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Hillforts. Later prehistoric earthworks in Britain and Ireland
392
BOOK REVIEWS
times the building up of the bristlecone pine (the Great Basin form of which we now have to call Pinus longaeva) chronology and its use for the calibration of radiocarbon dating have become familiar to all archaeologists. Fritts does not even mention this use of dendrochronology and only refers to archaeology en passant, although in Europe archaeological sites are an important source of dendrochronological material. Indeed, the examples of climatic reconstructions he gives seldom go back further than three centuries. Much of his work is designed to provide a background of climatic pattern against which present-day changes can be seen and from which future trends might be projected. The book is well produced, well illustrated and very fully referenced, with adequate attention to European as well as American sources. G. W. Dimbleby
A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. Edited by Stella E. Stiegeler. 1976. 301 pp. London: The Macmillan Press. $595. Like most technical dictionaries which set out to cover a broad field, A Dictionary of Earth Sciences edited by Stella E. Stiegeler presents a rather uneven coverage of the field. Since there is already A Dictionary of Life Sciences in the same series few biological terms are defined. Surprisingly perhaps, ecosystem is not included, nor are such biological concepts as productivity and biomass. Since soils are included there is an entry for humus but no further entries for its constituents lignins and polysaccharides. Cationic exchange merits an entry, but not ions or anions. The index of a recently published work on archaeology and earth sciences provides a useful test of how helpful this particular dictionary is likely to prove to an archaeological reader. Of the first twenty technical terms listed in the index only eight are to be found in the dictionary. While there is an entry under particle size which includes the British Standards Classification of Particle Sizes there is nothing to help a reader discover the meaning of the p (phi) scale. Traditional methods for displaying data such as triangular diagrams and cumulative percentage curves are nowhere explained. There is an entry for linkage analysis but not for factor analysis. Generally techniques are not described so that the archaeological reader who finds such commonly used techniques as spectrography and electron microscopy referred to in technical reports on excavated materials, will have to look elsewhere for information. There is an entry under radiometric dating but no mention of 14C, potassium-argon, or oxygen isotopes. The definitions seem generally satisfactory and the coverage acceptable for basic geomorphic features, common minerals, elementary geologic terms including newer terms in plate tectonics, weather and climate, and morphological features of soils. Overall the usefulness of this dictionary to archaeologists is likely to be limited. Illustrations are few and there are no references for further reading. A good introductory textbook on physical geography or earth sciences is likely to be more useful. Bruce Proudfoot
Hillforts. Later Prehistoric Earthworks in Britain and Ireland. Edited by D. W. Harding. 1976. xiv + 579 pp. Illustrations. Index. London: Academic Press. &24-00. This massive volume contains a sixty page introductory chapter by Michael Avery on hillforts in general, twelve reports of varying lengths on individual hillforts, and regional
BOOK REVIEWS
203
essays on the hillforts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Avery’s first chapter subtitled “a student’s introduction” provides a competent survey of hillfort archaeology. It briskly reviews problems of terminology, the nature of hillforts and their modes of construction and defence. Forts vary in size from enclosures of -1 to over 100 acres. Use is made of a common subdivision into major and minor forts, the latter under 3 acres in size. Although the nature of the terrain has a decisive effect on the layout or plan of many sites the overall distribution of hillforts of different sizes is clearly not determined solely by the availability of suitable hill tops. Some of the regional variations within these islands both in terms of form, siting, structure and general distribution are clear from the regional chapters. Evidence for activities carried on within hillforts is clearly summarized by Avery under three headings-activities connected with food, with manufacturing, and the possession of metal tools and trinkets. Economic and political aspects of hillforts are discussed but all such discussion is bedevilled by the absence of a complete record of hillforts, of other contemporary sites, and by lack of an adequate chronology. Comments on rural economy as a result can be little more than suggestive. Analysis of dates suggests that some hillforts were built as early as 1000 BC, while interpretation of surviving Celtic and Classical literature helps to throw some light on the social and political organization of Iron Age Britain. Many of the themes introduced at the beginning are taken up in later chapters. Problems of chronology become particularly important in the regional essays each of which makes an important contribution to elucidating hillfort problems both regionally and nationally. Usefully there is re-analysis of some older excavations, most notably by Christopher Hawkes of St Catherine’s Hill, Winchester, and by Sara Champion of Leckhampton Hill, Gloucestershire where the excavations of 1970 added substantially to knowledge of an important site first excavated with care and well-published almost fifty years earlier. The skill of present day excavators is seen especially in the information now being recovered for the structure of hillfort ramparts. Clearly, timber framing is much more widespread than once thought. Evidence for a box-rampart is well illustrated from Denis Harding’s excavations at Blewburton Hill, Berkshire. Problems of the burning of such timber structures are considered by several authors; for example, Varley discusses the possibility that the burning of the Stage 6 defences at Castle Hill, Almondbury was the result of spontaneous combustion, Champion describes the evidence for burning at Leckhampton and MacKie cogently discusses the whole problem of vitribcation and its causes in the Scottish context. He forcefully dismisses the hypothesis of creative vitrification by marshailing an impressive amount of accurate field observation, and rightly argues that field and laboratory evidence must both be utilized in discussing such problems. Perhaps the major contribution made by this volume is to place the strictly archaeological findings from many sites in a much better chronological framework than has been previously possible. This is the result, of course, of the growing number of l*C dates from hillforts throughout these islands. A whole series of new problems is opened up by the longer time span during which hillforts seem to have been built and used. Various authors comment on the major social changes which seem to have been taking place towards the end of the Bronze Age at the same time as the deterioration in European weather with the cooler and wetter conditions which are claimed to mark the start of the Sub-atlantic. Unfortunately these comments are almost the only attempts in the whole volume to place hillforts in their physical environmental context. Progress during the last three or four decades in palaeoenvironmental studies seems to have been missed by many hiilfort archaeologists. It is rather depressing that in the mid-1970’s there is no discus-
394
BOOK REVIEWS
sion of the terrain in which hillforts were built, for excavation should produce the evidence to enable fuller statements to be made than that “the old turf line below the rampart sections at Ravensburgh Castle, Herts, clearly represents a buried plough soil”. Bruce Proudfoot
Science and Society in Prehistoric
Britain.
By Euan W. MacKie. 1977.
xii +252 pp. 17 plates, 36 figures. 57.50. This is a courageous and strongly argued book that proposes two hypotheses which, if generally accepted, are fundamental to our interpretation of society in the 3rd and early 2nd millennia BC. The central hypothesis is that certain elements of the populace were proficient in geometry, surveying and observational astronomy and that their expertise was supported by surplus food and labour when required. The subsidiary hypothesis which follows from this is that society was so organized as to enable these “wise men” or “theocratic elite” to live in specially constructed centres. The author claims that these hypotheses satisfactorily integrate three developments in archaeological thought and discovery in recent years-the calibration of radiocarbon dates; theories regarding the intellectual achievements of neolithic and Bronze Age society propounded by Professor Thorn; and excavations of earthworks of that date in southern England. The volume includes in addition, an important reassessment of Stonehenge and descriptive accounts of Avebury, Durrington Walls, Mount Pleasant, Marden, Woodhenge and Skara Brae. It is perhaps unnecessary to emphasize that the interpretations placed by Professor Thorn on his field results, which are fundamental to the main hypothesis of this book, have not found universal acceptance. The megalithic yard and a multiple of it as standard units of measurement have been interpreted on several occasions as standardizations of a pace which probably developed independently in several parts of the world. In addition, circle and ring lay-outs are employed to demonstrate the advanced geometry developed by the neolithic population. Yet amidst the recondite explanations necessitated by this hypothesis an equally plausible view is possible, that complex designs (e.g. with flattened curves and eccentric alignments) may be due solely to established practice in the use of work-gangs to construct rings and earthwork ditches. Concerning archaeoastronomy the author properly distinguishes between an orientation and an alignment and discusses the majority of the problems involved in interpreting the latter as astronomical sight-lines. However, despite a part-chapter on the nature of archaeological evidence one would have wished to see greater emphasis placed on the limitations of the inferences to be drawn from field or excavation data. Stone monuments by their very nature are subject to erosion, attrition and addition and our knowledge of the structural history of any monument cannot be complete without excavation, which will produce evidence for any timber structures and the micro-environment of the time. Furthermore, it would be a fallacy to assume that excavation data represent a total objective record of the original state of a monument which can be employed to infer the geometrical and astronomical abilities postulated by Professor Thorn and endorsed by the author. The monuments today are almost certainly not as they were when first built and refined statistical or astronomical arguments should be constantly inhibited on account of these fundamental limitations in the evidence. The second hypothesis follows directly from an acceptance that certain elements of the neolithic and Bronze Age populace possessed these intellectual skills. The author suggests that this elite had their residences, temples and training schools in enclosures
BOOK REVIEWS
times the building up of the bristlecone pine (the Great Basin form of which we now have to call Pinus longaeva) chronology and its use for the calibration of radiocarbon dating have become familiar to all archaeologists. Fritts does not even mention this use of dendrochronology and only refers to archaeology en passant, although in Europe archaeological sites are an important source of dendrochronological material. Indeed, the examples of climatic reconstructions he gives seldom go back further than three centuries. Much of his work is designed to provide a background of climatic pattern against which present-day changes can be seen and from which future trends might be projected. The book is well produced, well illustrated and very fully referenced, with adequate attention to European as well as American sources. G. W. Dimbleby
A Dictionary of Earth Sciences. Edited by Stella E. Stiegeler. 1976. 301 pp. London: The Macmillan Press. $595. Like most technical dictionaries which set out to cover a broad field, A Dictionary of Earth Sciences edited by Stella E. Stiegeler presents a rather uneven coverage of the field. Since there is already A Dictionary of Life Sciences in the same series few biological terms are defined. Surprisingly perhaps, ecosystem is not included, nor are such biological concepts as productivity and biomass. Since soils are included there is an entry for humus but no further entries for its constituents lignins and polysaccharides. Cationic exchange merits an entry, but not ions or anions. The index of a recently published work on archaeology and earth sciences provides a useful test of how helpful this particular dictionary is likely to prove to an archaeological reader. Of the first twenty technical terms listed in the index only eight are to be found in the dictionary. While there is an entry under particle size which includes the British Standards Classification of Particle Sizes there is nothing to help a reader discover the meaning of the p (phi) scale. Traditional methods for displaying data such as triangular diagrams and cumulative percentage curves are nowhere explained. There is an entry for linkage analysis but not for factor analysis. Generally techniques are not described so that the archaeological reader who finds such commonly used techniques as spectrography and electron microscopy referred to in technical reports on excavated materials, will have to look elsewhere for information. There is an entry under radiometric dating but no mention of 14C, potassium-argon, or oxygen isotopes. The definitions seem generally satisfactory and the coverage acceptable for basic geomorphic features, common minerals, elementary geologic terms including newer terms in plate tectonics, weather and climate, and morphological features of soils. Overall the usefulness of this dictionary to archaeologists is likely to be limited. Illustrations are few and there are no references for further reading. A good introductory textbook on physical geography or earth sciences is likely to be more useful. Bruce Proudfoot
Hillforts. Later Prehistoric Earthworks in Britain and Ireland. Edited by D. W. Harding. 1976. xiv + 579 pp. Illustrations. Index. London: Academic Press. &24-00. This massive volume contains a sixty page introductory chapter by Michael Avery on hillforts in general, twelve reports of varying lengths on individual hillforts, and regional
BOOK REVIEWS
203
essays on the hillforts of Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Avery’s first chapter subtitled “a student’s introduction” provides a competent survey of hillfort archaeology. It briskly reviews problems of terminology, the nature of hillforts and their modes of construction and defence. Forts vary in size from enclosures of -1 to over 100 acres. Use is made of a common subdivision into major and minor forts, the latter under 3 acres in size. Although the nature of the terrain has a decisive effect on the layout or plan of many sites the overall distribution of hillforts of different sizes is clearly not determined solely by the availability of suitable hill tops. Some of the regional variations within these islands both in terms of form, siting, structure and general distribution are clear from the regional chapters. Evidence for activities carried on within hillforts is clearly summarized by Avery under three headings-activities connected with food, with manufacturing, and the possession of metal tools and trinkets. Economic and political aspects of hillforts are discussed but all such discussion is bedevilled by the absence of a complete record of hillforts, of other contemporary sites, and by lack of an adequate chronology. Comments on rural economy as a result can be little more than suggestive. Analysis of dates suggests that some hillforts were built as early as 1000 BC, while interpretation of surviving Celtic and Classical literature helps to throw some light on the social and political organization of Iron Age Britain. Many of the themes introduced at the beginning are taken up in later chapters. Problems of chronology become particularly important in the regional essays each of which makes an important contribution to elucidating hillfort problems both regionally and nationally. Usefully there is re-analysis of some older excavations, most notably by Christopher Hawkes of St Catherine’s Hill, Winchester, and by Sara Champion of Leckhampton Hill, Gloucestershire where the excavations of 1970 added substantially to knowledge of an important site first excavated with care and well-published almost fifty years earlier. The skill of present day excavators is seen especially in the information now being recovered for the structure of hillfort ramparts. Clearly, timber framing is much more widespread than once thought. Evidence for a box-rampart is well illustrated from Denis Harding’s excavations at Blewburton Hill, Berkshire. Problems of the burning of such timber structures are considered by several authors; for example, Varley discusses the possibility that the burning of the Stage 6 defences at Castle Hill, Almondbury was the result of spontaneous combustion, Champion describes the evidence for burning at Leckhampton and MacKie cogently discusses the whole problem of vitribcation and its causes in the Scottish context. He forcefully dismisses the hypothesis of creative vitrification by marshailing an impressive amount of accurate field observation, and rightly argues that field and laboratory evidence must both be utilized in discussing such problems. Perhaps the major contribution made by this volume is to place the strictly archaeological findings from many sites in a much better chronological framework than has been previously possible. This is the result, of course, of the growing number of l*C dates from hillforts throughout these islands. A whole series of new problems is opened up by the longer time span during which hillforts seem to have been built and used. Various authors comment on the major social changes which seem to have been taking place towards the end of the Bronze Age at the same time as the deterioration in European weather with the cooler and wetter conditions which are claimed to mark the start of the Sub-atlantic. Unfortunately these comments are almost the only attempts in the whole volume to place hillforts in their physical environmental context. Progress during the last three or four decades in palaeoenvironmental studies seems to have been missed by many hiilfort archaeologists. It is rather depressing that in the mid-1970’s there is no discus-
394
BOOK REVIEWS
sion of the terrain in which hillforts were built, for excavation should produce the evidence to enable fuller statements to be made than that “the old turf line below the rampart sections at Ravensburgh Castle, Herts, clearly represents a buried plough soil”. Bruce Proudfoot
Science and Society in Prehistoric
Britain.
By Euan W. MacKie. 1977.
xii +252 pp. 17 plates, 36 figures. 57.50. This is a courageous and strongly argued book that proposes two hypotheses which, if generally accepted, are fundamental to our interpretation of society in the 3rd and early 2nd millennia BC. The central hypothesis is that certain elements of the populace were proficient in geometry, surveying and observational astronomy and that their expertise was supported by surplus food and labour when required. The subsidiary hypothesis which follows from this is that society was so organized as to enable these “wise men” or “theocratic elite” to live in specially constructed centres. The author claims that these hypotheses satisfactorily integrate three developments in archaeological thought and discovery in recent years-the calibration of radiocarbon dates; theories regarding the intellectual achievements of neolithic and Bronze Age society propounded by Professor Thorn; and excavations of earthworks of that date in southern England. The volume includes in addition, an important reassessment of Stonehenge and descriptive accounts of Avebury, Durrington Walls, Mount Pleasant, Marden, Woodhenge and Skara Brae. It is perhaps unnecessary to emphasize that the interpretations placed by Professor Thorn on his field results, which are fundamental to the main hypothesis of this book, have not found universal acceptance. The megalithic yard and a multiple of it as standard units of measurement have been interpreted on several occasions as standardizations of a pace which probably developed independently in several parts of the world. In addition, circle and ring lay-outs are employed to demonstrate the advanced geometry developed by the neolithic population. Yet amidst the recondite explanations necessitated by this hypothesis an equally plausible view is possible, that complex designs (e.g. with flattened curves and eccentric alignments) may be due solely to established practice in the use of work-gangs to construct rings and earthwork ditches. Concerning archaeoastronomy the author properly distinguishes between an orientation and an alignment and discusses the majority of the problems involved in interpreting the latter as astronomical sight-lines. However, despite a part-chapter on the nature of archaeological evidence one would have wished to see greater emphasis placed on the limitations of the inferences to be drawn from field or excavation data. Stone monuments by their very nature are subject to erosion, attrition and addition and our knowledge of the structural history of any monument cannot be complete without excavation, which will produce evidence for any timber structures and the micro-environment of the time. Furthermore, it would be a fallacy to assume that excavation data represent a total objective record of the original state of a monument which can be employed to infer the geometrical and astronomical abilities postulated by Professor Thorn and endorsed by the author. The monuments today are almost certainly not as they were when first built and refined statistical or astronomical arguments should be constantly inhibited on account of these fundamental limitations in the evidence. The second hypothesis follows directly from an acceptance that certain elements of the neolithic and Bronze Age populace possessed these intellectual skills. The author suggests that this elite had their residences, temples and training schools in enclosures