HELP!

[rachstebbs]

Hello all,
was hoping someone may be able to point me in the direction of any literature concerning the importance of water (preferably rivers) in the Neolithic/Bronze Age... All i can find are statements that say yes water was important, and then no explanation as to why.

Thanks very much

RACH

[Orkynowot]

Hi Rachel,

You could try Dr.Colin Richards he has an article in Journal of Material Culture called Henges and Water, based mainly on his work in Orkneys but might be able to get from the bibliography.

Orkynowot

May god go with you in all the dark places you must walk.

[rachstebbs]

Thanks, I'm reading it at the minute!

[Orkynowot]

maybe some stuff in architecture and order by Colin Richards as well.

Orkynowot

May god go with you in all the dark places you must walk.

[Oxbeast]

'The Passage of Arms' by Richard Bradley covers metalwork deposition in and near rivers. Try Mike Parker Pearson's stuff about rivers mediating between worlds of the living and the dead. Can't remember what it was called, mind.

[BAJR Host]

Now if you want a braod view on all things Weather and Water.. this is quite sad I know... I bought this ages ago... and have even read it! ... Not for the light reading category!

Water, Weather and Prehistory = Robert Raikes (available on Amazon)

"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[John Walford]

There was some stuff about Francis Pryor's work at Flag Fen in Antiquity vol.66 no.251 (1992), including details of the ritually deposited metalwork. Another site you might want to look at, although I'm not sure where it has been published, is the Eton Rowing Lake.

On a slightly different note, there has been some interesting work done by Lambrick and Robinson looking at the environmental history of the Upper Thames. They conclude that the floodplain was much drier in the Neolithic and Bronze Age thanit is now and that the onset of alluviation wasn't until the Iron Age. See 'Nature', vol.308, pgs.809-14 (1984).

John

"Hidden wisdom and buried treasure, what use is there in either?" (Ecclesiasticus ch20 v30)

[troll]

Have been published on this and would be happy to send you a 70 plus bibliography if this would help? To get you started.......
Brophy,K.,1999 "seeing the cursus as a symbolic river" British Archaeology 44, 6-7
Condit,T., 1997 "late neolithic ritual-earthen ceremonial enclosures" Archaeology Ireland 11(3), 22-23
Field,D., 1998 "round barrows and the harmonious landscape: placing early bronze age burial monuments in south-east England" Oxford journal of Archaeology 17(3) 309-26
Field,D., 1999 "bury the dead in a sacred landscape" British Archaeology 43, 6-7

These should whet your appetite but if interested-gizza shout.I published a small paper some years ago after a four-year study "a study of the lower river Avon as a social use of space during the Neo and BA periods" The study and the resulting paper looks at the significance of river systems in a landscape and phenomenological environment.Plenty of stats for you to play with too.Also, have a glimpse at Cleggett,S., 1999 "the river avon:real-time realm of the ancestors" Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society vol 121, 49-52.

..knowledge without action is insanity and action without knowledge is vanity..(imam ghazali,ayyuhal-walad)

[trowelfodder]

Did an ma dis on the later bronze age of the severn estuary - can email u the bibliography if you want to see if theres anything in it of any use

[rachstebbs]

Any bibliographies would be much appreciated! Thanks all, you've been such a help!!