Cladh Hallan : roundhouses and the dead in the Hebridean Bronze Age and Iron Age. Part I, Stratigraghy, spatial organisation and chronology / Mike Parker Pearson [and three others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parker Pearson, Michael, 1957- author. .

Series:

Sheffield Environmental and Archaeological Research Campaign in the Hebrides (Series) ; v. 8.

Sheffield Environmental and Archaeological Research Campaign in the Hebrides series ; v. 8

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Antiquities, Prehistoric--Scotland--South Uist.

Antiquities, Prehistoric.

Excavations (Archaeology)--Scotland--South Uist.

Excavations (Archaeology).

South Uist (Scotland)--Antiquities.

South Uist (Scotland).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 551 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxbow Books, Limited, 2021.

Summary:

This first of two volumes presents the archaeological evidence of a long sequence of settlement and funerary activity from the Beaker period (Early Bronze Age c. 2000 BC) to the Early Iron Age (c. 500 BC) at the unusually long-occupied site of Cladh Hallan on South Uist in the Western Isles of Scotland. Particular highlights of its sequence are a cremation burial ground and pyre site of the 18th-16th centuries BC and a row of three Late Bronze Age sunken-floored roundhouses constructed in the 10th century BC. Beneath these roundhouses, four inhumation graves contained skeletons, two of which were remains of composite collections of body parts with evidence for post-mortem soft tissue preservation prior to burial. They have proved to be the first evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain. Cladh Hallan's remarkable stratigraphic sequence, preserved in the machair sand of South Uist, includes a unique 500-year sequence of roundhouse life in Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Britain. One of the most important results of the excavation has come from intensive environmental and micro-debris sampling of house floors and outdoor areas to recover patterns of discard and to interpret the spatial use of 15 domestic interiors from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age. From Cladh Hallan's roundhouse floors we gain intimate insights into how daily life was organized within the house - where people cooked, ate, worked and slept. Such evidence rarely survives from prehistoric houses in Britain or Europe, and the results make a profound contribution to long-running debates about the sunwise organisation of roundhouse activities. Activity at Cladh Hallan ended with the construction and abandonment of two unusual double-roundhouses in the Early Iron Age. One appears to have been a smokery and steam room, and the other was used for metalworking.

Contents:

Cover

Book Title

Copyright

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Contributors

Acknowledgements

1 The Cladh Hallan excavations and their context: M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith

1.1 The site of Cladh Hallan and its environs

1.2 The Bronze Age to Early Iron Agesettlement at Cladh Hallan

1.3 Previous discoveries Mr Wedderspoon visits

1.4 Survey, test excavations and trialtrenching 1988–1996

1.5 The evolving research design

1.6 The 1997–2003 excavations

2 Beaker cultivation, Cordoned Urn layers and EarlyBronze Age cremation burials (phases 1–3): M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith

2.1 Beaker-period cultivation andactivity (phase 1)

2.2 Early Bronze Age settlement remains at Cladh Hallan (phase 2)

2.3 The cremation cemetery (phase 3)

2.4 The gully or ditch under Houses 1370 and 401 (phase 3)

2.5 The cremation platform and pyre (phase 3)

2.6 Area B: the stone structure (phase 3)

2.7 Area C: a disturbed inhumation burial (phase 3)

2.8 Conclusion

3 The first houses: Late Bronze Age occupation(phases 4–7): M. Parker Pearson, P. Marshall, J. Mulville and H. Smith

3.1 The boat-shaped house (2835; phase 4) and its destruction (phase 5)

3.2 The sheep burial in the northcentralzone of Area A (phase 4)

3.3 Ard-marks, a post-built structure and an exploratory pit (phases 5–6)

3.4 The cigar-shaped structure (2477; phase 7)

3.5 The tiny roundhouse (3260; phase 7) Generated by AI.

Notes:

Description based on: online resource; title from PDF information screen (JSTOR, viewed September 10, 2022).

Part of the metadata in this record was created by AI, based on the text of the resource.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (EBook Central, viewed June 9, 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781789256949

1789256941

9781789256963

1789256968

OCLC:

1492969538