How were the dead remembered in early medieval Britain? Originally published in 2006, this innovative study demonstrates how perceptions of the past and the dead, and hence social identities, were constructed through mortuary practices and commemoration between c. 400–1100 AD. Drawing on archaeological evidence from across Britain, including archaeological discoveries, Howard Williams presents a fresh interpretation of the significance of portable artefacts, the body, structures, monuments and landscapes in early medieval mortuary practices. He argues that materials and spaces were used in ritual performances that served as 'technologies of remembrance', practices that created shared 'social' memories intended to link past, present and future. Through the deployment of material culture, early medieval societies were therefore selectively remembering and forgetting their ancestors and their history. Throwing light on an important aspect of medieval society, this book is essential reading for archaeologists and historians with an interest in the early medieval period.

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Death and Memory in Early Medieval Britain

Excavations between November 1990 and February 1992 have produced important information on the date and development of the Sarn-y-bryn-caled cursus complex between 3000–2000 BC. In particular a timber circle of 2000 BC, two penannular ring-ditches and a section across the cursus monument were excavated. A radiocarbon sequence has been obtained. The results of the excavations are described in Part I. Part II comprises a discussion of the forms, dates, functions, and reconstruction of timber circles. A corpus of and chronology for timber circles is presented.

Excavations at the Sarn-y-bryn-caled cursus complex, Welshpool, Powys, and the timber circles of Great Britain and Ireland.

Lead isotope analyses of 50 Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age gold artefacts favour a gold source in southern Ireland. However when combined with major element analysis, the artefacts are not consistent with any Irish gold deposit analysed to date. Understanding the lead isotope signatures of ore deposits within a study region allows informed inferences to be drawn regarding the likelihood that an unanalysed ore deposit was exploited in the past. If an Irish gold source is assumed, then the gold is most likely to have originated from deposits hosted by Old Red Sandstone in the Variscan ore field of south-west Ireland. However, based on our current understanding of mineralisation in the region, this scenario is considered unlikely. A non-Irish source for the gold is therefore preferred – a scenario that may favour cosmologically-driven acquisition, ie, the deliberate procurement of a material from distant or esoteric sources. Available geochemical data, combined with current archaeological evidence, favour the alluvial deposits of south-west Britain as the most likely source of the gold.

A non-local source of Irish Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age gold

A cropmark complex of ring-ditches and square-plan ditches in the Vale of Clwyd, North Wales has been partially excavated. Mesolithic activity is represented predominantly by lithic waste in local cherts. A small bronze age cemetery, dated to between about 1660–1400 b.c., comprises a large and small ring-ditch and a ‘flat cemetery’ associated with Beaker inhumation burials, and by cremation burials, of which some were found with Food Vessel Urns. The larger ring-ditch was superseded by an undated rectangular enclosure with causeways at the centre of each side. An early medieval inhumation cemetery, with associated dates of about a.d. 510 and a.d. 860, was established to one side of the larger ring-ditch. A small proportion of the graves are enclosed by square-plan ditches, two of which had a causeway at the centre of the eastern side. Generalized parallels are drawn with other sites in eastern and northern Britain and within Wales itself.

Prehistoric and Early Medieval Cemeteries at Tandderwen, near Denbigh, Clwyd

Bryn Celli Ddu is one of only two developed passage tombs in Wales, and has occupied a pivotal place in narratives of this region since the publication of excavations in the 1920s by W.J. Hemp. The construction sequence at the site has been at the centre of debate on several occasions with previous models raising important issues about the sequence of major monument types (notably the henge and the passage tomb) and the inter-regional links of the tomb's builders. This paper presents a new interpretation of the site's construction history, drawing on several sources, including: the recent demonstration that the tomb is aligned on the midsummer sunrise; Hemp's unpublished archive; and the results of a radiocarbon dating programme. The result is a two phase model which shows the tomb to have been built between 3074 and 2956 calbc, and which sheds fresh light on the ritual practices of the community which built it.

Bryn Celli Ddu Passage Tomb, Anglesey: Alignment, Construction, Date, and Ritual

Eight ring-ditches and several stretches of pit alignment have been excavated between 1981 and 1985, as part of the investigation of an extensive cropmark complex on a gravel terrace in the Upper Severn valley at Four Crosses, northern Powys. Excavation of the ring-ditches, which form part of a more scattered barrow cemetery, has revealed a long and complex pattern of development of barrow types and burial forms in the period between the Middle Neolithic and the Middle Bronze Age. This is compared with the recently published sequence from the neighbouring upland barrow cemetery at Trelystan, and subdivided into four hypothetical phases. There is evidence of activity in the vicinity of some of the sites in the Iron Age, Romano-British, and possibly the early post-Roman period.

Eight Ring-Ditches at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, 1981-85

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Eight Ring-Ditches at Four Crosses, Llandysilio, Powys, 1981-85