Causewayed enclosures and the Early Neolithic: the chronology and character of monument building and settlement in Kent, Surrey and Sussex in the early to mid-4th millennium cal BC (original) (raw)

This paper is concerned with the early and middle 4th millennium cal BC, the period occupied by the early Neolithic. Its starting point lies in the project Dating Causewayed Enclosures: towards a History of the Early Neolithic in Southern Britain, initiated at Cardiff University in 2003 by Professor Alasdair Whittle, and funded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council and English Heritage, whose Scientific Dating Co-Ordinator, Dr Alex Bayliss, has been responsible for obtaining more than 400 new radiocarbon dates and modelling them with an equal number of others from 42 causewayed and related enclosures in England, Wales and Ireland (Whittle et al. 2008;. These enclosures, characteristically defined by ditches interrupted by gaps (or causeways) have long been seen as defining features of the early Neolithic in southern Britain. This is largely due to their large size compared with other earthworks of the period, to their often rich cultural assemblages and to the stratified sequences which they provide. They consist of single or multiple circuits and other lengths of interrupted ditch, sometimes with surviving banks, and range in area from over 8 ha to less than 1 ha. They saw varied and sometimes rich deposits of human bone, food remains, digging implements, artefacts and the debris of their manufacture. The complexity of the sites, their contents, and the interpretations that they have prompted is summarised by, among others, Edmonds (1999, 80-108), J. Thomas (1999, 38-45) and . Their place in the 4th millennium cal BC remained, however, unclear.