Don Benson & Alasdair Whittle (ed). Building Memories: the Neolithic Cotswold Long Barrow at Aseott-Under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire.

Don Benson & Alasdair Whittle (ed). Building Memories: the Neolithic Cotswold Long Barrow at Aseott-Under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire. DON BENSON & ALASDAIR WHITTLE Alasdair Whittle is Professor of Archaeology at Cardiff University, specialising in the Neolithic period.His publications include Europe in the Neolithic: the creation of new worlds and Sacred Mound, Holy Ring. (ed.) Building Memories: TheNeolithic Cotswold Long Barrow A long barrow is a prehistoric monument dating to the early Neolithic period. They are rectangular or trapezoidal earth mounds traditionally interpreted as collective tombs. at Aseott-Under- Wychwood, Oxfordshire.xxxvi+380 pages, 269 illustrations, 24 colour plates. 57 tables. 2007.Oxford: Oxbow; 978-1-84217-236-0 hardback 55 [pounds sterling]. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Long barrows are amongst the oldest and most widespread prehistoricmonuments in the British Isles British Isles:see Great Britain; Ireland. , yet despite knowing of more than athousand examples only a handful have been fully investigated. Thisvolume reports the total excavation of the Ascott-under-Wychwood barrow20km northeast of Oxford between 1965 and 1969 under the direction ofDon Benson. The report is substantial, detailed, and very well-produced,with contributions from numerous specialists. The layout follows thetried and tested approach to excavation reports that most archaeologistswill navigate easily: introduction; phase-by-phase account of what wasdiscovered; specialist studies; and a synthesis covering theimplications of what was found. It stands up well against reports ofmuch more recent excavations, and it is a great credit to the skill ofDon Benson and his team that the excavation and recording systemsdeveloped for the dissection of such a complicated structure haveallowed a high level of post-excavation analysis. Indeed, it might besaid that the archives and finds have matured through keeping astechniques such as palaeopathology, AMS AMS - Andrew Message System dating, organic residueanalysis, and isotope studies were simply not available when the sitewas dug. And in coordinating the post-excavation programme MasdairWhittle has not hesitated to call on the latest scientific approaches,with fascinating results. Ascott as a physical space has always been part of the Cotswoldlandscape, but as a humanly-constructed place has been given meaningsand purpose on many occasions. Short-lived visits in the eight and fifthmillennia BC are recognised, but things really kicked-off in the earlyfourth millennium BC. Occupation is represented by an artefact-richmidden middendungheap. and postholes, a pattern present below other long barrows in theCotswolds and beyond, which raises interesting questions about whetherthese barrows were built over spots imbued with significance, or whetherthe barrow-builders simply used existing open ground out of expediency.Taphonomy ta��phon��o��my?n.1. The study of the conditions and processes by which organisms become fossilized.2. The conditions and processes of fossilization. plays a role here as the barrows protect areas of earlylandscape that have long-since vanished around about, thus making itdifficult to contextualise the recorded remains in space. For Ascott,Whittle and colleagues favour a thread of continuity linking theoccupation with the subsequent construction of the barrow; one of the'constructed memories' implied in the report's title.They acknowledge, however, that a buried soil and turfline sealed themidden before the barrow was built, and that the two events wereseparated in time. Perhaps the midden should be seen as a typicalsettlement of the early Neolithic in the area, and, for this reviewer atleast, the pair of structures with a hearth in-between as described inthe report (p. 27-32 and Figure 2.4) makes more sense as a singletimber-framed house with a central hearth, a view that finds somesupport in the many helpful plots showing the distribution of findsbelow the barrow. The long barrow itself was built in two main stages, resulting in atypical trapezoidal structure c. 46m long and c. 15m wide at itsmaximum, edged with high-quality dry-stone walling. At the east end ashallow forecourt lay between a pair of projecting horns. Transverselyacross the centre of the mound were two opposed pairs of cists, eachwith a short passage from the adjacent long sides of the mound. Thecists and passages contained the remains of 21 people representing allages and both sexes, deposited in a variety of circumstances fromflesh-covered corpses to incomplete body-parts and cremations. Two analyses make this report stand out. First is the detailedstudy of the human remains and the patterns of deposition supported bynumerous coloured plans identifying the bones from specific individualsthrough the various deposits. Second is the dating programme that allowsa level of analysis not previously possible for these sites. Inconsequence, the settlement is dated to the late 40th or early 39thcentury BC, the gap between the abandonment of the midden and theconstruction of the barrow is reckoned to be about 50 years, and theconstruction of the barrow was in the 38th century BC. Use of the siteextended for between three and five generations with burial ending inthe 37th century BC. This level of detail excites a new and welcome kindof prehistory prehistory,period of human evolution before writing was invented and records kept. The term was coined by Daniel Wilson in 1851. It is followed by protohistory, the period for which we have some records but must still rely largely on archaeological evidence to in which people and events can at last be brought intosharp focus. Given similar results at other sites (Bayliss & Whittle2007), long barrows must now be seen as a relatively short-livedphenomenon within the early fourth millennium BC; a distinct type ofmonument that renders obsolete the traditional terminological pot-pourriof earthen long barrows, chambered cairns, gallery graves, megalithic meg��a��lith?n.A very large stone used in various prehistoric architectures or monumental styles, notably in western Europe during the second millennium b.c. long mounds and so on (cf. Darvill 2004: 39-40). Clearly, long barrowsrepresent specific responses to the circumstances of time and place inwhich Britain's early farming communities found themselves. For all its joys, there are a few gaps in the Ascott report thatmight have been addressed: labour requirements, sources of materialsused, stonework stonework,term applied to various types of work—that of the lapidary who shapes, cuts, and polishes gemstones or engraves them for seals and ornaments; of the jeweler or artisan who mounts or encrusts them in gold, silver, or other metal; of the stonemason who sequences, and the relationships between timber andstone, to name a few. But these could no doubt be filled through furtherwork with the archive and the excellent range of plans and illustrationsin the report. Discussion in the report focuses on place and time,building and remembrance, drawing heavily on agency theory and the ideaof temporality tem��po��ral��i��ty?n. pl. tem��po��ral��i��ties1. The condition of being temporal or bounded in time.2. temporalities Temporal possessions, especially of the Church or clergy.Noun 1. . It is a way of thinking quite alien to those excavatingthe site back in the late 1960s when even the New Archaeology was stillnew, but it works well and delivers new insights relevant tocontemporary agendas. Most importantly Adv. 1. most importantly - above and beyond all other consideration; "above all, you must be independent"above all, most especially , it shows how good qualityfieldwork can recurrently fuel the needs of changing theoreticalperspectives; it is a report whose content will no doubt be used timeand again by future generations of scholars working in paradigms not yetdefined. References BAYLISS, A. & A. WHITTLE (ed.). 2007. Histories of the dead:building chronologies for five southern British long barrows. CambridgeArchaeological Journal 17.1 (Supplement): 1-147. DARVILL, T. 2004. Long barrows of the Cotswolds and surroundingareas. Stroud: Tempus. TIMOTHY DARVILL School of Conservation Sciences, Bournemouth University, Dorset, UK (Email: tdarvill@bournemouth.ac.uk)