{"id":203,"date":"2015-10-18T22:20:37","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T21:20:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ditchedenclosures\/?page_id=203"},"modified":"2016-01-30T15:47:01","modified_gmt":"2016-01-30T15:47:01","slug":"neolithic-enclosures-other-elements-knowlton","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/ditchedenclosures\/what-is-a-ditched-enclosure\/neolithic-enclosures-other-elements-knowlton\/","title":{"rendered":"Other elements at Neolithic ditched enclosures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Drawing<\/a>
Wall and occupation floor in the proximity of a Copper Age ditch at Marroqu\u00edes Bajos (Ja\u00e9n, Spain). Copyright \u00a9 V\u00edctor Jim\u00e9nez J\u00e1imez 2015 – Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Modified from figure 5 in Zafra et al. 1999. Una macro-aldea en el origen del modo de vida campesino: Marroqu\u00edes Bajos (Ja\u00e9n) c. 2500-2000 cal. ANE. Trabajos de Prehistoria 56 (1): 77-102.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Neolithic ditched enclosures can include elements that go beyond the simple combination of ditches, banks or palisades. Here the diversity is notable, perhaps suggesting a degree of variability in the use and meaning of individual places. Occasionally, circular or rectangular houses have been discovered in and around certain ditched enclosures. At times, other kinds of monuments, normally associated with funerary practices, such as megalithic passage graves, were erected in close proximity to ditched enclosures, particularly in areas like Southern Iberia. Also in Southern Iberia we may find examples where lines of stone masonry walls forming enclosures themselves were added to ditched enclosures. But by far the most common feature besides ditches, banks and palisades is the pit. Most ditched enclosures show at least a few pits within the enclosed area or in its surroundings. At certain sites the number of pits is very high, in the range of hundreds or even thousands.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>
Two parallel prehistoric ditches (in the background) and pits (in the foreground), at Valencina de la Concepci\u00f3n (Sevilla, Spain). Copyright \u00a9 J.M. Vargas Jim\u00e9nez et alii 2012 – Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) 3.0 Unported. Initially published as L\u00e1m. 3 at Vargas Jim\u00e9nez, J.M.; Meyer, C.; Ortega Gordillo, M. 2012. El tholos de La Pastora y su entorno: el sector oriental del yacimiento de Valencina de la Concepci\u00f3n (Sevilla) a trav\u00e9s de la geof\u00edsica. Menga, Revista de Prehistoria de Andaluc\u00eda, 3: 121-138.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The nature of pit fillings is in many instances similar to that of ditches<\/a>: cultural and natural material remains contained within a matrix of soil, including, but not limited to, animals and human bones, ceramic sherds, flint tools and knapping waste, ash and organic material, etc.<\/p>\n

\"Drawind<\/a>
Pit containing the complete skeletal remains of a young cow and other animals (dog, ovicaprids) at the prehistoric ditched site of Martos (Ja\u00e9n, Spain). Some bones of the cow showed traces of deliberate sacrifice and burial. Modified from Figure 7 at Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s Afonso Marrero, Juan Antonio C\u00e1mara Serrano, Liliana Spanedda, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Esquivel Guerrero, Rafael Lizcano Prestel, Crist\u00f3bal P\u00e9rez Bareas and Jos\u00e9 Antonio Riquelme Cantal. 2014. Nuevas aportaciones para la periodizaci\u00f3n del yacimiento del Polideportivo de Martos (Ja\u00e9n): la evaluaci\u00f3n estad\u00edstica de las dataciones obtenidas para contextos rituales. Archivo de Prehistoria Levantina , XXX: 133-158. Modifications consist of the removal of superimposed chronological data. Copyright \u00a9 J.A. Afonso et alii 2014 – Creative Commons Attibution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the keys to properly understand Neolithic ditched enclosures in Europe is to determine the sequence of events that led to their formation. In other words, archaeologists need to put a lot of effort into discerning which of these elements (ditches, banks, palisades, pits, houses, walls, tombs…) were contemporary, if any, and establishing a reliable occupational sequence. Enclosures were not built in a day, and many of the features that we see today were only added when others had gone out of use. It would be a big mistake therefore to assume that, just because things appear close in space in the present, they were close in time in the past.<\/p>\n

An example: the Knowlton enclosures.<\/h3>\n
\"Knowlton<\/a>
Knowlton Church at dawn. Copyright \u00a9 Clifton Beard 2008 – Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 2.0 Generic.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Knowlton Circles are a group of at least three Neolithic henges<\/a> in Knowlton (Dorset, United Kingdom), in the proximity of which there are also several Bronze Age round barrows. The best preserved and most famous henge of the three is enclosing a 12th century Norman church. The medieval church, obviously, was built long after the Neolithic monument was abandoned, and it had little to do with the purposes of the original Neolithic structures<\/strong>. However, it seems unlikely that the opposite holds\u00a0true: the choice of this location\u00a0for the construction of a church might have been guided in some fashion by the recognisable presence of ancient earthworks. For many, Knowlton Church\u00a0thereby represents like no other the transition from pagan to Christian ritual traditions. In any case, it is a good example of the wide variety of elements that are often added to Neolithic ditched enclosures. The sites were the subject of research by Bournemouth University<\/a> in the mid 1990s. Knowlton Church is open to the public<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n