Roundhouses in Context

Abstract

AbstractMost regions of Southern Britain show a progression of settlement through the first millennium bc and into the Roman period. In the Upper Thames Later Bronze Age and earliest Iron Age settlements are characterized by post-ring roundhouses and four-post granaries, whereas by the Middle Iron Age pits and drainage gullies as roundhouse proxies are predominant. Storage capacity between four-posters and pits was probably comparable, but must be qualified by the time-span represented. In the Midlands too earlier post-rings give way to penannular drainage gullies in ‘modular units’, clusters of four to five ring-gullies in irregular compounds. In west Yorkshire aggregated and incremental enclosure settlements termed ‘washing line’ settlements are akin to the well-known ‘ladder settlements’ of Yorkshire; in them roundhouses may continue to be occupied well into the Roman period. Contrary to former interpretations of the northern pastoral economy, extensive patterns of pits and other evidence for cereal cultivation is now increasingly in evidence. In Northumberland the well-established rectilinear settlement enclosures can now be seen to have been preceded by open settlements from the second quarter of the first millennium bc. By the second century bc ditched enclosures, evidently not primarily defensive, together with pit-alignments, droveways, and corrals were characteristic of pastoral settlements. The pattern of roundhouse occupation in and around hillforts varies widely regionally, but has been successfully investigated by geophysical survey in Wessex and the west of England.