From Malvern to the Irish Sea : Early Bronze Age round barrows in a border landscape
his thesis explores Early Bronze Age round barrows in a distinctive landscape, the Anglo-Welsh borderland. It is a landscape of contrasts, encompassing the lowlands and plains of the Midlands counties to the east and the uplands of the west. Although the region has been recognised as a valid unit of study, many previous studies have been constrained by national and county boundaries. Recent research on the prehistoric archaeology of the region has addressed this problem but until now the areaâs round barrows have received little attention. This thesis se rves to redress this imbalance and considers round barrows in their historic and regional context. A multi-scalar approach to the study has been taken. At the macro scale, the morphology, distribution and broad topographic settings are examined in addition to an analysis of factors relating to the survival and destruction of the regions barrows. It is argued that the location of the borderlands may have led to some of the distinct architectural elements present in the region. For the most part, round barrows in the study area do not coalesce in to large cemeteries as seen elsewhere; the general pattern being that of isolated or paired barrows, yet relatively
Johnson, Neal
CC Archaeology ; DA Great Britain
From Malvern to the Irish Sea : Early Bronze Age round barrows in a border landscape. his thesis explores Early Bronze Age round barrows in a distinctive landscape, the Anglo-Welsh borderland. It is a landscape of contrasts, encompassing the lowlands and plains of the Midlands counties to the east and the uplands of the west. Although the region has been recognised as a valid unit of study, many previous studies have been constrained by national and county boundaries. Recent research on the prehistoric archaeology of the region has addressed this problem but until now the areaâs round barrows have received little attention. This thesis se rves to redress this imbalance and considers round barrows in their historic and regional context. A multi-scalar approach to the study has been taken. At the macro scale, the morphology, distribution and broad topographic settings are examined in addition to an analysis of factors relating to the survival and destruction of the regions barrows. It is argued that the location of the borderlands may have led to some of the distinct architectural elements present in the region. For the most part, round barrows in the study area do not coalesce in to large cemeteries as seen elsewhere; the general pattern being that of isolated or paired barrows, yet relatively
irish_sea early_bronze_age round_barrows border landscape explores early_bronze_age round_barrows distinctive landscape anglo_welsh borderland landscape contrast encompass lowland plain midlands county east west although region recognise valid unit study many previous_study constrain national county boundary recent prehistoric_archaeology region address_problem area round_barrows receive_little_attention redress imbalance considers round_barrows historic regional_context multi_scalar study take macro_scale morphology distribution broad topographic setting examine addition analysis factor relate survival destruction region barrow argue location borderland may_lead distinct architectural element present region part round barrow study_area coalesce large cemetery see elsewhere general pattern isolate barrow yet relatively