Local Identities: Landscape and Community in the Late Prehistoric Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region

9053565884......Page 1
Table of Contents......Page 6
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......Page 10
1.1 General theme and aims of research......Page 12
1.2 Continuity and change in the archaeology of first millennium BC temperate Europe......Page 13
1.3 Recent trends in landscape and settlement archaeology......Page 16
1.4 A long-term perspective and its implications......Page 22
1.5 Geographical and chronological framework......Page 26
2.1 Aspects of geology and geomorphology......Page 28
2.2 The premodern landscape and its implications for archaeological research......Page 30
2.3 A brief overview of investigations into the late prehistoric Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region......Page 33
2.3.1 The period of heathland archaeology......Page 34
2.3.2 The period of ‘essen’ archaeology......Page 37
2.4 The Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region as a research area......Page 40
3.1.1 Introduction......Page 42
3.1.2 Houses and the socio-cosmological order......Page 44
3.1.3 The house as a social category......Page 45
3.1.4 The temporality of domestic architecture......Page 46
3.1.5 The cultural biography of houses......Page 48
3.1.6 House, farmyard, farmstead......Page 49
3.2.2 Building the house: an overview of house construction types......Page 50
3.2.3 Social considerations in the choice of farmstead location......Page 67
3.2.4 Ritualised aspects of house construction......Page 74
3.3.1 The use and ordering of space inside houses......Page 77
3.3.2 The farmyard......Page 81
3.3.3 Farmstead and household dynamics......Page 86
3.3.4 Depositional practices associated with the phase of habitation......Page 90
3.4.1 Introduction......Page 106
3.4.2 Abandonment practices......Page 107
3.4.3 Farmstead abandonment and farmstead continuity in a diachronic perspective......Page 113
3.5 Houses and households: concluding remarks......Page 116
4.1.1 Introduction......Page 120
4.1.2 The symbolic construction of communities......Page 122
4.1.3 Community and landscape......Page 124
4.1.4 Approaches to territoriality and land tenure in archaeology......Page 126
4.2.1 Introduction......Page 129
4.2.2 Burial practices from the Middle Bronze Age to the Early Roman period......Page 132
4.2.3 Burial in cemeteries and alternative ways of treating the dead......Page 149
4.2.4 Urnfield cemeteries and older burial monuments......Page 151
4.2.5 Changing relationships between local communities and ancestors......Page 156
4.3.1 Rectangular enclosures with funerary connotations......Page 161
4.3.2 Enclosures without apparent funerary connotations......Page 167
4.3.3 Other types of cult places......Page 172
4.3.4 Cult places and cult communities......Page 174
4.4.1 Celtic fields in the Meuse-Demer-Scheldt region and the Northwest European Plain......Page 178
4.4.2 Arable lands, farmsteads and barrows......Page 181
4.4.3 Celtic field agricultural systems and the dynamic use of arable lands......Page 183
4.4.4 The development of a new agricultural regime in the later part of the Iron Age and the Roman period......Page 189
4.4.5 Local communities and arable lands......Page 190
4.5.1 Introduction......Page 192
4.5.2 Early examples of settlement nucleation......Page 193
4.5.4 The local community and its settlement in the Late Iron Age and the Early Roman period......Page 197
4.6.1 The Middle Bronze Age......Page 200
4.6.2 The Urnfield period......Page 201
4.6.3 The Middle and early Late Iron Age......Page 203
4.6.4 The Late Iron Age and the beginning of the Roman period......Page 205
4.6.5 Conclusion......Page 208
5.1.1 Research questions......Page 210
5.1.2 Methodological issues......Page 211
5.2 The habitation histories of four micro-regions......Page 215
5.2.1 The Bladel-Hoogeloon region......Page 217
5.2.2 The Weert-Nederweert region......Page 221
5.2.3 The Someren region......Page 224
5.2.4 The Oss region......Page 227
5.2.5 The four micro-regions compared......Page 229
5.3.1 The Middle Bronze Age......Page 230
5.3.2 The Urnfield period......Page 231
5.3.3 The Middle Iron Age and early Late Iron Age......Page 234
5.3.4 The Late Iron Age and the beginning of the Roman period......Page 235
5.3.5 Summary......Page 236
5.4.1 Population densities and soil degradation, an environmental model......Page 237
5.4.2 Changing agricultural regimes in the later part of the Iron Age......Page 242
5.5 Conclusions......Page 243
6.1 Flexible patterns of social identity and land tenure in a Middle Bronze Age barrow landscape......Page 246
6.2.1 Agricultural production, elite competition and demography in macro-regional and regional interpretations......Page 248
6.2.2 The mythical dimensions of the landscape and the formation of stable local communities......Page 250
6.3 Local communities, land and collective identity in the Urnfield period......Page 253
6.4 Changing habitation patterns and social fragmentation at the end of the Urnfield period......Page 255
6.5 New forms of social identity and land tenure in the Middle and early Late Iron Age......Page 258
6.6.1 The ‘longue durée’ and conjectural history......Page 259
6.6.2 Social relationships and land tenure in a changing world......Page 261
6.7 Concluding remarks......Page 265
REFERENCES......Page 266
APPENDIX 1: MEUSE-DEMER-SCHELDT REGION. DISTRIBUTION OF URNFIELDS......Page 298
APPENDIX 2: CATALOGUE OF URNFIELDS......Page 302
INDEX OF GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES......Page 310