for the link it provided with Holderness and the Hull valley, and for its exceptional views to the south.

Large cemeteries developed outside the central arable area, but not within. Two particularly dense barrow groups in Bell Slack, and another at Maiden's Grave Farm were part of two developing nucleated settlements. These settlements were large even by modern standards and quite unlike anything inside the arable zone. They also share the distinction of being situated across an earlier boundary, the Broachdale-Bell Slack group, which may have separated the outfields of the Rudston

How early this open space was put to cultivation is not clear, but by the 1st millennium BC, if not earlier, much land around Rudston was enclosed by a series of pit alignments and linear ditches, and these were linked to larger scale land enclosure. 24 24

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 22 Hornsea Mere, the last remaining post-glacial lake of the many which existed in the lowlands around the Yorkshire Wolds in later prehistory. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers must have crossed the Wolds in their journeys between such bodies of water, which were a rich source of food and raw materials (Photo: Author).

complex from those of the next settlement up the valley. This suggests that they represent a stage further on from the Broachdale-Rudston Grange-Greenlands-Littlethorpe stage of expansion, and correspond to a break down in some of the more traditional social boundaries of the region.

there is no appreciable difference between the two areas. It is more likely that the two settlement patterns reflect development at a different pace and time, and under different social conditions. The more fragmented pattern may result from long term arable use, involving piecemeal land intake and perhaps division of land holdings through inheritance. Whereas these settlements seem to have evolved organically, the large settlements suggest deliberate planning, and those which straddle earlier boundaries effectively colonize the margins between older centres of population. In these large settlements, farmsteads appear to have been centralized with some evidence of shared open fields, which suggests that a different set of social conditions prevailed by the time they were established.

The contrast in the nature of the settlements is also significant. The dispersed settlements of the old core were located among cultivated land, and that land was divided by a multiplicity of field boundaries and enclosures. Not so the new land. Beyond the enclosures of the linear settlements themselves, focused on drove roads, there is no sign of fields of the traditional type. The absence of fields cannot mean that the land was not cultivated, for how else would a settlement of this size support itself? The similarity to medieval settlements such as Wetwang or Kilham (respectively 0.8km and 1.5km in length) suggests an agricultural society in which villages of small farmers worked the land in common. If these settlements were indeed organized in this way, they suggest that the expansion of settlement may have accompanied radical developments in the social order.

2.3

The wider implications of the Rudston study

The foregoing assessment of a core area in which virtually all classes of monument are represented has raised several issues. Long barrows, round barrows and other monuments of neolithic or early bronze age date naturally raise questions about the location and relationships of similar monuments in other parts of the Wolds and their influence on later activity. Land enclosure by the construction of linear earthworks during

These differing patterns - fragmented settlement close to the historic centre of ceremonial activity and large nucleated settlements further away - are not explained by topography, for 25 25

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig.. 23 Neolithic and early bronze age barrows and natural lines of movement along Wolds valleys (arrowed). Solid circles: long barrows; Open circles : long enclosures; Solid triangles: large round barrows; Hatched areas: early bronze age barrow groups;

the later bronze age provokes inquiry into the distribution of those and other earthworks beyond the limits of the core area.

2.3.1 Neolithic and early bronze age burials and settlement. (figs. 23-26)

A broader examination of the evidence of settlements of all periods is necessary, particularly in regard to those periods with the poorest data. The iron age cemeteries of the RudstonBurton Fleming area are some of the most extensively studied in the whole of East Yorkshire, but they do not provide the full picture (none have contained, for example, chariot burials), and their relationship to other monuments cannot be completely assessed from within the limited horizons of the core area.

The numerous neolithic and early bronze age barrows of the Wolds may suggest that the hills were where most people lived. In reality the sites where burial monuments were most numerous could indicate the opposite: that settlement concentrated, not on the hills, but in the valleys. Neolithic monuments outside the Rudston core area are listed in Appendix 4.3, and so are the main concentrations from the hundreds of round barrows on the Wolds. The distribution of these gives a possibly misleading impression that the high 26 26

SITE ANALYSIS ridge of the Wolds must have been the earliest place to be From this viewpoint it is particularly interesting to note how settled, an impression reinforced by evidence of derelict land most of the long barrows and round barrow groups excavated found beneath the long barrows at Kilham and Willerby Wold by Greenwell and Mortimer occupied the upper Wolds close to (Manby 1988). The oddities in this distribution are the Great natural crossing points where the heads of valleys penetrated Wold Valley and the Great Slack, the floors of which contain close to the escarpment, and to a lesser degree on the ridge the sites of many monuments, including ceremonial, funerary between the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack (fig. 23). and even domestic structures (Appendix 4.3; figs..24-26). These include Greenwell's barrow groups on the northern escarpment from Heslerton to Folkton, particularly those close It has been suggested (Bradley 1993) that monument building to the heads of valleys which run via Cans Dale into the Great need not have been an activity which was carried out only after an initial pioneering stage, but may itself have been a very early feature of neolithic colonization. In this light it is particularly interesting that mesolithic flint work was also found beneath Kilham long barrow, under a round barrow at Octon, and more recently on Woldgate (Manby in Earnshaw 1973, 37; and Makey, in Abramson 1996, 61), which raises the possibility that open spaces may have been created in the mesolithic, and not as the result of neolithic clearance for cultivation. Certainly the distribution of barrows, in itself to some extent an accident of cultivation history (Manby 1980c), has tended to draw attention to the ridges and Wold tops as the centre of funerary monument building, although aerial photography and excavation, for example at West Heslerton, has done much to redress the balance. If the traditional view of the Wolds as a populated and barrow-encrusted massif surrounded by diverse and empty areas of low lying land is reversed, a very different impression emerges, and one which is much more like the medieval situation, when the majority inhabited the lower ground and not the hill tops. From such a viewpoint the Wolds then become a barrier to communication, across and along which there are a number of naturally selected routes, which tend to follow ridges and valleys. These routes would have been used by early hunter-gatherers before they were used by neolithic farmers (fig. 23). The tree cover on such routes was probably thinned out from early times, to mark the trail, to encourage growth of fruiting shrubs or control the movement of game, or simply through use of the locality as a camp site. It may be that actual woodland growth was suppressed from its post-glacial beginnings in such localities and never achieved the tree density of other areas (see 1.1 above). Once places had been opened up by mesolithic people they may have been kept open into the neolithic and formed the starting points for wider clearance of the higher Wolds.

Fig. 24 Beaker burial from the Great Slack at Wetwang; many such burials have been found in groups on the Wolds watershed as well as on valley floors and in the surrounding lowlands (Photo: Author).

Wold Valley at Burton Fleming. The tributary valleys of the Great Slack reach the western escarpment between Birdsall Brow and Blanch, where Mortimer's barrows existed in large numbers, while more of Greenwell's barrow groups lie on the southern watershed between Kiplingcotes and Littlewood. The prominence of some of these watershed locations is underlined by former beacon locations at Hunsley, Wilton and Staxton. In addition to the indication of neolithic activity provided by long barrows, round barrows containing derived neolithic material have been excavated at Acklam, Aldro, Calais Wold, Binnington, Folkton, Ganton, Heslerton, Huggate Wold, Huggate and Warter Wold, Sherburn and Wharram Percy (Manby 1988, 76-85). Neolithic material has also been located in excavations at the foot of the escarpment at West Heslerton (excavations by the writer and Powlesland: Powlesland 1986).

The neolithic evidence for such clearances should come most graphically in the form of broken stone axes, but such fragments and flakes tend to have come from archaeological excavations, which have already focused on a known site. Random finds, or results of field walking include a large number of complete axes, which should raise some suspicion in regard to the nature of their deposition. Even so, the distribution of such finds is heavily weighted towards the eastern Wolds, and not towards the upper plateau where a high proportion of the barrows were concentrated (Keen and Radley 1971; Manby 1979). Arrowheads have been found extensively on the Wolds, but as these are an indication of hunting rather than clearance their value as an indicator of the extent of neolithic settlement is limited.

Concentrated cultivation away from the hills has removed most of the barrows from the Vales of York and Pickering, and Holderness, the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack, although the survival of barrows in Garton Slack into Mortimer's lifetime, due in part to the sandy soils of Kirkburn Warren, is in contrast to the complete cultivation of Wetwang Slack as medieval open fields. The largest of the lowland cemeteries was in the Great Slack, where total excavation for gravel and Mortimer's examination of upstanding mounds have provided a very extensive spread of neolithic and early bronze age monuments (table 7 and Appendix 4.3).

27 27

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 25 Ceremonial and funerary monuments in the Great Slack. Solid triangles: long barrows; solid circles: round barrows; open circles: ring ditches; open stars: neolithic domestic deposits; solid stars: chariot burials; solid squares: iron age “ritual” enclosures; hatching: iron age cemeteries. Long enclosures shown as plotted by RCHME.

Only some of the burials encountered in quarry excavations were enclosed by ditches, but clusters of graves suggested that a barrow probably had covered the burial place, and there is no particular reason to suppose that isolated single graves had not also been covered in this way. Elsewhere on the valley floors or in the open plain ring ditches have been recorded from the air, and at Cans Dale off the Great Wold Valley a large concentration of ring ditches covers the floor of the dale en route from the Rudston-Burton Fleming area via the northern escarpment to the Vale of Pickering. The Vale itself has produced an abundance of neolithic and early bronze age ritual and funerary evidence, including some fine pottery, at West Heslerton (Powlesland 1986), and although some of these still survived under blown sand as upstanding barrows, there was no indication that they existed until they were exposed during topsoil removal for sand and gravel quarrying in the late 1970s.

valleys were of exceptional importance during the neolithic and early bronze age. Aerial photographers have been able to identify many such monuments on the chalk hills, and to some extent on the sands and gravels of the lower country, although Wetwang Slack and West Heslerton were not responsive to this sort of investigation. The heavier clay lands also do not respond to aerial photography, although they have produced many neolithic artefacts (Radley 1974; Manby 1979), and the survival of barrow mounds is biased (Manby 1980b, 316). Activity in the Hull Valley, which is the continuation of the Great Slack, is shown by food vessel burials from Bryan Mills Farm, Lockington (Manby 1973) and Corps Landing (Manby 1980b, 316). Movement along the right bank of the Hull may be indicated by a series of wedge-split oaks, ploughed up from a possible buried trackway across an old course of the Watton Beck, which provided four C14 dates calibrated to between 1885 and 1321 BC and a dendrochronological date of 1655 ± 49 BC (see Appendix 4.2). From Driffield, where the Great Slack opens out into the Hull Valley, has come the most convincing evidence of a domestic structure of the period, a rectangular setting of posts holes in a hollow associated with later neolithic knapping debris (fig. 26).

The number and quality of excavated burials in the Great Slack, and the number of ring ditches and quality of the relatively few excavated barrows around Rudston, supplement other forms of ritual monument and indicate that these two 28 28

SITE ANALYSIS group of round barrows which cap Market Weighton Hill. The earlier barrow builders may also have chosen a position which 2.3.2 Burial in the 1st millennium BC was more readily visible from the Vale of York, but the Arras cemetery looks both south-westwards towards Walling Fen and Burials from the later bronze age are rare, and most of the the southern part of the Vale of York and eastwards towards known sites have been listed by Manby (Manby 1980b, the valley of the River Hull. Appendix 1). Of the nine sites which he identifies on or around the Wolds, five are situated either on the escarpment at Between 55 and 60 square barrows in two groups occupy the the head of the Great Slack tributary dales (burials in crest of Nunburnholme Wold, somewhat to the west of the Mortimer's barrows at Painsthorpe 111 and 118, Riggs 33 and watershed, and look west towards to the Vale of York. Such a Aldro 108), or in the lower reaches of the valley at Garton number is unusual at this height, and the barrows are not close Slack. To the latter may be added a pair of small ring ditches to any round barrows. There are isolated square barrows on the in Wetwang Slack, one of which contained a cremation with a western escarpment (Stead 1979, 97-102), and these include the excavated Mortimer barrows 117 and 125 (Aldro), C72 (Callis Wold) and 59 (Hanging Grimston). Additional iron age burials, apparently without enclosing ditches, have also been found in prominent west-facing locations at Grimthorpe (ibid.) and Acklam Wold (Dent 1983c). The former group was found in a long-redundant hill fort; the latter came from the same area as several Mortimer barrows, and may have been a focus for a cemetery in the Anglian period (Mortimer 1905, 94-95).

Fig. 26 Neolithic timber structure at Driffield (Humberside Archaeology Unit). bucket urn, while part of a jet pulley ring, bracelet or cup was found nearby. Of the others Greenwell's Ganton Wold 27 came from the northern escarpment at the head of the Cans Dale valley system, Elloughton was below the western escarpment just north of the Humber, and the Beverley finds were in the Hull Valley. Square barrows (Appendix 4.6), despite the large numbers which are known, are relatively scarce on the watershed. The major exception is the cemetery at Arras, which sits on the watershed just south of the Goodmanham-Etton gap that separates the southern block of the Wolds from the rest of the massif, and may in part be the reason why a large cemetery grew up at such a prominent location. Even so, the Arras burials are more than 1.5km east of the long barrow and large

Fig. 27 Iron age chariot burial at Kirkburn; neolithic and early bronze age ceremonial monuments and the springs of the Great Slack continued to attract high status interest centuries later (Photo: Ian Stead).

29 29

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 28 Gross distribution of linear systems.

Neolithic and early bronze age burials were also concentrated on the watershed between the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack, the scene of a number of excavations by Greenwell, whose barrows 50-54 at Cowlam have been shown by Stead to be square barrows (fig. 12; Stead 1986). Again, these barrows were within 1km of earlier barrows, but not specifically grouped with them. From the point of view of dating, the Cowlam group contained one of the earliest brooches so far recovered from an Arras Culture context. Arras itself contained nothing that need be very late in the burial tradition. A sword from the Acklam grave is not closely dateable, and nor are a sword and scabbard from Grimthorpe.

the river Derwent (Stead 1979, fig. 9) almost to the River Ouse and into the Tabular and Howardian Hills, where a large cemetery exists as far west as Slingsby (Whimster 1981, fig. 36). Most of these large cemeteries do not show any clear correspondence with earlier burials, although from the air circles occasionally show among the squares. At Rillington, for example a ring ditch with a central pit is the largest enclosure on the site and the focus, not only of settlement and burials in general, but more specifically of a boundary ditch and a trackway. Rather different are large cemeteries at Wetwang Slack and Garton Station, with other groups in between, which focus on the Great Slack trackway, in precisely the same zone as neolithic, early bronze age, and even late bronze age ceremonial or funerary monuments.

From the gross distributions of square barrows (fig. 11) it is clear that burials were more common at lower altitudes, and large cemeteries containing scores, sometimes hundreds of barrows are known in the Great Wold Valley and around the eastern fringes of the Wolds as they merge with the Hull valley and plain of Holderness (fig. 66). On the west and north cemeteries are concentrated on the low ground, for example at Rillington (Dent 1982, pl. 33; Turnbull 1983) tend to contain fewer burials than on the east. The distribution extends beyond

The contrast between this distribution and that at Rudston is significant. At Rudston small numbers of square barrows occupied the core of the earlier ceremonial and funerary zone, whereas large cemeteries developed only outside that area. In Wetwang Slack and Garton Slack scattered squares as well as large cemeteries occupied the same zone, and in some instances the location of barrows close to earlier ceremonial 30 30

SITE ANALYSIS monuments is suggestive. The Wetwang Slack group of qualities. This model is also of use in an examination of the chariot burials may have encroached onto a neolithic linear linear boundaries outside the Rudston area. earthwork which is otherwise represented by rows of pits. The The watershed is the prime place for the construction of cross Kirkburn neolithic long enclosure was re-used in the iron age ridge dykes (fig. 29; the different dyke forms are listed in as the site of two horse burials, and the Garton Station and Appendix 4.4). These are the relatively short earthworks Kirkburn chariot burials were located close by (fig. 27). Also which cross ridges to join valleys or vales on either side. At the same time there are single or double ditched systems which follow the ridge way. As already discussed, there was a dual role of boundary and trackway for many of these features, although some would have had a strong primary role as one or other. On the northern Wolds the ridge way is marked at intervals by short lengths of single earthwork where the watershed passes the head of a dale. On the western Wolds the ridge way is represented by an intermittent double ditched trackway. These simple linear systems probably evolved at a relatively early stage, at the same time as lines of movement along the valleys began to be formalized. These systems seem to represent very localized control mechanisms relating to long-distance movement. Large scale landscape enclosure marked yet another stage, into which these earlier forms could be incorporated as necessary. Cross ridge dykes (fig. 29) Most of the cross ridge dykes are concentrated at the heads of the tributary dales of the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack, particularly in areas with large concentrations of earlier barrows (table 8). In this way they can be interpreted as markers for crossing points which had been marked previously by earlier barrows; indeed, several dykes incorporate barrows in their course.

Fig. 29 Distribution of cross ridge dykes.

In their other role as barriers the cross dykes supplement topography to obstruct movement along the ridge way itself. This line of movement is emphasized by earthworks which follow the north-facing escarpments at Birdsall Brow and east from Potter Brompton Wold (Appendix 4.4; the AcklamFolkton group). These boundaries are single earthworks, but on the western Wolds, particularly to the south of Huggate, the ridge way is represented by a double ditched trackway (Ibid. the Aldro-Riplingham group). In order of construction there is no clear precedence of one group over the other: on Folkton Wold the cross dyke is abutted by the ridge way dyke; on Flixton Wold two lengths of a cross dyke abut the ridge way dyke as a staggered junction. Extant earthworks on the escarpment at Birdsall suggest that the two systems developed together.

in Garton Station cemetery were several anomalous burials with evidence of ritual killing, and three small square enclosures with western entrances. These features suggest that this part of the Great Slack saw rituals other than solely funerary, and this may have been related to the springs in the vicinity (see 3.3.2). The iron age burials in this valley are the richest from the whole region, although elements may be compared with the grave goods which have survived from Arras (Dent 1995). Comparisons and contrasts with the cemeteries of Rudston and Burton Fleming, to be discussed below, reinforce the view that the lower reaches of the Great Slack enjoyed an importance in the iron age which was not shared by anywhere else. Thus this valley, which was already a centre of neolithic and early bronze age ceremonial monuments, continued to be of central importance in the iron age, by which time the watershed had ceased to attract burial and the Great Wold Valley had lost its position as the premier focus of ritual activity (fig. 25).

Even so, it is evident that not all systems developed at the same pace, and multiple earthworks suggest areas of special significance. The Huggate dykes (fig. 6) probably began as a simple earthwork across the watershed, but this was incorporated into a much larger system which crossed the Wolds from below the western escarpment to within 8km of the North Sea. In their final state Huggate dykes consisted of six parallel ditches with intermediate banks, which end on the east at the point where the ridge way track would cross the line. Although this is the single most elaborate cross dyke on the Wolds, comparable to the even more elaborate Cock Moor

2.3.3 Linear systems on the Wolds (figs. 28-30) The theme of a lowland focus, in which the chalk massif features as a topographical inconvenience, was useful in directing attention away from the Wold tops as places where people lived, to regarding them as crossing places with special

31 31

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 30 Distribution of major linear systems. 1. Acklam-Folkton group; 2. Millington-Woldgate group; 3. Woldgate-Reighton group; 4. WoldgateBoynton group; 5. Millington-Burton Fleming group; 6. Foxholes-Pockthorpe group; 7. Broachdale-Bell Slack group; 8. Great Wold Valley ‘D’ shaped enclosures; 9. Great Slack trackway; 10. Western ridgeway. Solid circles representing curvilinear enclosures include hill forts at Grimthorpe, Nafferton Wold, Thwing and Caythorpe.

enclosures indicate that there were settlements along the route. In the north-east short lengths of single ditch sufficed to mark the way. Long unmarked stretches in between suggest that side ditches may have been most necessary where there was a need to control human movement across the line of the route, or where it was important to prevent animals from straying off the path onto growing crops (fig. 30, nos. 1, 9 and 10).

Dykes on the Tabular Hills (Spratt 1989, 48-49), other multiple cross dykes were developed, particularly Between Acklam Wold and Wharram Percy, and this seems to have been coordinated with the development of another long range dyke system which crossed the full width of the Wolds from Acklam to Folkton. Route way marking systems (fig. 30)

Such marked routes developed not only on the ridge way, but along and between valleys, and along spring lines. The Great Wold Valley route is delineated by ditches where settlements

The southern part of the Wolds ridge way was marked at different stages by double ditches, commonly where rectilinear 32 32

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 31 Paddock Hill, Thwing; a Class 2 (b) hill fort located close to the staggered junction of two Class 1(a) dykes systems. To the left of the hill fort the Millington-Burton Fleming group runs to meet the Foxholes-Pockthorpe group as a staggered junction before proceeding beyond (Photo: Author).

and field systems occur, and north of Rudston its passage through pasture can be discerned from the distribution of iron age square barrows. In contrast, the trackway along the Great Slack was marked as a virtually continuous line east of Blealands Nook and a several points became a focus for numerous square barrows.

Gypsey Race and Duggleby Howe, and through the barrow cemeteries of the northern escarpment to Folkton. It is the most northerly system on the chalk, although there is evidence of comparable pit alignments and ditches at the foot of the scarp (Powlesland 1988, 102). Earthworks are extensive in the Birdsall area, where their design appears to have been coordinated with the cross dykes on the watershed. Between Potter Brompton and Folkton the earthworks are shorter and further apart, and their location is restricted to dale heads. In this respect the ridge way dykes may have operated as route guides, but seem primarily to have been barriers to movement across the watershed. If this earthwork group was a barrier or boundary between neighbouring areas, then its course linked a series of barrow groups, which suggests that these may already have served a similar purpose, possibly for the mutual convenience of the communities on either side.

Long range dyke systems (fig. 30) Cross ridge dykes were short, small scale devices, apparently to control movement, and contrast with much longer systems which extended for many kilometres to divide the landscape by design (Appendix 4.4). These combined with topographical features such as steep-sided valleys or stream courses to provide extensive boundaries across the countryside. Not all gaps are the result of changes in slope, marshy valleys or, perhaps, stands of trees; some may have been left deliberately to allow communities on both sides access to places of special significance.

In contrast to the Acklam-Folkton group, which follows the northern edge of the Wolds for much of its course, other systems are located well within the chalk massif. The Wolds east of Rudston are separated from the rest of the chalk massif by the Argam Dykes, which incorporate at their southern end a neolithic cursus. This in itself is one of the very few

The Acklam-Folkton group of earthworks may be traced from the barrow cemeteries on the escarpment at Acklam and Birdsall, across the Great Wold Valley past the source of the 33 33

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 32. Great Wold Valley crescentic enclosures

earthworks to cross the Gypsey Race stream, although two others at Wold Newton and Burton Fleming combine pit alignments with ditches in a manner reminiscent of the Argam Dykes. This combination is seen at its most elaborate in the Woldgate - Boynton group which follows the southern side of the Gypsey Race east of Rudston. Excavation suggests that pit alignments may have been the earliest form taken by such monuments, and later elaboration saw these converted into ditch-and-bank earthworks. This is supported by those dykes which were recorded by the Ordnance Survey as banks and ditches before levelling and cultivation revealed as crop marks the pit alignments beneath them.

Fleming; the southerly to cross the dip slope north of Wetwang and Driffield to reach the Woldgate east of Kilham. Rudston thus lies between the two systems. The southern route could be the earlier, depending on how one interprets the interconnecting Wold Newton-Ruston Parva group of earthworks. Beyond Woldgate the southern route could be extended to the sea at Reighton (with the Argam Dykes) or down the Gypsey Race towards Bridlington Bay. Either way, this would effectively divide the Wolds massif into two roughly equal areas with the important Rudston area as a shared zone. Excavation on the line of this southern system suggests late bronze age/ early iron age construction, that is, contemporary with some of the concentrated pits which focus on Woldgate. In view of this it is interesting to note that the three largest hill forts of the Wolds, at Grimthorpe, Driffield Wold and Greenlands are all within 3km of this line. Another hill fort, at Paddock Hill, Thwing is at the junction of the MillingtonBurton Fleming group and the Wold Newton-Ruston Parva group. Other smaller curvilinear enclosures are distributed suggestively close to elements of these linear systems (figs. 30, 31). This brings these major elements of land enclosure into the broader context of early 1st millennium BC settlement and society. They seem to indicate a northern block, possibly based upon the Vale of Pickering rather than the chalk massif itself, and a southern block based perhaps on Holderness or the Vale of York. East-west division along the watershed is also possible. This structure provided joint access to traditionally

The Rudston-Burton Fleming area was a focus of dyke building activity, much of which may have been due to the special significance of the colossal standing stone, the barrow cemeteries and the cursus monuments; two large concentrations of iron age pits on Woldgate may be another expression of this exceptional nature. The lines of earthworks which converge on this area are open to various interpretations, but there are two from the west which are particularly long and elaborate. The Millington-Woldgate group and the Millington-Burton Fleming group (Appendix 4.4) begin as the same system on the western side of the watershed, but separate after crossing the ridge way to the east of the elaborate Huggate Dykes, the northerly to follow the watershed between the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack system, ultimately to Burton 34 34

SITE ANALYSIS

Fig. 33 Distribution of drove way settlements 1. Arras; 2. Bell Slack; 3. Blealands Nook; 4. Butterwick; 5. Goodmanham Wold; 6. Greenlands; 7. Maiden’s Grave Farm; 8 Middleton on the Wolds; 9 Rudston Grange; 10. Warter Wold; 11. Wharram le Street; 12. Wharram Percy; 13. Wintringham (Sources: Dent 1984a; Stead 1978; 1991a)

special places, where natural character was reinforced by burials and ritual activities of earlier generations (eminent ridges and crossing points with barrow concentrations, fertile valleys, springs and streams with barrows, henges, cursus).

Rectilinear enclosures and drove-way settlements (figs. 9, 10 and 33) The gross distribution of rectilinear enclosures of 1ha or less (Class 3: fig. 10) shows that the only areas virtually clear of such sites are the northern escarpment, the higher central Wolds, and the watershed between the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack. The densest concentration of small enclosures is along the eastern margin of the Vale of York, between the River Foulness and the Wolds, where a high water table has resulted in more drainage ditches and skewed the distribution pattern. Elsewhere concentrations reflect the presence of nucleated settlements, the densest of which correlate with drove-way settlements.

In the Rudston-Burton Fleming area there was some evidence of land intake in the form of crescentic linear ditches between Broachdale and Littlethorpe. The most consistent signs of such activity elsewhere are found on the southern side of the Great Wold Valley between Kirby Grindalythe and Weaverthorpe, where successive intakes of land based upon an original linear ditch have been made leaving access points between what appear to be infield and outfield areas (fig. 32). There is no clear dating evidence for this system, but it could be contemporary with some of the processes described here. 35 35

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Four extended drove-way settlements of 1km or longer were pits and other features associated with these structures were recognized in the core study area. Three of these lapped an metal pins and brooches, and a glass bead comparable to types earlier land division, which suggested that they represented found in the cemetery. new settlements in areas which previously had been shared The great length of this open settlement does not seem between two or more neighbouring communities. These and excessive when compared with some of the drove-way other settlements of 1km or more in length and extended along settlements. The settlement has an integral cemetery, as do drove-ways are listed in Table 9, a total of thirteen. drove-way sites at Blealands Nook, Maiden's Grave Farm and Bell Slack, and there is evidence that the enclosure of different These show the variation which would be expected from parts of the settlement had begun by the time that most of the settlements growing up under a variety of conditions. In three population had moved elsewhere. The Garton-Wetwang cases the settlements have cemeteries within the enclosed core, settlement, therefore, is the best evidence available to date of a and at three more there is a cemetery within 0.5km. In one case drove-way settlement which never developed into the fully there is a cemetery within 1km. Of those without a known enclosed form seen elsewhere. cemetery three are on or close to the Wolds watershed where burials are, in any case, scarce; and three are at lower levels Synthesis (one below the northern escarpment, and two in the Great Wold Valley). Two settlements are also on a major boundary The geographical spread of the different classes of monument, and the archaeological evidence for their varied dates and (the Acklam-Folkton group), while another settlement straddles functions, suggests that particular places in the landscape were the Millington-Woldgate group. Six of the sites are on major marked out at an early stage, if not by mesolithic hunterroute ways: three on the Wolds ridge way; two on the Great gatherers then by neolithic farmers and monument builders. Wold Valley axial track (and one close to it), and one on the Some of these locations were endowed with special qualities, Great Slack route. and were deliberately embellished, which prolonged their importance and influenced later generations. Some were Varying stages of completeness are represented in the marked by barrows - particularly crossing points on the settlements. The longest (Warter Wold at 2.3km) has wide watershed, which also operated as a line of communication gaps between some of the enclosures, and this is true of and these were later reinforced by the construction of linear Goodmanham Wold and Middleton on the Wolds. The earthworks. By these means the landscape was formally settlement at Blealands Nook is divided in two where the Great divided up into separate areas, although spaces were left, Slack trackway crosses the Millington-Woldgate group of perhaps to provide access to areas important to communities on earthworks. To the north-west the settlement is a complete both sides of the dykes. This process also involved the series of enclosures, but to the south-east the enclosures are construction of curvilinear enclosures - hill forts - which form spaced out along the trackway at irregular intervals. More part of the pattern with the longer dyke systems (fig. 30). The organized are the Wharram le Street, Wharram Percy, distribution of iron age burials shows a clear concentration, not Wintringham and Butterwick settlements. only on lower ground, but particularly to the east of the Wolds. This correlates with the broad spread of rectilinear enclosures, A possible genesis for this type of settlement may be found in and concentration of some of the latter into nucleated the Great Slack at Garton-Wetwang (figs. 55, 57), where a settlements along drove-ways suggests population expansion small number of rectilinear enclosures developed alongside the during the iron age into previously marginal areas. axial trackway with a large cemetery and other scattered burials. The ditched enclosures were late iron age or early In order to understand how the iron age population used their Roman in date, but the circular buildings which they contained environment in general terms, it has been necessary to examine had undergone a number of reconstructions. The fore-runner neolithic and bronze age monuments and how iron age of these scattered settlements was most probably an open settlements and cemeteries related to them. It is now time to settlement of at least 80 circular buildings with associated look more closely at what excavation has revealed about iron small square post structures. These extended along the valley age artefacts, settlements and burials. for at least 1.3km and small groups appear to have been laid out from an axial line, which was not the line of the earthworks. In addition, among the rare domestic finds from

36 36

PART 3 Iron age material culture

Fig. 34. Iron age artefacts from domestic contexts at Wetwang. Stone, fired clay and bone artefacts survived more commonly than metalwork, which could be re-cycled. Top row, left to right: chalk weight, triangular clay weight (fragment), iron ‘S’ brooch, iron ring-headed pin; bottom row: antler linch pin (part), bone comb, bone spindle whorl and counter, bone point, bone needle (Photo: Author).

(e.g. Burgess 1968), and is not often found in direct association with such metalwork types on settlement sites. For this reason the occurrence of pottery and metal types together in burials is particularly important, although early bronze age burials suggest that pottery found in graves may not have been the same as that in contemporary domestic use (Bradley 1984, 72). On settlement sites metal types are particularly rare in later prehistory because of the shortage of raw materials and the tendency, no doubt, to re-shape worn out pieces into new forms.

3.1 Artefacts (figs. 34-45) Artefacts, whether everyday items which wore out or broke and were discarded, or special items which were deliberately disposed of as part of a ritual, form the portable evidence which we have for life in the iron age. Such artefacts are classified by grouping the most similar examples and contrasting them with the rest to produce a seriation which is then dated as closely as possible by absolute means, or failing that, by association with other classes of artefact.

Most iron age pottery from excavations in the region has been studied at some stage by Rigby, whose reports on the ceramics from Rudston Villa, West Heslerton and the iron age cemeteries are particularly important (Stead 1980, 37-94; Powlesland 1986, 141-156; Stead 1991a, 94-118). A programme of excavations directed at resolving many of the problems set by the local ceramic traditions was carried out by Stead and Rigby between 1988 and 1993, and the results of that work are still being prepared for publication, which is likely to

In practice East Yorkshire has produced very few absolute dates for the 1st millennium BC, and cultural guesswork is the basis of much of the dating of artefacts. This applies to pottery and all other materials described below.

3.1.1 Pottery (fig. 35, 36) Pottery does not appear to have undergone the changes in fashion which have been the basis of metalwork classifications

37 37

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Fig. 35 Iron age pottery

Late bronze/ earliest iron age forms: 1-5 West Heslerton;

Early-middle iron age (cemetery period): 6-8 Rudston/ Burton Fleming; 9 North Cave;

Late iron age: 10-11 Brantingham.

Sources: Powlesland 1986; Stead 1991a; Dent 1989. Various scales.

add much to Rigby's earlier statements. Important forthcoming work by Didsbury has been carried out on iron age pottery from North Cave.

(1992) has carried out detailed analysis of bronze age and iron age pottery from Paddock Hill, Thwing and other sites, and has concluded that up to 40% of pottery may have been traded during in the earlier 1st millennium BC.

The clays used to make pottery throughout the region show little variation other than from very fine grained to sandy, but from petrological analyses of 150 pots Rigby has identified seven different tempering agents: flint, erratic hard rocks, calcite, shell, sand, grog, and vegetable/organic material, some of which in acid soils are represented by voids giving vesicular fabrics (Rigby, in Stead 1991a, 95). To these may be added an eighth, iron slag, which has been recognized by Didsbury in pottery from the writer's excavations at North Cave. Wardle

The two most common fabric groups are calcite tempered wares (CTW) and erratic tempered wares (ETW), both of which are associated with settlements and burials. In the earlier 1st millennium CTW was more common by far than ETW at such sites as Staple Howe, Devil's Hill, West Heslerton, Grimthorpe and Scarborough, although a third type, using flint as a tempering agent (FTW) was used for much of the finer pottery. The iron age cemeteries of the second half of 38 38

MATERIAL CULTURE the millennium show variation. At Wetwang, Danes Graves An absence of pottery lids is perhaps explained by a wooden and Eastburn CTW was preferred, while at Rudston and Burton lid, basically a disc with a finger hole in the centre, from North Fleming by the middle years of the burial tradition ETW had Cave. replaced CTW as the favoured filler. The pottery of the Staple Howe phase is similar to forms which Rigby has recognized two main pottery forms (in Powlesland also occur elsewhere in lowland England, and the date of Cal 1986, 146-147): angular and decorated (AD) and shapeless and BC 765-390 for charred grain from Staple Howe is consistent plain (SP). The former includes the biconical carinated bowls with others for the tradition (Barrett 1980). Metal types from and jars, many of which have finger-tip decoration, typified by Staple Howe include three bronze razors with Hallstatt the collection from Staple Howe (Brewster 1963), but also parallels, at least one bronze tanged chisel and part of a represented at Thornham Hill, Scarborough Castle, Manor socketed bronze axe (Brewster 1963). Although the duration Farm, Kilham (Burton Agnes Wold), Devil's Hill, West of this site is unknown, use in the first half of the first Heslerton, and elsewhere (Challis and Harding 1975; Stephens millennium BC is clearly indicated. The occurrence of SP 1986; Powlesland op.cit.). The latter are more widely pottery of the cemetery range on the North York Moors, at represented, and probable chronological differences are Thorpe Thewles north of the Tees, and south of the Humber at indicated by subtle changes in rim design. Grimsby shows that the ceramic tradition had a wider distribution than the burial tradition, although this does not preclude the possibility that pots from graves could have been made specially for burial (ibid., 111). At the end of the period SP pots have been found in direct association with micaceous, wheel-finished, cordoned bowls at Brantingham, a site which produced late iron age brooches and a coin of Cunobelin (Dent 1989, 28).

3.1.2 Items worn about the body Evidence of actual clothing has been found in graves, normally in the form of metal corrosion products which have replaced the structure of cloth or linen where this has been in close contact with iron or bronze objects such as brooches (Crowfoot, in Stead 1991a, 119-122). Wool was the predominant fibre used, and is present in the form of tabby weaves and four-shed twills. The former can produce a finer and lighter cloth, while the latter produces dense, warm and water-resistant materials suitable for outer garments such as a cloak, and it is this latter weave which is most commonly found pinned by brooches at Rudston, Burton Fleming and Wetwang Slack,(ibid.). Fragments of cloth with a diamond twill weave in the Yorkshire Museum were found by Stillingfleet at Skipwith in 1817 and had been preserved by waterlogging in a barrow (Henshall 1950, 138). This barrow could be one of the group of square barrows plotted by Yorkshire Antiquarian Club in 1849 (Stead 1979, pl. 2b).

Fig. 36 Late iron age hand-made and wheel-turned vessels from Brantingham (Photo: Author).

Pottery in the SP group from Staple Howe included some with sharp carinations and flattened rims which are perhaps better described as angular and plain (AP), but these features are not found in later graves, which in general contained fairly small jars with everted rims. Hallstatt type metalwork associations at Staple Howe and La Tène forms from burials provide a broad cultural sequence to the ceramic material, as do the Carbon 14 dates (Appendix 4.2). Cross-referencing between graves and contemporary settlement at Wetwang and Garton has been provided by a narrow range of artefacts, as well as prima facie evidence of spatial distribution. The pottery from the settlement is virtually entirely SP in form and mostly CTW in fabric, although there is a consistent spread of ETW fabrics which show that both were in contemporary use. The settlement has produced larger examples than the graves, and these include not only large tub-shaped pots, but lid-seated jars.

The evidence for woollen garments is supported by pieces of weaving or sewing equipment from settlements, although bronze tags and sword belt rings from Wetwang Slack are a reminder of the use of leather for such items as laces and belts. Pins (fig. 37, nos. 13 and 14) Sites which produced angular and decorated (AD) pottery of Staple Howe form at West Heslerton and Burton Agnes (West Field) also yielded swan's neck pins (Powlesland 1986, fig.67; Challis and Harding 1975, fig.24), a class of artefact which has also been found associated with square barrow burials (Dent 1982 fig. 6; Stead 1979, 77-78; 1991a, 91-92). Swan’s neck pins have been found in pits at East Field, Burton Agnes, 39 39

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 37.

Dress fastenings.

1. Marzabotto arched bow brooch (La Tène I), Burton Fleming burial 61; 2. coral decorated arched bow brooch, Queen’s Barrow, Arras; 3. arched bow brooch (La Tène II), Wetwang Slack burial 160; 5. flat bow brooch (La Tène II), Sawdon; 6. long involuted bow brooch, Danes Graves burial 57; 7. coral decorated short involuted bow brooch (La Tène II), Wetwang Slack burial 55; 8. long flat bow brooch (La Tène III), Wetwang Slack burial 117; 9. arched bow brooch (La Tène III), Rudston burial 175; 10. coral inlaid brooch, Wetwang Slack burial 274; 11. ‘S’ brooch, Wetwang Slack burial 236; 12. penannular brooch, Huntow; 13. involuted pin, Garton Slack; 14. ring-headed pin with coral inlay, Danes Graves burial 41. Sources: Stead 1979; 1991a; Dent 1982. Scale one third.

40 40

MATERIAL CULTURE Hanging Cliff, Kilham, and Denby, Rudston (see Appendix 4.5.3). The type of bronze pin with a small ring head and long shank which was found at West Field, Burton Agnes and at West Heslerton has a number of variants, in bronze and iron. Large ring heads with shorter shanks are represented at Danes Graves, Rudston and Wetwang (Stead 1979, fig.30, no.3; 1991a, fig.67 no.1; Dent 1983a, fig.4, no.3), the first a bronze piece with the ring cast as a four-spoked wheel inlaid with coral. Small pins with large loops were found in graves at Wetwang Slack and Rudston (Dent ibid., no.4; Stead ibid., no.2), the Rudston pin having a double bend. Small pins with the head in the opposite plane to the swan's neck ("involuted pins") were found in two graves at Wetwang Slack and another in Garton Slack (Dent 1983a, fig.4, no.4; fig.8, G). These involuted pins show the greatest variety; one is plain iron with a simple ring, one is iron with a disc head decorated with a piece of coral held in place by a gold strip and rivet, and one is bronze with a beautifully decorated globular head from which an inlay, perhaps also coral, is missing.

series of forms, beginning with the highly arched Marzabotto bows found in graves at Cowlam and Burton Fleming and in a barrow ditch at Wetwang Slack. From this early model were developed brooches with longer, flatter bows and, in time, recurved and untimately shorter, tightly involuted bows (Fig. 37, nos. 1-7). All of these developed forms are represented at Rudston, Burton Fleming and Wetwang in a logical progression that is confirmed by overlapping grave sequences at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1982; Stead 1991a, 80-90). These developments, although contemporary with continental early and middle La Tène, were distinctly insular, but late La Tène brooches at Wetwang and Rudston show that continental influence was still present. By the early first century AD brooches are found only on settlement sites (there are no burials) and belong to the mass produced Colchester, Aucissa, Hod Hill and related forms (Stead 1971, fig.8; Dent 1983a, fig.6). Other fastening devices Apart from pins and brooches some objects from graves could also have performed as clothes fasteners. These include various small bone points and iron staples from Wetwang Slack, a bone toggle from Acklam (Dent 1983c, fig.1, G), and bronze button and loop fasteners and a "collar stud" from Eastburn and Kirkburn (Stead 1979, fig.34, no.6; 1991a, figs. 46 and 69). Bracelets (Fig. 39) Some fine bronze bracelets survive from burials at Arras, Cowlam, Wetwang Slack (fig. 39), Rudston and Burton Fleming (Stead 1979, figs. 27-29; Dent 1982, fig.6). A bracelet with "nut" decoration from Scarborough Castle has been claimed as an early example (Cunliffe 1991, 423) and Staple Howe type pottery and a bronze sword from the same site (Pacitto, in Rigby 2004, 217-223) lend weight to the argument. Knobbed bracelets from Cowlam, Arras and Burton Fleming, of which the last was part of a grave group with an early La Tène Marzabotto fibula, suggest that if the Scarborough piece is early, it was succeeded by a fashion for knobs. A late knobbed bracelet in iron from Wetwang Slack shows that the form continued in use (Dent 1984a). Also in use in early La Tène contexts at Cowlam was a plainer form with "mortise and tenon" fastening, examples of which have been found associated with a variety of brooches, the latest of which was a middle La Tène form from Burton Fleming (Stead 1991a, grave BF 11). Other bracelets in bronze or iron closed with overlapping or abutting ends, or with a hook and eye.

Fig. 38 Coral inlaid brooch with glass bead necklace from Wetwang Slack burial 274 (Photo: Tony Pacitto)

Brooches (fig. 37, nos. 1-12) In the earlier part of the millennium woollen clothes may have been fastened with brooches, but although there are reports of Hallstatt type brooches from York and Boroughbridge (Hull and Hawkes 1987, nos. 7254, 7255 and 7266), these provenances are unsubstantiated and are there are no similar finds from the study area. Although it is possible that a type of coral-inlaid brooch, which retains skeumorphic foot and spring outlines linked by a bow, could originate in the late Hallstatt period (fig. 38; Dent 1995), the type has been found in square barrows at Wetwang Slack and Arras. Penannular brooches have an early origin, but they too are most securely provenanced from iron age burials and at Rudston villa (Stead 1979, fig.26; Dent 1982, fig.4; Stead 1991a, fig.101; 1980, fig. 62). The related "S" type brooch has been found in a grave and associated with ring-headed pins in a domestic pit at Wetwang Slack, as well as at Rudston villa (Dent 1983a, fig.4; Stead 1980, fig. 61). La Tène bow brooches developed through a

Possible use of organic materials is raised by a bracelet from Garton Slack which is made of sheet bronze which has been wrapped around a twisted rope, and riveted together at the terminals (Dent 1983a, fig. 8, E); a shale ring was looped onto the bracelet, as was another on a bronze middle La Tène bracelet with cast eye motifs from Wetwang Slack (Dent 1984a). Shale and jet bracelet fragments were found at Staple Howe, and with residual pottery in an early La Tène barrow mound at Cowlam. Complete examples of shale bracelets 41 41

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE came from graves at Rudston and Burton Fleming (Stead by far the most common were plain blue glass (Stead 1979, 781991a, 90). Fragments of glass bracelets from settlements at 81; Dent 1982, fig.7). Isolated beads from Rudston and Rudston villa, Wetwang Slack, North Cave and elsewhere Wetwang Slack, insignificant as ornaments in themselves, may could be late iron age, but need be no earlier than the Roman once have formed part of larger necklaces of organic beads conquest (Stead 1980, 124-125). which have not survived. Decoration of blue or greenish glass beads included circles or wavy lines filled with a whitish paste (which only survived in the Cowlam and Arras necklaces), Neck ornaments (Fig. 39) melon-shaped beads, and "stratified eyes" of blue spots on Although there is a record of a bronze torc from Arras (Stead white discs marvered onto the bead (ibid., forms 'b', 'c', 'd' and 1979, 80), this has not survived, and extant neck ornaments 'f'). Brown glass beads with three annular channels enclosing consist of bead necklaces and other forms of pendant spots of blue glass occurred, sometimes with the colours decoration (figs. 38, 39). reversed (ibid. form 'e'). Such forms also occur in continental early La Tène cemeteries, but a species of colourless glass bead variously adorned with opaque yellow glass spirals or continuous zigzags (ibid., form 'g') have been found at Meare, Somerset - where they were also made - in middle La Tène contexts (Coles 1987, 81-88). Another bead with middle La Tène associations at Meare is a large knobbed bead in the darkest blue glass with white inlaid spirals on the knobs. This came from a grave in Garton Slack which also contained an involuted pin (Dent 1983a, fig.8, H). The only glass bead from a domestic context was a plain blue bead from Garton Slack (Brewster 1981). Other objects which were probably worn at, or suspended from the neck, include beads or rings of bronze, bone, limestone, and an elaborate diadem from Arras which consisted of a central circular stone, probably Jurassic sandstone, surrounded by three rings of coral pieces (Stead 1979, fig. 34 no.1). A burial at Wetwang Slack contained a pendant formed from a bronze ring, a blue glass bead, and a pair of bronze tweezers (fig. 39; Dent 1984a). Two other graves in the cemetery contained tweezers, and a pair was found at Arras with a scoop or nail cleaner (Stead 1979, fig. 34, nos. 4 and 5). These tweezers were probably for plucking facial hair, the male equivalent from an earlier period being a group of Hallstatt razors from Staple Howe, a site which also produced a pair of tweezers (Brewster 1963, fig.61).

Fig. 39 Glass bead necklace, bracelet and tweezers from Wetwang Slack burial 210 (Photo: Tony Pacitto). Shale and jet, made into ornaments since the neolithic period (Shepherd 1985), were used for beads, pendants and rings, as well as bracelets at Staple Howe (Brewster 1963, figs. 66-68), and continue to appear in the archaeological record, both in graves and domestic contexts, with a particularly fine necklace of shale beads from an early burial at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1984a). Jurassic shale beds, which include the jet seams of the Whitby area, provided a relatively close in situ source for these raw materials, and longshore drift and erosion of erratic material from the glacial till created a supply even nearer at hand on the shore of the North Sea.

Finger, toe and ear rings Four jet rings of the appropriate proportions for a finger were found at Staple Howe (Brewster 1963, fig. 68), but confirmation of such use only comes from discovery on the body, and finger rings from square barrow burials include examples of gold (from Arras), bronze (from Arras, Garton Slack and Wetwang Slack) and bone (from Wetwang Slack; Stead 1979, 86; Dent 1984a). Toe rings of iron were found at Wetwang Slack, of bronze at Rudston, Burton Fleming and Wetwang Slack, and of jet at Burton Fleming (Dent, ibid.; Stead 1991a, 92-94). The best candidate for an ear ring was a horse shoe-shaped piece made from bronze sheet which was found by the head of a female skeleton at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1984a).

The sea shore is also an occasional source of amber, which occurs on the eastern side of the North Sea in much greater quantities. Used for jewellery from earlier periods (for example, at Driffield: Clarke et al. 1985, 93), amber occurred in the form of beads at Wetwang Slack and Kirkburn (Stead 1991a, 93). The smaller number of artefacts in this material no doubt reflects its scarcity in contrast to shale or jet.

Weapons

Necklaces of glass beads from Cowlam, Arras, Garton Slack and Wetwang Slack provide a variety of colours and forms, but

Spears, axes and swords of bronze comprise some of the most 42 42

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 40 Sword scabbards 1. Wetwang Slack burial 453 (chariot burial 1); 2. Wetwang Slack burial 455 (chariot burial 3); 3. Kirkburn (After Raftery 1994; various scales).

common artefacts from the earlier part of the millennium, but these rarely occurred in association with structural remains or burials. A looped spearhead from a pile structure at West Furze, Ulrome (Smith 1911, fig. 9), a sword from Scarborough Castle (Pacitto, in Rigby 2004, 217-223), and a socketed axe fragment from Staple Howe (Brewster 1963, fig.62) are exceptions, as are the possible remains of a bronze helmet of Hallstatt type from a cremation burial at Aldro barrow 108 (Challis and Harding 1975, 42-43). Most metalwork of the period has been found either in hoards, or as isolated finds (Manby 1980, Appendices 2 and 3), and often in bogs. An example is the Ewart Park type sword which was found between the two World Wars in drainage operations at Coneygarth Hill Farm, North Frodingham (Dent 1990a, 107).

developed chapes and are likely to be later than the early La Tène forms. Swords without scabbards still present difficulties, and this applies even to the anthropoid and enamelled examples from North Grimston and Thorpe (ibid. nos. 1 and 6). Stead has suggested, from strong evidence, that the series of east-west burials from Rudston which contained weapons are later than the mainstream of the cemetery tradition, and the only brooch recovered from one was a late La Tène form (burial R 175). It was one such grave which produced the only dagger from the cemetery (burial R 153). Iron spearheads, too, are not closely datable at this time (Stead 1991, 74-79), although they show surprising variety, especially the group found with an early La Tène sword and scabbard at Wetwang (Fig. 41; Dent 1985, chariot burial 1), suggesting that the type could encompass a range of throwing spears or javelins as well as lances or stabbing spears. Iron was not always used: bone points have also been found in circumstances which leave little doubt that they were used in the same way as iron spears (Stead 1991, 78-79). There are no arrowheads datable to this period, and the only form of missile represented, other than spears, is the sling stone. No fired clay sling stones are known from the region, and the best candidate for this type of missile is a collection of smooth pebbles of the appropriate size which filled a shallow scoop outside a round house in Wetwang Slack. Although axes are likely to have been used, there are none from weapon graves to suggest that they were used for fighting.

The chief contrast between the cemetery period and the earlier Staple Howe phase is the replacement of bronze by iron in weapon manufacture, although the earliest square barrows did not, as far as we know, contain weapons. A socketed axe pendant from Arras (Stead 1979, fig. 34, 3) could imply some continuity in use, although conventional views would regard bronze socketed axes as archaic by the second half of the millennium. The earliest iron weapons found so far are three swords with campanulate hilt guards in early La Tène scabbards (fig. 40) from Chariot burials 1 and 3 at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1985; 1990b) and burial K3 at Kirkburn (Stead 1991a, 66-70). Although the Yorkshire scabbards, and the swords which they contained, have been the subject of careful analysis (Stead 1991a, 64-74), none have been found with closely dateable associations. Even so, the scabbards from North Grimston and Bugthorpe (Stead 1979, fig. 21, nos. 3 and 4) have more

Protective equipment, usually found with weapons, includes shields of wood, the presence of which is indicated only when there have been metal bosses or spine bindings (Stead 1979, 55-60; 1991, 61-64). One of these, represented by an iron 43 43

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

3.1.3 Everyday tools Cloth manufacture (figs. 34 and 42) Combs, spindle whorls, bobbins, shuttles, spatulas and weights are object types which can be used in fibre carding, spinning and weaving, although weights may also be used to hold down nets. Combs, capable of untangling (carding) wool to prepare it for spinning, have been found in domestic contexts at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1983a, fig. 4), Garton Slack (Brewster 1981) and Rudston (Stead 1980, fig. 68). At Thwing bun and drum shaped clay spindle whorls were found, as well as others made from carved chalk (Manby 1980b, 322). At Staple Howe of eighteen spindle whorls virtually all were specially made from calcite tempered fired clay, and only one was fashioned from a pot sherd (Brewster 1963, fig.74). The forms ranged from hemispherical to barrelshaped, but the vast majority were biconical, and one was decorated on the carination with finger-tip ornament reminiscent of contemporary bowls and jars in AD ware (see 3.1.1 above). This type is found outside the area in earlier 1st millennium contexts (e.g. Wallingford: Thomas, et al. 1986, Fig.5, 7). At Devil's Hill three chalk whorls and an hemispherical fired clay piece were found with Staple Howe type pottery (Stevens 1986, fig. 1), and chalk rings found in three graves at Rudston and Burton Fleming were identified as spindle whorls (Stead 1991a, 94). At Wetwang Slack the only whorl from an iron age context was made from the ball joint of a cow femur. Perforated sheep metapodials capable of use as bobbins, on which to store the spun thread, have been found at Wetwang Slack, Burton Agnes and Denby, Rudston (De Roche 1994, pers. comm.).

Fig. 41 Types of spearhead from Wetwang Slack burial 453 (chariot burial 1; Photo by courtesy of the British Museum).

The existence of warp-weighted looms is occasionally suggested by post hole settings, but also by weights of fired clay or chalk. At Thwing baked clay weights took the form of cylinders with vertical perforation and truncated cones and pyramids (Manby 1980b, 322), while a pear-shaped chalk weight was also found. Another cylindrical weight was found with late bronze age pottery at Octon Lodge (ibid., 324), and at Staple Howe weights consisted of truncated cones and pyramids (Brewster 1963, fig. 73). At Wetwang Slack fragments of a possible pyramidal form were also found associated with angular pottery in the Staple Howe/Heslerton tradition, but triangular clay weights with three perforations came from late iron age horizons. Between these two chronological extremes the large settlement contemporary with the cemetery period produced many weights of carved chalk, as did the houses in Garton Slack immediately to the east (Brewster 1981).

spine binding, was found with an early La Tène sword and scabbard at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1985, burial 1). Although the shape of the shields is presumed to have been oval, and the area lies outwith the known distribution of hide-shaped shields (Stead 1991b, fig.22), the only representation of an oval shield from the area, a chalk figurine from Garton Slack, is likely to be native Roman and could just as well represent a Roman auxiliary shield as a traditional local form (Stead 1988). The only example of armour from the second half of the millennium, and the most complete example of its type from Britain, if not further afield, is the coat of chain mail found with burial K5 at Kirkburn (Stead 1991a, 54-56). This was a tubular tunic made of thousands of interlaced iron rings, fastened by shoulder flaps which caught on a cantilevered double hook at the chest. Such a piece underscores the strong contrast which exists between the range of banal, everyday objects from domestic contexts, and those chosen for burial with the dead.

A variety of bone points would have been suitable for compressing the weft threads on the warp, but some of these types also seem to have been used as spears (see above). 44 44

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 42 Cloth manufacture. 1. spindle whorl made from ox femur; 2. bone needle; 3. antler comb; 4. bone shuttle; 5. bone needle; 6. pyramidal clay weight; 7. triangular clay weight; 8. chalk weight. Sources: 1-5, 8 Wetwang Slack (Author); 6, 7 North Cave (Author). Scales: various. See also fig. 34.

Sharpened splinters from Staple Howe may have been used in this way (Brewster 1963, fig. 69), but so might trimmed ox ribs flattened into spatulas from Garton Slack (Brewster 1981) and Burton Agnes (Stead, pers. comm.). Bobbins could have been used as shuttles, but more plausible is a blunt ended perforated bone from Wetwang Slack.

Cereal processing There are many saddle and rotary querns from the region as evidence of grain milling. Erratic boulders were used for saddle querns, rubbing stones and hammer stones at Thwing (Manby 1980a, 322). Although no querns were found at Staple Howe, erratics were again used for rubbing stones (Brewster 1963, fig. 45 45

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE 75). Numerous saddle quern fragments, and occasionally diagnostic forms to help with the chronology. How much more complete examples, were found in Garton Slack and Wetwang difficult it is, therefore, to date the querns from Yorkshire Slack, sometimes used as packing stones in the post holes of settlements where pottery is undistinguished and items such as iron age buildings. Examples were also found at North Cave, brooches are very scarce. In northern and Atlantic Scotland, and the form can be traced back to the neolithic period at Kemp where the iron age is represented by a similar poverty of Howe and Carnaby (Manby 1988, 54). material culture, "quern replacement" (the replacement of the saddle by the rotary quern) has been recognized as an important dating indicator in itself (Caulfield 1977). There is no particular reason to suppose that the peoples of the Wolds and their surrounds were any slower to obtain rotary querns than any others in southern Britain, but there are very few examples which can be securely dated to before the Roman conquest. The absence of rotary querns from the large iron age settlement at Garton and Wetwang, where saddle querns were general, is perhaps most telling. It suggests that the settlement flourished before the change in quern technology occurred in the district, and that it did not continue into the late iron age on the same scale. Various tools Wood working tools formed an important part of the later bronze age smith's output, to judge form the occurrence of socketed axes, tanged chisels and socketed gouges in hoards, such as that from Westow (Manby 1980b, 363). At Scarborough Castle these types were found in a domestic context with AD pottery (Smith 1927) and the first two were found with similar pottery at Staple Howe (Brewster 1963, figs. 61-62).

Fig. 43 Base of a rotary quern re-used in a hearth at Wetwang (Photo: Author).

Although many of the rotary querns from East Yorkshire could be iron age, many were found on sites which continued in use into later centuries (Fig. 43). The large number from Wetwang Slack could be native Roman, with the probable exceptions of a quern, found with Rigby's SP pottery in a pit inside round house B11:1, and another found in a secondary child's grave in a square barrow. A collection of saddle and rotary querns excavated by the Granthams in 1951 at Hill Farm, Gransmoor came from an oven or kiln along with iron objects which apparently included a currency bar (Challis and Harding 1975; Loughlin and Miller 1979, 81; E Grantham, pers. comm.).

The greater versatility of iron is shown by the types of tools which survived in graves at Rudston and Burton Fleming (Stead 1991a). Grave R 87 contained a dagger and a hammer; R141 contained a small cache of an awl, a file, a knife and an antler tine (for burnishing?); in addition to a short sword and two spearheads R154 contained a pair of blacksmith's tongs and a hammer; and four other graves contained knives (R 45, R 50, R 141, BF 63). A pair of blacksmith's tongs was also found with two wrought iron pokers in a pit at Garton Slack (Brewster 1981). Pieces of worked wood in the form of a slotted wooden batten and an ox collar from North Cave suggest that spoon bit drills and chisels were also used.

Many of these querns were studied by the writer as part of a survey carried out under the auspices of the Yorkshire Archaeological Society, and co-ordinated by the late Don Spratt. This survey has yet to be brought to completion, but the querns from the Wolds, where hard rock is found only at the northern and western margins, included distinctive examples with iron collars brought from the district of Wharncliffe Crags near Sheffield, and others made from the Millepore Beds at Cayton Bay and Spilsby sandstone from the Lincolnshire Wolds. The Gransmoor querns were made from a variety of erratic rocks, including igneous forms, which could have been found locally in the till of Holderness.

Transport The largest artefacts from the region are the remains of chariots recovered from burials, particularly in recent years at Garton , Wetwang and Kirkburn (fig. 27; Brewster 1981; Stead 1991a; Dent 1985), and the colossal log boat from Hasholme in the Vale of York (Millett and McGrail 1987). The wooden components of chariots consisted of a T-frame of axle and chariot pole, two twelve-spoked wheels, probably with multiple felloes, and a superstructure of unknown form. The essential metal fittings were two iron tyres and four nave hoops to bind the wheel hubs. Linch pins of metal or antler passed through holes in the axle ends and prevented the wheels from coming off (fig. 44). The essential harness included a wooden yoke fitted with five terrets (rein rings: fig. 45) and a pair of snaffle bits. Additional harness could include figure-of-

Although the introduction of rotary querns in the iron age is well demonstrated at Danebury, Hampshire (Brown, in Cunliffe 1984, 412-418), the excavator's own confidence in the pottery sequence used to date the querns is not universally shared (Collis 1985). Similarly, rotary querns were found in the Phase 1 at Gussage All Saints (Buckley in Wainwright 1979, 89-97), but this phase included finds of early and middle La Tène brooches (Collis 1982). These are sites where artefacts and distinctive pottery provide a good corpus of 46 46

MATERIAL CULTURE Assemblages Although the artefacts recovered from iron age sites in the area are only a fraction of the full range which existed, they are the basic dating evidence for most sites, in view of the general scarcity of suitable sample material for dendrochronology, and the present margin of error for radiocarbon dates. The artefacts which come from settlements and burials have differing values for dating purposes. Settlement debris, although it may have been deposited soon after its manufacture (for example, broken pottery or bone artefacts), could also have lain about for a long time until reaching its final archaeological context, whether pit, ditch, layer or even grave filling. Thus artefacts found together in a domestic context need not have been in use up to the same point of burial. Artefacts from graves, on the other hand, were deliberately buried together, although they may have been conserved for many years before hand (such as the repaired chariots from burials in Garton and Wetwang Slack).

Fig. 44 Linch pins in bronze, iron and antler from Wetwang Slack burials 454, 455 and 453 (Photo by courtesy of the British Museum).

The perceived cultural importance of these artefacts is reflected in terminology used to describe them: Hallstatt razors from Staple Howe; La Tène metalwork from square barrows. The most useful and widely distributed artefact, pottery, is of limited use, although this situation may alter in the light of recent research. Even so, Rigby's angular and decorated (AD) pottery, and similar forms which lack any decoration, did occur on the same site as Hallstatt razors, while being totally absent from La Tène graves. The pottery from graves, on the other hand, is not sufficiently distinctive to identify contemporary settlements on its own. Although a useful range of artefacts has come from the cemeteries, forms which were deliberately buried in graves were not usually also the subject of casual discard on settlements, and metal objects seem to have been carefully husbanded, and re-cycled when old or broken. Surprisingly, several object types have occurred both in graves and on settlement sites. Wetwang-Garton alone has yielded brooches (early La Tène, penannular and "S" types), ring-headed pins, a blue glass bead (Garton Slack), an antler linch pin, and moulds for a linch pin and terret). Wetwang Slack cemetery, on the other hand, has produced a rotary quern, while from graves at Rudston came hammers, tongs, knives and spindle whorls.

Fig. 45 Terrets in iron, bronze and coral from Wetwang Slack burials 455, 454 and 453 (Photo by courtesy of the British Museum).

eight strap unions at the yoke ends, and miniature terrets linked by straps to the linch pins. A variety of metal plates and dogs were used to repair splits in the wooden members and reflect the use of aged vehicles in burials.

The La Tène cemeteries may have been in use for three hundred years or more and not only the artefacts buried in them, but also the form burial monument changed over that time. The Wetwang Slack cemetery has provided a guide as to the form these changes took in one cemetery (Dent 1982), but the basic sequences of brooch forms and barrow types can now be compared with the evidence of the Rudston and Burton Fleming groups (Stead 1991a), and to the pottery and other artefacts which were also found there (figs. 61 and 65).

The immense boat from Hasholme was made from an oak with a condition known as brittle heart and measured at least 12.58m in length and up to 1.72m in diameter. The softening of the core of the tree made hollowing easier, but the ends could not be left as in a smaller vessel, and these were built up by means of a transome fitted into a groove cut around the interior of the hull, and a composite punt-like bow. The bottom was also flattened like a punt. Decking had been added at the stern, and there were washstrakes fastened at the forward gunwales with tree nails. Although motive power would have been provided by paddles, none were found in the silted up creek where the boat had sunk. Dendrochronology suggests that the tree from which the boat was made was felled between 322 and 277 BC.

Two iron ring-headed pins that resembled finds from neighbouring graves were found with saddle querns in a pit within a roundhouse in Wetwang Slack (Dent 1983a, fig.4, 3 and 4 for comparison). Saddle querns were the dominant form found in domestic contexts in the large open settlement of Garton/Wetwang. The only quern found in a grave was not a 47 47

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE saddle type, but a rotary quern and came from one of the latest as Moel-y-Gaer, Clwyd where it appeared to have burials in the cemetery. Other rotary querns were grouped chronological implications (Guilbert 1981a; 1981b). Some more clearly in discrete settlement areas that were defined by sites in the region have problems of ground drainage either ditches and associated with pottery of the late iron age and through non-porous subsoils or a high water table. At lowafter. It is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that at Wetwang lying North Cave this was countered by circular or penannular saddle querns were superseded by rotary querns during the life trenches around the house platforms, and at Sewerby clay walls of the cemetery. Closer dating of this event could in future without perishable timber components may have been the prove useful for distinguishing earlier and later settlements solution to the impermeable clay subsoils of Flamborough within the iron age, as has been possible for some Scottish Head. This collected evidence widens the range of brochs (Caulfield 1977). constructional forms already apparent from Garton-Wetwang, and these can be summarized by the following types:

3.2

Settlements (figs. 46-58)

1. Double-ring round houses (DRHs) with: (a) "porch" posts and internal ring; (b) wall gully with terminal post holes; (c) wall gully without terminal post holes; (d) wall gully with "porch"; (e) wall gully with integral post holes;

This examination of settlement remains is in two parts; the first examines the physical elements, such as built structures, pits and ditches; the second looks at their relationships.

3.2.1 Structural elements

2. Single-ring round houses (SRHs) with: (a) ring of posts only; (b) wall gully with terminal post holes; (c) wall gully without terminal post holes; (d) wall gully with "porch"; (e) wall gully with integral post holes; (f) external drainage gully; (g) clay wall; 3. Semi-circular gullies, (a) with terminal post holes; (b) without terminal post holes. 4. Post squares. Archaeological evidence is usually enough to assess the ground area of round houses and can hint strongly at likely constructional techniques (e.g. stone wall or wattle-and-daub wall). Unfortunately, size and construction are likely to reflect date and function, and good evidence of these is rare in East Yorkshire.

Fig. 46 Reconstruction of a roundhouse at Castell Henllys, Dyfed; this standard form of iron age building could be constructed in a variety of ways (Photo: Author).

The site with the largest sample of late prehistoric structures from East Yorkshire is Garton-Wetwang, where more than one hundred can be identified (Appendix 4.5.4). Of these, the round house (fig. 46) is the most common, and this form survives so widely on British iron age sites, and in such contrast to its rarity on the continent, that it has long been considered to be a characteristic of later insular prehistory (Hodson 1964). Other structures from Garton-Wetwang include semi-circular slots (although a Romano-British date may be more likely for these), and rectangular post settings, referred to for convenience here as "post squares", which are also common features of later prehistoric sites in Britain and on the continent (Ellison and Drewett 1971).

At most of the sites in the region where building remains have been found, there have also been traces of other features, such as pits, slots or ditches. These could contain some of the archaeological clues for the purpose and date of particular buildings which are not preserved in the structural remains themselves. Round houses (figs. 47-50; 52-57) A range of constructional techniques has now been tested by experiment, most notably at Butser Hill, Hampshire (Reynolds 1979). Although these provide a useful guide to some of the problems faced by prehistoric builders and ways in which they may have faced them, they chiefly show that there were many ways of building a round house. A house wall may have consisted of stone, clay, turf, or planks, with or without a wooden framework, and either bedded in trenches or resting directly on the ground. A wall could support a conical roof without additional internal supports, but if internal supports

The round houses at Garton-Wetwang show considerable variety, but two main constructional forms can be identified: those with internal supports (double-ring round houses or DRHs) and those without (single-ring round houses or SRHs). This contrast has been seen in other building assemblages, such 48 48

MATERIAL CULTURE Fig. 47 Round house plans:

1, 2 Staple Howe;

3, 4 West Heslerton

5-8 Wetwang Slack

9 North Cave.

2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 double ring houses (DRHs); 7, 8 and 9 single ring houses (SRHs); status of 1 uncertain due to limits of excavation.

were used, this removed the need of a strong load-bearing wall. For example, at Crickley Hill, Gloucestershire, the excavator deduced that an internal ring of posts 11.2m in diameter had supported the roof, and around this a wattle screen on sleeper beams, 15m in diameter, had rested on the ground surface

(Guilbert 1981a; Dixon 1972). These two approaches explain why double (DRH) and single-ring (SRH) houses are represented by the archaeological evidence. Both types have been rebuilt at Butser (Reynolds 1979); the Pimperne House is double ring construction, and the Maiden Castle House is 49 49

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

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Fig. 48 Round house sizes: double- and single-ring houses at Garton-Wetwang, and Garton-Wetwang (undifferentiated) with North Cave and West Heslerton (see Appendix 4.5.4 for measurement data).

single ring; the structurally unstable Baulkesbury House was reconstructed from a single ring of posts which has since been identified by Guilbert as a DRH (Guilbert 1981a, fig.8, H). The diameters of round houses overall at Garton-Wetwang

varied from little more than 4m to nearly 13m, although the large majority (71%) of examples fell within the 6.5m to 9.5m range (fig. 48). With very few exceptions the entrance had

50 50

MATERIAL CULTURE been in the south-east quarter. This group provides a useful were strong suggestions of some sort of "porch" on the southcomparison for other examples from the region. east. Double-ring houses

Although the three structures found on Woldgate at Caythorpe appear to be DRHs, the pottery associated with them is too fragmentary to indicate where in the 1st millennium BC they belong (Abramson, 1996).

The largest DRHs in East Yorkshire were found in a bronze age context at Thwing, where a circle of post holes 17m in diameter enclosed an area around a central urned cremation, but extra posts at the entrance probably indicate the real door position (c.f. Crickley Hill) which would require a wall diameter of over 20m. In the subsequent phase of activity the post ring was 16m in diameter, and outside it was a circular slot (the wall line) 25m in diameter which had two doorways, marked by post hole terminals on the north-west and south-east (Manby 1987). If these structures had actually been roofed, this would have required timbers more than 15m in length. The Hasholme boat (Millett and McGrail 1987) has shown that immense trees were available in later prehistory, but the special nature of the Thwing structure suggests that it was perhaps more ceremonial than purely domestic, and might explain the exceptional dimensions.

At Garton-Wetwang a large number of houses had internal supports, usually with an external ring groove. One contained a pit in which an "S" type brooch and ring-headed pins provided direct parallels for artefacts from graves in the adjacent cemetery. The houses extended along the valley for 1.4km and formed part of a coherent settlement with a similar number of SRH houses. In one case buildings with DRH and SRH construction were linked by a fence line which showed that they had stood at the same time. Single ring houses The earliest single ring houses from the area so far identified appear to be a pair from Wetwang Grange (Wetwang Slack B 11:1), where post holes in rings 8.7m and 9.0m in diameter were linked by the wall slot which indicated that in addition to supporting the roof they had also formed the framework for the wall. Pottery from pits within one of the buildings belonged to Rigby's Wetwang Phases 1 (equivalent to her AD pottery at West Heslerton) and 2 (cemetery period, but possibly earlier). The use of robust timbers along the wall line itself suggests that this could reflect a transition from double ring to single ring construction.

At Staple Howe (Brewster 1963), where despite the denuded profile of the hill top there was ample evidence of circular structures, these were DRH types. In this case the post ring of Hut I was 10m in diameter with a "porch" (the probable door position on the wall line) 0.5m away on the south-east, giving an overall diameter of 11m. Hut II had stood on a terrace on the north-facing slope, but rather than the excavator's reconstruction of this building as an oval structure closely hugging the back scarp of the terrace, the writer would prefer to interpret the surviving post holes as evidence of a ring of posts 5m in diameter, outside which the wall line was indicated by the shape of the scarp and the position of the probable doorway, in the form of two post holes with a sill slot ("Water collector 1") in between, which would give an overall diameter of 7.5m. Parallels for a threshold sill are West Heslerton Structure 1 (see below) and Danebury CF 20 (Cunliffe 1983, figs.46-47). Staple Howe Hut II was built on a terrace partly quarried into, and partly built over, the slope, and the lack of any surviving post holes from the northern part of the building is explained by erosion of the built-up terrace material. This method of construction can be seen in many unenclosed platform settlements in upland locations, such as Green Knowe in Peeblesshire, where double ring houses have also been recognized (Hill 1984).

It is difficult from the large number of SRH types found on the valley floor at Wetwang in close proximity to DRH types to escape the conclusion that the two types were in contemporary use by the second half of the Ist millennium BC. Although square barrows overlie the sites of some SRH houses, finds from both SRH and DRH structures are paralleled by finds from graves. It is not until the end of the millennium and the 1st century AD that houses can be shown to be more or less exclusively single ring structures. This is the case in the several stages of house in a farmstead at Garton-Wetwang (Wetwang Slack, B 7:3, B 7:4; B 7:6; B 7:7), at North Cave, Rudston villa, and probably Sewerby. At Wetwang Slack, North Cave and Rudston 1st century AD brooches probably relate to this phase of occupation.

Several groups of post holes were identified as post-ring round houses at West Heslerton (Powlesland 1985, figs. 54, 55, 58), a site with pottery in the Staple Howe tradition. The best examples of these were Structures 1 and 2, with diameters of 7m and 7.5m respectively. Both of these are likely to have been double-ring houses. The former would include four post holes to the east, which, pace Powlesland, rather than a separate post square would represent two door posts with an external porch and an horizontal threshold sill. The latter would lack the porch suggested by the excavator, and the "porch" would represent the door posts. Structure 6 consisted of a swarm of post holes about 7m diameter around a central hearth, and there

The largest group of SRHs from the region after GartonWetwang is from North Cave, where a high water level has resulted in different archaeological remains. In the few cases where a wall slot survived the dimensions were in the same range as elsewhere. Here the overall dimensions are generally larger than at Garton-Wetwang, but this is because the extant remains consisted mainly of external drainage gullies, the nature of which was confirmed by refuse thrown into the ends nearest to the house door (fig. 49).

51 51

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE and if so this implies that behaviour was directly linked to changing circumstances. There is some evidence from Moel-y-Gaer to show functional diversity among DRHs; this is reflected by the selective distribution of central hearths. Phase 1 (mid-1st millennium BC) was represented by 29 post-ring round houses of Guilbert's double-ring type, of which 11 showed signs of a central hearth (ibid. 106). This selectivity is partly reflected also by size: the larger buildings (as well as some smaller ones) tended to have hearths (ibid. fig. 17). Hearths are virtually absent from East Yorkshire round houses, but so are the floors - removed in most cases by plough action. Staple Howe has never been ploughed, but the prominent knoll has been prone to gravity-assisted erosion. Brewster's Huts I and II both contained traces of burning which could be interpreted as hearths, but Hut III did not. At Sewerby the floors and traces of the lower walls survived beneath the plough soil, but elsewhere traces of floors have been recognized only where they were sheltered in worn hollows, or had subsided into earlier features. Even so, examples are quite rare: one at West Heslerton (Structure 5); two at GartonWetwang (GS 10, house 1 and B 9:4a); one at North Cave (S2). In the British climate hearths are likely to indicate those buildings where people spent significant amounts of time in the cooler parts of the year, as well, perhaps, as those where cooking was carried out at other times of the year. Although activities such as bronze casting might have been carried out indoors, the high temperatures needed for this kind of work would greatly increase the risk of fire, and there is no clear evidence for destruction by fire from the settlements.

Fig. 49 Roundhouse at North Cave, where a high water table required that each house was enclosed by a drainage ditch (Photo: Author)

Pits will be discussed later, but about 40% of the round houses from Garton-Wetwang contained internal pits, although only in a few cases did these look as though they had been deliberately dug to contain bins for storage. About 54% of the houses had pits somewhere close at hand. The number of houses which contained pits shows some correlation with the size: medium size and larger houses were more likely to contain pits than smaller ones. House size did not show any correspondence with the presence or absence of external pits.

At Rudston a series of SRHs was identified beneath the later Roman villa (Stead 1980), and these were represented by ring gullies from which late iron age pottery was recovered. The houses were generally small by comparison with the GartonWetwang series. Although only sampled by excavation, the three round houses from Sewerby are exceptional because they still retained physical remains of their clay walls (Steadman 1991). Of these, only two had any form of foundation trench, while the wall of the third lacked any trace of timber or roundwood uprights, even at the entrance.

Wool processing, for which there is ample artefactual evidence, is likely to have been carried out inside houses. Weaving on a loom is strongly suggested by numbers of stone weights; although there are other possible uses for such objects, the presence of a group of these on the floor of a DRH in Wetwang Slack (WS1, House 2) is strong circumstantial evidence that they had been left there after use on a loom.

This chronological trend from early DRHs to late SRHs supports the evidence of the two occupational phases at Moely-Gaer, where Phase 1 with 29 DRHs was succeeded by Phase 2 with 12 SRHs (Guilbert 1981b).

As has been seen, the earliest round houses employed double ring construction, but by the end of the iron age this method had been completely replaced by single ring forms. Both types had been employed together during the interval, and the greater size available with the double ring suggests that construction may have been determined largely on the basis of spatial requirements. Even so, although some buildings at Wetwang Slack were rebuilt to enlarged diameters (see Appendix 4.5.4,

Function and change There was considerable range in the size of round houses (fig. 48), and although the largest structures were DRHs, buildings in both categories had diameters of between 6m and 10m. The evidence for the development of SRHs from DRHs suggests that as time passed there was less need for very large houses, 52 52

MATERIAL CULTURE B8: 4; B9: 5; B12: 1; B12: 4; B13: 17), only one of these (B8: such as Danebury, Hampshire (Cunliffe 1983, fig.31), 4) saw a change from single to double ring construction. Woodside Camp and Walesland Rath, Dyfed (Williams 1988, figs. 7 and 10), Moel y Gaer, Clwyd and Croft Ambrey, Another factor which might increasingly have come to bear is Herefordshire (Guilbert 1975, figs. 1-2) and Collfryn, Powys the availability of raw materials, principally timber. Although (Britnell 1989, fig.24). Open settlements with concentrations timbers of 15m or more in length needed to roof the Thwing of post squares are less likely to be recognized unless, like structures would be exceptional, continual use of large trees for Garton-Wetwang they have undergone extensive soil stripping, large houses would have had an environmental effect upon the as at Mucking, Essex, where a discrete group of post squares native woodlands, and as time passed the growth of population, forms part of an extensive settlement of round houses (Jones in an increasing number of units, is likely to have reduced the 1974). share of woodland resources available to each social group. Coppice poles or other light materials could be expected in place of vertical timbers, and smaller buildings would reduce the pressure on tall trees for roofing. The experience of the Butser experiment provides a useful perspective on the quantities required to construct a DRH 12.8m in diameter (the "Pimperne House": Reynolds 1979, 100): timber from over 200 trees, round wood from over 80 coppiced hazel stools, 4 tonnes of wheat straw for thatch. Such logistical requirements represent the largest type of house, but even reconstruction of the SRH "Maiden Castle House" required over thirty trees and more than one tonne of thatch, as well as 7 tonnes of daub for a wall less than half the circumference of the Pimperne House (Reynolds 1977, 37). Semi-circular slots Open sided structures are implied by slots at Garton-Wetwang and Welton Wold (Mackey 1998, fig. 3). Brewster related these structures to rectilinear ditched enclosures which he interpreted as iron age ritual features. The semi-circular structures themselves were undated, but their association with the ditched enclosures may be significant. Although in Brewster’s view these enclosures contained no refuse of a domestic nature, nevertheless potsherds, charcoal and animal bones were found within them, and in the opinion of the writer, who excavated comparable enclosures on the same site, the enclosures are most likely to have had a domestic function. Brewster did not consider that the slots were animal shelters, although Mackey was content with this interpretation for the Welton examples. In Wetwang Slack semi-circular slots occurred inside a late iron age/ early Roman ditched farmstead, and a number of immature and adult animal burials in the vicinity suggest that stock rearing formed a significant part of the husbandry.

Fig. 50 Roundhouses and post squares at West Heslerton (after Powlesland 1988).

In East Yorkshire post squares have been found in early 1st millennium contexts at Staple Howe, Devil's Hill and West Heslerton as well as at Grimthorpe (Appendix 4.5.4). In later contexts they were found only at Garton-Wetwang, and were notably absent from North Cave, which might be explained by the high water table.

Post squares. Small, square structures are most commonly represented by four post holes, but can have up to nine, and are a widespread feature of the later bronze and iron ages in Britain and on the continent (Audouze and Büchsenschütz 1992, 62-63).

In size the Yorkshire post settings vary from a little under 2m to around 3.5m square; five or six posts are recorded, and in some cases posts showed clear signs of replacement. Association with round houses suggests mutually exclusive purpose. A pair of squares from Garton-Wetwang shows signs that small mammals lived underneath, and this makes the interpretation as grain stores even more attractive. Within the Garton-Wetwang open settlement there were clear signs that the squares had been grouped in zones, particularly at the western end, and this recalls the special treatment, mentioned

Although these structures have long been interpreted as granaries (Pitt-Rivers 1888, 55), alternative interpretations have been put forward, for example, for a group inside the rampart of the Grimthorpe hill fort, which could have been watch towers (Ellison and Drewett, 1971, 186). The Grimthorpe examples can now be seen to fall into a broader pattern of grouping of post squares in enclosed settlements 53 53

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE above, which such structures also received at enclosed sites lost in the backfilling; two, that they were a deliberate offering elsewhere in Britain. made at the time of backfilling to fulfil a ritual obligation or as an offering in return for future fertility. Neither is capable of Other settlement features proof, but a growing number of finds from pits in the region and elsewhere suggest that these were not careless losses, but In addition to buildings, settlements comprise other elements, part of a common ritual. of which pits, slots, post lines and ditches are the most common. This feature of pit backfilling is reflected in the number of bone combs, pieces of worked shale, and metal pins and Pits brooches from pits at Garton-Wetwang, Burton Agnes, Kilham, Nafferton, North Dalton and Rudston. Pits are a valuable source of information about the function and dating of prehistoric settlements, particularly for the artefacts that they often contain. So much so, indeed, that a recent programme of research on the Wolds has concentrated entirely on the excavation of selected pits from groups plotted by Stoertz for RCHME. Stead and Rigby have examined pits in the large concentrations on Woldgate (Burton Agnes East Field, West Field, and Pit Sites), and in smaller groups at Kilham (West Field and Hanging Cliff), Nafferton, Cowlam, Tibthorpe, North Dalton and Rudston (Denby, North Wood and ’the Enclosure’). Information about these sites is included in Appendix 4.5.3 and see now Rigby 2004. In addition to these excavations, which have not looked at any related structural remains that may exist, pits have also been examined on 1st millennium settlement sites at West Heslerton and Scarborough Castle (Powlesland 1986; Smith 1928). Although many of these pits were probably dug as storage units, most likely for seed corn (a role which has anthropological parallels, and which has been shown by experiment to work in England: Reynolds 1974), their final infilling provided opportunities for disposal of a range of faunal, floral and artefactual remains. There is thus a two-fold interest in their original use and in the manner of their back filling. Evidence of use as storage units is suggested by the presence of some pits inside round houses (noted above), by the rectangular shape of some which suggests that they contained wooden bins, and by the rare survival of burnt grain. Pits in houses can be regarded as domestic storage or "safes", while those outside are more likely to include cereal storage. Not all rectangular pits were found in houses, although this does not necessarily mean that they did not have some form of covering structure which has left no archaeological traces. Most pits have no evidence of any lining, and this includes the only East Yorkshire pit so far to contain a reasonable quantity of burnt grain. This pit, from Garton Slack 9 (Grain Pit 1) contained approximately 600g of burnt matter, from a third of which 1891 caryposes of Hordeum vulgare were recognized (C A Keepax in Brewster 1981, 682).

Fig. 51 Settlement enclosure ditch at Wetwang Grange (Photo: Author).

Although the pits excavated by Stead and Rigby await full publication (but now see Rigby 2004), the likelihood is that the large majority were storage pits. On most of the sites examined the numbers of pits were small, and comparable to the numbers which occur on excavated settlements: enough to meet a moderate local demand for seed corn. The very large numbers of pits found in two areas on Woldgate, where they numbered in hundreds, suggest that there were special reasons for assembling agricultural wealth on that ridge. There are no parallels for this activity from anywhere else in the region, and the best parallel may be the Oxfordshire site of Gravelly Guy, where hundreds of pits were a feature of a settlement in the

The Garton Slack pit was particularly interesting, since on the floor it contained three substantial pieces of smithing equipment: a poker, a paddle and a set of tongs. These are in contrast to the burnt grain, and suggest two possible reasons for their inclusion. One, that after use for grain storage the pit was used to store equipment which was subsequently forgotten and 54 54

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 52 Enclosed settlements: curvilinear enclosures (after Manby 1987, Brewster 1963 and Stephens 1986).

Thames valley (Lambrick 1990), which seems to have operated centralized storage and redistributional facilities for a larger community (Cunliffe 1991, 231). The excavations at Gravelly Guy have yet to be published in full, but preliminary work on the contents of the pits suggests that these too were the result of a ritual element in the backfilling (F Healey, pers. comm.). The two concentrations of pits on Woldgate suggest a common provision made for a number of communities, and not the requirements of a single group, which is supported by the absence of pits in comparable numbers anywhere else on the Wolds. The location of the pits in an area which for millennia had drawn people together for ritual purposes is a clear indication that traditions had continued (figs. 17, 21 and 106).

and occupied a small knoll below the northern escarpment of the Wolds (Brewster 1963); it was enclosed by a free standing palisade, double for much of its length, with a main entrance on the south. The comparable palisaded enclosure at the neighbouring site of Devil's Hill measured 70m x 66m, with entrances on the north-east and south and an external ditch to the palisade (Stephens 1986). The valley floor settlement at Garton-Wetwang contained four early iron age enclosures (figs. 53, 54). A roughly square enclosure in Garton Slack Area 14 was represented by a fragmentary palisade slot 22m by 23m and contained a single ring house (House 2) and some pits. Alignment was on the cardinal points and the entrance was in the east side opposite the house door (Brewster 1981, fig. 303). In Garton Slack Area 19 a ditched enclosure 21m by 19m with no apparent break for an entrance contained a single ring house, and the south side of the enclosure "was cut in the same ditch as the chariot barrow" (Brewster 1976, 114). The interior contained pits with SP pottery, and although the excavator equated the enclosure with continental ritual enclosures, the domestic nature of the assemblage is no less convincing than many others in the valley. In Wetwang Slack Area 9 a single ring house had been enclosed by a rectilinear plan palisade c.31m by 25m with an entrance in the long, east side. The palisade had been replaced by a ditch for all of its course except the east side north from the entrance. Post holes between the door of the round house and the entrance may have formed an 8-post gate structure in the first phase, but are more likely to have supported two post squares of slightly different dimensions.

Slots, post lines and ditches (figs. 52-54, 56) The sites at Thwing, Grimthorpe, Staple Howe and Devil's Hill were all curvilinear enclosures (fig. 52). At Thwing an earlier enclosure was converted into a hill fort in the late 2nd millennium BC by the quarrying of a defensive ditch 115m in external diameter around the former bank, which was enlarged and retained at the front with a continuous timber revetment in a slot, and at the back by timbers in a double line of post holes. Entrances on the north-west and south-east were retained, and there was a central double ring house (Manby 1987). The 3.1ha fort at Grimthorpe was a roughly circular area 180m in diameter and enclosed by a ditch and internal box rampart based upon a double line of post holes, reinforced by rows of timbers in post holes or continuous slots (Stead 1968). The small settlement of Staple Howe measured only 75m x 32m 55 55

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 53. Enclosed settlements: rectilinear enclosures 1 (after Brewster 1980 and Author).

On the hillside north of the valley floor (Wetwang Slack Area 11) was a polygonal ditched enclosure c.76m by 70m with an entrance 2m wide through the southern, shorter side. Inside the enclosure were two single ring round houses, one of which contained pits with AD type pottery (fig. 53). A recut of the

ditch contained Romano-British pottery as well as derived earlier material, among which were mould fragments for chariot and harness fittings (fig. 51). There were also traces of a palisade slot and post line on the west side, but this appeared to date to the Romano-British period. 56 56

MATERIAL CULTURE At North Cave a number of ditched or slotted curvilinear The consistency in size of these rectilinear enclosures, all of enclosures were associated with single ring houses (fig. 56). which are rather greater than the largest square barrow, but One of these (1:324) was a series of drainage ditches which none of which reach 1 hectare in area, places them firmly into enclosed an area 40m by 35m in which were houses S:10 and Class 3b and suggests that the optimum size for farmsteads or S:362; the drainage ditch of the latter was linked into the comparable domestic enclosures lay within this range. general system. A sinuous slotted enclosure (1:177) 30m by Computer sorting by cluster analysis of the complex crop mark 27m around house S:8 had a southern entrance, and there was a enclosures on the Bunter Sandstones of North Nottinghamshire narrow lane or space on the west between it and a similar and South Yorkshire identified a precisely similar group of curvilinear slot, 1:174. Fragments of another, more rectilinear enclosures amid larger field systems (Hayes 1981, Group 4). and double slot (1:486) were associated with house S:500. The size range is similar for curvilinear as well as rectilinear Unlike Garton-Wetwang the enclosures at North Cave appear enclosures, and may be seen, for example in the Scottish to have been intended to distinguish the territories of Borders, where defended farmsteads are distinguishable from neighbouring houses, some in the form of slots (possibly larger hill forts chiefly on the basis of size. Four sites in the hedges) and some as drainage ditches. The respect shown, in central Tweed valley excavated by the writer between 1990 laying out these features, for existing structures is remarkable, and 1993 as part of the Newstead Project are all comparable in and the overall pattern almost suggests that the settlement was area to the Yorkshire sites mentioned above. All contained at arranged in "streets". least one round house, three were curvilinear and one was subrectangular (Jones, et. al. in preparation). Dating of the last stages of iron age culture in the region is made more difficult by the overlap which seems to have Such consistencies across space, and perhaps time, are likely to existed with incoming Roman influence, both before and after be the empirical result of cultural development among agrarian the absorption of the area into the Roman province. Many societies. The structural features of East Yorkshire settlements rectilinear ditched enclosures contain hand made native type of the late 2nd and 1st millennia BC have been described by pottery well into the second century, and it is clear that Roman category. Attention will now be turned to the spatial commercial pottery industries were slow to supplant traditional relationships of those elements from site to site. skills. The ditches of rectangular enclosures associated with single ring houses at Rudston and Garton-Wetwang were 3.2.2 Use of Space allowed to fill up in the later 1st and 2nd centuries AD. Although no internal structures were located, the so-called The use of space in and around settlements can be examined at “fortlet" enclosure at Langton Villa (Corder and Kirk 1932) different levels: the internal arrangements of buildings, the contained only "native" pottery, as did ditches of enclosures at layout of domestic enclosures, the distribution of the different Blealands Nook, Wetwang (Dent 1983b), Crossgates, Seamer elements of a settlement, and the wider use of settlements and (Rutter and Duke 1958), Driffield (Phillips 1960), Old their supporting field systems. Bridlington (Dent in Earnshaw and Watkins 1984, 19-20), Rillington (Turnbull 1983) and Sewerby (Didsbury in Buildings (fig. 46, 47, 55) Steadman 1991, 32-34). Only at Brantingham did the presence of cordoned and shouldered bowls of Aylesford tradition (figs. Ethnographic studies show that the round house can serve a 35, 36) confirm that the native pottery in the rectilinear ditched variety of purposes, such as sleeping, working and eating enclosures was pre-Roman (Dent 1989). accommodation, kitchen, store house, stable, cow shed and barn (e.g. the homesteads of the Massa at Yagoua, Cameroun Although many of the enclosures listed above are fragmentary, and of the Mousgoum at Gaia, Cameroun: Fraser 1968, figs. where the plan is known, most arrangements conform to a 52-53). The ability to distinguish such diverse uses from rectilinear pattern which has already been seen in the cemetery archaeological evidence depends chiefly on the quality of period enclosures at Garton-Wetwang. In Wetwang Slack survival, although the number of houses in a settlement is also Area 7 a fenced enclosure c.70m by c.30m, represented by post significant: in a settlement with surviving domestic refuse and holes, had preceded an early Roman ditched version. The only two round houses it is unlikely that the buildings operated enclosure was divided into three roughly equal areas, again by only as stables or barns. In a large settlement like Gartonlines of post holes, and the central area contained a sequence of Wetwang all forms may be represented, but even in the single ring houses. Associated finds included rotary querns, absence of surviving floor surfaces, size and internal cut triangular loom weights and a Colchester type brooch. features may provide enough information for an informed guess. At Langton the rectilinear ditched enclosure recorded beneath the villa measured 45m by 30m. At Sewerby a sequence of The most promising interpretations of use of space in buildings clay walled single ring houses had occupied the centre of a come from sites where floor levels survive and objects have rectangular ditched enclosure c.60m by 50m, one of at least six been found in situ on them. Drewett's interpretation of the use such conjoined enclosures. A series of similar, but double of hut 3 (a double ring house) at Black Patch, Sussex is based ditched enclosures on Woldgate surveyed by A L Pacitto upon the mutually different distributions of internal pits included three with convincing central circular anomalies. (storage) and loom weights (weaving), although the more These measured c.60m by 50m, c.80m by 40m and c.50m by general scatters of flint flakes and fire-cracked flints are less 40m (information courtesy of I M Stead). 57 57

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 54 Enclosed settlements: rectilinear enclosures 2 (Author).

convincing evidence of leather working and pottery making (Drewett 1982). Finds from a double ring house at Dunston Park, Berkshire were concentrated in one part of the structure, which Fitzpatrick suggests indicates an internal division into sleeping and working areas rather different to the Black Patch pattern (Fitzpatrick 1994). This interpretation would be more convincing if so many of the finds had not been found in post holes, which is a strong indication that they were lying around before the house was built. Finds from internal pits are also likely to include a proportion of derived material.

after the building had been abandoned. If this impressive structure is indicative of round houses in general, then the ploughing of floors at North Cave, Garton-Wetwang and West Heslerton may not have removed a great deal of indicative artefactual material. However filthy house floors may have become when in use, many must sooner or later have been swept clean, or the matting that covered their floor taken out and shaken, leaving the archaeologist all the poorer.

It would be reasonable to suppose that in houses with eastern doorways (the vast majority) the darkest part of the interior would be the southern part (assuming there were no windows). The internal pits in Hut 3 at Black Patch were in this part of the house, but although some of the Garton-Wetwang pits occupied similar positions, others were at the western side, opposite the doorway, and others were to the north. The only consistent feature about the location of internal pits was that they were not in the middle of the floor, but towards the wall in single ring houses and between the rings in double ring houses. Several weights were found on the floor, just north of the doorway in one Wetwang Slack house, and this may reflect a work place with maximum light. In general however insufficient artefacts have been found in situ on floor surfaces to provide clues to the internal activities of houses.

Although the complete plans of many houses have now been examined, the excavation of larger settlement units has been limited by opportunity and resources. Small enclosures containing houses have been recovered completely, as far as their cut features are concerned, at the quarry sites of GartonWetwang and North Cave. Elsewhere it has been possible to look at a part only of the whole. To judge from sites elsewhere, such as Danebury and Moel y Gaer, the larger an enclosure the better the scope for clear recognition of functional zoning within the boundaries.

Enclosures (figs. 31, 52-54)

Excavations at Grimthorpe, one of the two largest enclosures on the Wolds, has produced evidence not of round houses, but of post squares in the rampart area (Stead 1968). In this respect there are resemblances to other hill forts which have concentrated storage facilities (see "post squares", 3.2.1 above). Pits and round houses were absent from the modest portion of the interior that was excavated.

The only round house with a complete floor excavated by the writer was not in Yorkshire, but at Whitrighill, Berwickshire in 1992 (Batey 1992; Jones et al. in preparation). The internal diameter of this single ring round house was 12m, but no artefacts were found on its cobbled floor except for a few fragments of bone which could have been left there by animals

The full publication of the Thwing hill fort has yet to appear, but interim reports show that a single very large double ring house was the central feature in two successive stages, the first 58 58

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 55 Unenclosed roundhouses at Wetwang Slack where they formed part of an extensive open settlement along the valley floor (Photo: Author).

when it was enclosed by a ditch and external bank (fig. 52). This phase also saw bronze working (Taunton industrial phase of c.1400-1200 BC) outside the banked area. The second phase saw the construction of a second, massive ditch outside the bank, which was enlarged into a timber revetted rampart with diametrically opposed entrances on north-west and southeast (Manby 1987). The scale of the central building, and the cremation deposit at its heart strongly suggest ceremonial importance, and it is particularly interesting that no evidence of storage facilities, either as post squares or as pits, was found in the enclosure.

example, the scooped enclosures of Peeblesshire: RCAHMS 1967). Garton-Wetwang provides the fullest record of the arrangement of features inside small enclosures (figs. 53, 54). In Garton Slack Area 14 the small square palisaded enclosure contained only a single round house, with internal pits (for household storage?), pits behind the house and between the house door and the enclosure entrance, and no post squares. Penannular brooches and a glass bead were found in the house and a bronze bracelet came from a pit outside the enclosure. These could be domestic losses, and despite morphological similarities between the enclosure and the iron age "temple" at Hayling Island, Hampshire (King and Soffe 1994), are not enough to suggest a ritual function for the Garton Slack enclosure. Even so, such a function would not necessarily attract ritual offerings when contemporary burial rites offered an equally appropriate opportunity for disposal of such commodities.

From a later phase, Staple Howe and Devil's Hill are smaller settlements (fig. 52). These palisaded enclosures are southerly members of a wider group, which is particularly well represented by examples in the Cheviot and Tweedsmuir Hills (Ritchie 1970). Information is far from complete concerning the internal arrangements of the two sites, but Staple Howe was the most extensively examined. From their size they are suitable for an extended family at most, and the selection of defensible knolls (in contrast to the level ground of the neighbouring West Heslerton settlement) suggests that defence was an important factor. In this respect it is interesting that the central, highest point of both knolls was occupied by post squares, rather than round houses. Should any animals have been kept within the enclosure, these would need to have been down the slope and closer to the margins, whereby effluent from them would have run away from the buildings. Such considerations are difficult to recognize in settlements where there is little or no fall in ground level, but they are a noticeable feature of late prehistoric farmsteads in upland areas (for

In Wetwang Slack Area 9 a double ring round house with one internal pit occupied the centre of a palisaded rectangular enclosure, which was subsequently re-defined by a ditch. Storage facilities, or just possibly a gate structure, took the form of two post squares at the entrance to the enclosure. Five shallow pits occupied the space immediately outside the house, on either side of the doorway. The only other pit was a later inhumation grave which may have been cut into the remains of the house in the belief that it was a burial mound. A larger, irregular ditched enclosure on the hill side north of 59 59

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 56 Open settlement at North Cave (Author).

the valley floor settlement (Wetwang Slack, Area 11) contained two round houses immediately inside the southern entrance. These both contained internal pits, and there were others between them. A post square in the south-east corner of the enclosure may have been for storage, although a central hearth suggests that this may have been a shelter for a smithy, in which case it was sensibly located as far as possible from the houses and in their lee from the prevailing wind.

At North Cave (fig. 56) the domestic core containing round houses may have covered an area of c.0.8ha., and was situated on a boundary and communications axis which extended from higher, drier ground on the east to the edges of Walling Fen on the west. Although there are house sites clearly indicated by enclosing drainage ditches, no post squares were found, which may reflect the drainage problems of the site, or could indicate that cereal production was not part of the farming economy. Houses were separated from one another in several cases by fence or hedge lines, and industrial facilities in the form of tower furnaces for iron smelting were situated downwind on the southern side of the site. Pottery may have been made on the site, for iron slag was used as a filler; if so, no location for this activity was recognized.

Open settlements (figs. 50, 55-57) Only at West Heslerton, North Cave and Garton-Wetwang have open settlements been excavated on any scale, in each case following destruction of part of the site by quarrying. The large number of post holes at West Heslerton came from an area only c.1ha in extent (Powlesland 1986), and provide many possible combinations, but even so it is clear that round houses and post squares were both represented (fig. 50). These were bounded on the north by linear earthworks which separated the settlement from an area of earlier round barrows. If these barrows were respected by the settlers, the ground where they stand could represent grazing. Where arable fields lay is not known, but later boundary ditches directed movement towards the east and west, and cultivated land may have lain in those directions.

The Garton-Wetwang settlement (fig. 55, 57), some 1.5km long and 15ha in extent, dwarfs in scale not only the above settlements, but most of the known open sites in Britain, with some notable exceptions such as Mucking in Essex (Jones 1974). Central to the structure of this settlement is an axial trackway which was never marked by side ditches, but which can be inferred from the alignment of boundaries, square barrows and other features, as can a series of boundaries at right angles to it. The valley floor occupied by these features is 200m wide, that is, about the same as the drove way settlement in Bell Slack. The settlement contains more than 100 buildings, including double- and single-ring round houses 60 60

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 57 Open settlement at Garton-Wetwang. Open circles: round houses; open squares: post square “granaries”; solid squares: square barrows; broken line: axial trackway (Author).

and post squares and the two rectangular enclosures described above (Garton Slack Area 14 and Wetwang Slack Area 9).

the communal cemetery and restrict any further growth (Dent 1982). A zone of round houses and post squares beyond these limits on the west could be an indication that strains were being put on traditional boundaries by agricultural expansion and population pressure. The length of the settlement suggests that cultivated land began immediately behind the domestic/burial zone on either side of the axial road, and on the south side cultivation probably led to hill wash which survived in boundary and barrow ditches.

The earlier discussion of round houses and pits suggested that different functions may be reflected by the presence or absence of internal and external pits, and by the use of single- or double-ring house construction, but the settlement as a whole was occupied by all types without any particular zones being apparent. Functional zoning for the settlement as a whole would, in any case, have been difficult given the time taken to walk from one end of the settlement to the other. Even so, storage facilities represented by post squares were concentrated, with the largest number of "granaries" at the west end of the settlement, presumably ready to receive produce from fields in that direction.

The settlement on the valley floor cannot be treated in complete isolation from the contemporary enclosed site on the hill slopes to the north. The elevated location of the smaller site and its enclosure, rather than any architectural distinction, suggest that this was where the top stratum of the community is likely to have lived, upwind and uphill from the majority.

This distribution suggests that farming families lived at intervals along the drove way and each had need of a range of functional buildings, including domestic dwellings, work places and possibly storage units and animal houses. The sort of patterning found in larger pre-industrial communities (Sjoberg 1960) could be reflected in part in this smaller group. With a westerly prevailing wind the location of the majority of storage facilities, and one of the two enclosures, at the west end of the settlement would reduce danger from fire and the impact of domestic smoke or unpleasant smells. The more westerly enclosure may, therefore, represent the residence of a socially eminent person, while the more centrally located enclosure would be more appropriate to specialized communal facilities, perhaps of a religious nature (see above).

Landscapes (figs. 4, 58) Although there are ethnographic examples where farmers walk several miles to their fields, usually they travel no further than they need to (Chisholm 1962). In East Yorkshire the main natural obstacle to successful farming is water. In the low lying areas a high water table can retard successful arable development until expensive steps are taken to drain off surplus ground water. This seems to have happened at North Cave in the early Roman period, before which animal husbandry may have dominated the rural economy of that part of the Vale of York. On the higher Wolds scarcity of drinking water is a problem for cattle and humans, but less so for sheep, and most crops can obtain adequate moisture from the soils. The general absence of rectilinear enclosures and field systems from the higher Wolds is probably a direct reflection of their distance from surface water, and the richer range of resources which streams and pools bring, such as fish, water fowl,

The settlement incorporated a major linear feature, the Great Slack trackway, but the homes of both the living and the dead were framed within a secondary system of boundary earthworks which was recut in the middle iron age to contain 61 61

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 58 Settlements and land use: interpretations of the iron age landscape at Garton-Wetwang and Bell Slack. Close hatching: iron age cemeteries; triangles: storage areas.

thatching materials, and clay for making pottery and household objects as well as for building.

appear on photographs as ditched corridors linking settlements, and excavations at Garton-Wetwang and Rudston-Burton Fleming show that they formed a focus for iron age burials. South of Burton Fleming the course of the Great Wold Valley trackway (see 4.4.1, no. 11d) is indicated not by ditches but

It is clear from aerial photographs that communities shared an extensive network of roads and trackways. Many of these 62 62

MATERIAL CULTURE solely by the distribution of square barrows in the Makeshift The extended nucleated settlement model, with its implications cemetery (figs. 63, 65). Linear trackways linking settlements of unified planning and co-ordinated communal husbandry and boundaries which divide them provide, with field systems, practices, could equally be applied to the Garton-Wetwang cemeteries and domestic enclosures the best indication which settlement, which does not straddle a major boundary, but is we can reasonably expect of how the landscape was used in similar in size and shape and seems also to have had an open later prehistory. A model of how these monuments interrelated field system (fig. 58). in the Rudston area (fig. 21) provides one possible interpretation of how the landscape developed. 3.3 Burials (figs. 59-66)

Fig. 59 Typical iron age crouched inhumation (type A) from Rudston (Photo: Ann Dent). Fig. 60 Iron age burial types A, B, C and D:

In this model scattered farms and burials were a feature of the settlement core where arable was concentrated. Outside the marked boundaries of this core, equivalent to the "head dykes" of a modern hill farming settlement, was outfield grazing where most of the burials came to be concentrated. Beyond this was the boundary with an adjacent settlement's territory. As a result of agricultural growth and colonization this boundary lost its former significance and was built over by three new nucleated settlements, two of which contained their own integral cemeteries. Unlike the scattered holdings of the older core area, the new farmsteads were grouped together to form ladder settlements. Given the evidence of a mixed farming economy, some, at least, of the land around these settlements must represent former arable fields. If this is the case, then the scarcity of visible divisions suggests that cultivation was carried out according to a common plan and a common timetable, as it was in the open fields of medieval England.

A: Wetwang Slack 274; B: Rudston 174; C: Wetwang Slack 454 (chariot burial 2): D: Wetwang Slack 301.

The burials of the region have been the subject of intensive study by Stead, who has described in full the traditions of the Arras Culture and its antecedents, and his own excavations at Rudston, Burton Fleming, Garton Station and Kirkburn (Stead 1979; 1991). Modern excavations of smaller cemeteries have been published from Scorborough, Cowlam (Stead 1976; 1986), Garton Slack (Brewster 1981; Dent 1983a), Grindale (Manby 1980a); Potter Brompton (Johnson 1993) and Carnaby (Abramson 1996). A very small number of later bronze age burials is known from the region (Manby 1980b), but of these, only a small pair of ring ditches from Wetwang Slack can be placed into a wider 63 63

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE archaeological landscape. Otherwise, the vast majority of weapons) and one with a mirror, all accompanied by pig bones burials belongs to the iron age and the square barrow tradition. (Dent 1983a; 1985). Stead noted that burials with chariots and pig bones were also found at Arras.

3.3.1 Burial rites (figs. 59-60)

The cemeteries excavated by Stead contained square barrows with primary central graves, and a very few with secondary graves in ditches or on the barrow platform. Secondary barrow burials were found at Danes Graves (Stead 1979, 99-101), but at Wetwang Slack there were more than 200 such burials, 170 of them from ditches (Dent 1984). These included contracted, crouched and flexed corpses, without coffins and often in cramped grave pits, which although mostly oriented northsouth, on occasion would follow the lines of east-west enclosure ditches. There were clear social distinctions, for grave goods were almost non-existent and most of the children found in the cemetery were in this type of grave. This form of burial is so unlike the others, and is so distinctive that it justifies its classification as a fourth type, D.

Excavation of several large cemeteries and a number of smaller groups or isolated barrows has provided a corpus of more than one thousand burials from which to identify recurring burial practices. From his excavations at Rudston and Burton Fleming Stead has been able to recognize repetitive features in three particular groups, A, B and C (Stead 1991, 179-180). Of these type A is the normal rite, and consisted of a crouched or contracted corpse, sometimes in a coffin, and lying with head to the north, facing east. Occasionally the head was to the south, and more rarely the body was laid on the right side. This orientation and position was also normal at Danes Graves, Garton Station and Wetwang Slack (Stead 1979; 1991; Dent 1984), where the bodies were sometimes flexed. Although grave goods varied from site to site, a brooch was the most common artefact at Rudston, Burton Fleming, Danes Graves and Wetwang Slack, and these preserved traces of cloth which suggests that bodies were clothed for burial. Decorations in the form of bracelets and glass beads also occurred, but the latter occurred in large numbers only at Wetwang Slack. Meat offerings, represented by the humerus of a sheep, and pots, either whole or in part, were found at all four cemeteries, although pots were rather rare at Wetwang Slack.

The differing quality apparent in type A, C and D burials does not appear to be a chronological phenomenon. Early La Tène scabbards from type C burials at Wetwang overlap chronologically with early and middle La Tène brooches from type A burials in the adjacent cemetery, showing that although the scale or richness of these burial types varied, they were broadly contemporary. Secondary burials in barrow ditches (type D) were sometimes themselves disturbed by later barrows, although evidence of family re-use of barrows could indicate that the process was carried on over some generations (see below). The basic difference between the three types of the north-south aligned graves is thus essentially one of quality, and this implies differing social status.

Type B consisted of a flexed or fully extended body with head to east or west. To the burials of this form from Rudston and Burton Fleming may be added only one from Wetwang Slack (Dent 1984, burial 186), and possibly the Huntow barrow at Grindale (Manby 1980a, 33-38). Grave goods were rather different from the normal rite: only one grave contained a brooch, but others contained swords, spears, tools, knives and spindle whorls, and none contained a pot. Meat offerings took the form of pork: half a pig's skull and the adjoining fore limb being preferred.

If the difference between types A, C and D is likely to be social rather than chronological, the evidence of grave goods suggests that although type B may have been distinguished by social factors, the difference could also have been chronological. The only brooch found in a type B grave was of La Tène III construction and the only other brooch made in this way came from a very late grave at Wetwang Slack. Very limited stratigraphical evidence also suggested that type B was later than type A (Stead 1991, 180).

Although the burial position at Garton Station and Kirkburn was similar to type A, other characteristics of some burials here persuaded Stead that they belonged to another variation, type C. Type A grave goods were absent: there were no brooches, nor sheep humeri, and the only pot was with a secondary burial oriented east-west. Grave goods were found mostly with males: two chariot burials, two with swords, and at least one with a shield, while four corpses had been ritually showered or stabbed with spears once in the grave. A female burial contained a bronze stud, an amber bead, and a distinctive type of early La Tène hollow copper alloy ring, which has the distinction of being the only definite metal import from the continent (although pieces of coral and some glass beads are also likely to have been imported). Meat was always pork, and the cuts were similar to those in type B graves. In Wetwang Slack the large cemetery had a small number of graves with flexed corpses and pig bones, but not with distinguished grave goods. Smaller groups in the valley were more like the Garton Station-Kirkburn group: four with chariots (including two with

Barrow burials, or secondary burials in or around barrows, were not the only form. Miscellaneous crouched or flexed burials have been found at, for example, Wetwang Slack, although they lack diagnostic artefacts to show whether or not they were made during the iron age. At Acklam Wold, however, a flat type A grave contained a bent iron age sword; moreover, the burial was that of an adult male whose skull bore several sword wounds (Dent 1983c). Here the ritual differs from the cemeteries, but can be compared superficially with other graves with weapons where no barrow is definitely known (Grimthorpe, North Grimston, Bugthorpe also on or below the western escarpment, and Garton Station: Stead 1979, 99, 102; Dent 1983c, 124).

64 64

MATERIAL CULTURE The small number of surviving barrows, even in Greenwell's day, had reduced the opportunity of recovering any burials which had lacked graves and been laid on the old ground surface. One of the few such burials with recorded grave goods was found by Greenwell at Cowlam (fig. 12), and among the objects was a "Marzabotto" type brooch of the earliest La Tène construction (Stead 1986). Crop marks of one of the Bell Slack cemeteries provide a sharp contrast between clear, large ditches with little or no sign of a central grave, and regular groups of very obvious grave pits within indistinct enclosures (Stead 1991, fig. 18). The brooches found in the excavation of part of this group confirmed the chronological distinction: a large barrow (BF 61) contained a "Marzabotto" type brooch, comparable to the Cowlam brooch, in a shallow grave only 0.2m deep. Of the deep graves in small barrows, three contained brooches (BF 29, 31, 41; two had incomplete ditch circuits), and these were all involuted types equivalent to the later stages of the Wetwang Slack cemetery. This group is small, but the distribution of brooches from Rudston and Burton Fleming in general shows a tighter distribution of later types in relation to grave depth and barrow size (fig. 61). Another group of graves which appeared on aerial photographs without their enclosing ditches is the Argam Lane group at Rudston (fig. 63; Stead 1991, R 190-208). When exposed, only one of these was still completely enclosed by a square ditch, but there was evidence of at least nine more enclosures and spacing for another seven. The shallowest of the graves was 0.4m deep, and seven contained involuted brooches. This group, although small, was generally late in its characteristics, although there were no type B burials. There is a strong similarity between the compactness of the later graves in Bell Slack and Argam Lane and those at Wetwang Slack (fig. 58), particularly in the tendency of barrows to form rows with shared barrow ditches (spacing would suggest that some graves had shared ditches at Argam lane). Three groups of barrows at Rudston shared ditches (2629; 42-44 and 154-161/164-166/171-172), but of these only burial 27 contained a brooch, of involuted form. Two of the groups contained type B burials, one of which contained a sword (154). Type B graves were frequently deep, and barrow platforms were also small and often incomplete. Some barrow ditches at Wetwang Slack enclosing late type A burials were almost circular in plan, and at least four type B burials at Rudston were enclosed by ring ditches. Ring ditches were also a feature of six of the Garton Station and Kirkburn barrows (fig. 62) which also shared deep graves and contained type C burials (GS 4, 5, 7, 10 and K 3 and 4).

Fig. 61 Barrow morphology and grave goods. Burial attributes at Wetwang Slack (all type A burials) distinguished Group 1 barrows (without surviving graves) from Group 3 small barrows with deep graves, which were associated with involuted brooches. Other brooch types were found in intermediate Group 2 barrows. At Rudston-Burton Fleming involuted brooches also belonged to a discrete group of barrows containing type A burials, but in less deep graves. The deepest graves here were associated with type B burials and included many with weapons (solid circles). Sources: Wetwang Slack – Dent 1982, fig. 8; Rudston-Burton Fleming data – Stead 1991a.

3.3.2 Barrow morphology (figs. 61-65) There is evidence from Wetwang Slack for increasing homogeneity in the form of the burial monument (Dent 1982). The earliest barrows included large enclosures with shallow graves, or no surviving grave at all, but there was also wide variation in barrow and grave size. The latest burials on the other hand were found in deep graves with a smaller range of barrow size, and the enclosing ditches were often quite ephemeral, with whole sections removed by plough action.

The Garton Station-Kirkburn burials (figs. 25, 62 and 72) provide some anomalous enclosures, not all of which need have been barrows. The unusual topographical situation, where a stream comes to the surface in wet seasons, may account for rituals not found at other sites. The spearing of burials is unique, and so are enclosures with entrances. Six of the enclosures had a break in the ditch on the western side, and in two of these (both lacking central graves) a trenched 65 65

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE enclosure had preceded the ditched phase (enclosures H and J). has a potential use for sites where excavation has not taken A large enclosure (L) contained only secondary Anglian place. Many isolated barrows and small cemeteries appear to graves, and may never have contained a mound. A fourth belong to groups 1 and 2, but some clusters with type 3 enclosure contained a single Anglian secondary, and the last characteristics are known at Maiden's Grave Farm and to the two were circles with deep graves and weapons (GS4 and east of Burton Fleming village and in the lower section of Bell GS10). Slack. At Bell Slack the relative positions of the groups corresponds sufficiently with domestic enclosure ditches to Stead's burial types are a rationalization of the practices which suggest that the earlier part of the cemetery had been enclosed he found at Rudston, Burton Fleming, Garton Station and while other barrows were still being constructed beyond the Kirkburn. A fourth type, represented by secondary burials, enclosures. This has particular importance because it shows was not present in significant numbers at Stead's sites, but was that the settlement developed its essential shape and boundaries particularly common at Wetwang Slack, where type A was the while the cemetery was in use, and offers a comparison for predominant form and type C occurred outside the main another group of burials which were part of a ladder settlement cemetery. at Blealands Nook, Wetwang (Dent 1983b, fig.2). Only at Wetwang Slack (fig. 64) is there a clear evidence of how the cemetery developed, based upon stratification and not grave goods. The morphology of the barrows suggests that there were three basic forms, based upon the depth of the grave:

3.3.3 Anatomical evidence The physical evidence of the population occupies an inappropriately small proportion of this study, but in the main this is because of the very limited amount which has so far been learned from the bones. The skeletal data from Wetwang Slack, Rudston, Burton Fleming, Garton Station and Kirkburn are available for study and need not be described in detail here (Dent 1984; Stead 1991).

Group 1. Enclosures, usually large, with no surviving central burial; Group 2. Enclosures of varying size with shallow, medium depth or occasionally deep graves;

The iron age population represented in the Yorkshire cemeteries had dolichocephalic skulls, that is long and narrow with high vaults and long, fairly narrow faces. At Wetwang Slack the average height of adult males was 1.67m (5ft. 6ins.), and adult females 1.56m (5ft. 1½ins.). This was slightly smaller than the average recorded in Stead's excavations, which for males was 1.71m and females 1.58m.

Group 3. Enclosures, never large, and sometimes curvilinear, with deep graves (0.6m and over). Ten barrows of group 1 occupied early positions in the cemetery, while only one occupied a late place. Naturally, no grave goods were found in these cases. Most of the primary burials in the early and middle stages of the cemetery belonged to type A and group 2. Late grave goods invariably accompanied type A burials in group 3 barrows, which were also the latest in stratigraphical chains (Dent 1984). Type D burials occurred as secondary burials in all three groups of barrow.

Determination of life expectancy is complicated by the inadequacies of tooth attrition as an ageing technique, in which it is assumed that teeth are worn down thoroughly by the mid40s, even though dietary conditions are uncertain; also by the large number of skeletons in which male and female attributes are not sufficiently distinctive. In general there seem to be approximately equal numbers of males and females at Rudston, Burton Fleming, Garton Station and Kirkburn, but a higher proportion of women than men at Wetwang Slack. All sites show a higher proportion of women than men dying during the peak child rearing years of 17-25, but at Stead's sites male deaths predominated in the 26-35 range. Very few individuals reached their late 40s at any site. The largest number of children and infants was found at Wetwang Slack, where they formed a large proportion of the type D burials. Bone ailments such as rheumatoid arthritis, and dental disorders were common, and there were also broken bones. Violent death was represented at both Rudston and Wetwang Slack, and could be evidence of warfare (Dent 1983c). 3

This deepening of graves and the presence of circular ditches was also seen in the later stages of the cemeteries of Burton Fleming and Rudston, where the occurrence of weapons with type B graves can be compared with the sword and shield from a late burial (98) at Wetwang Slack. Other deep graves containing weapons were found in circular barrows at Garton Station and Kirkburn, but in contrast to the evidence of late iron age date from the other sites, the Kirkburn sword was in an early La Tène scabbard generations earlier than the other burials described. This suggests that social, as well as chronological, influences were at work. As we have already seen, the differences between burial types A, C and D are social rather than chronological. With two different sets of criteria in operation it is possible that similar burials from different cemeteries were the result of comparable social aspirations at different times. The social implications of the burial evidence will be discussed below.

3

Human skeletal material from Wetwang Slack is now housed at the University of Bradford where it has been subjected to further study. Particularly important has been the work of Mandy Jay, whose isotope analysis has provided a new perspective on the diet of the iron age population (Jay and Richards 2006)

Barrow groups 1 and 3 (less so group 2) can be recognized from good quality aerial photographs, as at Bell Slack, and this 66 66

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 62 Cemetery plans: Cowlam, Garton Station and Kirkburn (after Stead 1986 and 1991a).

67 67

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE The cemeteries provided strong evidence of family grouping in the eastern side of a ditched drove way. Around the core the form of hereditary bone abnormalities, principally formed by these two barrows were at least 17 more group 2 metopism (failure of the metopic suture of the skull to fuse), barrows and just to the east two ditchless type B burials. The presence of Wormian bones in the skull, dental overcrowding northern part of the cemetery contained at least 46 group 3 and aberrations of the lumbar vertebrae. Although some of barrows in very close and regular rows. The brooches from these were widespread within cemeteries, some close grouping this cemetery suggest that from one or two early barrows there occurred. At Rudston such features were shared by was very slow development, but in the late stages of the burial neighbouring skeletons in type A and B burials, showing that tradition a great many barrows were constructed in a relatively both were used by the same family. short period. This is likely to have been related to settlement along the drove way and selection of particular areas for burial. The distribution of grave goods was clearly divided into male and female categories in some instances: weapons were buried A parallel development seems to have occurred at a second with males (except when the cause of death: Wetwang Slack (unexcavated) cemetery 500m south along the drove way burial 211), and jewellery (fine bracelets, glass bead necklaces, where three large group 1 barrows lie between the drove way coral brooches) were a female attribute. Pots could be buried ditches, some 18 groups 1 and 2 barrows lie east of the drovewith either sex, but small brooches were buried with women, way, under later ditched enclosures, and 53 group 3 barrows larger ones with men at Wetwang Slack. At least two chariot occupy the area of back land beyond the later enclosures. This burials have been found with women, although the possibility pattern at both sites suggests that by the time the group 3 that most chariots could have had a military function would barrows were constructed the drove way settlement was well explain why the majority were buried with men. Most established, earlier barrows had been partitioned off and significantly, there appears to have been no discrimination restrictions had been placed on where new (group 3) barrows between the sexes in the quality of burial. Social distinctions could be built. were represented by type A, C and D burials, but this was partly based on age, and not at all on gender. The small Cowlam cemetery is like many small barrow groups around the Wolds, and the Bell Slack cemeteries provide evidence of how such groups could grow with time, although it 3.3.4 Cemetery development (fig. 65) is particularly interesting that the group 3 barrows considerably out-number the earlier forms. This is consistent with the Many isolated square barrows are known from aerial occurrence of compact groups of later barrows in a more photographs, and the brooches from two barrows at Huntow restricted number of cemeteries, which may be an indication (Manby 1980a; Stead 1979, figs. 24, 26) and Garton Slack that greater control was extended over land use in the later (Dent 1983a, Appendix B, no. 22) were flat bow forms which cemetery period. indicate that the barrows were constructed when the burial tradition had already been established for generations. The Wetwang Slack (figs. 64, 65) earliest diagnostic brooches were found, not in isolated barrows, but in cemeteries at Cowlam (Greenwell 1877, The physical development of a cemetery is best understood at barrow L; Stead 1986) and Bell Slack (Stead 1991, BF 61). Wetwang Slack, a linear, west-east aligned cemetery which These were Marzabotto types, one of the earliest forms of La extended for 400m along a series of linear earthworks (part of Tène brooch, and they were found with burials laid either on the Wetwang-Elmswell system: Appendix 4.4.2, no. 12b) the old land surface or in a very shallow grave. between a major ditch junction on the west and an earlier round barrow on the east (Dent 1984). The cemetery contained Cowlam (fig. 62) 446 burials, of which 238 were barrows of groups 1, 2 and 3, and the remainder were secondary (type D) burials. Two tiny The Cowlam burial was one of six barrows (five group 1; one late bronze age barrows fortuitously ended up on the northern group 2) which had been built in an area of earlier settlement, fringes of the cemetery, and there was evidence of earlier from which pottery and other artefacts survived in the mound domestic occupation in several places, as at Cowlam, including material and the underlying soil (Kinnes and Longworth 1985). a round house and post square at the west end that are likely to One of the Cowlam barrows had a very shallow central grave, have preceded the earliest barrows. and the others covered a burial lying on the old land surface. Although the barrows varied in size with platforms between Most group 1 barrows were concentrated around the western 7m and 14.5m across, they were spread out over an area 125m ditch junction, with a few scattered examples further east. The long, and no two were closer than 10m apart. At some later great majority of barrows in the cemetery were group 2 types. date a linear double ditch cut across one of the barrows, The linear earthwork system upon which the burials focused dividing the group, and perhaps defining an existing boundary was modified in the middle La Tène period by the construction more clearly. of a dyke through the entire length of the cemetery. This ditch cut across group 1 and 2 barrows, but no group 3 barrows were Burton Fleming (figs. 63) so affected. All group 3 barrows were located to the north of this earthwork, in some dense groups reminiscent of Bell The Bell Slack brooch was found in a group 2 barrow (but with Slack, and several barrows appeared to respect the tail of its a very shallow grave), and this, with a second, larger group 2 northern bank, implying that they were later. Like Bell Slack, barrow formed the nucleus of a cemetery that developed along 68 68

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Fig. 63 Cemetery plans: Rudston and Burton Fleming (after Stead 1991a)

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Fig. 64 Cemetery plan: Wetwang Slack (Author).

this infilling suggests an extension of control over the use of land and restriction of areas for use as burial grounds.

The linear Makeshift cemetery at Rudston bears some similarity to Wetwang Slack, but whereas the latter extended in a line for some 400m, the Makeshift cemetery extends for 700m in two directions, along axes which to westward are marked by the Greenlands-Littlethorpe group of earthworks (Appendix 4.4.1, 9), and to northward by the Great Wold Valley trackway, at this point unmarked by side ditches, but approximately on the line of the modern Rudston-Burton Fleming road (Appendix 4.4.2, 11c). The greater lengths are explained by the dispersal of the barrows, which seldom overlap or share side ditches.

Unlike Bell Slack, however, the group 3 barrows at Wetwang did not outnumber the earlier forms, which were not only numerous, but were so concentrated that the ditches of most barrows overlapped at least one of their neighbours. The many stratigraphical relationships obtained from these overlaps has clearly indicated that the cemetery developed in an easterly direction from an early nucleus at the ditch junction. The early model of Cowlam suggests the probable way that the first barrows would be spaced out, and the gaps closed by further burials as time passed. Once the length of the cemetery had been established a series of rows of barrows developed on the northern side of the cemetery, different clusters being influenced probably by family ties.

The range of brooches from this cemetery is very close to that from Wetwang, and barrow groups 1, 2 and 3 are represented. Type A burials predominate, and almost all the known type B burials came from here. Very few type D burials were found, and those mostly in the ditches of group 1 barrows; there were no type C burials. The cemetery was not completely excavated, but the sampled areas (Stead 1991a) provide valuable information from which to trace the development of the whole.

Although the cemetery contained a range of brooches, with La Tène I, II and III types represented as well as other forms, grave goods included no Marzabotto brooches like the earliest examples from Cowlam and Bell Slack. However, less than 25% of all graves contained any grave goods, all but one of the group 1 barrows had lost all trace of a burial, and no brooches of any kind were found in the earliest graves. An early La Tène brooch from burial 327 was buried only after the western end of the cemetery had become choked with barrows (Dent 1982).

A concentration of group 1 barrows to the east of the modern road has the characteristics of the Cowlam cemetery, particularly since it also grew up on the site of earlier settlement (represented by a round house and five pits: Stead 1991, 8-9). Any early grave goods here, as at Wetwang Slack, had been removed with the skeletal remains by ploughing. Other, not so early nuclei are represented by graves containing

Rudston (figs. 63, 65)

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Fig. 65 Cemetery plans: Wetwang Slack and Rudston Star = round house; square = graveless enclosure; open circle = arched bow brooch; solid circle = involuted brooch; triangle = weapon (type B burial).

71 71

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE early La Tène brooches which indicate that the large cemetery Wold tableland, and occupy a break in the marked section of probably formed from a fusion of scattered groups (fig.65). the trackway which follows the Wolds watershed (Appendix 4.4.2, group 10c-d). There is a drove road settlement beside Burials with late brooches, group 3 barrows and type B burials, the trackway a little way to the north. The site has not been were mostly confined to the west side of the road, where they extensively photographed, but some of the barrows show as formed rows reminiscent of, but not so cramped as the groups 1 and 2, which corresponds with the excavation record, Wetwang Slack cemetery. These contrast with the relative since some burials were on the old land surface. Three chariot freedom expressed by group 1 barrows and large group 2 burials were found in the cemetery, grouped with the other barrows east of the road, and suggests that even in land free of burials, and not, like the Wetwang Slack and Garton Slack field boundaries or settlement some control on the extent of chariots, in splendid isolation at a distance. burial areas may have been imposed in the later stages of the burial tradition. Danes Graves Danes Graves is a compact cemetery of predominantly type A burials which covers an area 500m by 350m and survives in part as about 100 upstanding barrows in a wood (Dent 1984c). Many more square barrows are known in the arable around the wood, and these include groups 1, 2 and 3, some of which have overlapping or shared ditches. Although the surviving mounds were extensively excavated (Greenwell 1865; Mortimer 1899; 1911) the location of only four grave groups can be located with any confidence, and in one of these was a type C chariot burial.

Garton Station and Kirkburn (fig. 62) The adjacent sites of Garton Station and Kirkburn (Stead 1991a) are part of a ceremonial landscape which includes a neolithic long enclosure, round barrows and Anglian cemeteries, all concentrated around seasonal and permanent springs which represent one of the sources of the River Hull. Garton Station cemetery is located alongside a linear earthwork, a continuation of that same series which ran close to the Wetwang and Garton Slack chariot burials and formed a focus for the Wetwang Slack cemetery (Appendix 4.4.2, 12b).

In the wood there are also two surviving linear earthworks, one of which is part of the Millington to Woldgate linear system (Appendix 4.4.1, 2d). There are barrows on both sides of this earthwork, and it is abutted by a slighter dyke which is overlain by at least two barrows, and which acts as a northern boundary for most of the burials in the eastern part of the cemetery.

The barrows in the cemetery include groups 1, 2 and 3, and also square ditches with entrances in their west sides which may not have enclosed burials or barrows, at least in their original state, and which have distinct religious overtones probably connected with the springs which rise on the site in wet seasons. The burials constitute Stead's type C, having not only a chariot burial in one and weapons in others, but the additional ritual aspect of speared burials.

Brooches show that the cemetery was in use for much of La Tène II, but most were made of iron and only a few survive in fragmentary condition. Earlier burials are certainly suggested by the group 1 barrows outside the wood.

To the south of this earthwork, the Kirkburn group consists of eight barrows of groups 1, 2 and 3, four of which are together , but which are otherwise dispersed over 200 metres or so. The contents of the four clustered barrows included: a chariot and coat of chain mail (K5); one a sword in a magnificent scabbard and three spearheads driven vertically into the chest – surely a ritual killing (K3); and one jewellery among which was an imported hollow bronze ring (K6).

Eastburn The Eastburn cemetery contained 50 burials in an area of about 0.4ha. and was recorded by salvage excavation before World War II (Sheppard 1939). The density of burials, and Sheppard's record of circular ditches suggests that many of the barrows may have been group 3 types, as do the grave goods, which include two involuted brooches, a sword and possible shields. The site is currently part of Alamein Barracks, and none of the ground surrounding the finds is suitable for archaeological aerial photography.

Arras (fig. 4) The large cemeteries at Arras, Danes Graves and Eastburn cannot be analysed in the way that is possible with the foregoing sites. Ironically, of the three only at Arras did the excavators (in 1815-17!) plot the location of individual barrows (Stead 1979, pl. 1, fig.1), but many of the grave goods are now lost, and the most useful surviving groups cannot be ascribed to specific barrows. The burials included types A and C, and as the barrow ditches were not excavated the existence of type D burials is possible, but unknown. The quality of the surviving grave goods is generally high, but no iron brooches survive to indicate the duration of the cemetery, as they do at Burton Fleming, Rudston and Wetwang Slack.

Scorborough The cemetery at Scorborough is the best preserved and least disturbed in the whole region. Of 120 planned mounds in a group only 250m long, excavations of only seven are recorded, although nine had central depressions when Stead excavated at the site in 1970 (Stead 1975). Burials were of type A, but no grave goods have been found. The largest of the barrows was 15.6m wide, but more than half were between 4m and 5.5m in diameter.

In plan the Arras cemetery is a loosely structured group of at least 100 barrows which extend for some 800m across the

This probably represents a mixture of barrow forms, but the 72 72

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Fig. 66 Distribution of major cemeteries recognised from gross distributions: 1 Arras; 2 Scorborough;3 Middleton on the Wolds; 4 Eastburn; 5 Garton Station; 6 Wetwang Slack; 7 Danes Graves; 8 Carnaby; 9 Kilham; 10 Rudston (Makeshift); 11 Bell Slack north and south; 12 Maiden’s Grave Farm; 13 Grindale; 14 Boythorpe.

largest are likely to be group 1 or 2, with numbers of group 3 forms among the smaller barrows. An isolated group 1 barrow was examined some 500m to the west (ibid.).

Cowlam is the only small cemetery to be examined in recent years, but its features are repeated at other, larger cemeteries, and suggest that the square barrow tradition began with type A burials under group 1 barrows, or in very shallow graves in group 2 barrows as the typical funerary rite. Garton Station finds suggest that in some cases these barrows might form the final stage of a more complex ritual monument. The evidence for earlier domestic occupation at Cowlam, and beside the group 1 barrows at Rudston and Wetwang Slack suggests that there was a link between new sites for the dead and old sites for the living.

Regional development The distributions of square barrows (figs. 11 and 66) indicates that Burton Fleming and Rudston in the Great Wold Valley, and Wetwang Slack-Garton Slack, Garton Station-Kirkburn, and Eastburn in the Great Slack, with Danes Graves between the two, and Arras and Scorborough to the south leave very few large cemeteries where no field work has yet taken place. Even at the large Boythorpe cemetery in the Great Wold Valley a square barrow was excavated in 1984 (Lang 1986).

Throughout La Tène I and into La Tène II such monuments were constructed widely on and around the Wolds, and some contained prestigious type C burials with chariots or other rich 73 73

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE grave groups. The lower ground and the valleys saw the alone contained the large coral brooch, a coral pendant, two development of large cemeteries, and in La Tène II these show bronze bracelets, a gold ring, an amber ring, a bronze ring, and signs of control at Wetwang Slack, Bell Slack and Rudston. a necklace of glass beads (Stead 1979, 98), and two other This control takes the form of the restriction of new burials to graves contained mirrors. special areas, in which large numbers of barrows could be accommodated in close rows, where the platforms were The large cemetery of Wetwang Slack also contained four generally small and ditches often shared. This seems to have burials with bronze bracelets, and two with inlaid coral happened where they were close to domestic areas in Bell brooches, but there were ten graves with necklaces of glass Slack and Wetwang Slack, but also where land was probably beads, even though grave goods accompanied less than 25% of not even cultivated, as at Rudston. the burials. That the richest grave goods were from the earlier half of the cemetery is more remarkable, since the proportion This evidence of control has been seen only in the Great Wold of accompanied burials increased through the life of the Valley and the Great Slack at sites which were located on or cemetery, reaching its maximum in the final phase (fig. 67, close to trackways. The Bell Slack settlement has already been (c)). suggested, with Maiden's Grave Farm, as a new settlement constructed across an earlier major boundary. The large, Elsewhere in the Great Slack type C burials contained mirrors compact blocks of group 3 barrows at both sites, and changes or military equipment, either with chariots or on their own. in the nearby Rudston cemetery could be bi-products of that These included the Kirkburn coat of chain mail, which is land re-organization. At Wetwang Slack there was exceptional in the early iron age of Western Europe, and three considerable settlement along the valley, and at Blealands swords in exceptional La Tène I scabbards decorated with Nook settlement developed into a drove way straddling the engraved ornament of superb quality and lavish use of red bronze age boundary which had crossed the Wolds from enamel (Stead 1991, frontispiece). Also found in one of these Millington to the sea (Appendix 4.4, 2). Mortimer found graves was the engraved and enamel ornamented "bean tin" remains of an iron age cemetery beneath the ditches of the from Wetwang Slack (Dent 1985, pl. xxi). The best of the Roman settlement (Stead 1979, 98), and this suggests that, as grave goods from Arras and the cemeteries and barrows of the in the Great Wold Valley, older boundaries were being Great Slack are made of rare materials or have taken particular disregarded as the land was put to more intensive use. skills to make. Fine objects have also been found in the Great Wold Valley, but the range is more restricted: bronze brooches and bracelets, glass beads, enamel ornamented brooches, shale 3.3.5 Distribution of wealth (fig. 67) jewellery and an important collection of swords. As already seen, burial types A, C and D can be contemporary The material from the two valleys shows interesting contrasts: and appear to represent social differences within contemporary even from an early stage in the burial tradition the Great Slack populations. Type B is more problematic, as it may represent attracted the most prestigious burials. Coral and glass beads continued use of the square barrow tradition after it had gone occur there in numbers which eclipse those from Rudston or out of use elsewhere. Even so, anatomical features shared Burton Fleming, where there is a preponderence of more easily between A and B burials indicate that it did not involve an available goods: pots and iron brooches. Even ornament is influx of new people, but the same family groups which much simpler in the Great Wold Valley where brooches were previously had been using different rites. decorated with enamel rather than coral, and there was nothing to compare with the major pieces of art from Wetwang and The distribution of square barrows leaves no doubt that the Kirkburn, where enamel was used lavishly to decorate centre of the burial tradition became the eastern margins of the scabbards, and the "bean tin" during early La Tène, although Wolds and the Great Wold Valley, and this is true also of not much thereafter (figs. 40, 70). The contrast is graphically chariot burials, although these have also been found north of presented in fig. 67, (a) and (b). the Wolds (Stead 1979, fig.7). These represent the most prestigious burials, and it is surprising that none have yet been The cemeteries seem to indicate that by the early iron age excavated in the Great Wold Valley, in spite of careful attention had wandered from the Rudston area which had been searches for one. To the south, however, from Danes Graves so central to ceremonial activity in the neolithic and early to Beverley these burials have been found, with three at Arras bronze age. More people were buried in the Hull valley or one alone, and a total of seven 4 from the Great Slack. of its tributaries than in the Great Wold Valley during the iron age, and special ceremonial importance was given to the The quality of other grave goods also varies: surviving springs which brought the river from the ground. The varied artefacts from Arras include ten bronze bracelets; at least three monuments at Garton Station are evidence of one such site, more and an anklet have been lost. Only one brooch survives, and the spectacular iron age burials and enclosures represent but this is filled with large pieces of Mediterranean coral which one part of a long-running process which included the neolithic must represent considerable value. Another brooch decorated and Early bronze age monuments of the valley, Roman altars with coral has been lost (Dent 1995). The Queen's Barrow from Elmswell (Dent 1988), burials of early Northumbrians among the ancient earthworks and barrows, and the death of 4 A seventh chariot burial was excavated overlooking the Great Slack King Aldfrith at Driffelda in 705 (Faull 1974, 12). at Wetwang in 2001; others have also been excavated at Newbridge (Midlothian) in 2001 and Ferrybridge (West Yorkshire) in 2005.

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(a) Proportional distribution shows that high status grave goods were much more frequent in burials at Wetwang Slack than at Burton Fleming.

(b) High status early La Tène metalwork at Wetwang Slack was decorated with coral and enamel; middle La Tène brooches continued to use coral at Wetwang Slack, but interest in more easily obtainable enamel developed at Burton Fleming.

(c) A gradual increase in grave goods at Wetwang Slack corresponded with a decrease in the quality of artefact (compare the distribution of coral in (b)). Fig. 67 Distribution of wealth.

75 75

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE lowlands, where evidence of early settlement may have been 3.4 Discussion under-represented through more continuous cultivation and poor response to aerial photography (Van der Noort and Davis The writer has looked at general aspects of the iron age in the 1993, figs. 3.6, 3.8). region before (Dent 1982; 1983b; 1983c; 1990b), and these essays have had a limited impact upon wider studies of iron Co-ordinated alignments of intervisible long enclosures, age Britain (Cunliffe 1991; Collis 1994a, 1994b; Champion barrows and cursus in the Great Wold Valley show 1994). The present study has been able to examine the considerable organization of the landscape over several background to the iron age material and the detail of excavated kilometres, and large areas which were clear of trees. There evidence more fully in the light of the computerised plotting of was a strong focus of attention on the prominent Woldgate, the numerous aerial photographs, publication of Stead's which marked the crossing to the Plain of Holderness, and may cemetery excavations, and additional field work by the writer. have served as an important viewpoint in antiquity, as it did in Together these different sources of information have in places relatively recent times as a warning beacon. Finds from this altered, and in others reinforced, views which I expressed ridge suggest that it may have operated as a centre of earlier. A new discussion of the material is therefore now due ceremonial for millennia. The monuments of the Great Slack that will examine the basic evidence of monuments and their lack the scale of communal investment seen in the cursus and place in a continuously occupied landscape, and the inferences monolith of the Rudston area during the neolithic. Even so, an that may be drawn from this evidence for such matters as enigmatic monument at Station Farm, Wetwang was aligned production, cultural contacts, social organization, and ideology on a "totem pole" hundreds of metres away at Wetwang and ritual. Grange (Appendix 4.3.2) and with the long enclosures and barrows of this valley shows a comparable sense of space and 3.4.1 Monuments and continuity (figs. 13, 15, 17 purpose. For scale and grandeur, though, there is nothing to and 21) compare with the Rudston neolithic complex nearer than the Devil's Arrows and the Thornborough henges on the western Although excavations have provided detailed site information, side of the Vale of York. the wider picture is provided by aerial photographs. Sampling of these has shown that boundary earthworks, ring ditches, small settlement enclosures and square barrows constitute the vast majority of monuments, but other types include pit sites and long barrows. The gross distributions of these all indicate that the Great Wold Valley around Rudston is a key area for examining the relationships between the different classes. These show that there was a long history of ceremonial, funerary, agricultural and domestic activity, and that some linear earthworks were part of a much more extensive series of land boundaries which in some cases crossed the Wolds from one side to another.

Later Bronze Age The role of round barrows as markers for ridge crossings points was later taken over by linear earthworks, and these sometimes incorporated earlier barrows. Such earthworks both controlled and directed movement along and across the watershed. In time piecemeal systems were extended into a planned series of large scale boundaries which divided up the chalk massif into distinct and extensive territories. Major dyke systems, combining pit alignments and continuous banks and ditches, crossed the Wolds from the western escarpment to the sea, and these separated southern and northern land masses. Although pottery associations indicate continuing work on the system in the early first millennium BC, implied relationship with curvilinear enclosures, including the excavated hill forts at Grimthorpe and Thwing, suggests that the process began in the second millennium. The significant gap on Woldgate may have been a point where boundaries were inappropriate, and it was desirable to all parties that access to a traditional ceremonial area was not impeded, perhaps to allow celebrations which involved peoples from more than one community.

Although this approach brought into consideration large numbers of sites of neolithic and bronze age date (and accounted for most of the ring ditches), which at first seemed out of place in a study of the 1st millennium BC, it became clear that the earlier periods could not be ignored. Moreover, the work of Bradley (1993) had shown that threads of continuity may linger in landscape histories for millennia, and that the true roots of iron age settlement could have been laid down in the neolithic, if not before. Neolithic - Early Bronze Age

Burials from this period are very scarce, and the most important collection was found not on the chalk but at Catfoss in Holderness (McInnes 1968). Open settlement at West Heslerton and Caythorpe may have been the typical form, rather than the topographically dependent palisaded enclosures of Staple Howe and Devil's Hill, but if so, the post ring houses are even more elusive on aerial photographs than ring groove types. Derived domestic material from Cowlam, Rudston and Garton-Wetwang provides an indication of where such settlements may have been prior to their use as burial sites in the iron age.

For this reason an explanation was sought for the importance of Rudston as a special place, and for the concentration there of so many ritual monuments, such as the immense monolith, in the fourth, third and second millennia BC. Although contemporary funerary monuments concentrated on the Wolds watershed and other ridges, these were seen as funerary locations rather than prime settlement areas. Ridges were judged to be significant as viewpoints over extensive landscapes that at intervals provided passage between the real centres of settlement and population in the better watered 76 76

MATERIAL CULTURE Iron Age

The Rudston-Burton Fleming area provides interesting contrasts in the agricultural evidence. The traditional ceremonial core around Rudston, the monolith and cursus monuments is a hotchpotch of field systems with little indication of unity, which is compounded by scattered domestic enclosures consistent with farmsteads. This pattern is not paralleled anywhere else in the region on such a scale, and the contrast with the settlements around neighbouring Burton Fleming, where field systems appear to be virtually absent, could scarcely be more striking. The likely dependence of the population on agriculture makes the absence of arable land so unlikely that unenclosed fields on medieval lines must be assumed, particularly in places where ditched drove roads in apparent isolation imply cultivated ground on either side. Most drove road settlements have no accompanying cemetery to indicate their age, although some of these are located in places where iron age burial numbers are, in any case, small.

The square barrow burials of the iron age mark a departure from previous monuments, although there had been small barrows in the region before (Stead 1979 38-39), but provide an invaluable key to the age of other monument forms. At Wetwang Slack, Garton Station, Rudston and Burton Fleming, for example, cemeteries developed in a linear fashion beside dykes which were clearly earlier. The chronological implications of grave dimensions suggest that most of the small cemeteries and scattered barrows belong to the earlier part of the burial tradition, while in large cemeteries it is possible to distinguish many of the earlier and later elements. Derived domestic remains from cemeteries at Cowlam, Rudston, Wetwang Slack and Garton Slack confirm use of former settlement areas rather than colonization of new ground. The square barrow tradition extended into the Vales of York and Pickering, across the Howardian and Tabular Hills, and over Holderness, but although there were substantial groups at Rillington (Turnbull 1983), Slingsby (Whimster 1981, fig. 36) and Pocklington, the largest cemeteries undoubtedly developed east of the Wolds, within reach of the Hull Valley, where the Scorborough and Eastburn cemeteries can be added to those known from crop marks (fig. 66). This concentration east of the watershed suggests that the River Hull and its access to the River Humber and North Sea may have been particularly valued during a period when continental imports of coral, and probably glass, imply some form of foreign trade.

The abandonment of the square barrow practices, perhaps later at Rudston than elsewhere, probably took place in the 1st century BC. Settlements grew up over old cemeteries at Blealands Nook, Wetwang Slack, and Bell Slack as time passed, and at Wetwang Slack infants were found buried around a single ring round house, an indication that new burial practices discriminated between infants and older groups. Mass-produced brooch types - Aucissa, Colchester, Hod Hill among them - help to identify these late iron age settlements, and these also occurred at Brantingham and North Cave below the western escarpment of the Wolds. By the late iron age such sites were commonly enclosed by ditches and consisted of single or grouped rectangular enclosures. At least one was apparently slighted to make way for the Flavian fort at Hayton (Johnson 1978), and another underlies Langton villa (Corder and Kirk 1932).

Garton-Wetwang is the most fully excavated example of a settlement of the Arras burial period (Dent 1982), in this case a linear village in which there is evidence of zoning for specific activities, such as grain storage, living and burial. Houses were traditional double and single ring round houses, and in size and shape the settlement resembles the drove road settlements at Bell Slack and Maiden's Grave Farm, where square barrow cemeteries were also integral parts of the settlements. Although both settlements are known from their ditched enclosures, these do not seem to have been a feature of the early stages of occupation. Rather, they represent a late iron age or Romano-British consolidation of the settlement units that defined existing areas of land use in a more robust fashion.

Continuity from the late iron age into the Roman period is general, to the point that although not all Romano-British settlements need have been in use before the conquest, very few late iron age settlements show any indication of abandonment with the arrival of Roman rule (Dent 1983b).

3.4.2 Production and economy Rural economies of later prehistory depended, then as now, on agriculture. East Yorkshire is poor in minerals, but has good soils. Despite perceived difficulties in draining and working clay lands, and some acidic sand deposits, the Vales of York and Pickering, and Holderness are more fertile than the Wolds; the low country supports wheat, but hill soils are better tolerated by barley (Gilchrist Shirlaw 1966). It is not surprising, therefore that the settlement enclosures and cemeteries of the iron age are more numerous on dip slopes of the Wolds closest to Holderness, which of all the low lying areas is least affected by drainage problems or acidity, and is traditionally a good wheat area.

There is some evidence for late bronze age occupation at Garton-Wetwang, and it is interesting that the settlement paid little respect to an existing cemetery of round barrows, which is a foretaste of the absorption of square barrows into late iron age occupation on the same site. The early iron age settlement crossed an earlier boundary dyke, but this was a minor work compared to that straddled by the Bell Slack and Maiden's Grave Farm villages, which appeared to be new settlements built where boundaries had formerly separated neighbouring communities. North Cave was much more nucleated than these, and lacked any sign of bronze age settlement, although this could just mean an absence of finger-tipped fine wares, as radiocarbon dates suggest mid-1st millennium occupation (Appendix 4.2).

Attempts to quantify agricultural production from excavated prehistoric material (Appelbaum 1954) have been rather less useful than experiments to explore what might have been 77 77

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE possible (Reynolds 1979). The cow, sheep, pig and other cultivation, and that this increased massively from the middle animal bones from Yorkshire sites, with very occasional of the 1st millennium BC. This is likely to be related to evidence of charred cereals, are not particularly helpful in population growth, and increased use of iron, but which was assessing the agricultural history of the study area. The large the cause and which the effect is not clear. number of enclosures of late iron age or Romano-British date are a clear indication that there was a deliberate policy to There is extensive evidence of the production of iron from bog occupy the better land, even though on the clays of Holderness ores in the Vale of York, where field work by Halkon has and elsewhere sites are found more often by accident or field charted intensive activity in the Walling Fen and Holme on walking than by aerial photographers. Spalding Moor areas (Halkon 1989). In the writer's excavations at North Cave (figs. 56, 68) the bases of tower furnaces were located along with large slag furnace bottoms, and iron age pottery from the site incorporated crushed slag as a filler. About half a tonne of slag found on the east side of the Wolds at Elmswell shows that there was iron production here in the early Roman period, if not before (Congreve 1938, 15). Smithing slags are more widely found, and usually reflect working of the metal away from the smelting areas. Blacksmith's tools have been found at Garton Slack and in grave R 154 at Rudston (Stead 1991, 79-80). Industrial production seems to have been carried out at various levels, much of it probably on a part-time basis. The population would have been self-sufficient for most needs, although specialist knowledge would be needed in complex processes such as chariot or boat building, to which several different skills may have contributed. Metalworking during the bronze age is attested by moulds and founders' hoards, but by the later 1st millennium, when iron was the chief metal, the evidence suggests that much was done in the home. Crucibles from Garton-Wetwang and North Cave, and lost-wax moulds from Wetwang Slack occur in small quantities, but show that bronze working was going on, making chariot fittings and horse harness in the case of Wetwang Slack. There is no evidence that the items were for export, unlike the scale of horse harness production at Gussage All Saints, Dorset (Foster 1980). Fig. 68 Iron industry at North Cave; slag from tower furnaces where iron pans from the Walling Fen lowlands were smelted to yield iron (Photo: Author).

There are many items of iron and bronze which range from the sumptuously decorated to the prosaic. Among the finest items are three similar early La Tène swords and scabbards from Wetwang and Kirkburn (fig. 40). The swords are decorated with champlevé enamel and the scabbards are enamelled and engraved, to produce in the case of the Kirkburn sword and scabbard one of the finest objects of its class in Europe (Stead 1991, frontispiece). Not only is the enamelling of these artefacts lavish, but the engraving is also very professional. The engraved Wetwang "bean tin", although a little cruder in detail, is also a very fine piece which has also been adorned with enamel. Cast ornaments, mostly from graves, adorn a wider range of metal objects, from horse bits to bracelets, and coral and enamel beads were used as additional decoration. In the late iron age, as interest in, or availability of, coral waned enamel may have been more widely used, perhaps on the Thorpe sword, the Rise horse bit, or the Elmswell plaque (Stead 1985, pls. 69, 84, Corder 1940, fig. 16).

In addition to quern stones and four post "granaries" (if that is what they are), there is archaeological evidence of fields, even where these were not necessarily enclosed. Drove roads reflect the movement of animals, but were not continuously marked, which suggests that control was needed mostly in those places where crops were grown. Not surprisingly, drove roads are most common where they are close to settlements, the production zone which makes greatest use of labour by wasting least time on travelling to work (Chisholm 1962). Spaces where the roads were not marked, such as that part of the Great Wold Valley trackway followed by the Rudston square barrow cemetery, are likely to have been grazed where they were not still covered with trees. Continuous drove roads between neighbouring settlements imply that arable land may have extended from one to the other without a break, as sometimes happened in the middle ages. Extensive arable in the Rudston area is also implied by ditched field enclosures. The size and number of settlements suggests that there was considerable

Home production on a limited scale is reflected in widespread evidence of domestic weaving, both in the form of production tools and as actual fabrics preserved in corrosion products, and 78 78

MATERIAL CULTURE

Fig. 69 Distribution of triangular clay weights in Britain and adjacent areas of the continent (after Champion 1975, with additions). in pieces of unfinished shale or jet beads and bracelets, although Kimmeridge shale only outcrops below the Wolds escarpment, and Whitby jet comes from Jurassic beds in north-east Yorkshire. A wide range of wood work must be assumed, and chariot burials and the Hasholme boat point to specialist craftsmen, while from North Cave a draught collar and pot lid are more homely products.

precious materials from the Mediterranean and other parts of Europe into the region, either as direct exchange or as downthe-line trade. This has important implications for understanding the cultural and social contacts which existed.

3.4.3 Cultural contacts (fig. 69) Excavations of bronze age and iron age settlements have shown that there was a continuous insular cultural tradition in the region. The round house architecture of Thwing, Staple Howe, Wetwang Slack, North Cave, Rudston Villa and elsewhere had more in common with other parts of Britain than the continent, but the post squares at Grimthorpe, Devil's Hill and Wetwang belong to a much wider, European class of structure. Artefacts varied as a result of technological change, and there were some close similarities to continental types at several stages. Swords, axes and pottery in the later bronze age, brooches and swords in the early iron age, and brooches, pottery and coins in the late iron age show particularly strong continental affinities. These artefacts were widely used in an otherwise insular cultural tradition, which Hodson once called the Woodbury Culture (Hodson 1964), and which was as much a part of the way of life in East Yorkshire as it was in Wessex, Wales or Scotland.

Although a high level of self sufficiency is likely to have been maintained, some materials had to be imported, sometimes as finished objects. The further these travelled, the more exotic they are likely to have been, and the more prestigious. Gold was very rare: only two graves contained small gold objects: a finger ring from Arras and part of a pin from Wetwang. Coral was imported from the Mediterranean, and glass beads, particularly "stratified eye" beads are distributed the length of Europe. An early La Tène hollow bronze ring from Kirkburn is the only definite metal import, although there is uncertainty over the North Grimston anthropoid sword (Stead 1979, fig. 22). Agricultural and industrial production is impossible to quantify in meaningful terms. The natural resources of the region would have been widely exploited, both on land and water (a whale bone from Brantingham raises interesting questions, for example), and are likely to represent, collectively, the principal economic asset of the population. Outside interest in these resources may have brought

Although the later bronze age metal industry of the region is a variant of a wider European tradition, the term Hallstatt is 79 79

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE only really invoked to describe objects which could be burial tradition and his indigenous Woodbury Culture imports: particularly the razors from Staple Howe and the settlements (Dent 1982). Gündlingen type sword and chape from nearby Ebberston (Manby 1980b). In contrast, as a result of Stead's detailed Although Hodson's Woodbury Culture included distinctive study of continental parallels in the iron age (Stead 1965), insular artefacts such as ring-headed pins and bone combs, the term La Tène is now widely applied to artefacts, iron age settlements in lowland Britain have produced a decorative styles and burial practices. wider range of artefacts, such as La Tène brooches (Hull and Hawkes 1987) and glass beads (Guido 1978), some of which have strong links with the continent. On the Yorkshire sites the range is still small, but of particular interest is the occurrence at Wetwang Slack, North Cave and Brantingham of distinctive triangular clay weights. The distribution of these (fig. 69), which now extends north of the Humber, was one of the features which Champion used to demonstrate cultural affinities between lowland Britain and the neighbouring Low Countries (Champion 1975, fig. 2). It would be an error to continue the myth that East Yorkshire was fundamentally different to other parts of lowland Britain. Only in its burial traditions is it exceptional, and even in this there are parallels, not only from other parts of eastern England where it would appear that square barrows did not catch on (Maxey, Cambridgeshire: Pryor, et al. 1985; the Trent valley: May 1970), but also in type A burials (Whimster 1981). Why the Arras burial fashion was adopted in Yorkshire so readily is a mystery, but it need not represent an influx of immigrants, and could be the result of the arrival of an inspiring evangelist (Stead 1991a, 184).

Fig. 70 The Wetwang “bean tin” – possibly a work box. One of several pieces of decorated metalwork found in burial 454 (Chariot burial 2) (Photo by courtesy of the British Museum).

The apparent isolation from the mainstream fashions of the continent during the middle iron age was a general feature of British culture (Bradley 1984), although on the continent too there was increased regionalisation in the same period (Collis 1994a). The subsequent re-establishment of continental links in the late iron age may have been strongly influenced by the commercial effects of the Roman conquest of Gaul, and subsequently Britain south of the Humber (Dent 1990). Although Aylesford type pottery made an appearance north of the Humber, along with a variety of new brooch types and the occasional coin, the Aylesford Culture need no more reflect an invasion than the Arras Culture (Collis 1994a).

Marzabotto brooches from Cowlam and Burton Fleming need be no later than similar brooches on the continent where they date to the fifth century BC, although the Yorkshire pieces were clearly of local manufacture (Stead 1979, 94). These provide a useful yardstick for early square barrows, and in the fourth century sword scabbards and other early brooches continue to show strong continental affinities. Independent development came with middle La Tène brooches which diverged completely from continental types to become firstly flattened and then involuted (Dent 1982). Only at the end of the cemetery period did continental influence reappear with late La Tène brooches, and by the turn of the millennium mass produced brooches, wheel turned pottery and coins had made their appearance.

3.4.4 Social organization

Although continental styles of metalwork were not restricted to East Yorkshire, the large majority of chariot burials and square barrows were. These features were important players in the "Invasion Controversy" of the 1960s, which made much of the fact that square enclosures and chariots are also found in Champagne and other areas (Stead 1961; 1979). The Arras Culture, named originally by Childe (Childe 1940), was regarded as the product of Marnian invaders, both by Hawkes (who classified it as Eastern Second B: Hawkes 1959) and Hodson (Hodson 1964). Stead pointed out that although some characteristics of the burial tradition were shared with the continent, crouched burials were distinctively British. The excavation of a cemetery with its contemporary settlement at Wetwang Slack brought together for the first time the elements of Hodson's "intrusive" Arras

The settlements of the region provide no clear evidence of the homes of a ruling élite. The central structure in the Thwing hill fort is more likely to be ceremonial than domestic (from its central burial and lack of ancillary structures), the houses at Staple Howe are no more grand than those in the neighbouring settlement of West Heslerton, and at Garton-Wetwang the houses inside enclosures were not particularly large. Brantingham, the site with the richest late iron age material culture of brooches, wheel-made pottery, coinage, and even whale bone, possessed no exceptional structures, although the site was enclosed by shallow ditches. By the standards of Wessex the later first millennium settlement of east Yorkshire should be characteristic of a 80 80

MATERIAL CULTURE society which lacked any strong hierarchical ranking. Hill probably from Arras, also came from early La Tène graves. forts, which Cunliffe would interpret as "central places" in a Type B burials appear to be later than any other form, and hierarchical society, and the home of a ruling élite (Cunliffe weapons featured in large numbers among the grave goods. 1983), are absent. Furthermore, the material from excavated settlements points to an absence of marked social inequalities (Hill 1995). So, using either interpretation of the Wessex evidence, the Yorkshire settlements show no evidence of a strongly stratified society. This situation, however, is not easily reconciled with the evidence from burials, where there is a marked variety in quality: Stead's type C burials being the richest, followed by his type A and my type D (secondary burials in and around barrows). Surprisingly, perhaps, the burials of the Great Wold Valley were not as rich as those further south in the hinterland of the River Hull (fig. 67 (a) and (b)). The richest graves contained the most precious materials: gold, coral, glass beads, lavish enamel, and even bronze, as well as the artefacts which required the greatest skill to produce: chariots, decorated weapons, chain mail, and some particularly lavish jewellery. These required great influence and wealth to achieve, whether as imports or as the work of local craftsmen. Stead styled the vehicles from burials "carts" (1979; 1991), but this is the prosaic extreme from more traditional "chariots". The Wetwang Slack vehicles buried with males and weapons appear to have been trimmer structures than that buried with a woman and her "bean tin" (Dent 1985), and could have been designed for greater speed. The men themselves, in spite of their grave goods, need not have been "warriors", although the outstanding quality of such items as the chain mail shirt and swords in decorated scabbards are so outstanding in Europe as a whole that "rich farmers" falls short of the station in society which they probably occupied (Collis 1994a). These are the best candidates to date for the chieftains of the early iron age, assuming that the top rank of society practised this form of burial. The inhabitants of south-east Britain are among the last societies historically shown to have adopted a mode of fighting based upon the chariot (Keegan 1993), but actual fighting is demonstrated less by the presence of weapons in graves than by wounds on bones, such as those on the isolated burial at Acklam, which was also found with a bent sword (fig. 71; Dent 1983c).

Fig. 71 Wounds on a skull from Acklam Wold; the male burial was accompanied by a bent iron sword (Photo: Bill Marsden). These differences could be interpreted as changing fashions, initially at least dictated by the upper classes. There is no evidence from the Wolds for chariot burial in the fifth century, although on the Tabular Hills the Pexton Moor and Cawthorne burials seem to have been in barrows without grave pits - usually a sign of early date. Chariot burial could be a fourth century innovation to distinguish an élite, whose monopoly of barrow burial (without even much emphasis on grave goods) had become eroded since such early burials as Cowlam. Distinction may also have been maintained by burial in special places away from the larger cemeteries, although this did not prevent their absorption into larger groups in time. So far this would bear comparison with the interpretation put by some on the changing status of neolithic and early bronze age pottery types (Bradley 1984, fig. 4.2). The middle iron age saw a general homogenisation of burial practice, in which the number of grave goods increased while the quality fell, and burial of chariots and weapons by an élite may have ceased altogether. This could reflect a social trend which deprived the former élite of its ability to dictate fashion. Alternatively the élite may have chosen to distinguish themselves by other funerary rites which we have not recognized. The eventual abandonment of square barrows, except at Rudston, may represent the mass copying the élite once more, while at Rudston type B burials could represent an alternative unilateral approach by a group which was reluctant to abandon family traditions altogether, but

There are signs that approaches to burial changed during the early, middle and late iron ages. The earliest dated Arras burials belong in Stead's type A and belong in the 5th century BC. The Wetwang type C burials with chariots and early La Tène weaponry should belong in the 4th century, and although those from Arras, Garton Station and Kirkburn lack brooches or scabbards, similarities among the other pieces suggest that they need not be significantly later than early La Tène. The Danes Graves chariot burial apparently included a brooch, but in too fragmentary a condition to be helpful 5. Most of the fine jewellery from Wetwang, and

much wider distribution than East Yorkshire. A fifth century radiocarbon date for Newbridge and a developed involuted brooch from Ferrybridge suggest that the practice may have extended over three centuries. A further dismantled chariot excavated at Wetwang in 2001 awaits full publication.

5

Recent excavation of assembled chariots in graves at Newbridge (West Lothian: Carter and Hunter 2003) and Ferrybridge (West Yorkshire: Brown, et al. 2007) show that isolated examples had a

81 81

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE which could not proceed without significant changes to earlier rituals. In the late iron age with the exception of type B burials, infants in domestic contexts, and other possible isolated graves containing weapons, the funerary evidence of society is absent. In the early iron age graves provide evidence of long distance exchange of coral and glass beads which would enhance the prestige of the leaders who co-ordinated such a process. Coral was exchanged in quantity, and was mounted on ostentatious plate brooches which may have been handed down for generations (Dent 1995). Unlike the continent, its use in Yorkshire continued as ornament for involuted brooches late into middle La Tène, and there is no real reason to suppose that this was re-use of old imports. Glass beads are more numerous in the La Tène cemeteries of Yorkshire than those on the continent, where amber beads are more common, and stratified eye beads show that the classical world or its fringes were an important source (c.f. examples from St. Sulpice, Switzerland: Bompiani 1991, 253; and Melitopol, Ukraine: Coutts, et. al., 1993, 42). It would be surprising if the people who controlled the British end of this exchange process did not have access to craftsmen capable of manufacturing the Kirkburn sword, scabbard, and chain mail coat, or the Wetwang "bean tin".

Fig. 72 “Ritual killing” of a corpse at Garton Station; of fourteen spearheads found with a sword in burial GS10, six had been driven into the body of the deceased (Photo: Author).

3.4.5 Ideology and ritual. The neolithic ceremonial monuments of the region, particularly in the Rudston-Burton Fleming-Wold Newton area, display a deep interest in landscape, intervisibility, and alignments, some of which may have astronomical significance. In this way they are consistent with other monuments of the period (Bradley 1993). These areas were also foci for round barrows, and on Woldgate, for special activities which have left large numbers of ostensibly domestic finds.

Changing social organization is also suggested by land use. The field systems of the Rudston district appear to have developed over a long period, with scattered farmsteads forming a haphazard pattern. The iron age "new" settlements around Burton Fleming seem to have had communal open field systems. What these differences mean is far from clear, but the earlier hotchpotch could result from piecemeal enclosure of land by individuals, and the division of those holdings between heirs. This system could conceivably have begun when the ceremonial neolithic landscape was first settled by farmers, and have been ancient by the iron age (no older, relatively, than iron age field patterns in modern Essex or Norfolk: Drury 1978; Williamson 1987). The open field system, on the other hand, implies a more collective approach to cultivation, and co-ordinated land allotment; a system which, given the burial evidence, is more likely to be the result of strong central control than of democratic action.

Later interest shows a shift in emphasis, with more attention paid to water and the earth. This is represented by deposits of bronze age metalwork and other objects in bogs, lakes, springs and rivers, the most impressive being the Roos Carr figures from Holderness (Coles 1990; Manby 1980b). There is every indication that this interest in watery places continued even through the period of square barrow burial, which offered alternative forms of conspicuous consumption, linked occasionally with ritually killed burials in barrows (fig. 72). Large square enclosures with entrances, explicitly linked with square barrows at Garton Station-Kirkburn, cluster around the site of seasonal springs. The continuing importance of this area, where such rich iron age burials were found, is most plainly seen in the Roman shrine by the springs at Elmswell (Dent 1988). The decorative plaque from this site, and an enamelled horse bit from Rise in Holderness may reflect a revival of deliberate disposal of prestigious goods after the abandonment of the square barrow tradition. It is interesting that similar practices in the Viking period of the later 1st millennium AD were to see the disposal of weapons and hunting dogs, with other animals, in the River Hull (Dent 1984d).

Changes in society during the iron age may be implied by changing burial fashions, and by their eventual abandonment. The late iron age mass-produced brooches, coins, and wheel-turned pottery which would not be out of place in an oppidum are misleading. The coins are imports from tribes south of the Humber, and there is no indication in the region of increased specialization in a commercial/ industrial centre. The site at North Ferriby has not provided any evidence that it was more than a point of entry for imports from the Roman province during the middle years of the 1st century AD (Crowther, et. al. 1989). Even so, it is probable that events to the south of the Humber did have an effect on society and its expectations further north, and this may have made the absorption of the area into the Roman province so much easier (Dent 1990).

In spite of the shift of interest to watery locations, some respect seems to have been paid to earlier monuments (although round barrows were usually ignored by square 82 82

MATERIAL CULTURE barrow builders), and the Woldgate continued to be a place of communal importance into the iron age and possibly beyond. The number of square barrow cemeteries around Rudston shows that the area retained importance, although this may have been political or social rather than religious. The area which emerged as the focus for ritual in the iron age (and the area with the richest burials) was the Great Slack, particularly the lower end around Garton Station and Elmswell, where burial traditions from neolithic to Anglian are represented. There was clearly strong ritual belief behind the Arras burial tradition, and this is expressed in the conformity of burial positions, which remained consistent among type A, C and D burials. This makes the break with this element and the adoption of a different posture and alignment in the Rudston area (type B) all the more impressive, particularly as the square barrow was retained. The practice of infant burial in domestic contexts instead of barrow cemeteries may also have followed general abandonment of the square barrow tradition. Another element of the practice was the burial of grave goods, and gradual change in standards is apparent as the quality and frequency of grave goods, in inverse proportions, altered with time. A shift from astronomy to earth and water may have formed the main theme of public religion in later prehistory, but there is evidence also of domestic ritual and household gods. Pits on Woldgate and from settlement sites may have been dug as storage units, but their infilling frequently contained objects which would not normally be thrown away, and which are best interpreted as offerings, perhaps to ensure future fertility. Chalk figurines have been found in domestic ditched enclosures at the close of the period, and most probably post-date the Roman conquest (Stead 1988). The two which are most securely dated to the iron age, however, were found at Malton near to a spring, along with a miniature shield which belongs to a distinct class of ritual artefact more widely represented further south (Stead 1991b).

Fig. 73 Chalk figurine from Wetwang Slack (Photo: Tony Pacitto).

It is these enclosures, classified at the beginning of this study as "Class 3b", which provide the most widespread clues to iron age land use, population size and social structure. Not every enclosure represents a complete unit, but farmsteads which needed more than four or five such enclosures to contain their buildings and animals would have been few, judging from the size of modern farms. More than 4,000 enclosures are known on and around the Wolds, and if only one quarter of those were homesteads this is still comparable to the number of farms in the region today.

3.4.6 Perspective

These enclosures were concentrated, not on the Wold tops, but on lower slopes, particularly towards the spring lines and the Hull valley. Single farms, hamlets and villages usually cluster along trackways, which in most cases provide the only evidence of the arable fields around the settlements. The model of the Rudston district suggests that infields and outfields may sometimes be recognized, and that scattered farms in similar terrain to nucleated settlements could indicate the difference between individual ownership and land worked in common. This difference itself can imply social distinctions between farmers whose inherited holdings had developed over generations and those who lived in younger nucleated settlements where they farmed the open fields of new intakes in common, much like the feudal tenants of a later era. Some of these nucleated settlements can be identified as iron age from the square barrow cemeteries which clearly were integral elements, but others

Four issues were identified for particular investigation in chapter 2.1. These were iron age land use, population size, social structure and long term continuity. Very few excavated rectilinear ditched enclosures in East Yorkshire have not produced evidence of Romano-British occupation, either while the ditches were open or, like Brantingham villa, after they had been filled in. On the other hand, whether as isolated enclosures, or as elements in nucleated settlements, native Roman sites consistently produce iron age artefacts, and occasionally, burials. Garton-Wetwang has provided an exceptionally complete example of an early iron age village of the type which probably existed at Bell Slack and some other drove-way settlements before ditches were dug around the individual holdings. 83 83

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE without such cemeteries could have been established after The burial rite was at its most splendid in the early iron age, the burial tradition went out of use. when the greatest range of imported materials was available and metalwork shows the strongest signs of continental A model for iron age agricultural expansion would begin influence. The colonization of peripheral areas, indicative of with the legacy of earlier generations in a mixture of agricultural expansion, seems to have been at its strongest in farmsteads and larger units. Between these the settlement the middle and late iron age, which is consistent with the boundaries became the locations for new nucleated and wider British experience, and follows a cyclical pattern in feudal groups (fig. 21), but not everywhere at once. In the which such expansion coincides with increased isolation valleys of the eastern Wolds this process can be seen in the (ibid.). second century BC, the date being provided by middle La Tène involuted brooches from characteristic barrows in Bell Control of exotic goods is more obvious in the early iron Slack. Further west droveway settlements without age, with objects such as the Wetwang "bean tin" and cemeteries may be as early, but they occupy in many cases Wetwang and Kirkburn scabbards, continental glass and land which had hitherto been avoided, and it would seem coral, and even gold, but the absence of comparable objects more likely that they represent the final expansion into the from later burials could mean several things: dislocation of high Wolds. It is even possible that the long settlement of exchange networks and decline in the power of the élite; the central watershed on Warter Wold is laid out along a withdrawal from a funerary tradition which had ceased to be Roman road alignment. To this phase also might be ascribed exclusive; or adoption of alternative disposal methods, for the large "D" shaped enclosures of the western Great Wold example as religious offerings rather than grave goods. Valley which represent large scale land intake southwards Whichever, comparable objects have not been found in nonfrom the valley floor (fig. 32; Appendix 4.4). funerary contexts, with the possible exceptions of the Rise horse bit, the Thorpe sword and the native Roman Elmswell My naïve attempt to assess the population of the Gartonplaque. Against the complete dislocation of outside contacts Wetwang settlement (Dent 1982) will not be repeated here. is the use of coral as decoration on middle iron age involuted It was based upon the assumption that the cemetery brooches, long after it had ceased to be popular among the contained the remains of all classes, a premise which was iron age tribes of the continent (Champion 1976). shown to be misguided by the subsequent discovery of three chariot burials. Different classes were buried, as represented In many ways the most impressive examples of long-term by type A, C and D burials, but as suggested earlier, these patterning are the ritual and funerary monuments themselves. groups need not have represented the same social strata at The Wolds may have been the first hills which some every stage in the three centuries or so that the cemetery was mesolithic hunters reached after following the shore of the in use. Nor is it possible to identify the lowest classes in North Sea westward from Denmark. The later prominence society, who are least likely to have been buried in square of the Rudston area, with Woldgate on its south could have barrows or with grave goods. Even so, that the population its origins in such early contact. The neolithic ceremonial was considerable is implied more by the 4,000 settlement monuments, bronze age barrows and iron age pit sites on enclosures than by the 2,600 square barrows which are so far Woldgate represent consistent public respect for that place known. over at least two thousand years, while the church of All Saints at Rudston, which stands only metres from the The archaeology of the region does not provide the full monolith, continues the religious use of the complex into the picture at each stage of human settlement, but it does provide medieval period and beyond. Even more impressive is the over the long term some very useful comparisons and sequence in the Great Slack, and the link between the contrasts of the kind which Bradley has identified more neolithic monuments, the bronze age and iron age burials, widely (Bradley 1984). Differing emphasis of effort the iron age and Roman religious sites, the Anglian produced hill forts in the region at a time when there was no cemeteries, and the burial here of Aldfrith, king of elaborate burial rite, but hill forts were absent from the Northumbria. Wolds at the very time that they were being constructed in other parts of lowland Britain, that is, at the same time as the These areas demonstrate that the pagan Angles and the Arras burial tradition was developing in East Yorkshire. The medieval Christians respected the monuments of the past, although neither group had strong reason to identify with settlements of this period were open and there is little sign them. In this respect the continental features of the Arras that labour was invested in them beyond the minimum tradition could be interpreted as evidence of another alien necessary to construct buildings and till the soil. Similarly, group adapting to the traditions of a new landscape. at Garton Station the enclosures with entrances, which are However, unlike the Anglian invaders of the first millennium more likely to have been religious than domestic, were so AD, whose rectangular buildings and grubenhaüser have modest that they lack any sign of offerings, and only their been laid bare at West Heslerton, the domestic culture of the entrances distinguish them from square barrows. In the people who built square barrows was an unbroken middle iron age, on the other hand, ditched drove way continuation of earlier insular traditions. settlements became more elaborate as the funerary tradition become increasingly standardized.

84 84

PART 4 Appendices

Fig. 74 Aerial photographic plots: sampling strategy and location of core area; areas without archaeological sites are shown as solid squares.

4.1

particular features, and helped to provide a chronological/functional anchor for specific sites.

Aerial photography (fig. 74)

Archaeological features included in a 4% sample of the area covered by C Stoertz in her programme of photographic plotting for the National Monuments Record (England).

The samples were taken as the south-west square of each Ordnance Survey sheet of 25 x 1 km² squares. Of the 52 squares examined, 36 contained plotted features, and these are listed below. The features which they contain have been distinguished using a method based upon that devised by Edis, MacLeod and Bewley (1989). Additional information is provided wherever justified by other fieldwork.

Of the 1300 km² covered by Stoertz in her plotting of aerial photographs of the Yorkshire Wolds, a sample of 4% was examined to form an initial assessment of what types of feature exist. Where fieldwork had taken place, this gave a much greater dimension to

85 85

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

4.1.1 Sample areas (figs. 75-110)

Fig. 75 SE 85 35 Fig. 77 SE 80 45

SE 85 35 A. (SE 858 352) Fragmentary linear system of single and double ditches.

SE 80 45 A. (SE 807 457) Random linear system of single and double ditches with symmetric rectangular enclosure group c.60m wide.

Fig. 76 SE 85 40 Fig. 78 SE 80 50

SE 85 40 A. (SE 857 408) Random, rectilinear linear system of single and double ditches; B. (SE 859 405) Small circle c.10m diameter.

SE 80 50 A. (SE 805 507) Fragmentary linear system of single, double and multiple ditches, including two rectangular enclosures, 30m x 10m and 40m x 20m.

86 86

APPENDICES Anglo-Saxon cremation urn had been inserted into the bank (Challis and Harding 1975, 161).

Fig. 79 SE 85 50

SE 85 50

Fig. 81 SE 80 60

A. (SE 859 509) Fragmentary linear system or feature; B. (SE 852 501) Rectilinear linear system with rectangular enclosure c.35m square; C. (SE 851 501) Incomplete circular enclosure c.20m diameter.

SE 80 60 A. (SE 802 609) Linear feature of double ditch; B. (SE 808 608) Fragmentary linear feature incorporating circular enclosure c.30m in diameter; C. (SE 809 608) Linear feature, single ditch. The circular enclosure contains traces of a mound, and can be identified with Mortimer's Barrow 110, Hanging Grimston (Thixendale) long barrow, which the excavator recorded as 78ft (24m) long and 50ft (15m) wide, with two parallel side ditches 27ft (8m) wide. There can be little doubt of this identification, which is also made by Manby (Manby 1988, 76), and yet it is difficult to reconcile Mortimer's excavation record with the circle plotted by Stoertz (!). A radiocarbon date of 2760 ± 90 (HAR-2160) has now been obtained from animal bones found in the facade trench (Manby 1988, 37). Two other mounds are marked as tumuli by the Ordnance Survey at (SE 800 607: Mortimer 61) and (SE 801 608: Mortimer 889).

Fig. 80 SE 85 55

SE 85 55 A. (SE 859 559) Linear feature comprising five parallel ditches. This feature represents the ploughed remains of an otherwise upstanding series of linear earthworks, known as Huggate Dykes. Six parallel earthworks formerly crossed the watershed of the Yorkshire Wolds, but only the westernmost 200m now survives, and this was further mutilated by levelling in the mid-1980s. At its western end this group was extended by a combination of single and double earthworks following the topography either along the contours or down the slope of deep dales cut into the chalk table land. A section was cut by W J Varley through the northernmost bank and ditch, which still survives adjacent to the ploughed area plotted by Stoertz. This showed the bank to be chalk rubble upcast from the ditch, which produced an early iron age potsherd from its filling; an

Fig. 82 SE 85 65

87 87

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE SE 85 65 A. (SE 852 652) Fragmentary linear system with rectangular enclosures c.20m - 50m wide and c.50m long, and at least 23 associated maculae. This site is part of a larger rectilinear linear system which has been the subject of magnetometer survey and a field walking programme as part of the Wharram Percy Parish Survey, in which it is known as the Wharram Grange Crossroad Complex (Hayfield 1987; 1988, 110112). Pottery collected from the field surface ranged in date from the iron age to middle Saxon, and it was noted that larger and less abraded pieces of iron age, Roman and Saxon pottery were grouped separately in different parts of the site. Small and abraded pieces of Roman pottery were found more generally and were interpreted as manuring refuse from fields.

Fig. 84 SE 85 70

SE 85 70 A. (SE 850 709) incomplete circular enclosure c.20-30m diameter; B. (SE 853 706) incomplete double ditched linear feature; C. (SE 858 707) linear triple ditched feature; D. (SE 859 708) rectilinear linear system.

Fig. 83 SE 80 70

SE 80 70 A. (SE 852 704) incomplete curvilinear enclosure c.70m x c.60m with two small circular enclosures c.10m diameter, and seven small maculae inside or on the southern margin; B. (SE 803 703) group of eight small square enclosures c.10m across, including two with internal small maculae, and one small circular enclosure c.10m across also with internal small macula; C. (SE 806 703) fragmentary linear system with associated rectilinear enclosures c.20m and c.50m wide; D. (SE 807 705) extensive fragmentary linear feature of multiple ditches; E. (SE 804 706) linear system of parallel ditches.

Fig. 85 SE 95 25

SE 95 25 A. (SE 955 259) fragmentary linear system of single and double ditches.

88 88

APPENDICES

Fig. 86 SE 90 30

Fig. 88 SE 90 40

SE 90 30

SE 90 40

A. (SE 903 303) linear ditch feature, double, 200m long; B. (SE 905 300) linear ditch feature, double, at least 100m long; C. (SE 908 300) incomplete linear system or rectilinear enclosure D. (SE 905 309) incomplete circular enclosure 50m x 60m with entrance on south-east.

A. (SE 900 404) circular enclosure c.10m in diameter; B. (SE 901 404) linear feature, single ditch; C. (SE 900 406) linear feature, single ditch; D. (SE 907 407) linear feature, single ditch; E. (SE 906 409) two parallel oblong maculae, c.30m long; F. (SE 907 407) linear group of four circular enclosures, with a fifth to one side, c.20m - c.25m in diameter. (E) and (F) are recorded by the Ordnance Survey as tumuli, and E was excavated by Rolleston, but published by Greenwell in his list of long barrow excavations (Greenwell 1877, 505-509). The finds included neolithic pottery (Kinnes and Longworth 1985, no.226). Greenwell recorded the dimensions of the mound as 110ft (34m), and tapering from 75ft (23m) in width to 62ft (19m).

Fig. 87 SE 95 35

SE 95 35 A. (SE 952 356) random linear system incorporating rectangular enclosures c.30m wide and c.50m long.

Fig. 89 SE 95 40

SE 95 40 A. (SE 951 408) linear system, sinuous multiple ditch with adjacent rectilinear enclosure c.60m by 35m, and other fragmentary enclosures.

89 89

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 92 SE 90 50

Fig. 90 SE 90 45

SE 90 50

SE 90 45

A. (SE 902 504) small square enclosure c.10m square; B. (SE 906 508) linear system with sinuous linear ditch 1 km+ in length, associated multiple ditched linear feature 400m long, and several rectangular enclosures between c.20m and c.60m in size; C. (SE 904 509) small square enclosure c.10m square adjoining ditch junction in (B).

A. (SE 900 455) two small square enclosures c.10-15m wide; B. (SE 904 454) four small square enclosures c.10-15m wide; C. (SE 907 456) small square enclosure c.10m wide; D. (SE 902 457) small circular enclosure c.15m wide; E. (SE 903 454) small circular enclosure c.15m wide; F. (SE 909 455) small circular enclosure c.20m wide; G. (SE 909 458) small circular enclosure c.25m wide; H. (SE 906 452) random and fragmentary linear system with one sinuous double ditch and two single ditches. G is marked by the Ordnance Survey as a tumulus.

Fig. 93 SE 95 50

SE 95 50 A. (SE 951 508) fragmentary linear system of rectilinear enclosures of c.4ha. adjoining a linear double ditch. B. (SE 951 501) linear system of incomplete rectilinear enclosures of c.4ha. with two double ditches.

Fig. 91 SE 95 45

SE 95 45 A. (SE 951 457) linear system of double ditch with adjacent incomplete enclosure c.40m by 50m.

90 90

APPENDICES

Fig. 96 SE 95 60

Fig. 94 SE 90 55

SE 95 60

SE 90 55

A. (SE 953 605) linear system of single and multiple ditches, associated with at least four rectilinear enclosures of 0.25 ha or less; B. (SE 959 608) two ditches intersecting; C. (SE 953 602) group of six small circular enclosures less than 20m across, one with segmented, rather than continuous, ditch; D. (SE 953 601) group of four small square enclosures less than 10m across; E. (SE 954 600) linear system of single and multiple ditches, pit alignments and seven rectilinear enclosures of 0.5 ha or less; F. (SE 954 601) group of at least twelve fragmentary small circular or penannular enclosures; G. (SE 953 601) extended group of small maculae, numbering several score and scattered over a large area.

A. (SE 906 552) linear ditch 600m long, double for the western part.

The southern part of this area, comprising (C) to (G) above, are transcripts of excavated features in the Garton Slack gravel quarry (Brewster 1981). This work indicated that some at least of (C) had contained burials of beaker or early bronze age date (Dent 1983a, Appendix A); two of the small square enclosures (D) contained iron age burials, of which one was accompanied by a dismantled two wheeled vehicle (Dent 1983a, Appendix B); (E) was a complex of boundaries and enclosures of iron age and Romano-British date, which included some domestic nuclei; (F) were the remains of circular buildings of iron age date, many of which were associated with pits and post holes. These last, with various burials and other pit-like features comprise (G) (Dent 1983a, fig.3).

Fig. 95 SE 95 55

SE 95 55 A. (SE 953 555) planned linear system on a rectilinear grid with three east-west aligned multiple ditch systems, longest 1 km, and double or multiple ditches linking them. Associated is a linear group of ten rectangular enclosures of 0.25 ha or less from which extends eastwards at least ten parallel linear ditches between 20m and 50m apart.

91 91

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

Fig. 99 SE 95 70

Fig. 97 SE 95 65

SE 95 70

SE 95 65

A. (SE 957 704) fragmentary linear system 400m x 150m associated with (B) and (C); B. (SE 958 704) group of four small circular enclosures c.10m across, associated with (A); C. (SE 958 705) one small square enclosure c.10m across and possibly two fragmentary others; associated with (D) and (E); D. (SE 958 708) compact linear system with linear double ditch 130m long and at least five small rectangular enclosures of 20-30m wide; E. (SE 959 708) small square enclosure c.10m or less across.

A. (SE 955 658) incomplete circular ditched enclosure c.30m across; B. (SE 956 659) two small circular enclosures c.10m across; C. (SE 957 654) linear ditch system of two converging runs, one double and c.500m long E-W, the other single and c.500m long SWNE; D. (SE 959 600) triple linear ditch system at least 180m in length. The OS 1:10,560 sheet indicates part of a system of multiple banks and ditches at (SE 951 659).

Fig. 98SE 90 70

Fig. 100 TA 05 60

SE 90 70

TA 05 60

A. (SE 909 703) single linear ditch at least 200m long; B. (SE 909 706) fragmentary linear ditch, in part double, at least 140m long.

A. (TA 008 605) fragmentary linear ditch, in part double, at least 1 km in length; B. (TA 007 609) fragmentary linear system; C. (TA 000 604) linear ditch N-S and 300m long.

92 92

APPENDICES

Fig. 101 TA 00 65

Fig. 103 TA 05 70

TA 00 65

TA 05 70

A. (TA 000 657) linear system of at least 15 rectilinear enclosures of varying sizes, but mostly c.0.16ha., covering a total area of 2ha; B. (TA 000 650) linear ditch, double, at least 200m long; C. (TA 005 610) fragmentary linear system of three broadly parallel ditches 50m and 120m apart running NW-SE.

A. (TA 055 702) linear system of c.6 rectilinear enclosures, largest 0.25 ha or less linked by ditches in a north-south alignment; among the enclosures are at least eight small maculae; B. (TA 057 702) small square enclosure c.10-15m across; C. (TA 054 708) linear double ditch NE-SW and at least 300m long; D. (TA 056 707) linear system with linear ditch at least 300m long, and double for c.100m, with at least four fragmentary rectangular enclosures of -0.5 ha or less adjoining on east side; E. (TA 059 705) sinuous linear ditch N-S, at least 600m long and double for 100m.

Fig. 102 TA 05 65

TA 05 65 A. (TA 050 655) small double circular enclosure c.20-25m in diameter; B. (TA 050 655) linear system consisting of a linear feature at least 900m long and double for the northernmost 250m, and a linear feature 200m long abutting from east, with start of another on west; C. (TA 053 655) linear feature, double and triple in places, at least 1150m long from south-south-east to north-north-west; D. (TA 051 650) linear feature, double, 1200m long from southsouth-west to north-north-east, associated with (E), (F) and (G); E. (TA 054 655) group of 51 maculae, associated with (C) and (D); F. (TA 056 658) group of 17 maculae, associated with (D); G (TA 057 659) group of 13 maculae, associated with (D); H (TA 051 659) linear feature 650m long east-west and double for 80m, associated at west end with (B) and (C).

Fig. 104 TA 00 75

TA 00 75 A. (TA 000 750) small circular enclosure c.10-15m across; B. (TA 000 750) linear feature at least 1150m long extending northeastwards to abut (C) and consisting in places of lines of closely spaced pits and in others of a single ditch; C. (TA 007 759) linear ditch aligned NW-SE and at least 450m long, abutted by (B) and with fragmentary ditches to the north; D. (TA 007 756) small circular enclosure c.10-15m across; E. (TA 008 752) linear ditch SW-NE and at least 180m long.

93 93

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Upstanding earthworks shown by the Ordnance Survey include a tumulus at (TA 001 759) and four more at (TA 006 755), one of which corresponds with (D), also a linear earthwork 600m long between (TA 003 753) and (TA 008 750).

D. (TA 103 654) rectilinear enclosure of c.0.35 ha and associated with (E); E. (TA 103 654) small circular enclosure c.10-15m across inside (D); F. (TA 104 654) linear system of four fragmentary rectilinear enclosures of c.0.6 ha or less in size associated with (A) and (G); G. (TA 100 656) linear feature 1250m long extending east and then south-east through the junction of (A) and (B), marking the northern limit of (F), (I) and (J); H. (TA 108 654) fragmentary linear system c.230m long; I. (TA 103 650) linear system of at least ten rectilinear enclosures, between c.0.08 ha and 0.5 ha in size, and covering a total area of c.6ha; J. (TA 101 652) a large irregular scatter, with many small concentrations, of at least 455 small maculae, limited on the east by the eastern boundaries of (B) and (I), whereas on the north-west they mostly lie to the south-east of a line midway between the two southerly branches of (A). K. (TA 104 659) two small circular enclosures c.10m and 25m across. Geophysical survey and sample excavation by the British Museum looked at elements in this complex. The enclosure and small ring (E) were surveyed, and a scattered sample of pits excavated (J) in 198892 (information from I Stead). Pottery and associated artefacts of bone, shale and iron were 1st millennium BC in character.

Fig. 105 TA 10 60

Further excavations took place in 1992 along the route of the Caythorpe gas pipeline by Northern Archaeological Associates (Abramson 1996). The pipeline followed a 14m wide corridor through the sample square from (TA 100 656) to (TA 106 660) and a section of (A) was examined which consisted of two parallel ditches with traces of a third between. Among the remains excavated were a number of neolithic pits, averaging 1.4m in diameter and 1m in depth, although none correspond with the maculae shown by Stoertz. Also found were a crouched inhumation with an iron age pottery vessel at (TA 104 658) and three roundhouses, of which two at (TA 105 659) appear to have been post structures 7m and 8m in diameter, with a third 140m to the east.

TA 10 60 A. (TA 107 601) fragmentary linear system covering c.1ha. B (TA 107 601) small circular enclosure c.5-10m across.

Fig. 106 TA 10 65

TA 10 65 A. (TA 105 655, centre) tripartite and sinuous linear feature, based upon a single ditch at least 1000m long and aligned SW-NE, which is associated with a rectilinear enclosure (D) and crosses the double ditches of (G) at the grid reference. North of this point a single branch is represented by triple ditches; to the south the feature branches into two, the original ditch doubled by a second which follows (G) westwards for c.100m and then turns south-westwards once more as a double ditch for at least 500m. B. (TA 102 652) linear system converging on point where (A) changes from single to double; C. (TA 101 659) linear feature, multiple ditches 250+m long;

Fig. 107 TA 15 65

TA 15 65 A. (TA 158 656) small fragment of linear system of c.1ha.

94 94

APPENDICES C. (TA 156 704) small circular enclosure c. 15m across with central macula; D. (TA 156 700) penannular enclosure c.15-20m across; E. (TA 157 700) double circular enclosure c.30m across; F. (TA 157 700) long rectangular enclosure c.25m x 50m with opening at south-east end. Some of the features in this area were excavated in 1972 by Manby (Manby 1980a. His barrow 2, which appears on the 1954 OS Map as an extant mound, can be correlated with the largest square of (A) and the enclosed rectangular platform measured 13.5m x 15m. A central grave had been opened before, although an immature pig skeleton had been missed by the nineteenth century excavator, who was probably Edward Tindall of Bridlington. If so, the grave contained three iron age brooches when excavated in 1857 (Stead 1979, 102, "Huntow"). Barrow 3, High Easton (C) was neolithic and consisted of a small internal trench enclosing an area 7m across, outside which was a ditch 22m in diameter. The Stoertz plots appear to have the external ditch but not the internal trench. A mound is shown here on Robert Knox's map of Scarborough district in 1821 (Manby 1980a, 19).

Fig. 108 TA 10 70

TA 10 70

A later find was the accidental discovery of a stone floor associated with Romano-British pottery in the area of the enclosures (B) in 1976 (Manby 1980a, 21).

A. (TA 101 704) linear system of subdivided rectilinear enclosure of c.0.75. ha and at least five small fragmentary enclosures of 20m-30m wide grouped on either side of (B); B. (TA 102 704) sinuous linear feature c.500m in length and double where adjoined by (A); C. (TA 101 709) linear system of fragmentary rectilinear enclosures, two containing maculae adjoining a double linear ditch feature (more extensive in Bell Slack to the north); D. (TA 107 705) multiple linear feature 0.9+ km in length NNESSW. The multiple linear feature (D) is called Argam Dykes by the Ordnance Survey, and parts of the system survive as a triple banked earthwork (Loughlin and Miller 1979, 126).

Fig. 110 TA 10 75

Fig. 109 TA 15 70

TA 15 70 A. (TA 153 704) loose scatter of 15 small square enclosures, extending over 500m and all but one c.10m across; the largest is c.1015m across and five squares contain central small maculae; B. (TA 152 703) rectilinear system of ditches covering an area of c.12ha; two ditches meet at one of the small enclosures of (A);

95 95

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE B. (TA 109 757) linear feature, triple at south end and 350+m long with fragmentary rectangular enclosures on east side.

TA 10 75 A. (TA 106 759) fragmentary linear system on east-west orientation covering c. 5ha.;

96 96

APPENDICES

4.2

Chronology (tables 1-6)

Raisthorpe (Manby 1988) NPL 140 Secondary cremation

4.2.1 Carbon 14 dates (tables 5, 6) The Carbon 14 dates given below were collected from various publications, as indicated, and were usually expressed in uncalibrated form. Some relate to the writer's own field work at Wetwang, Ling Howe, North Cave and Watton, and not all of these have been published. All dates have been calibrated, or recalibrated for conformity, using the computer programme Calib (version 1.3 for DOS), which is available from English Heritage Ancient Monuments Laboratory. The method used to calculate the calibrated date range is that described by Stuiver and Reimer (1986), and the programme uses calibration data sets as given by Pearson and Stuiver (1986), Pearson, et al. (1986), and Stuiver and Pearson (1986); and, for Cal 5210-7210 BC, a bi-decadal weighted average of data from Linick, et al. (1985), Stuiver, et al. (1986), and Kromer, et al. (1986). Calibrated dates using a 20 year atmospheric record to 7210 cal BC are marked with a single asterisk (*); a 10 year atmospheric record 2490 cal BC, a double asterisk (**) 6.

Seamer Moor (Manby 1988) NPL-73 charcoal from old surface

Garton Slack (Manby 1988)

NPL-194 Cremation pit

5060±150 BP Cal BC 4032 - 3700 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4240 - 3526 (2 sigma)* 5045±150 BP Cal BC 4000 - 3700 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4232 - 3520 (2 sigma)*

4900±150 BP Cal BC 3934 - 3522 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4030 - 3360 (2 sigma)*

4354±165 BP Cal BC 3330 - 2708 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3500 - 2507 (2 sigma)*

Garton Slack site 28 (Manby 1988) HAR-1284 red deer antler from path of ritual feature

4710±90 BP Cal BC 3630 - 3367 (1 sigma) Cal BC 3700 - 3146 (2 sigma)*

3870±110 BP Cal BC 2489 - 2145 (1 sigma)** Cal BC >2497 - 1983 (2 sigma)**

Grindale barrow 1, phase 2 (Manby 1988) 5110±100 BP Cal BC 4032 - 3760 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4224 - 3700 (2 sigma)*

HAR-266 burnt collapsed structure

4510±90 BP Cal BC 3361 - 3039 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3502 - 2920 (2 sigma)*

Low Caythorpe (Manby 1988) 4830±125 BP Cal BC 3778 - 3385 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3950 - 3350 (2 sigma)*

HAR-2146 antler with Durrington Walls style Grooved Ware

Ling Howe, Walkington (Dent) HAR-9248 Buried soil under mound

BM-188 base of "crematorium deposit"

BM-268 charcoal associated with hearth, flints, sherds

Kilham (Manby 1988) BM-293 plank packing from mortuary enclosure

4960±150 BP Cal BC 3960 - 3548 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4211 - 3380 (2 sigma)*

Easington (Manby 1988)

Kemp Howe (Manby 1988) HAR-5725

BM-189 facade trench pit

Later neolithic sites

Hanging Grimston (Manby 1988) HAR-2160 animal bones in facade trench

5030±90 BP Cal BC 3970 - 3705 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4032 - 3640 (2 sigma)*

Willerby Wold (Manby 1988)

Long barrows

NPL-195 Cremation

5515±145 BP Cal BC 4500 - 4240 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4720 - 4004 (2 sigma)*

5220±100 BP Cal BC 4226 - 3830 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4334 - 3790 (2 sigma)*

6

The data collected here have not been tested against Thomas Bayes’ statistical theorem (Buck et al. 1996); for more recently published radiocarbon dates, see: Manby et al. 2003.

97 97

3640±70 BP Cal BC 2138 - 1894 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2272 - 1780 (2 sigma)**

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Burton Agnes Wold, Field 7500 (Abramson, in press) Grindale barrow 1(Manby 1988) Pit group 1230, Pit 1234 NZA-4696 carbonized seeds with Peterborough Ware

HAR-269 antler in primary silt 4320±80 BP Cal BC 3035 - 2891 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3297 - 2701 (2 sigma)*

Whitegrounds (Manby 1988)

Pit group 1020, Pit 1004 NZA-4695 carbonized hazelnuts with Grooved Ware

4160±80 BP Cal BC 2893 - 2611 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 2920 - 2498 (2 sigma)*

NZA-4705 animal bone with Grooved Ware

3950±70 BP Cal BC 2497 - 2353 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2497 - 2232 (2 sigma)**

4910±150 BP Cal BC 3938 - 3526 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4032 - 3360 (2 sigma)*

HAR-5580 human bone from entrance grave

4950±90 BP Cal BC 3930 - 3648 (1 sigma) Cal BC 3980 - 3529 (2 sigma)*

Whitegrounds, phase 2 (Manby 1988) HAR-5587 bone from inhumation with Seamer axe and jet slider

4520±90 BP Cal BC 3365 - 3042 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3510 - 2920 (2 sigma)*

Wetwang Slack, area 15 (Dent)

Garton Slack Area 6 (Brewster 1981)

Pit group with Grooved Ware

HAR-1282 inhumation with 6 copper beads, jet toggle, 13 jet buttons, 180 jet beads

HAR-8538 WK 023

4490±90 BP Cal BC 3330 - 3050 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3500 - 2920 (2 sigma)*

HAR-8539 WK 017

3980±100 BP Cal BC 2660 - 2380 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2880 - 2150 (2 sigma)**

HAR-8540 WK 031

Garton Slack Area 7 (Brewster 1981) HAR-1236 double cremation with food vessel and awl

4340±80 BP Cal BC 3120 - 2840 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3340 - 2630 (2 sigma)*

HAR-2493 cremation

4260±80 BP Cal BC 2923 - 2706 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3077 - 2618 (2 sigma)*

3350±80 BP Cal BC 1740 - 1528 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1881 - 1454 (2 sigma)**

Gristhorpe (Powlesland 1986, 122)

Round barrows, ring ditches and related burials

HAR-4995 monoxylous coffin

Boynton barrow 1 (Manby 1988) HAR-268 charcoal in fill of hengi-form structure

3550±70 BP Cal BC 2028 - 1756 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2135 - 1694 (2 sigma)**

Garton Slack Area 18 (Brewster 1981)

Wetwang Slack, area 7 (Dent) HAR-4428 charcoal from large post hole in segmented ditched enclosure

3487±70 BP Cal BC 1919 - 1695 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2029 - 1637 (2 sigma)*

4840±80 BP Cal BC 3772 - 3525 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3790 - 3379 (2 sigma)*

West Heslerton 1R340 (Powlesland 1986, 169)

Callis Wold 275 (Manby 1988) BM-1167 charcoal of facade

4800±70 BP Cal BC 3692 - 3393 (1 sigma) Cal BC 3776 - 3380 (2 sigma)*

BM-1170

4930±65 BP Cal BC 3785 - 3649 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 3941 - 3541 (2 sigma)*

3620±70 BP Cal BC 2134 - 1886 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2267 - 1754 (2 sigma)**

HAR-6630 redeposited inhumation burial in grave containing secondary inhumation with Clarke type N/NR beaker (Lanting and van der Waals step 3)

98 98

4060±80 BP Cal BC 2491 - 2865 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 2410 - 2886 (2 sigma)*

APPENDICES

Table 5. Early Radiocarbon Dates

Boats

Burials

HAR-2490

HAR-10225

HAR-1228

HAR-2486

HAR-4425

HAR-1235

HAR 10226

HAR-1275

HAR-1274

HAR 2776

HAR-1129

HAR 2777

HAR 1665

HAR 2771

HAR-1130

HAR-1296

HAR-1283

HAR-1058

HAR-1057

HAR-6441

HAR-6394

HAR-6395

1000 800 600 400 200 0 -200 -400

OxA-1718

Ist m illennium BC sites

Settlement

Table 6. Radiocarbon dates for 1st millenium BC sites.

West Heslerton (Powlesland 1986, 83)

Wetwang Slack Area 6 (Dent)

HAR-6690 charcoal on old ground surface beneath barrow containingbeaker and food vessel burial

HAR-1878 inhumation with deer scapula and flint blade cutting cremation deposit

3450±90 BP Cal BC 1886 - 1641 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2030 - 1527 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1879 charcoal from post hole in circle

3160±90 BP Cal BC 1521-1325 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1670-1225 (2 sigma)**

3840±40 BP Cal BC 2456 - 2214 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2470 - 2143 (2 sigma)**

Wetwang Slack Area 8 (Dent) HAR-4426 Inhumation with Clarke type S2(W) Beaker (Lanting and van der Waals step 6)

3900±100 BP Cal BC 2490 - 2231 (1 sigma)** Cal BC >2497 - 2041 (2 sigma)**

Wetwang Slack Area 12(Dent) HAR-4427 inhumation in plank cist with Roe type IIIA stone battle axe and pig bones 99 99

3780±70 BP Cal BC 2389 - 2043 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2470 - 1978 (2 sigma)**

Wetwang Slack Area 16 (Dent)

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Hill forts and palisaded enclosures Grimthorpe (Manby 1980)

Grave with coffin and Clarke type N/NR Beaker (Lanting and van der Waals step 3, zoned decoration) HAR-9244 WY 8 AK

HAR-9247 WY 8 AJ

HAR-9245 WY 8 AM

The average of these three dates is

3690±80 BP Cal BC 2210 - 1980 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2450 - 1830 (2 sigma)** 3750±80 BP Cal BC 2300 - 2070 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2460 - 1930 (2 sigma)**

NPL-136 occupation debris in upper ditch fill

2640±130 BP Cal BC 969 - 603 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1188 - 410 (2 sigma)**

BM-63 charred grain from phase II palisade slot

3680±100 BP Cal BC 2220 - 1950 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2450 - 1780 (2 sigma)**

2400±50 BP Cal BC 753 - 402 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 765 - 390 (2 sigma)**

Thwing (Manby 1985)

3710±49 BP Cal BC 2202 - 2034 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2291 - 1961 (2 sigma)**

3850±100 BP Cal BC 2490 - 2190 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2650 - 1990 (2 sigma)**

HAR-? occupation debris in filling of inner ditch

3110±80 BP Cal BC 1491 - 1317 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1597 - 1114 (2 sigma)**

HAR-? occupation debris in filling of inner ditch

3010±100 BP Cal BC 1427 - 1055 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1500 - 937 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1398 occupation debris sealed by rampart

2910±70 BP Cal BC 1288 - 976 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1374 - 905 (2 sigma)**

Pit alignments Burton Agnes Wold (Abramson 1996) Boundary 1800, Pit 1293

Willy Howe, Cowlam (Powlesland 1986, 122) HAR-4424 monoxylous coffin

2920±130 BP Cal BC 1372 - 931 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1489 - 820 (2 sigma)**

Staple Howe (Brewster 1963, 140)

Grave with Clarke type N2 Beaker (Lanting and van der Waals step 3, zoned decoration) HAR-9246 WY 9 AL

NPL-137 rubble ditch infill beside causeway

RCD-2096 animal bone

3590±46 BP Cal BC 2031 - 1836 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 2134 - 1776 (2 sigma)**

2170±80 BP Cal BC 378 - 112 BC (1 sigma)** Cal BC 400 - AD 0 (2 sigma)**

Lake dwellings and trackways Barmston (Manby 1980)

100 100

BM-122 timbers from settlement on former lake shore

2960±150 BP Cal BC 1410 - 940 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1578 - 820 (2 sigma)**

BM-123 timbers from settlement on former lake shore

2890±150 BP Cal BC 1370 - 845 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1491 - 790 (2 sigma)**

APPENDICES Boats and water offerings North Ferriby (Wright 1978)

Fig. 111 Axe marks on timber from Watton Carr (Photo: Bill Marsden)

Q-715 alder branch found under Boat 3

3120±105 BP Cal BC 1500 - 1264 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1682 - 1055 (2 sigma)**

Q-1217 yew stitches from Boat 1

3312±100 BP Cal BC 1733 - 1490 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1881 - 1410 (2 sigma)**

Q-1197 oak from main planking of Boat 1

3380±100 BP Cal BC 1865 - 1532 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2009 - 1449 (2 sigma)**

Q-837(a) yew stitches and slat from underneath Boat 2

3393±210 BP Cal BC 2012 - 1453 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2291 - 1134 (2 sigma)**

Q-837 (b) duplicate of above (second run)

3506±110 BP Cal BC 2013 - 1694 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 2138 - 1600 (2 sigma)**

Watton Carr (Dent) A series of wedge-split oak trunks (fig. 108) were ploughed up in boggy ground on the west side of the River Hull; without excavation a timber trackway over the marsh seems the likeliest interpretation.

Roos Carr (Coles 1990, 326)

UB 3267

3414 + 49 BP Cal BC 1808 - 1642 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1883 - 1600 (2 sigma)**

OxA-1718 anthropomorphic wooden figures in boat

UB 3268

3451 + 35 BP Cal BC 1878 - 1694 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1885 - 1643 (2 sigma)**

Hasholme log boat (Millet and McGrail 1987, 78)

UB 3269

UB 3270

3140 + 35 BP Cal BC 1488 - 1408 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1498 - 1321 (2 sigma)** 3355 + 36 BP Cal BC 1724 - 1606 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1742 - 1529 (2 sigma)**

(See also under dendrochronology) Miscellaneous burials

3200±70 BP Cal BC 1597 - 1414 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 1685 - 1321 (2 sigma)**

2350±90 BP Cal BC 744 - 382 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 770 - 210 (2 sigma)**

HAR-6395 sapwood of boat

2550±100 BP Cal BC 813 - 447 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 900 - 400 (2 sigma)**

HAR-6441 sapwood of boat

2280±80 BP Cal BC 405 - 212 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 751 - 127 (2 sigma)**

Recalibration in 1994 gave the following result:

West Heslerton 1A18 (Powlesland 1986, 113) HAR-6517 inhumation in prone position, ?buried alive

HAR-6394 sapwood of boat

These determinations were calibrated and the means pooled by D Haddon-Reece; the results gave a 68% confidence at 1 sigma of 750-390 BC and a 95% confidence at 2 sigma of 770-260 BC.

Garton Slack Area 14 (Brewster 1981) HAR-? inhumation in large pit

2460±70 BP Cal BC 770 - 409 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 800 - 400 (2 sigma)

2280±80 BP Cal BC 405 - 212 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 751 - 127 (2 sigma)**

101 101

2373±51 BP Cal BC 514 - 397 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 760 - 380 (2 sigma)**

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Square enclosure burials Burton Fleming (Stead 1991a, 169-70)

Wetwang Slack (Dent)

HAR-1129 inhumation with involuted bow brooch and pot

2050±80 BP Cal BC 180 - Cal AD 20 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 360 - Cal AD 110 (2 sigma)**

HAR 2771 inhumation with brooch, bracelet and glass beads

2140±80 BP Cal BC 362 - 396 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 390 - Cal AD 20 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1130 inhumation with arched bow brooch, pot and pig bones

2150±150 BP Cal BC 390 - Cal AD 1 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 750 - Cal AD 130 (2 sigma)**

HAR 1665 inhumation with earring, two bracelets, brooch and glass necklace

2110±80 BP Cal BC 349 - 342 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 380 -Cal AD 60 (2 sigma)**

HAR 2777 inhumation with sword and shield fitting

2080±80 BP Cal BC 196 - Cal AD 0 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 370 - Cal AD 80 (2 sigma)**

HAR 2776 inhumation with flat bow brooch (La Tène III) and pig bone

1790±70 BP Cal AD 128 - 333 (1 sigma)** Cal AD 70 - 410 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1058 inhumation with flat bow brooch and pot

2520±70 BP Cal BC 800 - 530 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 820 - 400 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1057 inhumation with iron sword

2600±70 BP Cal BC 825 - 780 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 900 - 540 (2 sigma)**

Garton Slack, Area 7 (Brewster 1981) HAR-1274 secondary inhumation

HAR-1275 extended primary inhumation

1920±90 BP Cal BC 88 - Cal AD 212 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 167 - Cal AD 322 (2 sigma)**

Settlement remains Garton Slack Area 5: Pit 14 (Brewster 1981) HAR-2490 charcoal from planks in pit with saddle quern

HAR-1283 inhumation situated between two square enclosures

1870±70 BP Cal AD 33 - 229 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 88 - Cal AD 325 (2 sigma)** 2350±120 BP Cal BC 757 - 235 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 800 - 124 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1296 primary inhumation with iron mirror and pig bones

1460±100 BP Cal AD 434 - 660 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 390 - 770 (2 sigma)**

HAR-1228 carbonised grain

1920±80 BP Cal BC 87 - Cal AD 208 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 110 - Cal AD 317 (2 sigma)**

Garton Slack Area 9: Grain Silo 1 (Brewster 1981) 2130±70 BP Cal BC 352 - 73 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 390 - Cal AD 20 (2 sigma)**

Garton Slack Area 9: Pit 2 (Brewster 1981) HAR-2486 oak charcoal from large timbers

2140±80 BP Cal BC 357 - 73 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 390 - Cal AD 47 (2 sigma)**

Garton Slack Area 18: Pit 1 (Brewster 1981) HAR-1235 charcoal from 2340±80 BP pit associated with Cal BC 507 - 382 (1 sigma)** circular house Cal BC 764 - 208 (2 sigma)**

102 102

APPENDICES

4,2,3 Thermo-luminescence dates

North Cave Feature 100: pit or well (Dent) HAR-10225 wood

HAR 10226 charcoal

2160±80 BP Cal BC 320 - 120 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 400 - 0 (2 sigma)**

Hasholme (Millett and McGrail 1987, 78) log boat: DurTL 441AS pot sherd

2410±80 BP Cal BC 660 - 410 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 800 - 270 (2 sigma)**

Wetwang Slack Area 12 (Dent) HAR-4425 charcoal in post hole, door of circular building

2270±100 BP Cal BC 404 - 200 (1 sigma)** Cal BC 757 - 100 (2 sigma)**

HAR-8543 charcoal from pit associated with circular buildings

5670±160 BP Cal BC 4730 - 4370 (1 sigma)* Cal BC 4930 - 4160 (2 sigma)*

Anglian settlement Wetwang Slack Area 14 (Dent) HAR-8541 charcoal from a pit in the floor of a grubenhaüs-type feature

1310±70 BP Cal AD 655 - 775 (1 sigma)** Cal AD 610 - 880 (2 sigma)**

Burton Agnes Wold (Abramson, 1996) NZA 4703 bone from post hole in rectangular building

1180±65 BP Cal AD 772 - 975** Cal AD 670 - 990**

4.2.2 Dendrochronological dates Watton Carr (Dent) timber 1 (AC) from possible trackway

1858 - 1679 BC

Hasholme (Millett and McGrail 1987) log boat, hull

322 - 277 BC

log boat, repair timber (C)

449 - 387 BC

log boat, bow fitting (J)

599 - 429 BC

log boat, bow fitting (K)

489 - 409 BC

103 103

AD190±270

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

4.3 Neolithic and early bronze age ceremonial and funerary sites (figs. 13, 14, 2325, 112; table 7) The earliest field monuments in the region included cursus, henge monuments and long enclosures, but the most numerous were without doubt barrows. Known long barrows on the Wolds number less than twenty, but these were augmented in the later neolithic by a similar number of large round barrows (Manby 1988). The beaker phase of the neolithic and the subsequent early bronze age saw an enormous increase in the number of round barrows, however, and even levelling of many by medieval ploughing left hundreds to be opened by early archaeologists. The most energetic of these pioneers were William Greenwell (at least 180 barrows: Greenwell 1877; Kinnes and Longworth 1985, nos. 1, 3-123, 222, 224, 226, 234-265; unnumbered barrows 67-69, 90-109) and John Mortimer (at least 313 barrows: Mortimer 1905, barrows 1-295, plus 18 additional). These numbers do not include iron age barrows, although they do include the same barrows in some cases, for Mortimer re-excavated some of Greenwell's. Many of the barrows excavated by Mortimer and Greenwell contained derived neolithic material in the mound (Manby 1988, Appendices A-d), but only sixteen of Greenwell's barrows produced more than 25 objects, either through his endeavours or through reexcavation in the 1960s and 1970s. These barrows were numbers 21 (Ganton), 40 (Helperthorpe), 43 and 47 (Weaverthorpe), 50 (an iron age barrow) and 57 (Cowlam), 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, and 69 (Rudston), 241 and 245 (Folkton), and 253 (Bempton). Some of these occur in areas of known neolithic monuments, as at Weaverthorpe, Cowlam and Rudston, and at locations where ridges separated convenient valley routes: Ganton and Folkton on the northern escarpment, Weaverthorpe, Cowlam and Rudston on the ridges between the Great Wold Valley and the feeder valleys of the River Hull. Folkton barrow 245 contained the well known carved chalk drums (Kinnes and Longworth 1985), and Rudston 62 contained a large central grave with an elaborate stone burial chamber (Pacitto 1972).

Fig. 112 Neolithic long barrows and long enclosures.

4.3.1 The Great Wold Valley: Duggleby Howe, Kirby Grindalythe (SE 880 669) A large mound 6m high and 38m in diameter which stands on the lower southern slope of the Great Wold Valley within a horseshoe shaped causewayed ditch 350m in diameter. The Gypsey Race rises only 800m to the west and may have been the reason for the location of the monument. Excavation by Mortimer in 1890 uncovered many burials and an important assemblage of artefacts. Mortimer 1905, 23-42. Riley 1988, 208.

Most of the barrow groups excavated by Greenwell and Mortimer were concentrated on the ridges which formed the Wolds watershed: at Folkton, Willerby, Ganton, Sherburn, Goodmanham and Walkington (Greenwell 1877), and Wharram Percy, Aldro, Acklam, Hanging Grimston, Painsthorpe Wold, Garrowby Wold, Callis Wold, Riggs, Huggate Wold, Huggate and Warter Wold and Blanch (Mortimer 1905). Many of the neolithic monuments of the region, however, are located in valleys, and these include the groups in the Great Wold Valley at Duggleby and between Wold Newton and Rudston, and further south between Wetwang and Driffield. Many of these monuments are well known, but Stoertz has plotted a number of new ones, and others have been examined by excavation. The following catalogue of sites excludes details of Beaker and later round barrows.

Esh's long barrow, Helperthorpe, Luttons (SE 959 689) Greenwell's barrow 49, re-opened by Mortimer; there is no trace yet recorded from the air, but a facade trench was located and remains of a "crematorium". Hicks 1969.

Cross Thorns long barrow, Helperthorpe, Luttons (SE 962 679) Greenwell's unnumbered barrow 95, Mortimer's barrow A. Long barrow with two flanking ditches, nothing of which has yet been observed from the air.

Paddock Hill henge, Thwing (TA 030 707)

104 104

APPENDICES A Class 2 henge monument consisting of a ditch 60m in internal diameter with an external chalk bank and opposed entrances on the NW and SE. Excavations by Manby 1973-1987 located Beaker sherds beneath the bank and in the primary silt of the ditch. In the later bronze age the monument was remodelled. Initially the ditch was recut and a post circle 17m in diameter constructed around an urned cremation at its centre. Taunton metal types were associated with this phase. This was replaced by a circular hill fort defended by a timber revetted rampart inside a massive defensive ditch 115m in external diameter and with opposed gateways on NW and SE. Inside was a central ring of double posts 16m in diameter. This phase was associated with Penard phase metal types. Manby 1987.

both terminate on the east at an ovoid enclosure approximately 18m x 15m, long axis north-south. The uneven side ditches are paralleled in Phase I of Kilham long barrow, as is the relationship with a curvilinear enclosure (Manby 1976, Figs. 3 and 19). The monument aligns on the Bell Slack long enclosure, which is 0.93km to the east (see below). A ring ditch 10-12m in diameter is located some 20m north-west of the monument; another with a central pit is at a similar distance to north-east.

Maiden's Grave henge, Burton Fleming (TA 096 706) Situated on the floor of the Great Wold Valley between the Gypsey Race and Rudston Cursus D, a Class 2 henge with opposed entrances to NW and SE, the former in line with four external pits. Excavation by McInness in 1964 sectioned the internal ditch which was 4m deep and 12m wide and contained Peterborough and Beaker sherds in its upper filling. MacInnes 1964.

Swaythorpe polygonal enclosure, Kilham (TA 035 693) A double ditched, circular or polygonal enclosure c.125m in diameter. The position, on a prominent ridge only 1.3 km south of Paddock Hill, Thwing (see above) suggests that this could have enjoyed a similar status as a henge, and/or hill fort.

Bell Slack long enclosure, Grindale (TA 110 717) Situated on the east side of Bell Slack as it feeds into the Great Wold Valley an elongated rectilinear enclosure c.95m long and 40m wide, known only from aerial photographs, has an entrance at each end, and a small ring ditch c.10m diameter outside the eastern end is comparable to a similar ring ditch in line with Kilham long barrow (see below). The axis of the enclosure is east-west, and if continued westwards for 750m would reach the north end of Cursus D and related features there. A group of three pits outside the west end of the enclosure may be related to complex settlement remains of iron age and Romano-British date in Bell Slack. A double ring ditch, probably remains of a round barrow, is also situated in Bell Slack 160m west of the enclosure.

Wold Newton barrow no.284 (TA 048 726) Situated on the north side of the Gypsey Race, a round mound 25.3m in diameter and 3.7m high. A large interrupted ditch enclosing the mound has been recognized on aerial photographs. Mortimer excavated the mound in 1894 and found the bulk of the mound consisted of the same type of peaty soil as that on which it stood, and among this in several places he found the bones of frogs and toads. Mortimer 1905.

Willy Howe, Thwing (TA 061 723)

West Field long and curvilinear enclosures, Grindale (TA 126 727)

Situated on the floor of the Great Wold Valley, an oval mound 8m high and 43m by 37m aligned NW-SE enclosed by a ditch 12-14m wide. Lord Londesborough excavated a trench across the centre in 1857 and this is still unfilled. Greenwell also examined the barrow in 1887 and excavated a grave cut almost 4m into the chalk, but no burial was recognized (barrow 252, Kinnes and Longworth).

Situated on a ridge between Bell Slack and Gosling Slack, an elongated enclosure c.100m by c.35m with rounded ends. The southeast end also incorporates an incomplete ovoid enclosure, and there is an entrance at the north-west end. C.60m to the south-east is a curvilinear enclosure c.60m by c.45m, which recalls similar relationships at Kilham long barrow, Bell Slack and Manor Farm.

Burton Fleming Grange, Burton Fleming (TA 060 728)

Cursus A, Rudston (TA 013 683 to TA 099 657)

Double ditched enclosure known from crop marks on the floor of the Great Wold Valley 700m north-east of Willy Howe. The outer enclosure is oval and c.90m by c.80, oriented north-west to southeast.

Two parallel ditches each 2.6 km in length and 60-70m apart are linked at each end in a squared terminal. The orientation is northsouth from the ridge north of the Great Wold Valley, across the stream itself towards the long enclosure in West Field, Burton Agnes (see below), but for the last 600m the cursus diverges from the line and curls firstly south-east and then south. Remains of an internal bank survive at the south end, and here Greenwell found beaker burials as well as neolithic sherds (Greenwell 1877, Rudston barrow 66; Kinnes and Longworth 1985), and the Granthams found beaker and food vessel sherds in the west ditch in 1958 (Dymond 1966). A concentration of many ring ditches, some of which contained barrows in recent times, occupies the ridge to the west of this terminal. Dymond 1966; Riley 1988.

Vicarage Closes, Burton Fleming (TA 072 724) Group of three long enclosures on the north side of the Gypsey Race, now partly covered by a modern road. Known only from crop marks these are oriented east-west and are situated 600m south-east of the 850m east of Willy Howe. From west to east these are: (A) c.90m long; (B) c.100m long and c.30m wide with an entrance in the centre of the east end; (C) c.50m long and c.20m wide. A penannular ditch c.25m in diameter and 40m north of (C) also has an entrance on the east.

Cursus B, Rudston (TA 080 669 to TA 093 674)

Maiden’s Grave long enclosure (TA 001 717)

From a squared west terminal on rising ground two ditches between 50m and 80m apart run east-north-east towards the Monolith (see below) for 1.35 km as if to pass it on its south side, but the modern

Two parallel straight ditches, aligned west-east and approximately 16-17m apart; the north ditch is c.60m in length, the south c.30m and

105 105

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE village conceals the eastern part of the monument. A double ring ditch lies 30m from the western terminal with four single rings within 200m. Dymond 1966; Riley 1988.

A straight sided enclosure c.30m long and oriented south-south-west to north-north-east; the northern end is c.20m wide with a break in the centre, and the sides taper to a slightly narrower south end.

Cursus C, Rudston (TA 073 682 to TA 101 680)

Denby House long barrow A, Rudston (TA 075 677)

This monument could be as much as 2.7 km in length, but its terminals have not been identified, although the eastern end is likely to have been on the high ground to the east of the Gypsey Race, which it crosses, and short of Cursus A. Two ditches between 50m and 75m apart can be traced across the low ground on the valley floor, where they cross with those of Cursus D, but further to the west only the southern ditch has been recorded by Stoertz. An original terminal may have existed at (TA 066 681), and immediately to the west of this point is a cluster of ring ditches likely to represent former barrows. The original monument may not have been as simple as previously considered, however (see for example Dymond 1966 and Riley 1988), and the continuation of the line of the southern ditch westwards for a further 1.25 km onto the ridge is sufficiently similar to the form of Cursus D for the single westward ditch to be considered as an original neolithic element. Excavations by Kinnes on the eastern end of this monument and its crossing with Cursus D have not been published. Dymond 1966; Riley 1988.

Two wide side ditches c.75m and c.60m long and c.16m apart on the west diverge towards the east where they are c.20m apart and there is a trace of a transverse slot or narrow ditch. This is usually identified with Greenwell's Rudston long barrow 224 (Greenwell 1877; Kinnes and Longworth 1985).

Denby House long barrow B, Rudston (TA 076 675) The site of a second long barrow at Denby is indicated by two short, but unusually wide parallel ditches c.16-18m long and c.14m apart, aligned east to west. Riley 1988.

Denby House ovoid enclosures, Rudston (TA 078 676) Three curvilinear ditched enclosures, (A) c.30m by c.25m with a break on the west; (B) c.25m by c.20m with breaks on long east and west sides; (C) c.20m by c.16m with a break on the south-west. Enclosures (A) and (B) line up on the eastern end of long barrow B, although not on its axis. Not more than 360m separates the most distant elements of this group of long barrows and ovoid enclosures. Riley 1988.

Cursus D, Rudston (TA 102 718 to TA 096 659) From a squared terminus similar to Cursus A and B on rising ground on the outside of a bend in the Great Wold Valley, two ditches 65120m apart follow the valley floor south for 3.9 km to the northern side of Rudston village, where they cross Cursus C at right angles. The course of the ditches would take them to the west of the Monolith (see below), and on the south side of the modern village the line of the east ditch is continued by a single ditch towards the Woldgate ridge and the West Field, Burton Agnes long enclosure on its far side (see below). Given a similar extension to Cursus C, this single ditch may be considered as a neolithic feature. Three ring ditches, one of which may form the end of a long enclosure, are located at the northern end of the cursus, whereas the southern extremity represented by the single ditch terminates in an area of round barrows and neolithic, ostensibly domestic activity 6 km to the south. Excavations on the cursus are limited to unpublished work by Kinnes at the intersection with Cursus C, although the ditch may have been seen in section in the churchyard (see below). Riley 1988.

Manor Farm long enclosure, Rudston (TA 097 669) Two parallel ditches which meet at the south-west in a slightly rounded end describe an enclosure c.30m wide and at least 170m long snugly situated between Cursus A and D. A ring ditch at the south-west end, although almost touching the end of the enclosure is cut by or cuts the single ditch which represents the southern extension of Cursus D. That there was a particular significance to this ring ditch is suggested by those which accompanied long enclosures at Bell Slack and (perhaps) the north end of Cursus D, and Kilham long barrow.

The Sheepwalk long enclosure A, Rudston (TA 093 660) An irregular ditched enclosure c.65m long and c.35m wide, oriented north-north-east to south-south-west, which appears to have been created from two mis-aligned and squared off ends married up by sinuous side ditches.

Monolith, Rudston (TA 098 677) Standing stone of Jurassic grit situated in the churchyard, and standing 8m high above the modern surface. It is unlikely that this immense stone is an erratic, and the nearest source of comparable material is across the Wolds escarpment at Filey, 16 km to the north, which would have involved a laborious journey overland, possibly including a perilous sea voyage around Flamborough Head (Manby 1988, 65). Like the north end of Cursus D, this stone occupies an angle in the Great Wold Valley and may have been the centre of an earthwork enclosure which has been obscured by subsequent land use. A ditch seen in section in a newly dug grave by R Bradley could relate to such a monument, or could be the east ditch of Cursus D (Bradley, pers. comm.). The four cursus appear to enclose this great stone, which appears to have been a focal point for other monuments in the neighbourhood (Pierpoint 1980, 271).

The Sheepwalk long enclosure B, Rudston (TA 093 658) A short wedge-shaped sub-rectangular enclosure c.40m by c.30m; the broader end faces south-south-east.

West Field long enclosure, Burton Agnes (TA 095 644) A quadrilateral enclosure c.150m long and with its wider end, c.40m across, on the north-east; both this and the narrower end, c.30m wide, have central entrances. This is one of the largest long enclosures in the district and although it is situated on the southward facing side of the Woldgate ridge, it appears to have formed a focus for two of the Rudston monuments, Cursus A and D, although it may not have been visible from either. Riley 1988.

Rudston House long enclosure, Rudston (TA 087 679) 106 106

APPENDICES These groups all lie on elevated land, with the exception of (3), which is on the floor of the Great Wold Valley and might represent circular houses like those at Wetwang Slack (Dent 1983a, Pl.2) and inferred from crop marks at Rillington (Dent 1982, Pl. 33). The Woldgate group include many which were excavated by Greenwell in his Rudston group (Kinnes and Longworth 1985) as well as a ring ditch with central grave was excavated in 1992 (Abramson, in press). Radiocarbon dates for late neolithic "domestic" sites and funerary sites with beakers or allied forms indicate no small overlap between the two groups of material (table 5). This suggests that the Woldgate group of ring ditches and "domestic" sites are part of a large ceremonial complex which carried on a ritual interest in that ridge from earlier in the neolithic.

South Side Mount, Greenwell barrow 67, Rudston (TA 107 665) A large round barrow 30m in diameter and now represented by two concentric ring ditches. Greenwell found primary burial deposits consistent with earlier neolithic traditions, and secondary Beaker burials. Greenwell 1877, Kinnes and Longworth 1985, Manby 1988, 64.

Woldgate large circular enclosures (TA 117 662) Three circular ditched enclosures (A) c.70m across; (B) c.40m across with an entrance on the north-west; (C) c.30m across with an entrance on the south. Fourteen much smaller enclosures within 250m may be ploughed down barrows, but it is probable that had these large rings contained barrows some trace would have survived to be noted by the Ordnance Survey, and to have attracted the attention of Greenwell, who excavated the nearby South Side Mount barrow.

4.3.2 The Great Slack: With the exception of Craike Hill all the following sites lie on fluvioglacial gravels of the valley floor.

Station Farm linear monument, Wetwang (SE 941 599)

Woldgate "occupation" sites, Rudston, Burton Agnes, and Boynton parishes (TA 095 655 to TA 130 670)

On the floor of Wetwang Slack excavations by the writer in 1983-4 uncovered six pits in two lines each 15-16m long each 6m apart and oriented east-north-east to west-south-west. Beaker sherds were found on the gravel silting of three of the pits. On the same axis and 40m to the west was a group of five small pits in which were found grooved ware sherds and charred hazelnuts from which three Carbon 14 dates ranging from the later fourth to the mid third millennium BC were obtained (HAR-8538, HAR-8539, HAR-8540). The two lines of pits suggests that a bank may have existed between them, with the smaller pits on the same alignment. Between the two groups such a bank would have been cut by an iron age square barrow, the northernmost of three in a tight group, each of which contained a chariot burial. Dent 1985 (chariot burials).

Neolithic pottery types, including Grimston, Towthorpe, Peterborough and Grooved Ware have been found in association with flint and polished stone industries in pits and hollows along the Woldgate ridge by the Granthams, and more recently, Abramson. This very extensive distribution, although domestic in appearance, correlates closely with finds from the ceremonial complex around and to the west of the south end of Cursus A, particularly derived material from round barrows. Manby 1974, 1975, 1988; Abramson, in press.

High Easton long enclosure, Boynton (TA 157 699) A rectangular enclosure c.60m x c.30m with entrance in the southeast end.

Grange Farm hengi-form enclosure, Wetwang (SE 945 601)

Barrow 1, Grindale (TA 148 702)

A circular central pit 2.00m wide enclosed by a shallow segmented ditch 7m in diameter had once contained a substantial timber upright, charcoal from which provided a radiocarbon date in the earlier third millennium BC (HAR-4428).

Manby re-excavated this barrow, opened originally by Tindall, and found two concentric enclosure ditches and pre-mound neolithic pottery and flint. Radiocarbon dates from the first phase ditch were calibrated to the fourth millennium BC (HAR-266, HAR-267, HAR269) Manby 1980

Garton Slack long barrow 37, Garton (SE 957 597) Re-excavation of Mortimer's barrow by Brewster showed that a round barrow with beaker associations had been constructed on a long barrow represented by side ditches and a facade bedding trench. Burials appear to have been burnt and two radiocarbon dates (NPL194 and NPL-195) calibrate to the earlier fourth millennium BC. Mortimer 1905, Brewster 1981.

Barrow 1, Boynton (TA 156 704) An enclosure formed of two opposed crescentic trenches (reminiscent of Denby House ovoid enclosure B: see above), which had contained some timber uprights, and was dated by radiocarbon to the earlier fourth millennium (HAR-268). This had been covered by a barrow with a circular enclosing ditch, in which was found Peterborough style pottery. Manby 1980

Gartonslack Gatehouse "domestic" pits, Garton (SE 960 595) Pits and hollows exposed in gravel quarrying contained Peterborough pottery and Grooved Ware. Brewster 1981, Site 3A; Manby 1988, Appendices C and D. A circular wall slot which contained neolithic sherds and was interpreted as a neolithic round house by the excavator could as easily be related to iron age settlement in the valley.

In addition to the monuments described above, there are large concentrations of ring ditches (1) on the floor of Cans Dale (TA 070 745), not far from Greenwell's barrow 250 (Kinnes and Longworth 1985), (2) around Cursus C at (TA 085 682), (3) around Cursus D at (TA 098 687), (4) at Low Caythorpe at (TA 117 684), and (5) close to the south ends of Cursus A and D on Woldgate at (TA 095 656).

107 107

Ring ditch

Beaker/EBA

Neolithic

Barrow number

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Garton Slack large ring ditch, Garton (SE 974 578)

C63

X

X

C62

X

X

C61

X

X

C55

X

X

C54

X

X

C53

X

X

C56

X

C52

X

C51

X

C71

X

X

77

X

X

C64

X

X

75

X

X

74

X

X

76

X

X X

40

X X

C46a

X

X

C46

X

X

X

X

80

X

X

79

X

X

81

X X

X

C67

X

X

C40

X

X

Garton Slack barrow 79, Kirkburn (SE 979 577) A ring ditch c.30m in diameter once enclosed a large barrow described as 37m across, which had been much quarried away by Mortimer's time. Manby included this in his list of "great barrows". Mortimer 1905; Manby 1988, Appendix E.

Garton Slack barrow 81, Kirkburn (SE 979 575) A round barrow enclosed by a ditch c.20m in diameter, in which Mortimer found remains of a "crematorium" trench like that in the nearby barrow 80, and Grimston style pottery. Mortimer 1905

Eastburn Warren long enclosure, Kirkburn (SE 980 576) An oval ditched enclosure 47m by 42m with an entrance at the eastern end was examined by Stead in 1987. A single neolithic sherd was recovered from the ditch, and a crouched burial towards the centre provided a radiocarbon date calibrated to the earlier second millennium BC. Immediately outside the entrance was a ring ditch 10m in diameter, very reminiscent of long enclosures at Bell Slack, Burton Fleming and Manor Farm, Rudston, and Kilham long barrow (see above); neolithic pottery was recovered from this ditch, which suggests contemporaneity with the long enclosure. Later ceremonial use of the monument is indicated by an iron age rectangular enclosure which overlay the western part, and two associated horse burials. Stead 1991a.

X

112

X

C34

X

C57

A round barrow enclosed by a ring ditch c.35m in diameter; excavated by Mortimer uncovered a "crematorium" trench. A neighbour to barrows 79 and 81 (see below). Mortimer 1905

X

C42

C45

Garton Slack barrow 80, Kirkburn (SE 978 577)

X

107

82

Large ring ditch enclosing an area c.50m in diameter. In view of the large numbers of recorded barrows in the immediate vicinity it seems likely that this ditch never contained a mound. An even larger enclosure c.70m across Woldgate, Rudston at (TA 105 661).

X X

X

Garton Slack long barrow 134 (SE 988 576)

Table 7 Correlation of Mortimer barrows with ring ditches in Garton Slack; numbers run from east to west (Mortimer 1905).

No aerial photographs of this site show the facade trench and "crematorium" which is evident from Mortimer's plan and description. The barrow forms a notable east-west alignment with the long enclosure, barrows 79 and 80, and the former sandy eminence of Craike Hill. Mortimer 1905.

Low Farm long enclosure, Garton (SE 967 586) A rectilinear enclosure c.40m long and c.25m wide, with an entrance in the south-east end. Plotted by Stoertz from photographs by the writer, July 1984.

Garton Slack barrow 112, Kirkburn (SE 987 578)

Craike Hill, Kirkburn "domestic" occupation, Garton (SE 972 576)

Pre-barrow activity may be reflected by Peterborough type pottery incorporated into the central grave fill of this round barrow. Mortimer 1905, Manby 1988, Appendix C.

Peterborough pottery, Grooved Ware and Beaker pottery with associated flint industry were recovered from soils and hollows on this sandy knoll. Manby 1958.

Garton Slack barrow 137, Kirkburn (TA 002 562) The source of an antler comb and sherds of Grimston type pottery, the context disturbed by rabbit diggers.

108 108

APPENDICES Round barrows

Mortimer 1905.

Driffield "domestic" occupation (TA 021 575) A hollow exposed in building operations was examined by the Granthams in 1953 and contained flints and sherds of Peterborough type pottery. Another in Taylor's wood yard to the north, examined by the writer in 1989 contained evidence of a rectangular wooden structure c.8m by c.7m, as well as flint industry. Manby 1957.

SE 962 389

SE 933 479

Long barrows

Cowlam, Kemp Howe: Mortimer 209; Cowlam: Mortimer 277; Folkton: unexcavated Hanging Grimston, Thixendale: Mortimer 110; Helperthorpe, Cross Thorns: Greenwell unnumbered barrow 95, Mortimer A); Helperthorpe: Greenwell 49 (Hicks 1969); Heslerton (Greenwell 1877, 488; Vatcher 1965); Kilham:Greenwell 234 (Manby 1976) Market Weighton: Greenwell 226; Raisthorpe, Wharram: Mortimer 3; Walkington, Ling Howe (Dent, report in preparation); Westow: Greenwell 223; Willerby Wold: Greenwell 222 (Manby 1963);

SE 962 679 SE 959 689 SE 938 753 TA 056 673 SE 906 410 SE 852 624 SE 965 357 SE 769 653 TA 029 621

Heslerton: Greenwell 6 Huggate and Warter Wold: Mortimer 254. Huggate: Mortimer 224; Whitegrounds, Burythorpe (Brewster 1984);

SE 829 561

It is noticeable that these monuments are in the main situated on, or close to the Wolds watershed, or on the ridge between the Great Wold Valley and the Great Slack. Two of the long enclosures lie on the east side of the watershed, in similar positions to Walkington long barrow, and the Callis Wold enclosure is neighbour to Mortimer's barrow 275.

SE 962 662 SE 958 664 TA 065 786 SE 808 608

SE 91 74 SE 851 530

Long enclosures

The Great Wold Valley and what I have termed for convenience the "Great Slack" have particular concentrations of neolithic monuments and continued to be a focus for ceremonial or funerary activity into the ensuing bronze age. How significant these concentrations were is emphasized most clearly by the distribution of monuments elsewhere on the Wolds. Barrows and enclosures which correspond to the morphology of dated neolithic examples are listed below, mainly from Manby's publications (1970, 1988), and from Stoertz's work. Barrows excavated by Mortimer and Greenwell are given the excavators’ numbers (from Mortimer 1905 and Greenwell 1877), or references ascribed to Greenwell's unnumbered barrows by Kinnes and Longworth (1985).

Site name

Callis Wold: Mortimer 275;

SE 871 576 SE 782 682

4.3.3 Other neolithic monuments

Grid ref:

SE 827 562

C14 ref:

date

HAR-2160

BM-293 NPL-140 HAR-9248 BM-188 BM-189

109 109

Callis Wold: rectangular enclosure c.40m x c.20m with entrance in south-east end. Bishop Burton Wold: incomplete rectilinear enclosure c.70m x c.50m with entrance in southeast end. Lund Wold: rectangular enclosure c.40m x c.25m with entrance in south-west end.

BM-1167 BM-1170

HAR-5580 HAR-5587

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

4.4 Later prehistoric land enclosure: linear boundaries (figs. 6, 28-32; table 8)

Toisland Wold.

length: 1 km

Single; from round barrow cemetery (Mortimer 1905: Wharram Percy group, barrows 46, 47, 48, 70, 77) on escarpment at (SE 837 635) to head of side dale at Vessey Pasture Plantation at (SE 835 625).

Linear boundaries of the Wolds include ditches, usually with accompanying banks, and pit alignments, although no lines of pits were observed by antiquarians on lines where they have since been revealed by aerial photography. This suggests that where aerial photographs reveal both pits and ditches on the lines of earthworks which were until recently visible as upstanding earthworks, the pit alignments represent an earlier stage which was superseded by bank and ditch in antiquity. This sequence is also supported by excavation.

Vessey Pasture.

length: 1 km

Multiple; from Swinham Wood at (SE 817 634), combined with part of Acklam-Folkton group for 130m, then across the escarpment to Mortimer's barrow 88, around which it swings in the form of a double ditch and bank (ibid. Aldro group, fig.118, 119), and south into Vessey Pasture Dale at (SE 821 625), whence it extends along the dale bottom.

The hundreds of miles of linear ditch revealed on the Wolds through aerial photography represent a complex history of land enclosure, dating from the neolithic cursus to medieval boundaries, such as the very iron age-looking "cliff castle" at Breil Nook, Flamborough which was sectioned by the writer in 1980 and which produced late medieval pottery from the old land surface beneath the bank.

Birdsall Brow

length: 0.7 km

Multiple; as an earthwork from Swinham Wood at (SE 813 634), combined with the westernmost part of the Acklam-Folkton group on the crest, then as a triple ditch south to Birdsall Dale at (SE 812 626).

From this immense body of material some patterns can be discerned. It is clear that although a dual purpose must have resulted from the construction of linear earthworks, some were primarily boundaries or barriers, while others were primarily trackways. Among the former the simplest, and probably the earliest, are cross ridge dykes which combine an artificial boundary with the topography. These are found on the Wolds watershed and similar ridges, and are usually short. In contrast, there are large systems which indicate a degree of central planning, for they run for long distances across the landscape and correlate with other features, such as hill forts. They may incorporate earlier cross dykes within their line, and may interrelate with others across their course.

Aldro

length: 0.2 km

Multiple, incorporated into the Acklam-Folkton group, encloses Mortimer's barrow 256 (ibid. Aldro group, fig. 120) at (SE 808 631) from which two banks run south to the head of Birdsall Dale at (SE 809 629).

Acklam Wold

length: 0.4 km

Single, from Mortimer's barrow 202 (ibid. Acklam group) at (SE 799 619) to the head of Brownmoor Dale at (SE 800 620).

Trackways tend to follow the landscape, commonly along ridges or valleys, and may be marked only where they also operate as a significant boundary, for example where they pass through field systems and are limited by ditches to prevent animals straying onto growing crops.

Queen Dyke

length: 0.8 km

Single, from White Scar Plantation at (SE 809 606) to a dale head (part of Water Dale) at (SE 811 614).

Within the blocks of land framed by such features, both boundaries and trackways, a further process of land sub-division progressed during the iron age and later, as is indicated by excavations at such sites as Wetwang Slack (Dent 1982) and Cat Babbleton (Cardwell 1989). These appear to represent intensification of use of farmland, and this is particularly strongly suggested by a curious series of land intakes in the form of D-shaped enclosures which follow a ridge between Kirby Grindalythe and Weaverthorpe.

Callis Wold

length: 1.3 km

Single, from Deep Dale at (SE 825 559) across Callis Wold (to northwest of a long enclosure at (SE 829 561) and Mortimer's barrow 275 at (SE 831 559) (ibid. Calais Wold group) north-east to the head of Wayrham Dale at (SE 834 566).

The main examples of boundary dykes and trackways are described below, as are the D-shaped enclosures. Finally, the excavated evidence from linear boundaries of all kinds is summarized.

Greenwick

length: 0.6 km

Single, from the head of Greenwick Dale at (SE 843 566) westwards to the head of Wayrham Dale at (SE 836 567).

4.4.1 Boundaries (Class 1a and 1b) Cross ridge dykes of the Wolds watershed (fig. 29) Western Wolds On the western Wolds the narrow watershed between the escarpment and the heads of eastward running dales has been crossed in many places by linear earthworks. In the section between Birdsall Brow and Huggate the following dykes survive or have left traces on OS maps or aerial photographs.

110 110

APPENDICES Site name

Grid references

Distance from neolithic remains

Nearest barrow groups

1

Folkton Brow

2

Flixton Brow

TA 057 787 to TA 055 785 TA 041 788 to TA 041 783

Folkton long barrow 1km Folkton long barrow 2.5km

3

Binnington Wold

TA 002 772

4

Potter Brompton

5

East Heslerton

6

West Heslerton

7

Toisland Wold

SE 977 758 to SE 981 752 SE 928 753 to SE 924 742 SE 910 747 to SE 911 744 to SE 910 727. SE 837 635 to SE 835 625.

Willerby Wold long barrow, Prior Moor great barrow 3km Sherburn barrow 2.5km Heslerton long barrow 1km Heslerton round barrow 6 c.1km

Folkton group (Greenwell 1877) Folkton group (Greenwell 1877); Staxton group (Stead 1959) Ganton and Binnington groups (Greenwell 1877)

8

Vessey Pasture

9

Birdsall Brow

10

Aldro

11

Raisthorpe long barrow 2km

SE 817 634 to SE 821 625 SE 813 634 to SE 812 626. SE 808 638 to SE 809 629.

Hanging Grimston long barrow 2.5km Hanging Grimston long barrow 2km Hanging Grimston long barrow 2km

Acklam Wold

SE 799 619 to SE 800 620.

Hanging Grimston long barrow 1.5km

12

Queen Dyke

13

Callis Wold

14

Greenwick

15

Huggate Wold

Hanging Grimston long barrow 150m Calais Wold great barrow 700m Calais Wold great barrow 1km Calais Wold great barrow 3km

16

Huggate Dykes

17

Blanch

18

Cot Nab

19

Millington Grange

20

Cold Skin

SE 809 606 to SE 811 614. SE 823 556 to SE 834 566. SE 843 566 to SE 836 567 SE 857 569 to SE 857 574 SE 857 559 to SE 863 560 SE 903 516 to SE 907 517 SE 826 568 to SE 826 574 SE 834 551 to SE 836 552. SE 838 556 to SE 843 554

Ganton and Sherburn groups (Greenwell 1877) Heslerton group (Powlesland 1986) Heslerton group (Greenwell 1877, Powlesland 1986) Wharram Percy group (Mortimer 1905); aligned on round barrow Aldro group (Mortimer 1905); incorporates round barrow Aldro group (Mortimer 1905) Aldro and Acklam groups (Mortimer 1905) incorporates round barrow Acklam and Aldro groups (Mortimer 1905); aligned on round barrow Hanging Grimston group (Mortimer 1905) Calais Wold group (Mortimer 1905) Calais Wold and Huggate Wold groups (Mortimer 1905) Huggate Wold group (Mortimer 1905) Huggate and Warter Wold group (Mortimer 1905) aligned on barrows round barrow in alignment

round barrow in alignment

Table 8: cross ridge dykes and associations

Huggate Wold

length: 0.5 km

Huggate Dykes

Single, ditch 460m long between the head of Greenwick Dale at (SE 857 569) and Huggate Wold towards the head of West Dale at (SE 857 574) (passes close by Mortimer's barrows 220, 230, 231 (ibid. Huggate Wold group).

length: 0.8 km

Multiple, part of the Millington-Woldgate group; six parallel ditches (seven in one place), partly surviving with intermediate banks, from head of Tun Dale at (SE 857 559) eastwards to the head of Horse Dale at (SE 863 560), where it meets earthworks from the north and south (part of the "Birdsall-Riplingham" group).

111 111

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Blanch

Multiple, from the head of Hundle Dale on a northward facing escarpment a double ditch, which enclosed Mortimer's barrow 104 (ibid. Garrowby Wold group fig. 355), ran south to the head of Deep Dale at Cot Nab (SE 826 568). According to Mortimer the west ditch was 6m wide and 0.6m deep, and the east ditch was 10m wide and 1.2m deep. It seems likely that Mortimer's excavation may not have included the lower ditch filling, but there is no reason to doubt the widths which he gives.

length: 0.4 km

Multiple, from a group of round barrows at the head of a westwardrunning slack at (SE 903 516) to another barrow at the head of Dalton Dale (SE 907 517). From the ends other linear boundaries strike off east, west, north and south, six in all.

Northern Wolds

Millington Grange originally

On the northern Wolds cross ridge dykes of this type are less common, possibly because the topography is less suitable than on the western Wolds where the dale heads are very steep sided.

Folkton Brow

Single, extant bank and ditch appears on north-east side of Millington Grange at the head of Whitekeld Dale at (SE 834 551) and runs 600m into the head of Scoar Dale at (SE 836 552).

length: 0.3 km

Cold Skin

Single, from escarpment at (TA 057 787) to head of Camp Dale at (TA 055 785), and abutted on west near south end by eastern element of Acklam-Folkton group.

Flixton Brow

length: 0.5 km

Fridaythorpe

Major systems (fig. 30, 31) 1. Acklam Wold-Duggleby-Folkton Wold; length: 32 km

length: 0.6 km

1a

Multiple, from escarpment at (SE 977 758) to head of Warren Slack at (SE 981 752); the relationship with a rectilinear earthwork close to the south east end is not clear from aerial photographs, but ground observation by Ramm showed that the double earthwork embraced the enclosure, which was dated by Crambeck and other late Roman pottery (Ramm 1978, 69-72). Although this seems to indicate a late date for the cross dyke, in its final state the earthwork had been much extended and incorporated into a larger system, which may have obscured the original form of the monument and its relationship to the enclosure (ibid. figs. 23 and 24).

East Heslerton

1b. Birdsall East Wold to Duggleby

length: 1 km

At (SE 853 651) a deep dale interrupts the line but the double ditch which emerges on the eastern side of this dale at Wharram le Street continues the line precisely across what is the watershed of the Wolds. At (SE 867 663) the double ditch is crossed by another at right angles (part of an extensive trackway), but the unbroken south ditch of the former suggests that it is earlier. This junction marks the start of a drove-way settlement almost 1 km long which passes the source of the Gypsey Race and continues along its left (north) bank. The line is once again broken where it passes, on the opposite side of the stream, the large neolithic barrow of Duggleby Howe and the large enclosure around it (SE 880 668; Mortimer 1905, 23-42; Riley 1980b, 174-7).

length: 0.4 km

Single, entrenchment from (SE 910 747) close to a tumulus to the head of Old Dale at (SE 911 744) and continued along the valley side to re-cross the watershed as a double ditch and double pit alignment to the escarpment at (SE 910 727).

Other cross dykes of the Wolds escarpment Cot Nab

Acklam Wold to Birdsall East Wold

This system has its origin in a complex of cross-ridge dykes on Acklam Wold (SE 800 620) from which a single ditch follows the edge of a north-facing escarpment where it incorporates an earlier round barrow at Aldro (SE 808 631; Mortimer 1905, barrow 256) and is interrupted for a group of barrows on Birdsall Wold before continuing eastwards as a hedge line until the drove-way settlement of Birdsall East Wold where field walking has produced iron age, Roman and Anglo-Saxon pottery (SE 845 645; Hayfield 1987).

Single, pit alignment from escarpment at (SE 928 753) to head of Old Dale at (SE 924 742), whence it continues as a ditch (discussed in Powlesland 1988, 102-103)

West Heslerton and 0.7 km

length: 1 km

Multiple, six parallel ditches cross the ridge to the east of Fridaythorpe village between the head of a dale at (SE 878 592) and the head of Holm Dale at (SE 875 584).

length: 0.2 km

Single, 120m ditch, centre (TA 002 772), not quite on line between heads of dale behind Ganton Hall and Cotton Dale, but aligned on a ring ditch.

Potter Brompton

length: 1 km

Multiple, from head of Scoar Dale at (SE 838 556) as three banks and two ditches across the plateau over Mortimer's barrow 38, where it is abutted from north-west by a similar multiple earthwork, to the head of Greenwick Dale at (SE 843 554), by which time it has four ditches (ibid. Calais Wold group, fig.409)

Single, from escarpment at (TA 041 788) to join Acklam-Folkton group ditch, and after staggered junction, run south to head of Lang Dale at (TA 041 783). Ring ditch close to the line.

Binnington Wold

length: c.0.6 km

1c.

length: 0.6 km

Bug Dale to Potter Brompton Wold

A single ditch recommences the line on the eastern side of Bug Dale (SE 883 679) and runs north-eastwards across Mowthorpe Wold. It

112 112

APPENDICES survives as an earthwork in Old Dale (SE 899 690), and crop marks of the ditch can be traced to Linton Wold where a second ditch is revealed by crop marks (SE 915 708). On Haverdale Hill (SE 934 724) the line is continued as an upstanding bank, but as it approaches White Wold it has been ploughed out and shows as a double ditch on aerial photographs (SE 944 732). On Sherburn Wold the Severals Dykes (SE 961 746), ploughed out to a double ditch on the east, mark the line between White Slack and Sked Dale (from which rises St Helen's Spring at (SE 963 759); for the significance of dedications to St Helen, see Jones 1986). Sked Dale interrupts the line, which reemerges on the lip of the northern Wolds escarpment on Potter Brompton Wold as a single earthwork with a pit alignment 200m to the south (SE 978 759).

Although earlier barrows may have marked out those ridge crossing points as specially significant, in a similar way to those on the Woldgate south of Rudston, later earthworks were located as controls to that access, along the ridge and across any routes from the Great Wold Valley into the Vale of Pickering. In this respect the linear ditches operated, perhaps, as both communications features linking areas of special significance - Acklam Wold, the source of the Gypsey Race stream, Duggleby Howe and its large enclosure, possibly St Helen's Well at Sherburn (which may have had a significance in late prehistory: see Elmswell, below, and Jones 1986) and Folkton Wold - and as a boundary or barrier between the Vale of Pickering and the Great Wold Valley.

2. Millington-Garton Wold-Driffield Woldlength 28 km Ruston Parva-Woldgate;

1d. Potter Brompton Wold to Folkton Wold. East of Potter Brompton Wold the line is intermittent, and to some extent double. The more southerly line follows the watershed crest on Binnington Wold (TA 003 770), Willerby Brow (TA 013 778), Flixton Brow (TA 040 786) and Folkton Brow (TA 052 785), and the sections coincide with the narrow ridges between the heads of southward running dales and the north facing escarpment, which suggests that they are not an accident of aerial photography but were left incomplete. On Flixton Brow a square barrow is aligned upon the ditch, and on Folkton Brow the ditch abruptly changes direction around a ploughed out round barrow (TA 050 785) and ends at (TA 055 785) in a T junction with a ditch which approaches from the north-east. To the north of these, on the very crest of the escarpment are lengths of ditch on Willerby Brow (still with bank: TA 009 782), Folkton Brow (TA 061 789) and Flotmanby Brow (TA 078 788), the last of which follows the escarpment round in a south-easterly direction towards Flamborough Head. The western end of this earthwork could have turned south-westward and cut across the eastern end of the more southerly ditch on Folkton Brow.

2a. Millington to Huggate Dykes. A double ditch runs north-eastwards firstly as a crop mark, later as an earthwork, from the top of Whinny Hill at (SE 836 513), overlooking the springs in Millington Dale, to the tributary Sylvan Dale opposite the site of a probable Romano-British shrine (Ramm 1978, 102). From Sylvan Dale the line recommences somewhat to the westward as a double ditched earthwork (SE 844 530), ploughed level for part of the way along the upper slopes of the main dale until it swings eastward for only 600m across the watershed in the form of a multiple system of six, in one place seven, parallel ditches with intermediate banks (SE 860 559). This short length, known as Huggate Dykes, was partially sectioned by Varley, who found a sherd of "Staple Howe" finger-printed pottery in the northernmost ditch and an Anglian cremation in an urn in the adjacent bank (Challis and Harding 161).

2b

The 32 km length of this line links two spectacular viewpoints. From Acklam on the west the panorama across the Vale of York and Howardian Hills stretches from Nottinghamshire in the south to the north Pennines and North York Moors in the north, and the large number of barrows on this corner of the Wolds suggests that it had a ceremonial importance in the neolithic and early bronze age (Mortimer 1905, groups 2-5: Wharram Percy, Aldro, Acklam Wold and Hanging Grimston). On the east Folkton provides extensive views eastwards to the sea and across the Vale of Pickering to the Tabular and Hambleton Hills on the north and west. This is also an area where round barrows cluster, and many of these have been excavated by Greenwell and Brewster (Kinnes and Longworth 1985, barrows 19-38, 70-71, 235-243, 245-249, unnumbered 91).

Huggate Dykes to Wetwang

From here the line is picked up firstly by a double earthwork along the southern edge of Horse Dale; this then gives way to a single ditch until the earthwork doubles again near Northfield House and continues along the lip of the dale, down across its floor and up over Wetwang West Field to drop once more into a valley at Blealands Nook (SE 920 596). Here Mortimer examined a linear settlement with what appears to be an iron age cemetery beneath (Mortimer 1905, 194-200).

2c.

Wetwang to Elmswell Slack.

The double ditches of the ploughed earthwork cut across the end of a double ditch trackway on the valley floor and rise north-eastward up the northern slopes of Wetwang Slack as discernible earthworks beside a green lane. At Black Wood (SE 949 616) they are joined by another group from the north (Mortimer 1905, 371, Plate A, A). The earthworks continue, protected by the wood, to Sir Tatton Sykes Monument (SE 957 618) where a cemetery of Anglian inhumations was found during removal of the central bank in 1866 (Mortimer 1905, 264-270). In a section cut through this earthwork to the east of the Sykes Monument in 1959 a child's skeleton and a group of sherds from a Staple Howe type bowl were found beneath the bank (Grantham and Grantham 1965). East from here the earthworks are interrupted at a point where they change direction (SE 963 618) and this appears to be an original break to allow passage from north and south along a ditched trackway. Beyond this the earthworks continue along the northern side of Warren Dale, which they descend, and merge with an embanked road in Garton Bottom, which they follow as far as the junction with a tributary dale at the head of Elmswell Slack (996 614).

Like some clusters of round barrows on other parts of the Wolds, the groups at Acklam and Folkton are located close to crossing points on the watershed where the valleys of the dip slope provide access deep into the chalk table land almost to the crest of the west and north facing escarpments, or to the heads of valleys cut into them. On Acklam Wold begins the valley which ultimately opens into the Hull Valley at Elmswell, known in its lower course as Garton Slack. The northern escarpment from Potter Brompton Wold to Flotmanby Wold is also the head of a series of dales which join together to form Cans Dale, which debouches into the Great Wold Valley at Burton Fleming. Cans Dale is the site of an exceptional concentration of ring ditches, only one of which survived long enough as a round barrow to attract the attention of Greenwell (ibid. barrow 250; the rich burial 3, which contained a copper ring and 20 jet buttons, is of similar quality to a burial from the Garton Slack cemetery which contained 13 buttons: Brewster 1981, Area 6; Dent 1983a, Appendix A).

113 113

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE similar pottery was recovered from a pit alignment (Abramson, in press).

2d. Elmswell Slack to Kilham. From Garton Bottom no earthworks are visible in the side valley which runs north-eastwards onto Driffield Wold at Maiden's Grave Reservoir (TA 008 629). This name presumably derives from a linear square barrow cemetery which extends north-eastwards for 300 metres, beyond which a single ditch continues the line to the large and dense iron age cemetery of Danes' Graves where a bank and ditch survive as an earthwork (TA 017 633; Stead 1979, 99-101; Dent 1984). Eastwards from the cemetery the line is continued as field boundaries and earthworks to the south side of Kilham village, where it turns abruptly southwards in the form of a double ditch and ends at (TA 057 631).

2e

That the earthworks represent the result of large scale planning and organization seems clear, and the dating evidence suggests that the scheme was carried out towards the middle of the first millennium BC. The earthworks must have created a significant barrier to movement, for example across a major valley route at Blealands Nook, but at the same time clearly linked places of special significance, thus channelling movement in two directions at the same time as they blocked it in others. In creating an east-west link it may be no coincidence that two of the three largest curvilinear enclosures on the Wolds at Grimthorpe (SE 815 535) and Driffield Wold (TA 011 716), of which the former has been shown by excavation to be a hill fort (Stead 1968), both lie within 3 km of the Millington-Woldgate group of earthworks, and the third at Greenlands, Caythorpe (TA 114 684), is only 1.5 km from the two groups which lead northwards and eastwards from Woldgate (3 and 4 below).

Kilham to Woldgate

A gap 1.4 km wide and occupied by the shallow valley of the Lowthorpe Beck separates the last stretch from the next which begins at (TA 085 641) on Sandy Lane to the east of Kilham and zigzags northwards and eastwards as a multiple ditch system, varying from three to five parallel ditches, beside which a square barrow has been constructed at (TA 084 647). The ditches cross the crest of Woldgate ridge and turn eastwards around an area of several hectares which is filled with hundreds of pits, some of which have been excavated (see Appendix 4.5.3). The earthworks have an unclear relationship with a series of ditches which they cross at Tuft Hill (TA 085 653), but two enclosures with internal roundhouses (surveyed by Pacitto; Stead pers. comm.) appear to have been constructed afterwards. The earthworks end at (TA 094 656) on the northern side of Woldgate ridge as they reach an area formerly covered with round barrows (figs. 13, 16 and 17).

3. Woldgate-Reighton;

length: 7.5 km

The terminus of the neolithic cursus "A" at (TA 099 657) was excavated by Greenwell, in the course of his examination of the prolific group of round barrows on Woldgate ridge, and it was found to contain beaker burials as well as earlier material (Greenwell, 1877, barrow 66; Kinnes and Longworth 1985). From Woldgate the parallel ditches of the cursus head northwards in a curving course, straighten out before the Gypsey Race is crossed, and terminate on the ridge north of the stream, a total length of 2.7 km. For the last 400m the west ditch was incorporated into a later series of earthworks, the Argam Dykes, which run north-eastwards towards the sea at Reighton. At the south end (TA 102 680) they consist of two ditches with a line of pits between and they continue northwards beyond the cursus terminal for 400m until the line of pits abuts another, consisting of only six pits, which crosses its path. This apparently earlier sequence is on the same alignment as fragmentary traces of five parallel ditches which extend for 300m or so to eastwards, and beside these are clustered eight small square barrows. The Argam dykes leave this earlier line as a staggered junction, and some 25m to the west of its more southerly position. From here the central line of pits is apparently replaced by a continuous ditch, for 400m until the make up is obscured by a 500m length of upstanding earthworks east of Little Thorpe. At the north end of these the central pit alignment reappears for approximately 800m, after which it once again gives way to a continuous central ditch for at least 650m. From here the picture is obscured by the earthworks of Argam deserted medieval village (TA 112 713), and northwards by the North Burton Lane which runs along the same line. A double pit alignment approaches the line of the dyke from the east at (TA 114 721) but does not continue beyond it, and at (TA 117 727) a 200m length of the dyke survives as an earthwork. A double ditch crossed the line at (TA 117 731), where a series of settlement enclosures lie to the east of the dyke, and 600m beyond this the dyke emerges once again as a triple ditch until it disappears from view at (TA 129 746).

East of these barrows linear earthworks run northwards (the Woldgate-Reighton group) and eastwards (the Woldgate-Boynton group), producing alternate ends to this series, which extends from the western escarpment to the sea. As with the Acklam to Folkton group of linear earthworks (see 1, above) both ends of this line, which is 28 km long, are viewpoints across wide areas and are close to cemeteries of round barrows: on the west Mortimer's Calais Wold and Huggate and Warter Wold groups (Mortimer 1905, groups 8 and 14); on the east Greenwell's Rudston group (Greenwell 1877, 229-271; Kinnes and Longworth 1985). Additional significance may have been bestowed on these terminals because of the springs in Millington Dale, where there is (limited) evidence of a Romano-British temple, and because of the geographical position of Woldgate between the Great Wold Valley and Holderness, which may be the reason for the remarkable concentration of neolithic, bronze age, and iron age activity there. The remarkable multiplication of the Huggate Dykes into six ditches and intervening banks argues for this being an early cross-ridge earthwork which was subject to elaboration as it was incorporated into the more extensive scheme at a later stage. Traces of a truncated additional ditch should probably be interpreted as evidence of more than one phase.

The southern end of this earthwork clearly rests in an area of very special significance in the neolithic and early bronze age. The north end lies within easy view of the sea, which is at most 2 km away. Curvilinear enclosures of unknown date at Greenlands (TA 114 684), Maidens Grave Slack (TA 133 731) and Moor House, Reighton (TA 131 760) all lie within 1.5 km of the earthworks, which effectively separate Flamborough Head and the eastern Wolds from the rest of the chalk massif.

The dating evidence of Staple Howe type pottery from Huggate Dykes and the Sykes Monument provide a clear phase for the construction of some elements of the group, even though they need not be the earliest or the latest. This pottery also links the group with the large concentrations of pits on the Woldgate, where similar pottery has been found (Challis and Harding 1976, fig. 24, 14), and with the Woldgate-Boynton group of earthworks (4, below) where

114 114

APPENDICES Only 100m north of the T junction the displaced double ditch departs westwards once more and passes the Paddock Hill henge/fort which lies only 100m to the south (TA 030 707).

The reuse of cursus "A" effectively continues the line of the Argam Dykes southwards across the Gypsey Race and up to Woldgate, giving a total length to that point of 9.5 km. As a boundary this system, which is 7.5 km long, effectively separates the eastern Wolds from the rest of the massif.

4. Woldgate-Boynton;

5b

length: 3 km

A little to the west of the henge hill fort the double dyke dog legs its own width (c.15m) to the north and proceeds through Hutton Plantation where it survives as an earthwork, which was sectioned by Manby as part of the Paddock Hill project (Manby 1980, 328). In the lower fill were found sherds of calcite gritted pottery comparable to pottery from the hill fort, while Romano-British sherds were found in the upper filling. Manby has pointed out that round barrows were used as alignment points in laying out the earthworks in this stretch (ibid.). To the west of the plantation the south ditch gives way to a pit alignment for a short distance before a ditch takes over once again. The ditches follow the upper slope of the Great Wold Valley side, along the north side of the ridge which now carries the B 1253 road from Sledmere to Rudston. Where the line crosses to the north of Octon cross roads at (TA 011 699) it survives as an earthwork and passes not more than 500m from two curvilinear enclosures at (TA 008 693) and (TA 012 693). Although a short length earthwork 120m long survives at Weaverthorpe Ling (SE 993 691), the dyke to east and west has been ploughed. At (SE 984 687), however, the earthwork recommences and continues south-westward (with only two short ploughed sections, one of which provides crop marks of three parallel ditches) for 5 km as far as Cherry Wood (SE 946 655) where it converges with the B 1253 and may run beneath it down the hill into Sledmere village. In the course from Paddock Hill to Sledmere the earthworks passed through territory in which Greenwell excavated several neolithic and early bronze age barrows (Greenwell 1877; Kinnes and Longworth 1985: barrow numbers 42-49, 55-59, unnumbered barrows 95, 96).

From the southern end of Rudston Cursus "A" (TA 100 457) a triple ditch drops into the valley of the Gypsey Race north-eastwards towards an upstanding tumulus in the grounds of Thorpe Hall at (TA 110 472), where it curves round towards the east. After several hundred metres in which its course is obscured it re-emerges as one of the most complex linear monuments in the whole region and extends along the south side of the Gypsey Race for at least 3 km. For some 700m in the vicinity of Low Caythorpe (TA 125 674) it consists of a combination of pit alignments and ditches, and at one point is represented by four pit alignments and three ditches in parallel. Part of this complex was excavated ahead of construction of a gas pipeline in 1992, and this suggested that these different features represent development over a period of time. One line of pits was cut by a ditch, but in contrast to those at West Heslerton (Powlesland et al. 1986, 132) the Caythorpe pits gave the appearance of rapid infilling, which could suggest that they had contained plants to create a screen. Staple Howe type pottery with finger-tip decoration was found in one pit in alignment, which links it chronologically to large concentrations of pits (not in alignment) on Woldgate itself, and to sections of the Millington-Woldgate group of earthworks (2 above). Beyond Willow Garth (TA 127 675) only three ditches in parallel have been recorded, but the full complement of three pit alignments with up to five ditches has been recorded south of Boynton Hall (TA 137 675).

5. Burton Fleming-Sledmere-Fridaythorpe--Millington 5a

Paddock Hill to Sledmere

5c

length: 35 km

Sledmere to Fimber

From Burton Fleming to Sledmere the line of earthworks runs to west of south-west, but after Sledmere the line begins to turn increasingly towards south. Sledmere itself is in a tributary valley of the Gypsey Race, and its name suggests that there may have been standing water here in early historic times. In the grounds of Sledmere House and in line with the earthwork is a saddle of ground (SE 931 643) which represents a watershed between the valleys which drain into the North Sea at Bridlington, via the Gypsey Race, and those which lead via the River Hull into the Humber and thence to the North Sea at Spurn Point. From this ridge a dry valley, York Dale, leads southwestwards and at a distance of 2 km an earthwork climbs from the valley floor level with Egg Dale (SE 918 627), and from here follows the upper side of York Dale through Badger Wood to its south end. At this point York Dale meets the main valley, which formerly carried the Malton to Driffield railway line, and the earthwork turns westward and the line is picked up by a series of ditches which have followed the north side of the main valley. Burials, and an iron sword, were found at the point where these earthworks were cut by the Malton to Wetwang road in the 19th century (SE 607 613; Mortimer 1905, 193).

Burton Fleming to Paddock Hill

The Gypsey Race is crossed by two major linear earthworks above Burton Fleming village; the lower is a complex system of boundaries only 600m long and crosses the stream at (TA 073 721). It consists west to east of (a) a line of pits; (b) a broad and sinuous ditch which in one place has a short tributary ditch attached on the west; (c) a narrow and incomplete ditch parallel with (b); (d) a rather straighter ditch, doubled at the north end and represented by a line of pits for about 100m of its length; (e) a line of pits represented by a ditch at its south end. Two linear features strike off westwards from the south end of this boundary. The more southerly is a double ditch, single after 1.5 km, the eastern end of which adjoins a linear settlement at (TA 066 723). The ditch passes 200m to the north of the great neolithic barrow of Willy Howe (Greenwell 1877, barrow 252) and after (TA 055 724) the line is represented by a sinuous field boundary, but west of (TA 046 722) it re-appears for 2 km as a double ditch, with a third for a short distance, to which is attached a square barrow at (TA 042 719). Further on the ditches swing around the ring ditch of a ploughed round barrow at (TA 040 717), and at (TA 036 712) the ditches pass through a group of four ring ditches, and just to the west a group of small rectilinear (settlement) enclosures are attached to the south ditch, after which the line halts in a T junction (TA 032 709) with a ditch which runs north and crosses the Gypsey Race at (TA 028 727). This series, the Foxholes - Ruston Parva group, is the second of the major systems to cross the stream above Burton Fleming, and north of the T junction consists of a double ditch and double pit alignment.

5d

Fimber to Fridaythorpe

Once into Fimber parish the line abuts an earlier series which swing around the northern side of the valley as a double ditch, cross the valley as a single ditch at (SE 890 612), and traverse a chalk nab at Fimber Haggs, south of which the double dyke was excavated by Ehrenberg and Caple in 1982-3 (SE 887 606) on the site where Mortimer apparently found Wilburton metalworking debris in a pit in

115 115

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE The ambivalent nature of the earthworks in this group throw the southernmost elements into some doubt. Neither the western nor eastern lines are known in their entirety, and it is be no means certain that the western line ended on the Millington - Woldgate line. The enclosures adjoining both lines suggest late iron age or RomanoBritish settlement. The northern group of earthworks, on the other hand include two pit alignments and two ditches, of which the pits are likely to have been earlier, since the earthworks survived until recent times and no pits were remarked. The cluster of square barrows, although not actually aligned on the dykes nevertheless suggest that the dykes were already there when the barrows were constructed. This is only to be expected, since the later Burton Fleming - Elmswell group were also used as a focus for iron age cemeteries.

the earthwork (Manby 1980b, 358). This dyke crossed the floor of Wan Dale and abutted a double ditch running along the contours of the south side. Continuing southwards this double ditch can be followed along the valley side to (SE 884 597) after which there is a break until the line recommences in the form of a group of five, later six parallel ditches which cross the ridge to the east of Fridaythorpe village between the head of the dale at (SE 878 592) and the head of Holm Dale at (SE 875 584). From this point the topography provides a very clear natural boundary and by following firstly Holm Dale and then Horse Dale, the Wolds watershed would be reached at Huggate Dykes, from which the line westwards to Millington is as described in (2) above.

6. Foxholes - Kilham;

length: 9 km

7. The Broachdale-Rudston Grange group

6.1 Foxholes to Octon

length: 3.2 km

A double ditch can be traced southwards from a position 80m north of the Gypsey Race stream on the parish boundary of Foxholes and Wold Newton at (TA 028 728). At the stream the line is offset and south of the water the eastern ditch becomes the western and together they rise up the southern side of the valley. At (TA 028 725) a double ditch and pit alignment join from the east on the line of the parish boundary with Thwing, and from this point in recent years earthworks survived as a bank and ditch (Loughlin and Miller, 133), but ploughing has reduced them and revealed a double ditch and pit alignment. At (TA 031 718) a group of not more than nine barrows, mostly with square ditches, cluster loosely on the eastern side of the former dykes, and at (TA 032 710) a double ditch, part of the Burton Fleming - Elmswell group, joins from the west, only 200m to the north-east of the Paddock Hill fort, Thwing (Manby 1980). Only 100m beyond this junction there is another junction, this time with a double ditch coming from the east, against which the eastern ditch and both lines of pits abut. The western ditch continues southwards after this junction for 600m before it runs out in dry slack to the north east of Octon deserted village (TA 034 703).

A single ditch extends northwards from the ridge between Broach Dale and Middledale (TA 050 660) and after 1100m it stops just to the west of Kilham long barrow (TA 056 673; Manby 1976). After a gap of only 70m, and on a line slightly staggered to the eastwards by 30m, a single line of pits continues the northward course of this feature in the direction of Dotterill Park. These pits give way to a ditch after 300m, and this turns gradually eastwards onto the ridge which separates Broachdale from Springdale. A gap of 300m is occupied by a complex of small rectilinear enclosures which may mark the site of Iron Age and Romano-British settlement (TA 057 683). Some 1200m north of the long barrow the ditch gives way once more to a single line of pits, by this time running eastwards, across the lines of two triple ditches and an extended linear settlement (TA 064 686). Beyond this settlement the line is again represented by a single ditch, which has not been traced beyond Rudston Grange (TA 069 686). Of a total of 3.2 km of linear earthwork, some 650m was represented as a pit alignment.

8. The Broachdale-Bell Slack group 6b

A fragmentary system of four parallel ditches runs northwards from Broachdale at (TA 049 676) along the eastern side of a narrow slack, and re-emerges at the top of the slack 1 km away (TA 052 689) and at a point 4.5 km west of Rudston. From the summit of this ridge it runs north-eastwards for 5.2 km and for the first kilometre, as it drops down into Springdale, consists of four, sometimes three ditches. Thereafter as the line firstly rises again and then drops into the Great Wold Valley the ditch is tripled or doubled. One kilometre to the west of Maiden's Grave Farm the central ditch is represented as a line of pits for 160m. Immediately west of Maiden's Grave Farm (TA 092 713) the earthwork not only crosses a major concentration of rectilinear enclosures which also include square barrows and maculae likely to be iron age graves (one of which may have given the farm its name), but they operate as a focus themselves for a linear development of small rectilinear settlement enclosures.

East of Octon a single ditch continues the line southwards from (TA 038 650) across the High Street ridge and southwards into Broach Dale, during which course it is double for approximately 500m. On the south side of Broach Dale at (TA 046 672) a nucleated settlement of rectilinear enclosures concentrated around a T junction indicates that the double ditch functioned as a trackway for this part of its course. South of this settlement the two ditches diverge and by (TA 049 663) they are 80m apart, beyond which traces of them are lost.

6c

length: 7 km

Octon to Kilham (1)

Octon to Kilham (2)

An alternative line to the last is represented by a double ditch which begins to the west of Octon at (TA 032 694) and passes 300m to the west of a large circular or polygonal enclosure at Swaythorpe (TA 036 694). From the ridge it follows a sinuous course southwards into Tog Dale and onto the ridge beyond. It skirts to the west of the settlement in Broach Dale, but otherwise follows a course broadly parallel to and between 500m and 1000m to the west of the course 6b above. Along its course at three points rectilinear enclosures of 1 acre or less are attached. At (TA 042 663) the line crosses the course of another earthwork without any sign of one accommodating the other. South of Little Kilham Farm a double ditch 900m long continues the line and cannot be traced beyond the tumulus of Gallows Hill, Kilham (TA 048 638), which suggests that it may have abutted the earthworks of the Millington - Woldgate line which run east-west across this ridge.

To the east of the farm, after an interval of almost 600m, and on the eastern side of the Gypsey Race the line is again picked up by a 500m length of earthwork, 300m of which consists of a single line of pits, the rest as a single ditch. This crosses Bell Slack where the ditch passes into another major linear settlement and stops short of a likely neolithic long enclosure (TA 109 716). The settlement contains two iron age cemeteries, one of which was excavated in 1978 (Stead 1991a: Bell Slack). Although the relationship cannot be established with total certainty, it is probable that the pit alignment and ditch predate the settlement.

116 116

APPENDICES 9. Greenlands-Littlethorpe group

From here a single ditch runs south-eastwards, and is joined, intermittently, by another as it passes to the west of Huggate village and runs to the head of Saintofts Dale (SE 875 541) by which time it is a single ditch once more. Here it converges with a double ditched trackway from the north-west, which also runs from the junction with Huggate Dykes, but has rectilinear fields or settlement enclosures along its east side (SE 869 547). Together they run south over Warter Wold between Minningdale and Blanch Dale, and from (SE 875 531) until (SE 874 507) the ditches are the focus of an elongated settlement of rectilinear enclosures continuous for almost 1 km and then intermittent for another 1.5 km. This takes the earthworks, which must represent a trackway in this last section at least, from the plateau down into the valley at Warter, where traces of them cease.

length: 2.5km

On the west this boundary consists of double ditches which mark the convex boundary between an area of settlement and field enclosures to the south (Greenlands drove way settlement) and open areas to the north. The boundary is broken at its most northerly point to allow the passage of a trackway. Further east the ditches form a focus for part of the Makeshift cemetery (fig. 65), and continue eastwards across the Gypsey Race towards Argham Dykes.

4.4.2 Linear trackways (Class 1c) 10. Western watershed: BirdsallRiplingham;

10c Warter to Arras

length: 35 km

Beyond the Nunburnholme Beck, which rises at Warter, there is no further trace of a linear system running along the watershed, except for a single ditch which begins to the south of Great Dug Dale (SE 889 491) and passes between two square barrows on Londesborough Wold before merging with a nucleated settlement at Londesborough Wold Farm (SE 893 470). A large curvilinear enclosure 500m to the east of this ditch recalls other such enclosures near linear groups (e.g. the Millington - Woldgate Group, or the Woldgate - Reighton group). The next trace of linear features in on Goodmanham Wold, about 1 km to the south-west of a large group of barrows opened by Greenwell (Greenwell 1877, barrows 83-121; Kinnes and Longworth 1985, unnumbered barrows 92-4, 102). Here a double ditched trackway runs south from (SE 900 449) and after 1 km turns to the south-east for a further kilometre. This trackway is a focus for rectangular enclosures the whole way until it drops into Goodmanham Dale at (SE 911 432).

The western escarpment of the Wolds is interrupted by a series of valleys which penetrate the massif for several kilometres. They are drained by streams which rise at the base of the chalk, and the main ones are: Whitekeld Beck, Millington Beck, Nunburnholme Beck, Towthorpe Beck and Mill Beck. These valleys and the blocks which project to the escarpment between them were not conducive to continuous linear earthworks, and those which do exist along the watershed have many gaps in them.

10a Birdsall to Wayrham A group of former tumuli, now represented by ring ditches, perches on the very edge of the north-facing escarpment at Birdsall Brow and forms a focus for linear ditches from five different directions (SE 837 634), two of which are elements of the Acklam - Folkton group (1 above). The ditch which runs southwards across the chalk plateau drops down into Back Dale after 1 km (SE 833 622) and abuts a sinuous earthwork which follows the valley floor. There is no sign that the tributary ditch ever continued beyond the dale at this point, but on the opposite side of Cow Wold to the south (SE 828 615) a double earthwork begins part way down the north side of the dale, crosses the floor and climbs the opposite side, beyond which cultivation has reduced it to a double ditch crop mark running south. The ditches soon abut a wider double ditch (SE 827 612: a trackway?) running east-west, and a staggered junction displaces the narrow group by 80m westwards before it continues towards the south. The line is not displaced by the crossing of Thixen Dale, where banks and ditches survive on the grazed hillsides, but on the valley floor the group acquires an additional ditch, and in the cultivated ground south of the valley the two outer ditches are represented by pit alignments for a short distance (SE 828 606). The group crosses Long Dale as a double ditch which probably continues in this form over the eastern side of Uncleby Top and Painsthorpe Wold, although the eastern ditch may be concealed under field boundaries for part of the distance and survives as an earthwork for the rest until Fordham Dale (SE 833 581) where the topography obliges the earthwork to turn west around a dale head before continuing south again as a single ditch and running into a complex of many earthworks at the head of Wayrham Dale (SE 833 567).

This dale is a natural boundary between the central Wolds massif and the block of chalk hill country which forms the southern Wolds. On its south side the double ditch continues from (SE 917 430), once again with rectilinear enclosures clustered along its flanks, until the line turns abruptly southwards and passes through more settlement enclosures to reach Arras on the Wold top (SE 924 417). Beyond Arras farm the ditched trackway opens onto the watershed, which is occupied by the large Arras cemetery of square barrows (Stead 1979). To the east a second linear system, which originated at (SE 924 446) in a dale on the north side of Goodmanham Dale, was represented by extant earthworks up to 1972 which ended on the east side of the cemetery at (SE 933 416; Loughlin and Miller 1979, 116).

10d Arras to Newbald A double ditch leads south-eastwards from Arras Scroggs (SE 935 412) past a group of eleven round barrows in Howe Hill Field, four of which were excavated by Greenwell (Greenwell 1877, barrows 7275) and converges with other systems from west and east near Newbald Lodge (SE 945 398), where linear ditches and rectilinear enclosures suggest a dispersed settlement. The double ditch from the west originates on Market Weighton Wold, the highest part of the ridge south of Goodmanham Dale, which in antiquity was marked by a group of nineteen barrows, one of which, a long barrow, was excavated by Rolleston on behalf of Greenwell (Greenwell 1877, barrow 226). From here a double ditch dog legs southward, past another group of eight round barrows (SE 945 390) across the watershed as far as the north side of Swin Dale, east of Newbald, at SE 943 368.

10b Huggate to Warter If there was an intention to follow the watershed with a linear earthwork there is no obvious candidate among the many earthworks at the top of Garrowby Hill. It may be that the present minor road from Wayrham Dale to Huggate runs on top of one such earthwork but if so the first clear sign that it did so is on Huggate Wold (SE 856 569) from which point the road has an earthwork on its southern edge until its junction with the multiple Huggate Dykes at (SE 863 561).

10e High Hunsley to Riplingham

117 117

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE After an interval of 2 km a short stretch of double ditch runs northsouth for 250m at High Hunsley (SE 952 346), but the next sign of a linear system along the ridge way is a double ditch which ascends the south side of Drewton Dale near its head (SE 954 334) and winds its way south past the deserted village of Riplingham, where it survives in Weedley Plantation as an earthwork and a section was cut through it in excavations at the village in 1956-57 (Wacher 1966). This revealed two ditches 17.7m apart and both c.2.5m and c.1.6m deep; an intermediate bank had buried an earlier turf line in which were small fragments of prehistoric pottery. The bottom of the eastern ditch had been worked smooth through traffic along it, although that on the west still had its original rough cutting. South of Riplingham the double ditch continues as a crop mark until it stops in a droveway settlement at (SE 959 311). Beyond this point there is a break of little more than a kilometre until the heads of Elloughton Dale and Welton Dale lead down towards the Humber bank 5 km beyond.

East of Weaverthorpe a 150m length of double ditch lies on the north side of the modern road, once more on the north bank of the Gypsey Race, at (SE 977 708), opposite the point where a large series crescentic ditches, described below, debouches onto the bank of the Gypsey Race. Further on another double ditch emerges from beneath the same road as it approaches Butterwick, at (SE 985 710), which suggests that the road could cover an older line for several hundred metres. Although there are no rectilinear enclosures beside these ditches, their presence may be due to a complex of dense curvilinear enclosures on the south side of the Gypsey Race centred on (SE 987 710). These enclosures appear to contain many pits and a photograph of the group is published by Ramm (1978, fig. 7). East of Butterwick two double ditches (centred on (SE 995 719) and (SE 995 718)) continue eastwards between the stream and a ridge to the north on which is a drove-way settlement spectacular for its length of 1.4 km. Both double ditches merge with the modern road at Boythorpe, 400m east of which is another settlement with curvilinear enclosures, which has been the subject of recent work by Lang (Lang 1986). The modern road follows the north bank of the Gypsey Race to Wold Newton, and a linear ditch, double in places, on a similar course is known between Boythorpe Cottages (TA 003 721) and the B 1249 (TA 012 724). Rectangular enclosures have been photographed along this ditch just west of the B 1249, on the north side of the modern road at (TA 015 726), and on the south side at (TA 023 727) where once again a linear ditch emerges from beneath the road. At (TA 028 728) a double ditch departs southwards and crosses the Gypsey Race towards the ridge beyond. This is the Foxholes Ruston Parva group of earthworks described above. To the east of these further rectilinear enclosures at (TA 032 728) and (TA 038 728) suggest that the line once again is concealed beneath the modern road as it approaches Wold Newton.

The watershed of the Yorkshire Wolds from Acklam Wold almost to the Humber is marked by many barrow cemeteries. Neolithic barrows are known at Raisthorpe, Hanging Grimston, Market Weighton and Ling Howe (long barrows) and Huggate barrow 224, Huggate and Warter barrow 254, Calais Wold barrow 275 (round barrows: Manby 1970). From the late neolithic and early bronze age, groups of round barrows include Mortimer's Wharram Percy, Aldro, Acklam, Hanging Grimston, Painsthorpe Wold, Calais Wold, Huggate Wold and Huggate and Warter Wold, and Blanch groups (Mortimer 1905), and south of these groups at Enthorpe (SE 913 457), Goodmanham Grange (SE 905 444), Market Weighton Wold (SE 908 415), High Gardham (SE 942 405) and Newbald Lodge (SE 945 391), Littlewood (SE 955 377) many of which were excavated by Greenwell (1877, numbers 72-75, 79-123, 226, 255-265; Kinnes and Longworth 1985, unnumbered barrows 64, 67, 92-94, 102).

11c Wold Newton to Rudston

The linear earthworks which broadly follow the watershed show no evidence of unity in design, but wander about in a very intermittent fashion. The most northerly section is predominantly barrier-like in nature, particularly where a triple ditch marks the line and the dykes cross deep dales with no attempt to find an easy course of ascent. From the gap in Huggate Dykes to Riplingham most of the lengths were trackways along which clustered settlement enclosures. These trackways avoid most of the older barrow groups, as do the settlements along it, but the iron age cemetery of Arras lies directly in their path.

11. The Great Wold Valley route

On the east side of Wold Newton multiple ditches run eastwards north of the stream from (TA 050 732), but diverge into two different groups, a double ditch continuing towards Burton Fleming and crossing the Gypsey Race at (TA 069 723). Hereabouts the coming together of various linear features from Cans Dale to the north, from Thwing to the west and south, and from north-east of Burton Fleming confuse the issue. They appear to coalesce into two groups on either side of the stream, and these are linked by the complex combination of ditches and pit alignments described above as the Burton Fleming to Fridaythorpe group. The line along the valley is most clearly resumed between Burton Fleming at (TA 085 718) and Maidens Grave Farm at (TA 083 712) where a double ditch forms the focus of a drove-way settlement, as does a series of earthworks which cross the line at right angles (the Broachdale to Bell Slack group). Beyond this point the line runs north-south on the west side of the stream and is most clearly continued by a square barrow cemetery with a distinctly linear growth pattern (the Makeshift cemetery: Stead 1991a) between (TA 083 703) and (TA 096 692). From here there is no clear sign that the ditches resume, but there are many rings and rectilinear ditch systems before Rudston village is reached and the stream turns eastwards once again.

length: 36 km

11a Wharram le Street to Weaverthorpe A double ditch, which has been included in the discussion of the Acklam Wold to Folkton linear system above, forms the focus of a drove-way settlement which follows the north side of the Gypsey Race from (SE 865 663) to (SE 875 669). Thereafter there is no sign until east of Kirby Grindalythe, where there are two small linear systems with enclosures on both sides of the stream, each 300-400m in length and centred on (SE 916 684) and (SE 917 682). East of West Lutton a linear system with enclosures 500m long on the south bank of the Gypsey Race at (SE 939 693) points towards a small system 250m long at (SE 948 698). Between Helperthorpe and Weaverthorpe a linear settlement 800m long between (SE 957 704) and (SE 965 707) is separated by only c.300m from an isolated rectangular enclosure on the same line at (SE 970 706) on the south side of Weaverthorpe village.

11d Rudston to Bridlington The main linear system which follows the valley east of Rudston is the complex of ditches and pit alignments described as the WoldgateBoynton group, but there is a medieval deserted village on the north bank of the Gypsey Race at Low Caythorpe (TA 118 677) in which the village street runs parallel with the stream as a visible earthwork. Some 400m to the east a continuation of this line was excavated by Abramson, who found it to be a focus for Romano-British and Anglian settlement (Abramson, in press), and such may also be the

11b Weaverthorpe to Wold Newton

118 118

APPENDICES date of a complex of crop mark enclosures north of Willow Garth at (TA 127 678), where Roman coins are reported (gossip remembered from the Bosville Arms, Rudston).

12. Great Slack route from Fimber to Elmswell

The double ditches were the focus of further square barrows in Garton Slack as the course swung south-eastwards past Mortimer's barrow 37 (SE 957 597), a long barrow, to where Garton Slack widens out and where Mortimer excavated many round barrows of neolithic and bronze age date (Mortimer 1905, group 11: Garton Slack). South of Garton Station a single ditch runs eastwards through an area of ring ditches where scores of square barrows cluster in cemeteries along the northern side of the ditch (SE 973 580 to SE 983 577). Part of this cemetery was excavated by Stead, who uncovered a fifth chariot burial on the north side of this earthwork (Stead 1991a). Although levelled by ploughing throughout the Parish of Wetwang and most of Garton, an earthwork survives along the north side of a green lane at (SE 986 586) and Mortimer found that this had been reused as an Anglian cemetery, as had the iron age cemetery excavated by Stead (Mortimer 1905, 247-257). To the east the earthworks have been levelled once again, but a double ditch leads into a nucleated settlement of rectilinear enclosures at Elmswell, while 100m to the north a sinuous hedge preserves the line of another bank. This complex lies on the south side of Elmswell springs, where excavations by Congreve and Corder in the late 1930s located Roman and Anglian settlement remains (Congreve 1937, 1938; Corder 1940), while on the north side of the springs, at Bramble Hill, Roman altars were discovered by the Granthams in 1950-52 (Dent 1988).

length: 10 km

12a Fimber to Wetwang A double ditch on the valley floor at Fimber (SE 896 610) runs eastwards past Fimber Grange, where although photographs taken by the writer in 1976 were reported as evidence of a cursus, the behaviour of ditches further down this valley suggest a trackway to be more likely (Moorhouse 1977, 1). The valley floor is empty of further traces until Blealands Nook, (SE 919 596). Here a linear settlement of linked rectilinear enclosures adjoins the west side of the earthwork line, all now levelled by ploughing. Mortimer excavated parts of this site, which he identified from crop marks, and found Roman coins and pottery, as well as traces of what appear to be iron age burials (Mortimer 1905, 194-200; Stead 1979, 98) and more recent finds from field walking and treasure hunters include further coins and late iron age brooches (Dent 1984, fig. 5.3). The line of the earthworks are interrupted by a wide trackway bounded on its south side by a double ditch, part of the Millington - Woldgate linear group (2 above), which runs from south-west to north-east. On the south east side of this line and displaced from the original line by about 100m the Burton Fleming Elmswell group begins again in the form of a double ditch which follows the dry valley floor eastwards towards Wetwang village. Several rectilinear enclosures adjoin the north side of this earthwork over a distance of 550m, and these were trenched by the writer in the winter of 1981-82 and found to contain late iron age pottery (Dent 1983b, 39).

13. The Great Wold Valley D-shaped enclosures

length: 7 km

On the south side of the Gypsey Race in the parishes of Kirby Grindalythe, Luttons and Weaverthorpe are a series of land divisions 7 km long and made up of five groups of crescentic enclosures based upon a double dyke (fig. 32). The existence of these was first noted by Riley (1990). Along the line of this double dyke are several spreads of maculae, presumably pits or quarry holes. The double dyke is known from (SE 928 682), although it probably originated further west, almost to the Gypsey Race at (SE 976 705). Four passages through it are also represented by modern roads or tracks, and divide the group into five zones, the ends of which are at (SE 920 670) and (SE 980 708). Each zone consists of parallel, or plano-convex narrow strips bounded by ditches, and these appear to represent progressive intakes of land southwards from the head dyke. Some of these additional ditches bow outwards towards the south, giving an overall appearance of a series of "D" shaped enclosures.

12b Wetwang - Elmswell The double ditch follows the middle of the valley floor until just north of Wetwang it turns abruptly towards the south side of the valley in the form of a single ditch around which clusters a small cemetery of square barrows (SE 932 594). From here the ditch follows the foot of the slope, although traces of a continuation of the earlier line are visible further onto the valley floor. Several square barrows cluster along the ditch south east of Station Farm, close to a small group excavated by the writer in 1984 which contained three chariot burials with early La Tène metalwork (Dent 1985). Beyond these, large scale excavations examined more than 1.5 km of the valley ahead of gravel quarrying between 1970 and 1982 (Brewster 1981, Dent 1983a), in which the ditches on the southern edge of the valley floor were examined in many places. A very large cemetery of more than 200 square barrows (SE 944 600) to (SE 948 600); see Appendix 4.6) grew up alongside and occasionally over earlier ditches, one of which formed an oval enclosure around the site of an earlier round barrow (Dent 1978, Barrow B), and while the cemetery was still growing this line was recut by a larger ditch which turned north across the valley floor at the west end of the cemetery and ran northwards up the hillside towards the earthworks of the Millington Woldgate group. Late iron age/ early Romano-British rectilinear enclosures cut these ditches along this course, and another square barrow containing a chariot was aligned along them in Garton Slack (SE 942 600; Stead 1984). It is significant that wheel ruts were recorded along part of the space between the ditches, and a road surface metalled with flint and fragments of brick was observed in several places.

From west to east, the first, second and third zones each appear to have three phases of southward extension, the fourth has five, and the fifth has two or three. The system extends along the ridge which separates the Great Wold Valley from its tributaries, Croom Dale and Galloping Slack to the south, beyond which the land rises to the ridge followed by the Burton Fleming-Millington ditch system, in an area strangely barren of other archaeological remains save for long and round barrows.

4.4.3 Excavated linear features Bell Slack (TA 110 709 to TA 109 724) Excavations by Stead at Bell Slack, Burton Fleming in 1978 and 1979 examined areas adjacent to, rather than actually on a linear ditch system (Stead 1991a, 17, figs. 17 and 18). The system consisted of two parallel ditches c.20m apart, on either side of which were clustered rectilinear enclosures of varying size (Stead 1991a, fig. 1). The excavator quite reasonably interpreted this linear system as a drove-way, which linked the enclosures on either side and from which smaller ditched lanes led between enclosures to areas beyond

119 119

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE (fig. 58). Although the rectilinear enclosures were dated by association with wheel-made pottery to the Roman period, the distribution of two square barrow cemeteries on the eastern side of the system strongly suggests that the drove-way was in use during the iron age, although two large and funerary-looking square barrows and a ring ditch located between the later drove-way ditches suggests that the precise line was less constrained in earlier days.

of the linear ditches, as has been shown in detail in an earlier study (Dent 1984a). In phase 2 the northerly ditch consisted of a more substantial earthwork, which was continuous and swung around the early bronze age ring ditch, and cut across the ditches of many square barrows. At the western end of the cemetery it turned northwards across the valley floor, and crop marks betray its existence as it climbs the slope for a distance of 1.1 km. The angle formed by this ditch and its accompanying bank evidently formed a barrier to subsequent burials in the iron age cemetery, for grave goods and burial morphology strongly suggest that some later barrows respected the existence of this earthwork, placing its construction firmly in the period when square barrows were a part of the local burial tradition (Dent 1982, 444, fig. 3). Corresponding to this large ditch was a smaller ditch on the south side which may have been recut on a number of occasions. Short lengths of ditch running south from this, including two with an access between, suggest that the slopes immediately to the south were occupied by ditched enclosures which have not been identified from the air or from excavations.

Cat Babbleton (TA 002 751) Excavation of a length of 135m of a linear boundary ahead of development at Cat Babbleton on the northern Wolds revealed that a pit alignment had been recut as a continuous ditch at a later stage. Aerial photographs suggest that the pit alignment sub-divides land between two parallel and more elaborate ditch systems, and stops at a small settlement formed of rectilinear ditched enclosures alongside a double ditched trackway. Pottery from the pit alignment was iron age to late Roman in character (Cardwell 1989).

At the western end of the cemetery the line of this linear system was interrupted by a broad ditch running north-south which partially recut the earlier north ditch as it crossed the valley floor. A smaller parallel ditch on the west side cut across a burial, which although undated conformed with the orientation most commonly found in the iron age cemetery.

Caythorpe Gas Pipeline (TA 122 679 to TA 092 653) The archaeological mitigation works associated with this project examined several linear boundaries or trackways (Fraser, et al. 1992; Abramson 1996). In so doing it provided some of the most important evidence about the morphology and dating of these features so far recovered from the Wolds. In four different places pit alignments were encountered, and in one of these the pits were arranged in three parallel lines.

These ditches clearly operated as barriers, but particularly interesting was the discovery at different points along the wide medial space of parallel narrow grooves containing compressed flint, crushed Roman pottery and brick. Towards the western end of the cemetery a clearly formed hollow way had become worn into the foot of the hill slope. Together these indicate that by the Roman period at least the space between the ditches was used as a road, and the passage of wheeled traffic is demonstrated by parallel ruts worn by wheeled vehicles.

Cowlam (SE 983 667) Excavation of a small group of square barrows provided an opportunity to look at some linear ditches which also crossed the site. Two parallel ditches 8m apart were 5m wide and 2.5m wide cut into the chalk to depths of 1.7m and 1m respectively, and both cut across an earlier square barrow (Stead 1986, 11-13, figs.2 and 3). There was no sign of traffic wear between the ditches, although a definite hollow way was recognized on a different part of the site, so it is likely that these were components, not of a trackway, as at Bell Slack or Wetwang, but of a boundary earthwork or dyke.

Although the direct link with corresponding features further east in Garton Slack cannot be proved, there are equivalent ditches in the area excavated by Brewster, and some of these were cut by square barrow ditches and by larger rectilinear enclosures of domestic character which particularly concentrated around a junction where a second system of parallel ditches joined from the north. The evidence for these particular linear systems operating as roads or trackways is so strong for the Romano-British period, that it is difficult to escape the conclusion that there was also a track along the valley in the iron age, leading at least from Blealands Nook to Elmswell, and that this formed a focus for the square barrow cemeteries at Wetwang, at Gartonslack Gatehouse (Dent 1983a, fig. 7), and at Garton Station (Stead 1991a, fig. 19), as well as for domestic rectilinear enclosures at Blealands Nook, Wetwang Slack and Garton Slack.

Garton-Wetwang (SE 969 598 to SE 940 597) Among Stoertz's plotted linear features is one which consists in the main of single or multiple ditches linking Mortimer's site at Blealands Nook with the vicinity of the springs at Elmswell, 10 km to the east (figs. 25, 30). This series passes along the dry valley through Wetwang Slack and Garton Slack where the cut features which comprise it were extensively exposed and examined, and their relationship to other features recorded.

Huggate Dykes (SE 858 559)

In Wetwang Slack this system consisted of two parallel ditches 10m or more apart, which were recut and re-aligned over at least two phases. In phase 1 the ditches were not continuous, and one section of the north ditch terminated in an oval enclosure which contained an early bronze age ring ditch with internal burials (Dent 1979, Barrow "B"). The western equivalent of the same ditch appeared to be the focus for iron age square barrows, which formed two lines on either side (fig. 57). On the south side two ditches preceded the construction of a square barrow over their western ends, and one of these was overlain by three square barrows further to the east.

This series of six parallel earthworks has been reduced for the greater part of its length by ploughing and is recorded by Stoertz as a group of five linear ditches. The remaining northernmost bank and ditch was partially sectioned by W J Varley (Challis and Harding 1975, 161, fig.65). The ditch was no more than 1m deep and the upcast chalk had formed a bank 2.5m wide and 0.8m high. Low in the filling of the ditch was a sherd of early iron age pottery, while an Anglo-Saxon burial urn had been inserted into the chalk bank.

Lockington (TA 028 465)

These square barrows were part of the largest cemetery so far excavated in the region, and the later development of the group, which contained at least 238 barrows, is closely related to the history

A short length of bank and ditch not more than 50m long survives on the western side of the Hull valley south of Lockington Station and

120 120

APPENDICES adjacent to Scorborough Beck at TA 028 465. There are two small barrows within 40m of the remains, and one of these appears to be square.

Welton Wold has not yet been published in full, but Stoertz's plot of the crop marks and Mackey's interim publication confirms that a ditched trackway was a central focus for the enclosures which made up this farm (Stoertz 1997; Mackey 1998).

A section was cut through this earthwork by the writer in 1989 prior to drainage works, and showed that the ditch was 7.0m wide and 1.0m deep below the old surface, which was sealed by a spread clay upcast bank 0.3m thick.

West Heslerton (SE 917 765) At West Heslerton a multi-period landscape has been deciphered by Powlesland (Powlesland 1986), with rather better evidence of late prehistoric use of linear ditch systems. The site lies on the floor of the Vale of Pickering at the foot of the northern escarpment of the Wolds. There has been a tendency of linear features to run parallel to the escarpment, and these include the modern road. Powlesland discovered traces of a late bronze age trackway (Powlesland 1986, 133-134, fig.52, Trackway 1) with many wheel ruts and with a northern side ditch which contained pottery like that found at the nearby palisaded enclosures on Staple Howe (Brewster 1963) and Devil's Hill (Brewster 1981, Stephens 1986). Other linear features included an alignment of pits up to 2.5m across and 2m deep, from which pottery of Staple Howe type was recovered (Powlesland 1988, 103), which was subsequently recut as a sequence of linear ditches and continued at least into Romano-British times (Powlesland 129, figs. 49, 58 and 68). Further to the north another trackway was marked by parallel ditches (Trackway 2) and a third had very obvious hollowed surfaces between the ditches (Trackway 3). Other linear features associated with this complex include at least two other pit alignments. The late bronze age origin of some of the system is reinforced by an open settlement of post-built round houses with Staple Howe and Devil's Hill pottery forms, and by finds from another pit alignment at Sherburn 3 km to the east, where a pit containing such pottery formed part of an alignment which marked an early stage of a complex of linear boundaries (Powlesland 1988, 103).

North Cave (SE 879 331) At North Cave linear ditch systems were closely associated with rectilinear ditched enclosures (see below), and in the sandy soil these showed evidence of re-cutting on several occasions. The east-west alignment of an open settlement of round houses (fig. 56) appears to have been retained when this was re-organized and ditched enclosures were laid out from an east-west boundary ditch in the late iron age or early years of the Roman occupation. In the 2nd century AD the enclosures along this boundary were remodelled into a block, with a drove road 20m wide running between ditches on the north side. Once again the interpretation of this feature as a drove road is assisted by what appear to be wheel ruts at one point, and by the resemblance of the arrangement to other sites. This arrangement continued until the late Roman period, showing that the 2nd century infrastructure of the settlement was sufficiently stable to last for two centuries

Thwing (TA 026 707) In the course of excavation of a large circular enclosure at Paddock Hill, Thwing, interpreted as a Neolithic Class 2 henge which was subsequently fortified in the bronze age (Manby 1987, 1988, 66; 1980, 321-323), opportunity was taken to examine the westerly of three extensive linear earthworks which meet immediately to the north-east of the site (fig. 31). In the lower fill of the ditch were found sherds similar to some from the fort, while in the upper fill was Romano-British pottery (Manby 1980b, 328). This earthwork consisted of a double ditch, but a curiously sharp dog-leg in its course to the north-west of the fort indicates that it was not a trackway, but a boundary feature, and this is confirmed by surviving earthworks in a nearby wood. Another earthwork which it abuts approached from the north and consists of at least two ditches and two pit alignments. These are likely to represent at least two phases to the feature, comparable to the pit alignment at West Heslerton, described below.

Wharram Percy (SE 857 645) At Wharram Percy the careful excavation of a succession of stages of occupation has shown that beneath the deserted medieval village are Anglo-Saxon, Roman and pre-Roman features. The Roman settlement resembled many others in that a central ditched corridor was flanked by rectilinear enclosures, but excavation suggests that this corridor, and a hollow way which links to it, was established in the iron age (Rahtz 1988, 114). The continuity of use which can be traced among the streets at Wharram Percy has implications for other settlements on the Wolds, an area where deserted medieval villages are particularly well represented.

Welton Wold (SE 971 281)

121 121

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE

4.5

field walking and geophysical survey have been carried out as part of the Caythorpe survey (HAU 1990).

Settlement sites (figs. 46-58; tables 9-10) 4.5.1 Irregular curvilinear enclosures (Class 2b: fig. 52)

4.5.2 Rectilinear enclosures (Class 3b: figs. 53, 54)

Paddock Hill henge, Thwing (TA 030 707)

Bell Slack, Burton Fleming (TA 110 709 to TA 109 724)

A Class 2 henge monument consisting of a ditch 60m in internal diameter with an external chalk bank and opposed entrances on the NW and SE. Excavations by Manby 1973-1987 located Beaker sherds beneath the bank and in the primary silt of the ditch. In the later bronze age the monument was remodelled. Initially the ditch was recut and a post circle 17m in diameter constructed around an urned cremation at its centre. Taunton metal types were associated with this phase. This was replaced by a circular hill fort defended by a timber revetted rampart inside a massive defensive ditch 115m in external diameter and with opposed gateways on NW and SE. Inside was a central ring of double posts 16m in diameter. This phase was associated with Penard phase metal types. Manby 1987.

An extensive series of rectilinear enclosures extends along a droveway for a distance of 1.7 km in the shallow dry valley known as Bell Slack, and this was examined in two places by Stead in 1977 and 1978 (Stead 1991a, 17, fig.17). The enclosures overlay an iron age cemetery and were associated with Romano-British pottery, although "almost devoid of artefacts". A full account of these enclosures has not yet been published, but features examined included a single ring round house.

Devil's Hill, Heslerton (SE 919 756) A circular palisaded enclosure with an external ditch enclosed an area 55m in diameter situated on a knoll at the foot of the northern escarpment of the Wolds, a neighbour to Staple Howe (see below). The only internal structure recognised was a central four post "granary", but angular and decorated pottery was found (Stephens 1986).

Staple Howe, Knapton (SE 898 750) A double palisade enclosed an area 65m by 25m on top of a knoll below the northern escarpment of the Wolds, 2km to the west of Devil's Hill (see above). Internal features included a centrally placed "granary" and at least two round houses. Hallstatt razors and a socketed bronze axe were associated with angular and decorated pottery (Brewster 1963).

Fig. 113 Burials and enclosure ditches at Blealands Nook, Wetwang; (Mortimer 1905, fig. 489)

Blealands Nook (SE 919 598)

Grimthorpe, Bishop Wilton (SE 816 535)

At Blealands Nook, Wetwang a complex of rectilinear enclosures based on a linear ditch system was examined by Mortimer in the 1870s and 1880s and yielded Romano-British pottery and artefacts, along with evidence of an earlier iron age cemetery (Mortimer 1905, 194-200, Stead 1979, 98). In recent years coins have been picked up in field walking, and treasure hunters found pre-conquest brooches on the site in the late 1970s (Dent 1983b, 39, fig.2).

A circular ditch and internal box rampart (represented by a double line of post holes) enclosed this hill top site 3.1 ha. in extent. Internal four post "granaries" were the only buildings, and angular and decorated pottery was found (Stead 1968). The site occupies an important viewpoint on the western escarpment, and lies close to the western end of the Millington-Woldgate group of linear earthworks (q.v.).

In the winter of 1981-82 the writer carried out a small excavation for Humberside Archaeology Unit on three rectangular enclosures which adjoined a droveway leading east from the main settlement. The ditches were in places substantial, and contained "native" pottery similar to that from Wetwang Slack, but internal features had been

Greenlands, Rudston(TA 115 683) An irregular curvilinear enclosure c.260m by c.210m with a broad outer ditch, a narrower inner ditch or palisade slot, and entrances on the east and south. No excavations have taken place at either site, but

122 122

APPENDICES Site name

Grid reference

Length

Notes

Arras Bell Slack Blealands Nook

SE 924 426 TA 107 716 SE 922 595

1.4km 1.7km 1.4km

Butterwick Goodmanham Wold Greenlands Maidens Grave Farm Middleton on the Wolds Rudston Grange Warter Wold Wharram le Street Wharram Percy Wintringham

SE 993 722 SE 901 438 TA 081 689 TA 091 715 SE 930 500

1.3km 1.7km 1.1km 1.0km 1.8km

cemetery within 0.5km integral cemetery; Stead 1991a integral cemetery; Mortimer 1905, Dent 1983b cemetery within 0.5km

TA 059 693 SE 879 521 SE 872 665 SE 848 647 SE 893 725

1.7km 2.3km 1.1km 1.1km 1.8km

cemetery within 1km integral cemetery cemetery within 0.5km

Hayfield 1987 Hayfield 1987

Table 9: Drove way settlements. Site

Magnetometer survey

1 Wharram Grange villa 2 Birdsall High Barn 3 Birdsall Brow droveway 4 Wharram Grange cross-roads 6 Wharram le Street villa 8 Wharram Post Office 9 Gypsey Race droveway 11 Grimston Road 13 Wharram Percy 14 Bella House 16 Tunnel Top, Burdale 17 Burdale/Fimber boundary 22 Cow Wold

Excavation

Field walking

Pottery Iron age or "native" X

Roman

"Saxon"

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X X X X

X X

X

X X X

X X X X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X X

X

Table 10: Rectilinear enclosure at Wharram Percy; sites examined as part of the Wharram Percy Parish Survey with evidence of their date (data from Hayfield 1987). subjected to centuries of ploughing and no coherent pattern could be discerned in the small area which was examined.

Brantingham (SE 931 288) Roman buildings with mosaic floors were discovered at Brantingham in 1941 when the ridge on which they had stood was quarried for limestone. This led to excavations by Slack in 1948 (Slack 1951) and by Stead 1962 (Liversedge et al. 1973). In 1983 an adjacent part of this site was stripped of topsoil as a preliminary to further quarrying, and this revealed more stone buildings built over earlier ditched enclosures (fig. 54). A salvage excavation by the East Riding Archaeological Society under the direction of the writer established that a late iron age settlement had developed into a prestigious villa in later centuries.

Other ditched enclosures with iron age and Romano-British pottery, and which were not exposed in sufficient detail to determine their plan, have been examined at Driffield (Phillips 1960), Elmswell (Congreve 1937, 1938; Corder 1940) and Crossgates (Rutter and Duke 1958) and Low Caythorpe (Abramson 1996). Although they may belong to the class under discussion, the excavation of a settlement at Staxton (Brewster 1957) is a reminder that curvilinear enclosures were also used.

123 123

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE (Corder and Kirk 1932). Aerial photographs taken of the area since reveal that the site, and that of a second villa 500m to the west, focus on the line of a linear ditch system along which numerous rectilinear enclosures extend for several hundred metres. There are several small squares in the locality, and some of these are situated close to drove roads.

Although earlier quarrying had removed ditches on the south side of the area, a reasonably coherent plan was recovered in which a rectangular enclosure 50m by 35m was defined by a ditch which at the north-east corner contained a substantial dump of late iron age pottery. This pottery included two wheel-turned bowls (fig. 35, 36). Curving slots within the enclosure could have been the remains of a round house, and another was found to the north. Metal detectors were used to scan the spoil heaps and unstripped topsoil, and this produced a coin of Cunobelin and three late iron age brooches. This enclosure was succeeded by a tripartite enclosure, which though incomplete had evidently been flanked by a ditched trackway on the north. Pottery consisted of native Roman wares and an early mortarium which suggested that the ditches of this phase lasted no longer than the early second century. One was overlapped by remains of a stone building with bowed ends, which was abandoned in the early third century, and some small enclosures on the west could have been contemporary. In later phases ditched enclosures were apparently absent, but an aisled barn, and two successive phases of stone buildings sealed earlier ditches.

Corder found a rectilinear enclosure beneath the later stone buildings of his villa. This consisted of a ditch 2m deep from the present surface which enclosed a quadrilateral area 43m by 30m at its greatest extent (Corder and Kirk 1932, 26-30, figs.5 and 6). The south side of this enclosure was cut by a linear ditch which can be identified with the more extensive system mentioned above. Pottery from the ditch included a large proportion of "native" wares, as well as early Roman wheel-turned forms. No internal features were recognized, but attention may have been diverted from the search by the complicated sequence of later stone buildings which also occupied the site. Nothing which need be earlier than the later 1st century AD was found. Corder interpreted the enclosure as a military fortlet (Corder and Kirk 1932, 30), but this was not accepted at the time (Richmond 1932) and examination of comparable sites described here has since confirmed that such enclosures were a feature of early Romano-British farms. Ramm considered Langton to be a fortified farm (Ramm 1978, 7174), although accumulation of soil in the Roman period and possibly since has added almost a metre in places to the overall depth of the ditches, thereby making them seem more formidable obstacles than they would have been in reality.

Although the site adjoins the Roman road from Brough to York, sinuous crop marks which extend the ditch systems beyond the excavated area are out of character with its straight course, and probably pre-date its construction.

Garton Slack-Wetwang Slack (SE 969 598 to SE 940 597) In the course of excavations on this extensive site several ditched enclosures were examined along an unmarked trackway (figs. 53).

North Cave (SE 879 331)

A cluster of at least five enclosures, all of less than one hectare in size, were located at the junction of a side road at the eastern end of the excavated area (Brewster 1981). These were associated with animal burials, and a complex of structural remains which included post holes of fenced rectangular enclosures and evidence of round houses. Dating evidence pointed to late iron age and Romano-British occupation (Dent 1983a). Buildings, enclosures, animal burials and the adjoining road all suggested an agricultural settlement.

An open settlement consisting of at least fourteen round houses provided Carbon 14 dates in the mid to late 1st millennium BC, as well as a late iron age "soldier's brooch" of the early-mid 1st century AD. There were remains of iron furnaces and abundant evidence of the smelting process. This settlement was overlain by at least three phases of native Roman ditched enclosures (Dent 1989).

A single enclosure to the west of this also adjoined the linear earthworks and contained remains of iron age roundhouses.

The Roman villa at Rudston was discovered in 1933 when a mosaic floor was unearthed during ploughing. Subsequent excavations by the Rudston Excavation Committee in the 1930s by Woodward and Steer were followed by a long programme of work between 1962 and 1972 by Stead (Stead 1980, 1).

Rudston villa (TA 090 667)

A tripartite ditched enclosure, with another adjoined on the west, in the Wetwang Slack section of the quarry contained evidence of an earlier series of fenced enclosures and a sequence of round houses inside. Dating evidence pointed to occupation from the late iron age to the early third century AD. Significantly, these enclosures overlay part of the Wetwang Slack cemetery, which provides a useful terminus post quem for the fenced enclosure phase. These enclosures were also central to the distribution of a group of animal burials.

It was the second series of excavations which uncovered traces of the early settlement, in the course of examining the later stages of the occupation as represented by stone walls and mosaic floors. Unlike Wetwang or Brantingham, however, the full extent of the enclosures and their relationships was never clear, for the ditches were located only in keyhole trenches designed to cause minimal damage to overlying deposits. Stead concluded that the settlement was established before the Romans crossed the Humber (Stead 1980, 35), which he deduced from pre-conquest brooches, pottery and a small number of iron age-type artefacts. A series of ring or penannular ditches or slots were associated with this early phase and have been interpreted as circular buildings (see below and Stead 1980, fig.13). The ditches, including some more than 3m deep, had all been levelled by the early third century, and Stead identified them as part of a drove-way settlement and included a photograph of such a settlement at Butterwick (Stead 1980, pl.V).

A single rectangular ditched enclosure to the north-west of this group had been fenced or palisaded in its first phase, and contained a round house and two post squares of a type which occurred elsewhere in the quarried area associated with round houses. To the west of this feature, beyond a linear ditch system which crossed the valley at this point a group of enclosures survived as slots, and elongated pits.

Langton (SE 815 676) The villa at Langton was excavated by Corder in 1929-31 on a scale and to a standard of recording which were exceptional for the time

Sewerby (TA 214 692) 124 124

APPENDICES millennium BC. This built on the work of Stoertz and was carried out on a number of sites which she had identified. The results of this programme were published subsequent to this entry (Rigby 2004) but I am indebted to I M Stead and V Rigby for advanced information about their work ahead of that publication.

An archaeological assessment ahead of a proposed golf course at Sewerby included some trial trenching of areas in an area of clay subsoil where geophysical survey had indicated that linked rectilinear enclosures with associated circular anomalies existed. Work was carried out by Humberside Archaeological Unit in 1990 (Steedman 1991). The most detailed information was obtained from Area E, which was situated on the cliffs overlooking Bridlington Bay and consisted of several conjoined enclosures, none of which exceeded c.0.3 ha in area. The most substantial ditches suggested by geophysical survey belonged to two enclosures of each little more than 50m square and sharing a common boundary, and when sectioned these proved to be no more than 1.5m deep. Circular anomalies occurred in both and the largest, c.14m in diameter, was partly trenched to reveal remains of three successive circular buildings (see below). The pottery obtained from these enclosures was entirely iron age in character.

East Site, Burton Agnes (TA 104 653) At least 455 maculae covering about 12 ha (TA 10 65 (J)) are only partly associated with rectilinear enclosures, trackways and boundaries. Geophysical survey and sample excavation looked at elements in this complex. In 1988 five pits were excavated and this was followed by four more pits and part of an enclosure ditch in 1989. The pits contained pottery and associated artefacts of bone, shale (bracelets), iron (ring-headed pin), and worked chalk characteristic of the first half of the 1st millennium BC; the ditch contained Romano-British pottery. A further four pits were excavated in 1992, and evidence pointed to a similar date to the others.

Welton Wold (SE 971 281) At Welton Wold R W Mackey carried out a thorough excavation on a Roman-British farm, which had developed in the later first century on a site which was previously occupied only by a sub-rectangular iron age ditched enclosure. In its early stages the farm was a villa with a rectangular stone building, well and an adjacent roundhouse, but in its later stages the house was not used and there were a large number of kilns on the site, apparently for grain drying or similar purpose. A central feature was a ditched drove-way along each side of which were ditched enclosures (information from R. Mackey).

West Site, Burton Agnes (TA 090 652) A concentration of pits covers about 10 ha to the south of Tuft Hill Farm. Four were excavated in this group by C N and E G Grantham in 1965 and 1966 and produced pottery and artefacts (ring-headed pin, penannular brooch) published by Challis and Harding (1975, figs. 24-26) and Stead (1971, 36-39). Six pits were excavated in 1988 and contained pottery and artefacts from late bronze age to Roman in date, but predominantly 1st millennium BC. In 1992 twenty-five features were excavated in five different areas of the site, nineteen of which proved to contain rubbish. Three pits had been sealed under a Romano-British metalled road known also from aerial photographs. Other Roman features were found with 2nd century AD pottery.

Wharram Percy Project (SE 857 645) In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the main concern of the long-running Wharram Percy Project was the excavation of the deserted medieval village of that name (Hurst 1984). The discovery in later years of an increasingly complex prehistoric and Roman background to the settlement, which may have included villa buildings (Rahtz 1988), led to the extension of the project to include examination of other neighbouring sites. Many of these sites were rectilinear enclosures of the sort under discussion. Several were surveyed using a magnetometer, and in addition to Wharram Percy itself, four were examined by small scale sampling excavations (Hayfield 1987). These sites were field walked, and many of them yielded pottery evidence for their date. Table 10 summarizes the dating evidence from these sites, which are listed by their published numbers and names.

Pit Site, Burton Agnes (TA 099 642) An enclosure recorded by Pacitto (but not Stoertz) in 1989 was surveyed and three internal pits excavated that same year; the enclosure ditch was also sectioned and proved to be Roman. Further work in 1990 examined more pits. Worked bone, antler and shale objects were found with pottery of late 2nd/early 1st millennium BC.

West Field, Kilham (TA 019 646) Scattered pits associated with a pattern of linear boundaries in the vicinity of square barrows and rectangular enclosures were sampled in 1988. Three pits were excavated, of which two contained iron age pottery, and worked bone (weaving comb, pin). Two ditches, part of a drove way settlement, were sectioned and found to be Roman.

Excavations at such sites as Wharram Percy show that rectilinear enclosures were also used in the medieval period, and surviving clusters of such enclosures in East Yorkshire have long been associated with historic names of deserted villages, for example at Old Arras and Rise (Loughlin and Miller 1979, Pls. 1 and 2).

Hanging Cliff, Kilham (TA 022 655)

The above examples provide a strong indication that rectangular ditched enclosures were a common phenomenon by the end of the iron age, and were much used in the Romano-British period. Regulation of land by use of straight boundaries continued to the present day, but in the medieval period and since this activity was largely confined to settlements which have continued in use, or were abandoned sufficiently late for their names to have survived.

Nine pits and one ditch associated with a circular enclosure 30m in diameter, linear earthworks and enclosures were excavated in 1989. Further pits were excavated in 1990. A range of 1st millennium BC pottery types was associated with objects of copper alloy, iron (three ring-headed pins and a penannular brooch), and worked bone. One pit contained the skeletons of two calves.

Tuft Hill, Kilham (TA 090 654)

4.5.3 Pit sites:(Class 5c)

Magnetometer survey by A L Pacitto in 1991 examined a series of four rectangular enclosures, three of which were double ditched with

A programme of geophysical survey and sample excavation was carried out by I M Stead and V Rigby to study the pottery of the 1st

125 125

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE internal circular, or penannular enclosures; surface finds reinforced a domestic interpretation.

Graeme Guilbert discussed the division of round house types into single ring and double ring forms (Guilbert 1981a) and I have followed him in classifying examples from East Yorkshire, as discussed in 3.2 and listed below.

Wold House Farm, Driffield Wold, Nafferton (TA 011 615)

Types:

Two pits apparently inside rectilinear enclosures were excavated in 1988. These enclosures were part of a series which adjoin the north and south sides of a large curvilinear ditched enclosure of c.2ha. Between them the pits contained pieces of worked bone (needle, bone points) and chalk (weight, spindle whorl), copper alloy (penannular brooch and fragments) and fired clay mould fragments.

1. Double-ring round houses with: (a) "porch" posts and internal ring; (b) wall gully with terminal post holes; (c) wall gully without terminal post holes; (d) wall gully with "porches; (e) wall gully with integral post holes;

Low Cowlam, Cottam (SE 968 648)

2. Single-ring round houses with: (a) ring of posts only; (b) wall gully with terminal post holes; (c) wall gully without terminal post holes; (d) wall gully with "porch"; (e) wall gully with integral post holes; (f) external drainage gully; (g) clay wall;

One pit associated with a series of rectilinear enclosures was excavated in 1988 and contained 4th century AD pottery, coins and a brooch.

Field House, Tibthorpe (SE 931 549) Three pits were selected from a larger scatter for sampling in 1988 and contained pottery, iron smelting evidence and worked bone of late iron age and Roman date.

3. Semi-circular gullies (a) with terminal post holes; (b) without terminal post holes.

North Dalton (SE 928 524)

4. Post squares.

A drove way settlement of rectilinear enclosures included some with pits, and a concentration of pits apparently outside the enclosures. Five pits and a Roman ditch were excavated in 1988; of two pits which contained 1st millennium BC pottery one contained worked bone, and the other bone points, fired clay and worked jet and chalk.

Site, structure Type Size (metres) Garton Slack (Brewster 1981, Dent 1983a) GS 3a, House 1 1d 6.8 x 6.4 GS 5, Segmented semi-circular ? 6.7 slot GS 5, Semi-circular slot 1 1b 9.4 GS 5, House slot 2b 6.5 GS 7, House 1 2b 11.0 GS 7, House 2 2b 8.7 x 8.3 GS 7, Pre-barrow house ? 6.8 x 7.0 GS 7, Pre-barrow Mortuary 2c 6.7 enclosure GS 7, Mortuary house 2b 6.0 GS 8, Semi-circular slot 2b 7.3 GS 8, Slot 2b 7.5 GS 8b, House? 2c 7.0 GS 8, Post square 4 2.3 x 3.1 GS 9, Outer slot ? 9.7 GS 9, Semi-circular slot ? 5.6 GS 9, House 1a 1e 8.5 GS 9, House 1b 1e 9.0 GS 9, Pit group 4, slot ? 8.5 GS 10, House 1 1b 7.6 GS 11, Mortuary house 1b 8.1 x 7.8 GS 11, Circular pit and stain 1b 11.0 enclosure GS 13, House 1 2b 9.0 x 8.9 GS 13, House 2 2c 10 GS 14, House 1 1b 8.0 GS 14, House 2 ? 10.2 x 9.9 GS 14, Post square 4 3.5 x 3.4 GS 15, Mortuary house? 2b 7.8 x 7.3 GS 17, House 1 2b 8.1

North Wood, Rudston (TA 110 686) Two pits on the margins of a wide scatter of such features covering several hectares were excavated in 1989. They contained pottery of the 2nd millennium BC.

Denby, Rudston (TA 075 682) In 1989 two pits, a "quarry" and part of a ditch were excavated close to a small rectangular enclosure which adjoins the southern ditch of Rudston Cursus "C". The "quarry" contained an iron ring-headed pin, part of another, worked bone and a chalk disc, along with 1st millennium BC pottery. The other pits contained iron age pottery and worked bone and antler.

Rudston House, Rudston (TA 093 672) A rectilinear enclosure was surveyed and trial trenched in 1990, as its position close to three springs and its isolation suggested it could be a "sanctuary" site. 1st century AD pottery from the enclosing ditch and a central circular anomaly consisting of three concentric circular trenches suggested that the site was a farmstead.

4.5.4 Round houses, semi-circular structures and post squares (Classes 2d and 4c) 126 126

APPENDICES Site, structure Type Size (metres) Site, structure GS 18, House 1 1b 9.4 x 9.0 B7:11 Roundhouse GS 18, House 2 ? 8.9 x 8.4 B7:12 Roundhouse GS 18, House complex 3, no.1 1b 8.6 x 7.2 B7:13 Roundhouse GS 18, House complex 3, no 2 ? 8.4 x 8.2 B8: 14 Post square GS 18, House complex 3, no 3 2b 8.6 x 8.2 B8: 15 Post square GS 18, Post square 4 2.5 x 2.5 B8: 2 Roundhouse GS 19, Gravel stain circle ? 9.7 x 9.6 B8: 3 Post square GS 19, House 1 2c 7.6 x 9.2 B8: 4a Roundhouse GS 19, Semi-circular enclosure 3a 5.7 B8: 4b Roundhouse B8: 5 Possibly two post 1 GS 19, Semi-circular enclosure 3a 7.3 squares B8: 7 Curved slot 2 GS 19, Semi-circular enclosure 3b B9: 1 Post square B9: 2 Roundhouse or post pair 3 GS 19, House 2 2b 7.7 x 7.2 B9: 3 Curved slot GS 19, Post square 4 B9: 4a Roundhouse GS 24, Pit group 1 1a 6.5 B9: 4b Roundhouse GS 25, House 1 1b 9.0 x 8.6 B9: 5a Roundhouse GS 25, House 2 2b 8.0 B9: 5b Roundhouse GS 25, Post square 4 2.3 x 2.4 B9: 6 Roundhouse GS 26, Post square 1 4 B9: 7 Post square GS 26, Post square 2 4 B9: 8 Post square GS 27, House 1 2b 12.2 B10: 1 Curved slot GS 28, Circular slotted 2b/2c B11: 1 Roundhouse B11: 2 Post square enclosure ?GS 29, House 1 ? 7.9 x 8.2 B11: 3 Roundhouse GS 29, House 2 1b 7.2 x 6.9 B12: 1a Roundhouse GS 29, Post square "1" 4 B12: 1b Roundhouse GS 29, Post square "2" 4 B12: 2 Roundhouse GS 29, Post square "3" 4 B12: 3 Roundhouse GS 30, Mortuary house 1 2b 7.5 B12: 4a Roundhouse GS 30, Mortuary house 2 2d 9.5 B12: 4b Roundhouse GS 30, Post square 4 3.0 x 2.5 B12:5 Post square BG 33: 1 Roundhouse ? 6.0 B12: 6 Roundhouse B12: 7 Roundhouse Wetwang Slack (Brewster 1981; Dent 1982, 1983a) B12: 8 Roundhouse WS 1, House 1 ? no indication B12: 9 Post pair WS 1, House 2 1a no indication B13: 1 Post square WS 1, House 3 ? no indication B13: 2 Post square WS 3, Small silo 1 2a 8-9 B13: 3 Post square WS 3, House 1 1b 9.1 x 8.9 B13: 4 Post square B6: 1 Roundhouse 2c 9.5 B13: 5 Post square B6: 2a Roundhouse 1b 8.0 B13: 6 Post square B6: 2b Roundhouse ? 9.0 B13: 7 Roundhouse B6: 3 Roundhouse 1b 9.4 B13: 8 Roundhouse B6: 4 Roundhouse 1b 8.3 B13: 9 Post square B6: 6 Roundhouse 1b 8.8 B13: 10 Post square B6: 7 Curved slot ? 7.7 B13: 11 Post square B6:10 Roundhouse 1b 7.5 B13: 12 Post square B6:11 Curved slot ? c.8-9 B13: 13 Post square B6:12 Roundhouse 2b 9.3 B13: 14 Roundhouse B6:13 Roundhouse 1c 11.5 B13: 15 Roundhouse B7: 1 Curved slot ? 8.0 B13: 16 Roundhouse B7: 3 Roundhouse 2b 10.0 B13: 17a Roundhouse B7: 4 Roundhouse 2e 11.0 B13: 17b Roundhouse B7: 5 Curved slot 6 7.2 B14:1 Post square B7: 6 Roundhouse 2e 8.0 B14:2 Post square B7: 7 Roundhouse 2e 8.6 B14:3 Post square B7: 8 Roundhouse 2b 7.0 B7:10 Curved slot ? 4.8 127 127

Type 2b 1b 1b 4 4 2b 4 2b 1b 4?

Size (metres) 8.2 6.9 9.0 2.4 x 2.4 2.1 x 1.8 6.7 2.4 x 2.8 8.6 11.0

2b 4 ? ? 2b 2b 1b 1b 1b 4 4 ? 2e 4 2e 2b 2f 1b 2a 1b 1a 4 1b 1b 1b ? 4 4 4 4 4 4 2b 2b 4 4 4 4 4 1b 1b 2b 1b 1b 4 4 4

2.4 x 2.5 7-10. 8.8 7.5 9.0 7.5 1.7 x 2.3 2.0 x 2.6 7.0 8.7 2.8 x 2.3 9.0 7.0 9.5 7.5 9.6 10.5 11.5 2.3 x 2.4 12.8 7.0 9-10 2.6 x 2.6 2.4 x 2.6 2.4 x 2.5 2.5 x 2.5 3.0 x 3.2 2.8 x 3.2 4.3 6.0 2.0 x 2.2 3.0 x 3.5 2.2 x 2.5 2.5 x 2.5 1.8 x 1.9 6.8 11.6 7.0 9.0 9.4 2.5 x 2.5 2.0 x 2.1 2.5 x 2.8

Site, structure Type North Cave (Dent et al. forthcoming) S:1a Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:1b Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:1c Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:2a Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:2b Roundhouse wall slot 2c S:3a Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:3b Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:4a Roundhouse wall slot 2c S:4b Roundhouse wall slot 2c S:4c Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:4d Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:6 Roundhouse drainage ditch 2f S:7 Roundhouse wall slot 2c S:8 Roundhouse drainage ditch 2f S:9 Roundhouse drainage ditch 2f S:10 Roundhouse wall slot 2b S:94 Roundhouse wall slot ? S:190 Roundhouse wall slot 2c S:362 Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:500a Roundhouse drainage 2f ditch S:500b Roundhouse wall slot ? Staple Howe (Brewster 1963) Hut I: Roundhouse 1a Hut II (Dent's interpretation) 1a Hut III: Roundhouse ? Granary: post square 4 West Heslerton (Powlesland 1986) Structure 1 : Roundhouse 1a (writer's interpretation) Structure 2: Roundhouse 1a Structure 3: Roundhouse ? Structure 4: Roundhouse ? Structure 5: Roundhouse ? Structure 6: Roundhouse 1a Structure 8: post square 4 Structure 9: post square 4 Structure 10: post square 4 Structure 11: post square 4 Structure 12: post square 4 Structure 13: post square 4 Structure 14: post square 4 Structure 15: post square 4 Caythorpe (Abramson 1996) Roundhouse 1170 1a Roundhouse 1050 1a Roundhouse 1060 1a

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Size (metres) Site, structure Type Size (metres) Thwing (Manby 1987) 14.0 Ist circular structure: post ring 1a 17.0 1st circular structure: door posts 1a 20.5 14.7 2nd circular structure: post ring 1a 16.0 2nd circular structure: slot 1b 25.0 18.75 Rudston villa (Stead 1980; writer's numbers) East site, Roundhouse 27 2 5.0 12.5 East site, Roundhouse 60 2c 9.0 East site, Roundhouse 51 2 6.3 8.6 East site, Roundhouse 50 ? 5.9 12.4 East site, Roundhouse 35 2 7.1 East site, Roundhouse 14 2c 7.1 12.0 East site, Roundhouse 3 ? 6.5 East site, Roundhouse 2 2 7.5 7.4 Building 7, Roundhouse 3/4 2 7.7 8.3 Sewerby (Steadman 1991) 10.6 Building 1: Roundhouse 2f 5.9 Building 2: Roundhouse 2f 10.8 10.9 Building 3: Roundhouse 2f 14.5 Grimthorpe (Stead 1968) 9.8 eight post squares 6.4 10.3 9.8 9.1 9.5 7.5 10.4 9.6 8.2 11.0 7.5 2.5 x 2.5 10.0 7.5 7.5 x 8.0 6.9 7.0 3 x 3.5 2x1 2 x 2.5 2x2 2x2 2x2 2x2 1.2 x 2.2 4.5 7.25 8

128 128

APPENDICES

4.6

Danes Graves, Kilham and Nafferton

Iron age burials (figs. 27, 59-66)

(TA 018 633); a dense cemetery of surviving mounds exists in a wood, where Mortimer, Greenwell and others excavated at least 106 burials, mostly type A, but including types C (a chariot burial) and D. Brooches include flat bow types (Stead 1979; Dent 1984c). More than two hundred barrows are known outside the wood and cover an area c.500m by c.300m.

The following list of sites is based heavily upon that published by Stead (1979), with additions.

Acklam Wold, Acklam (SE 792 612); single type A burial with bent sword and no enclosing ditch excavated by writer following discovery by Royal Engineers (Dent 1982c).

Kirkburn Two cemeteries were excavated in this parish, the more westerly adjacent to the Garton Station cemetery (q.v.).

Arras, Market Weighton and Sancton (SE 930 413); cemetery of up to 100 barrows, containing type A and C burials, including 3 chariot burials, but many grave goods lost since 1815-17 excavations (Stead 1979).

(SE 984 574); Site 1. A scatter of 8 barrows included A and C burials (including one chariot burial and one with weapons; Stead 1991a). (SE 980 577); Site 2. A square enclosure, with two burials of horses in small circular barrows outside, occupy part of a neolithic long enclosure (q.v. Stead 1991a).

Blealands Nook, Wetwang (SE 820 597); cemetery of 12 burials, mostly type A, but possibly with type D, found in a drove road settlement by Mortimer (fig. 110; Mortimer 1905, 194-98).

(TA 007 564); Eastburn. About 50 burials were hurriedly excavated before World War II. Type A burials were found with involuted brooches (Stead 1979).

Boythorpe, Foxholes Garton Slack, Garton on the Wolds (TA 002 725); a cemetery of at least 60 barrows, most of which are grouped in a close linear formation along a ditched trackway. A type A burial was excavated here (Lang 1986).

(SE 957 596) to (SE 953 603); gravel quarrying led to excavation of up to barrows or burials, including types A, C (including a chariot burial) and D (Brewster 1981; Dent 1983a).

Bugthorpe Garton Station, Garton on the Wolds (SE 773 580); grave with weapons found in or before 1860 (Stead 1979).

(SE 982 578); a dense cemetery, containing barrows without surviving graves, and others of which 10 burials were excavated. These were type A and C burials and included one chariot burial and four with weapons. Four enclosures had western entrances and may not have been barrows (Stead 1991a).

Burton Fleming Excavations by Stead in 1972 and 1978 examined two cemeteries as part of a larger project with burials in Rudston Parish (Stead 1991a):

Grimthorpe, Millington

(TA 094 703); opposite Argam Lane. All 22 type A burials were excavated in a small linear barrow cemetery. Brooches included flat bow and involuted forms.

(SE 816 535); four skeletons found in a quarry on the site of Grimthorpe hill fort (q.v.) included one with weapons (Stead 1968).

(TA 106 715); Bell Slack. Part of a numerically large, though compact cemetery of barrows beside a drove road was excavated. Burials were type A, except for 5 type D and 2 type B. RomanoBritish ditches of a drove road settlement cut across many barrows. The richest burial contained a 5th century type Marzabotto brooch, and involuted brooches were also found.

Huntow, Grindale (TA 155 703); barrow with possible type B burial with flat bow and penannular brooches (Stead 1979; Manby 1980a).

Hunmanby

Caythorpe

(TA 101 767); chariot burial (type C) found in quarry (Stead 1979).

(TA 122 676); part of a small group of barrows excavated on the course of a gas pipe line. A type A burial with an involuted brooch, a type D secondary, and a type B burial (Abramson, 1996).

Middleton on the Wolds c. (SE 933 482); chariot burial (type C) destroyed by railway cutting (Stead 1978).

Cowlam, Cottam

(SE 923 493); a cemetery of c.85 barrows; not excavated.

(SE 984 668); type A burials excavated in a loosely grouped cemetery of seven barrows by Greenwell (1877, 208-13) and Stead (1986). One grave group included a Marzabotto type brooch.

(SE 943 515); a cemetery of c.45 barrows; not excavated.

129 129

North Grimston

IRON AGE IN EAST YORKSHIRE Scorborough (TA 017 453); at least 120 barrows; only six barrows excavated (type A burials; Stead 1975).

(SE 834 668); extended burial with weapons found 1902 (Mortimer 1905; Stead 1979).

Thorpe Hall, Rudston

Potter Brompton

(TA 108 676); sword found with bones (Stead 1979).

(SE 978 768); three north-south graves excavated in a group of at least 7 barrows with shared ditches, part of a cemetery which extends along a north-south earthwork or trackway. No bones survived in the graves, and no grave goods (Johnson 1993).

Westwood, Beverley (TA 020 390); group of at least 10 upstanding barrows, some with visibly square ditches. One type C burial with chariot, another type A found by Greenwell 1875 (Greenwell 1877, 456).

Rudston Groups of burials examined as part of a project with others in Burton Fleming parish (q.v. Stead 1991a).

Wetwang Slack, Wetwang

(TA 096 692) – (TA 095 699); Makeshift, large and extended linear cemetery of 189 burials. Some 122 type A burials contained penannular, arched, flat and involuted bow brooches. Some 54 type B burials included ten with swords, and one with a late La Tène brooch.

(SE 946 601); compact cemetery of 446 burials extended for 400m alongside linear earthworks. Burials were type A (238 barrows) with remainder type D. Brooches included arched, flat and involuted bow forms, as well as coral inlaid, penannular and "S" brooches (Dent 1982, 1984).

(TA 096 702); 19 type A burials, half of which cluster closely along a series of earthworks. Brooch types were involuted.

(SE 941 599); compact group of at least eight barrows may belong to a larger group. Three contained type C burials with chariots (two with early La Tène swords and scabbards), another with an involuted brooch (Dent 1985).

130 130

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