Warfare in Northern Europe Before the Romans: Evidence from Archaeology by Julie Wileman

Author:Julie Wileman [Julie Wileman]
Language: eng
Format: epub

The Middle Thames Valley – a case study

Discussion of many of these sites, and those in Europe, centres around the way in which they are arranged across the landscape, suggesting that territories had been formed and the landscape divided up among the builders of these forts and settlements. This territoriality can be traced in a number of case studies; one in particular looks at the Middle Thames Valley. Work on tracing the field systems of the area seems to show that the farmed land occurred in relatively discrete blocks; this region is particularly rich in depositions of Late Bronze Age metalwork, particularly in the river itself, and has been the subject of a large number of important excavations, as well as the source of many more isolated finds of artefacts. Large-scale gravel extraction, and a great deal of new building works for industry, housing and Heathrow Airport, have given archaeologists the opportunity to investigate many sites, and it is possible now to stand back a little and look at the larger picture that a combination of these researches is beginning to give.

What emerges is that whilst there were no large single towns or villages at this time, there are several agglomerations of smaller settlements which are sited very close to each other – around the confluence of the Thames and Kennet rivers near Reading, around Windsor and eton, and around Heathrow and Staines (Figure 16). Some of these farmsteads were sited less than half a kilometre from each other. Other examples can be discerned in the Lower Thames area as well, for example around Mucking in Esscx. Middle Bronze Age settlements and cemeteries have been found on the upper river terraces, especially to the south and west of the valley, but these were apparently abandoned in favour of a move into the valley bottom in the Late Bronze Age.

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