Interesting roundhouse paper

May 5, 2011 in archaeology by Stuart-Dunn

Including a critique of the so-called ‘sunwise’ theory of occupation. It references the work at Butser. This kind of thing forms important background to any reconstruction work we do there.

USING AND ABANDONING ROUNDHOUSES: A REINTERPRETATION OF THE EVIDENCE FROM LATE BRONZE AGE–EARLY IRON AGE SOUTHERN ENGLAND: LEO WEBLEY

It has recently been demonstrated that a number of roundhouses of the early first millennium BC in southern England show a concentration of finds in the southern half of the building. It has thus been argued that this area was used for domestic activities such as food preparation, an idea which has formed the basis for discussion of later prehistoric ‘cosmologies’. However, reconsideration of the evidence suggests that this finds patterning does not relate to the everyday use of the buildings, being more likely to derive from a particular set of house abandonment practices. Furthermore, evidence can be identified for the location of domestic activities within contemporary roundhouses that appears to contradict the established model.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0092.2007.00277.x/abstract