Farmers and Monuments
Britain Before English
Course 1 · Chapter 2 · Farmers and Monuments
Chapter 1 ended with hunter-gatherers in a forested island. This chapter covers the next great change: farming, and the tombs, villages and stone circles of the people who practised it. The sources are clear about what was built and cautious about why.
Farming arrives
The Neolithic Britain article says farming reached the islands from the continent, where it began in the Near East. The earliest evidence in the British Isles is from Ireland and possibly the Isle of Man, not southern Britain. Archaeologists disagree on whether the shift was gradual over centuries or rapid within a century or two.
| Question | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Migration or adoption? | Debated for a long time |
| The 2019 study | Brace et al. argue for a mass migration around 4100 BC, linking the farmers to Iberian Neolithic people and suggesting they almost fully replaced the native hunter-gatherers |
| A later claim | Beaker-associated migrations around 2500 BC replaced over 90% of Britain's Neolithic gene pool (see Chapter 3) |
| The counterview | Mike Parker Pearson lists several routes by which animals and plants could have reached Britain by boat, and calls the question unresolved |
The article reports the genetic findings but gives little detail on the counterarguments, so I do not rank them.
Tombs and barrows
The Neolithic Britain article uses the term "chambered tombs", and says most were built around 4000 to 3200 BC, "a relatively short-lived fashion in archaeological terms" in the words of Parker Pearson. A widely held theory is that they imitated long timber houses from the Danube basin. Wikipedia's Long barrow article describes them as elongated earthen mounds flanked by ditches, usually 20 to 70 metres long, some with a timber or stone chamber at one end. It says earthen long barrows in Britain were likely built between about 3800 and 3000 BC.
- West Kennet (Wiltshire): human remains were deposited intermittently over about 1,500 years. The earliest burials are from the early to mid 4th millennium BC, and a later deposit belongs to the Beaker culture (Chapter 3).
- Wayland's Smithy (Oxfordshire): in the Iron Age and Roman periods it became a cemetery, with at least 46 skeletons in 42 graves, many decapitated.
- What they held: many chambers held human remains, sometimes up to 50 people, often with bones of different individuals mixed. Grave goods were rare. Bodies may have been exposed to the air first, and some bones appear to have been removed for ritual use.
The Long barrow article lists four interpretations of what they were for: tombs and ancestor veneration; religious and cosmological centres; territorial markers (popular in the 1980s and 1990s, and later challenged); and broad religious and social roles, comparable to churches in later Europe. It says archaeologists have not agreed. The Neolithic Britain article quotes Barrett: "There never was a single body of beliefs which characterise 'neolithic religion'".
Skara Brae and Neolithic Orkney
Wikipedia's Skara Brae article describes a stone-built village on the Bay of Skaill, Mainland, Orkney, occupied from about 3180 to 2500 BC. A storm in the winter of 1850 stripped earth from a mound and exposed the outlines of roofless houses. Professional excavation began in 1927 under V. Gordon Childe, and major digs in 1972 to 1973 provided radiocarbon dates.
| Topic | What the article says |
|---|---|
| Houses | Ten structures and four passageways are visible; free-standing, insulated with midden (refuse); each with a central hearth, beds on either side and a dresser facing the entrance |
| Furniture layout | Seven houses share a similar layout; a gendered reading, linked to recent Hebridean custom, is an interpretation |
| Livelihood | Herders of cattle, sheep and pigs; they also grew barley and ate a lot of seafood |
| Pottery | Grooved Ware, a style that had recently appeared in northern Scotland |
| Unknown | The fuel for the hearths; why the village was abandoned (a colder, wetter climate and storms have been proposed, but Anna Ritchie argues it was abandoned before it was buried); claims of a priestly class lack archaeological support |
| Context | One of four sites in the "Heart of Neolithic Orkney" World Heritage Site (1999) with Maeshowe, the Ring of Brodgar and the Standing Stones of Stenness |
The Neolithic Britain article dates Maes Howe to about 2800 BC and the Ring of Brodgar to about 2500 BC, and gives two dates for the Ness of Brodgar: about 3500 BC in its introduction and about 3300 to 2800 BC in a caption. It describes that site as possibly religious. I could not tell which date is right, so I give both.
Stonehenge
Wikipedia's Stonehenge article gives its phases as approximate:
| Phase | Date (per the article) | What was built |
|---|---|---|
| Before | about 8000 BC | Mesolithic postholes |
| Stonehenge 1 | about 3100 BC (remains now suggest about 3000 BC) | A circular chalk bank and ditch with about 56 Aubrey holes |
| Stonehenge 2 | about 2900 to 2600 BC | Timber structures; the site became a cremation cemetery |
| Stonehenge 3 | about 2600 to 1600 BC | Stone replaced timber: the sarsen circle about 2600 to 2400 BC, bluestones in several phases (the latest about 2400 to 2200 BC), the Y and Z holes about 1600 BC |
- Sarsens: a 2020 study matched 50 of 52 sampled stones to West Woods, about 26 km to the north.
- Bluestones: generally linked to the Preseli Hills in Pembrokeshire, Wales, about 140 miles away. Some researchers proposed glacial transport, but a 2019 study favours human quarrying.
- The Altar Stone: a 2024 study proposed a source in the Orcadian Basin of north-east Scotland. The article treats this as newer and less firm.
Why was it built?
The article lists these, and I give its own rating of each:
- Solar and lunar alignment: well supported; the axis lines up with the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset. The idea of a 56-year prediction cycle (Hawkins) is less firmly established.
- A place of the dead: supported by many cremations; Mike Parker Pearson calls it "a domain of the dead".
- A ritual landscape with Durrington Walls: plausible but debated, with the living and the dead linked by the River Avon. At Durrington Walls, animal-tooth evidence suggests up to about 4,000 people gathered for festivals; the article says the estimate is uncertain.
- A healing place, a symbol of peace, or acoustic stones: speculative.
The article says what remains unknown includes the construction techniques, the original purpose, whether it was used continuously, the function of the Aubrey holes, and who the builders were.
After the monuments
The Neolithic Britain article assigns the Late Neolithic to 3000 to 2500 BC and says the Neolithic ended with the arrival of Beaker people around 2500 BC. Parker Pearson describes the end of a way of life "based on ancestral tombs, forest clearance and settlement expansion" after over a thousand years. Chapter 3 picks up there.
Words to know
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Neolithic | The New Stone Age, the period of the first farming; here about 4100 to 2500 BC |
| Chambered tomb | A burial monument with a chamber of stone or timber |
| Midden | A heap of refuse; at Skara Brae it was used for insulation |
| Grooved Ware | A style of pottery of the late Neolithic |
| Sarsen | A large block of silicified sandstone |
| Bluestone | The smaller, mostly igneous stones of Stonehenge |
| Henge | A circular earthwork, often with a ditch and bank (my definition; the sources I read did not define it) |
✏️ Try It Yourself
Think of the answer first, then click to check.
1. About when did the Neolithic begin and end in Britain, according to the article?
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About 4100 to 2500 BC.
2. Where does the earliest evidence of farming in the British Isles come from?
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Ireland, and possibly the Isle of Man, not southern Britain.
3. What does the 2019 study argue, and what does Parker Pearson say about the question?
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The study argues for a mass migration around 4100 BC that almost fully replaced the hunter-gatherers. Parker Pearson calls the question unresolved.
4. Name two interpretations of what long barrows were for.
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For example tombs and ancestor veneration, religious and cosmological centres, territorial markers, or broad religious and social roles.
5. What exposed Skara Brae in 1850?
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A severe storm, which stripped earth from a mound and showed the outlines of roofless houses.
6. Which two things about Skara Brae do the sources leave unresolved?
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The fuel used in the hearths and why it was abandoned (the article also says claims of a priestly class lack archaeological support).
7. Where did the sarsens and the bluestones of Stonehenge come from, according to the article?
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The sarsens from West Woods, about 26 km north (a 2020 study); the bluestones generally from the Preseli Hills in Wales.
8. Which theory of Stonehenge's purpose does the article rate as well supported, and which as speculative?
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The solar alignment is well supported (midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset). The healing place, the symbol of peace and the acoustic stones are speculative.