Excavations on Wether Hill, Ingram, Northumberland, 1994-2015 / Peter Topping [and fifteen others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Topping, Peter, author.

Series:

Northern archaeology ; 24

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Excavations (Archaeology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (153 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, England : Oxbow Books, [2023]

Summary:

"The Northumberland Archaeological Group's (NAG) Wether Hill project spanned the years 1994-2015 and was located on the eponymous hilltop overlooking the mouth of the Breamish Valley in the Northumberland Cheviots. The project had been inspired by the RCHME's 'Southeast Cheviots Project' that had discovered and recorded extensive prehistoric and later landscapes. The NAG project investigated several sites. Over the 11 seasons of excavation, NAG recorded evidence of residual Mesolithic activity (microliths), a burial cairn containing two Beakers in an oak coffin, which was superseded by a stone-built cist containing three Food Vessels, Iron Age cord rig cultivation and clearance cairns, a series of Middle/Late Iron Age timber-built palisaded enclosures, a cross-ridge dyke, which protected the southern approach to the Wether Hill fort, and sampled the multi-period bivallate hillfort. The hillfort sequence on Wether Hill began with a succession of palisaded enclosures, which were later replaced by bivallate earth and stone defenses; both phases appear to have been associated with timber-built houses. Eventually the fort was abandoned, and three stone-built roundhouses were constructed in the fort. The 18 radiocarbon dates obtained from various contexts in the hillfort makes this site one of the better dated forts in the Borders. The chronology of the Wether Hill fort spanned the Middle/Late Iron Age, which corresponded with dates from palisaded enclosures excavated elsewhere on the hilltop spur. Taken together, this evidence provides a snapshot of settlement hierarchies and agricultural practices during the later Iron Age in this part of the Northumberland Cheviots. The excavations also help contextualize some of the RCHME survey evidence, providing data to model chronology, potential prehistoric settlement density and land-use patterns at different time periods in the well-preserved archaeological landscapes of the Cheviots"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Author details

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Editorial

1 Introduction

2 A geoarchaeology of Wether Hill, and summary of the palaeo-environmental history Michael J. Allen

3 Area 1: the cross-ridge dyke

4 Area 2: the field system

5 Area 3: the Beaker/Food Vessel pit and palisaded enclosures

6 Area 4: the round cairn

7 Area 5: the hillfort

8 The stone implement assemblages John Davies, David Field and Peter Topping

9 The pottery assemblages Alex Gibson, Andrew Sage and Peter Topping

10 Wether Hill hillfort and its context - a discussion David McOmish

Bibliography.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781789259704

1789259703

OCLC:

1399168706