| EVIDENCE
FOR THE USE OF BIRCH-BARK TAR FROM IRON AGE BRITAIN |
Scientific analysis of material from the Iron Age chariot burial at Wetwang, East Yorkshire (see PAST 38), has identified the use of birch-bark tar as an adhesive in the harness fittings. The burial, excavated in 2001, dates to the Middle Iron Age and contained the skeleton of a mature female along with an iron mirror and dismantled chariot. The harness fittings, comprising rein rings (terrets), horse bits and strap unions, were all found in their original positions along the line of the chariot yoke. The terrets (Fig. 1) and strap unions are made of bronze and decorated with coral studs, which were probably originally pink/red. In at least one case, red glass ‘enamel’ inlay was used in place of, or to replace, a coral stud. Each coral stud (Fig. 2) is held in place with a bronze pin passing through its centre and then into a plug of dark brown/black and rather friable adhesive behind. The adhesive plug is accommodated by recesses in bosses on the fittings, so that the coral studs sit proud on the ring. In some cases the coral is in two pieces, perhaps broken when the studs were drilled or pierced for fastening with the central pin, and here the adhesive is used to join the two halves and secure them to the pin. Analysis of the adhesive by scientific staff at the British Museum using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) has revealed the presence of triterpenoid compounds (betulin, lupeol, lupanone and others) which are characteristic of birch-bark tar, as well as a few diterpenoid compounds indicative of a softwood resin or tar. Birch-bark tar is produced when the bark of Betula sp. (birch) is heated in excess of 300-400º C. Chemically-identified finds of birch-bark tar span European prehistory from the Middle Palaeolithic (Koller et al. 2001) into the Roman period (Charters et al. 1993) and beyond. It is still manufactured today in some regions. Although most common in Northern Europe, finds are widespread and use of the material has been reported as far south as Greece (Urem-Kotsou et al. 2002; see Pollard & Heron (1996) for a review of finds in prehistoric Europe).
While there is archaeological and documentary evidence for sophisticated and large scale production of birch-bark tar in the medieval period (Kurzweil & Todtenhaupt 1991), little is known of its preparation in prehistory. Methods involving heating the tar in pottery vessels have been tested (Kurzweil & Todtenhaupt 1990), but evidence for the use of birch-bark tar pre-dates the introduction of pottery by several millennia, and experiments in tar preparation without pottery vessels have not been entirely successful (Czarnowski & Neubauer 1990). Sometimes the tar is mixed with other materials, for example animal
fat (Dudd & Evershed 1999) and other plant tars (Regert et al.
1998). Rebecca Stacey
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The supervolcanic eruption of Toba 74,000 years ago was the largest eruption of the Quaternary and is hypothesized to have decimated human populations, principally those outside Africa. Although Toba is located in northern Sumatra, this eruption was of such great magnitude that it resulted in the deposition of a blanket of tephra (volcanic ash) over South Asia. Tephra deposits, up to 0.34m thick, have been found in marine cores either side of the Subcontinent as well as in a number of terrestrial localities in India, where reworked ash deposits range from 0.2m to 6m in thickness. What was the extent of the impact of this eruption on human populations in India? My doctoral thesis is addressing this question by collecting and analysing evidence from archaeological, palaeontological, palaeoenvironmental and genetic sources. Fieldwork is an essential component of this research and with the help of a grant from the John and Bryony Coles Bursary, I was able to pursue initial investigations in India in 2003. At a few of the terrestrial localities, tephra deposits are found in association with Palaeolithic artefacts. A comparison of technology before and after the eruption will enable conclusions to be made about the extent of the eruption’s impact on human populations in these localities. The principal aim of my three-month visit was to relocate some of these tephra deposits and to gain a better understanding of the relationship between Toba tephra and the Indian Palaeolithic. The first six weeks of my visit were spent in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh surveying a cave-rich area with teams from both British and Indian universities. Here, we discovered an exceptional area, rich in both volcanic ash and archaeological remains from the Lower Palaeolithic to Megalithic periods. We made the reasonable assumption, for several reasons, that the source of the tephra is the Toba supereruption of 74kyr BP, although we have yet to chemically analyse this tephra. Further work at this locality promises to elucidate the impact that this eruption had on Palaeolithic populations in this area of southern India.
After Kurnool, I travelled to the eastern state of Orissa with the aim of visiting previously documented Toba tephra sites and to search for any associated Palaeolithic remains. With the help of scholars from Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, two sites were identified in the Mahanadi river basin. However, the state of preservation of these deposits was poor, perhaps due to modern cultivation practices or recent monsoon floods. Further fieldwork was carried out in the Middle Son Valley in Madhya Pradesh. This is an area rich in both Pleistocene fossil fauna and Palaeolithic artefacts. It is important because Toba tephra deposits have been found in association with such remains. With a group of scholars from Allahabad University, we relocated a Toba tephra deposit reported in 1993 and gained an understanding of both the topography of the area and the depositional environment. Lithics from the Middle Son valley and the neighbouring Belan valley were then viewed in Allahabad University Museum. Subsequent library-based research at the Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute in Pune indicated that palaeoliths abound in most, if not all, of those river valleys where Toba tephra has been documented. As yet, however, the artefacts and tephra deposits have not been placed together in any clear stratigraphical sequence. Establishing the correct relationships between tools and tephra is essential in order to understand the impact of the Toba eruption on these Palaeolithic peoples. Future fieldwork in India will focus on this problem and on the collection of empirical data for statistical analyses. I would like to thank The Prehistoric Society for awarding me a grant from the John and Bryony Coles Bursary. This financial assistance was a significant factor behind the success of this fieldwork project. Sacha Jones,
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| RESEARCH
DAY ON MONUMENTALITY IN LATE NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE BRITAIN,
CARDIFF UNIVERSITY, 17 JANUARY 2004 |
| This short conference, organised in association with the Prehistoric Society, complemented a research day held the previous year focusing on the earlier Neolithic. Vicki Cummings, the co-organiser, together with Amelia Pannett, introduced the proceedings with an account of the excavations she has been undertaking with Chris Fowler at Cairnderry chambered tomb, Dumfriesshire. Their search for Neolithic monumentality, or at least a date for the tomb, revealed a number of Early Bronze Age cremations together with a stone battleaxe! This provided a useful opening contrast, it would seem, between the architecturally elaborate and public performances of the Neolithic and the restrictive, small-scale depositional displays of the Early Bronze Age. The limited geographical focus of many of the papers did not prevent more general themes being addressed. How, for instance, were monuments created? In some cases this appears to have been an accumulative process, whereby the final form emerged through repeated installations that respected existing physical and conceptual structures, without adhering to a ’blueprint’. So argued Colin Richards in one of the early papers, and his viewpoint certainly found support in the excavations at Battle Moss stone row, Caithness, reported on by Amelia Pannett, Andrew Baines and Kenneth Brophy. The stones appear to have been erected incrementally, each one subtly referencing, through its alignment, an existing monument in the surrounding landscape. Richard Bradley, on the other hand, argued convincingly that the initial phases of the construction of the Tomnaverie recumbent stone circle anticipated the later form that the monument would take, specifically the position of the recumbent on the south-western edge of the cairn. Unravelling the architectural complexities of monuments was important in Martyn Barber’s account of some recent results from English Heritage’s National Mapping Programme, particularly at the West Kennet palisade enclosures near Avebury. Cole Henley explored how an apparently unique monument, Callanish on the Isle of Lewis, combined allusions to a variety of geographically disparate architectural forms. Most notably, its cruciform shape reflected the layout of the chambers in the major passage tombs of Brú na Bóinne. Adrian Chadwick, Paul Huckfield and Joshua Pollard interlaced video, poetic and archaeological narratives as they explored the monumental and the everyday in the landscape of Gray Hill, Monmouthshire, where the cairn, which is the current focus of the excavations, ’came into being’ as subsequent generations reworked its structure. The distinction between a later Neolithic of large communal monuments and an Early Bronze Age where sites had a local and more individual focus was both supported and challenged. Peter Rodgers and Aaron Watson’s fieldwork in the Lakeland Fells has revealed a monumental miscellany, including platform cairns, ring banks, and enclosed outcrops. The small-scale and restricted landscape of these features parallels the pattern identified in other upland regions such as the Peak District and North Wales. The burial of the ’Amesbury Archer’, recounted by Andrew Fitzpatrick, told of another side to Early Bronze Age monumentality: a burial of a central European metalworker associated with a remarkably rich array of objects – the ’king of Stonehenge’? There were challenges to these orthodoxies. Colin Richards sought evidence of status-seeking individuals in the construction events at Late Neolithic monuments such as the Stones of Stenness. Using recent sociological theories of ‘risk’, he argued that those who organised the procurement, movement and erection of a stone did so at risk of failure; taking on and living through such risks was therefore an important means of establishing and maintaining social status. Frances Healy, in turn, took an enduring symbol of individual status and power in the Early Bronze Age, the round barrow, and argued that these may have operated as important arenas for communal performances: at Raunds, barrow 1 included 200 cattle skulls of which 35 were killed at the event of its construction; if consumed, these would have fed 1000 people for a week. Overall, this was an interesting and stimulating day and the organisers and speakers are to be thanked for their hard work and the excellent quality of the papers. Final comment is reserved in support of the fine range of biscuits and cakes offered with coffee and the, hopefully to be repeated, performance of passing the leftovers amongst the audience during the last paper of the day. Robert Johnston
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| Society
News |
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The 13th Europa Prize was awarded to Professor Leendert Louwe-Kooijmans of Leiden University following the AGM on 19 May (Fig. 1). His lecture on The Adoption of Farming in North-western Europe as seen from the Dutch Delta was rather poorly attended for a Europa Lecture but thoroughly enjoyed by all present. Drawing on the results of recent large-scale excavations on the route of a new national rail-line – the first ’commercial’ archaeology undertaken in the Netherlands – Professor Louwe-Kooijmans presented a wide-ranging, superbly argued and wittily presented discussion on chronology and cultural developments at the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition and beyond. Sadly, Lady Clark feels unable to attend in person any longer so the award was presented by our President, Graeme Barker. The Bagueley Award for 2003 was presented to Chantal Conneller and Tim Schadla-Hall for their paper in PPS 69, Beyond Star Carr: the Vale of Pickering in the 10th Millennium BP (Fig. 2). A special award of an engraved rose-bowl was presented to our Honorary Indexer, Bridget Trump, who has completed 35 years of unsung heroism preparing annual indexes for the Proceedings (Fig. 3).
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| PHOTOGRAPHIC
ARCHIVE APPEAL – OR – DID YOU REALLY HAVE THAT BEARD? |
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Long-standing members will remember that, in the late 1980s, Lesley Wynne-Davis, in her role of Hon. Archivist, built up several albums, using prints provided by members from study tours. This record, now held by John Cruse, starts with the 1960 Netherlands trip and continues through into the1990s, when the collection was discontinued. As a sampler of its contents, Fig. 1, from the 1977 Malta tour, shows Dr Ian Kinnes and Prof John Evans discussing a mortar at Kordin, whilst Fig. 2, from the 1988 Aberdeen trip led by Prof Thurstan Shaw, shows the whole party at Tomnaverie Recumbent Stone Circle – with our then Meetings Secretary, Andrew Lawson, being particularly recumbent and our PR Officer, Alan Hill, in eye- catching shorts!
With digital photography increasingly replacing
’old fashioned’ prints and slides, it is likely that members
will periodically contemplate ’thinning-out’ their photo
collections, raising the prospect of such memories being lost. Can I
therefore take this opportunity to ask anybody with any surplus photos
of the Society’s past activities to contact me on j.cruse@btopenworld.com
(or by mail via Tessa) and I’ll do my best to ensure that such
memorable images continue to be added to our archive?
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| Bronze Age Forum The fourth Bronze Age Forum will be held at the University of Southampton on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th November 2004 and is open to anyone with an interest in the Bronze Age archaeology of Britain and Ireland. The meeting will be organised into a series of thematic sessions in which speakers will discuss recent research and discoveries. For full programme details, as well as information regarding enrolment and suggested accommodation please visit our website: www.soton.ac.uk/~baforum1/. Registration fees are £23 waged or £17 student/unwaged and include all conference materials, refreshments and buffet lunch on both days. There will be a wine reception on Saturday evening. Please note that there are a limited number of places available and you are advised to book early to avoid disappointment. Should you require any further information please contact us at baforum1@soton.ac.uk.
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