Bronze Age Lives by Anthony Harding

Author:Anthony Harding [Harding, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783110705706
Google: VubWzQEACAAJ
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Published: 2021-01-15T22:21:19+00:00

The life of a house

This brings us to a consideration in general terms of the life of a Bronze Age house. Are there any common features we can identify? Can we suppose that particular forms of building material, building style, internal features, intentional depositions, or artefact distribution have a significance that we can readily detect and interpret? Or should we just stick to so-called common sense approaches, and say that big buildings mean more people, elaborate fittings or special construction techniques are a sign of high status, and the richness (or otherwise) of artefacts found in houses are a direct reflection of those who used them and discarded them? Here I return to the work of Fokke Gerritsen, and illustrate his diagram of the life cycle or biography of a house (Gerritsen 2003, 40 Fig. 3.1) (Fig. 4.14). Starting at the top, the location is chosen, the site is prepared, and construction begins – note that this is reflected, in Gerritsen’s view, by the formation of the household, in other words breeding partnerships and the birth of children. Then the family expands and so does the house; repairs are needed to keep it in good order. As the children grow up, they start to leave and the family contracts; so does the house, or rather it ceases to be maintained, and eventually has to be abandoned. After that, the location might remain special, for storage, or feasting in honour of the previous, now dead, occupants; and then the cycle starts all over again. Obviously much of this reflects modern, or least historical, experience, and is only a guide to the possibilities that house-building represents. But we can recognise in it aspects that accord with our notions of the sequence of building and replacement on many archaeological sites, even those from historical periods. Gerritsen is at pains to point out, however, that at the site level, not everything changed so dramatically; in this example the houses are renewed, but the settlement essentially remains stable.

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