Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-18T20:03:09.268Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Persistent Places in the Mesolithic Landscape: an Example from the Black Mountain Uplands of South Wales

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

R.N.E. Barton ,
P.J. Berridge ,
M.J.C. Walker  and
R.E. Bevins
R.N.E. Barton
Affiliation:
Anthropology Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane Campus, Headington, Oxford OX3 OBP
P.J. Berridge
Affiliation:
Colchester and Essex Museum, The Castle, Colchester, Essex CO1 1TJ
M.J.C. Walker
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Wales, Lampeter, Dyfed SA48 7ED
R.E. Bevins
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Museum of Wales, Cathays Park, Cardiff CF1 3NP
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Evidence for the early Postglacial use of upland environments in the Mesolithic in various parts Britain has been known for a long time. However, until relatively recently such evidence had been remarkably absent from upland south Wales, which includes some of the highest mountain ranges in southern Britain. In this paper we report on new work at the upland location of Waun Fignen Felen which consists of discrete Early and later Mesolithic artefact scatters on the edge of a former lake basin. In describing this example, we focus on the timing of Mesolithic movements into the interior uplands and examine the relationship between humans and the landscape, particularly in respect to the long distance transport of materials and factors likely to have influenced the choice of site location. Some comparative observations are made on the use and perception of landscapes by ethnographic hunter-gatherers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 61 , 1995 , pp. 81 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Audouze, F. 1987. The Paris Basin in Magdalenian times. In Soffer, O. (ed), The Pleistocene Old World, regional perspectives, 183–200. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamforth, D. 1986. Technological efficiency and stone tool curation. American Antiquity 51, 38–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamforth, D. 1990. Settlement, raw material, and lithic procurement in the central Mojave desert. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 9, 70–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barton, R.N.E. 1992. Hengistbury Head, Dorset. Volume 2: the Late Upper Palaeolithic and Early Mesolithic sites. Oxford: Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph 34.Google Scholar
Becker, B. 1993. An 11,000-year German oak and pine dendrochronology for radiocarbon calibration. Radiocarbon 35, 201–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, B. & Kromer, B. 1991. Dendrochronology and radiocarbon calibration of the early Holocene. In Barton, N., Roberts, A.J. & Roe, D.A. (eds), The Late Glacial in North-West Europe, 22–4. London: Council for British Archaeology Reserach Report 77.Google Scholar
Bell, M. 1992. Field survey and excavation at Goldcliff 1992. In Bell, M. (ed.), Severn Estuary Levels Research Committee Annual Report 1992, 15–31. Lampeter: St David's University College.Google Scholar
Bell, M. & Walker, M.J.C. 1992. Late Quaternary Environmental Change: Physical and Human Perspectives. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bennett, K.D. & Birks, H.J.B. 1990. Postglacial history of alder (Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn.) in the British Isles. Journal of Quaternary Science 5, 123–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berridge, P. J. 1979. Waun Fignen Felen. Archaeology in Wales 19, 11.Google Scholar
Berridge, P.J. 1980. Waun Fignen Felen. Archaeology in Wales 20, 19–20.Google Scholar
Berridge, P.J. 1981. Waun Fignen Felen. Archaeology in Wales 21, 20.Google Scholar
Berridge, P.J. 1985. Mesolithic sites in the Yarty Valley. Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 43, 1–21.Google Scholar
Berridge, P.J. 1994 The lithics. In Quinnell, H. & Blockley, M.R. (eds), Excavations at Rhuddlan, Clwyd 1969–73: Mesolithic to Medieval, 95–114. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 95.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1979. Organisation and formation processes: looking at curated technologies. Journal of Anthropological Research 35, 255–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1983. The archaeology of place. In Binford, L.R. (ed.), Working at Archaeology, 357–78. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. 1986. In pursuit of the past. Harlow: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Bokelmann, K. 1980. Duvensee, Wohnplatz 6. Neue Befunde zur mesolithischen Sammelwirtschaft im 7 vorchristlichen Jahrtausend. Die Heimat 10, 320–30.Google Scholar
Bokelmann, K. 1985. A rest under the trees: an ephemeral Mesolithic camp in the Duvensee peatbog. Mesolithic Miscellany 6, 7–10.Google Scholar
Britnell, W.J. & Savory, H.N. 1984. Gwernvale and Penywyrlod: two Neolithic long cairns in the Black Mountains of Brecknock. Cardiff: Cambrian Archaeological Association, Cambrian Archaeological Monograph 2.Google Scholar
Buckley, F. 1925. The microlithic industries of Northumberland. Archaeologia Aeliana 4th series, 1, 42–7.Google Scholar
Camilli, E.L. & Ebert, J.I. 1992. Artifact reuse and recycling in continuous surface distributions and implications for interpreting land use patterns. In Rossignol, J. & Wandsnider, L. (eds), Space, Time and Archaeological Landscapes, 113–36. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M. 1982. Environmental history of Cefn Gwernffrwd, near Rhandirmwyn, mid-Wales. New Phytologist 92, 607–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M. 1983. Three radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams from upland peats north-west of Methyr Tydfil, South Wales. Journal of Ecology 71, 475–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M. 1985. Flandrian environmental history of the Llynfi catchment, South Wales. Ecologia Mediterranea 11, 73–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, F.M. & Elliott, L. 1989. Spread and expansion of Alnus Mill in the British Isles: timing, agencies and possible vectors. Journal of Biogeography 16, 541–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. & Moore, D.M. 1987. Flora of the British Isles. 3rd edition. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Clark, J.D.G. 1972. Star Carr: a case study in bioarchaeology. Massachusetts: Addison Wesley Modular Publications 10, Reading.Google Scholar
Cloutman, E.W. 1983. Studies of the vegetational history of the Black Mountains range, South Wales. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Clutton-Brock, J. & Noe-Nygaard, N. 1990. New osteological and C-isotope evidence on Mesolithic dogs: companions to hunters and fishers at Star Carr, Seamer Carr and Kongemose. Journal of Archaeological Science 17, 643–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
David, A. 1989. Some aspects of the human presence in West Wales during the Mesolithic. In Bonsall, C. (ed.), The Mesolitbic in Europe, 241–53. Edinburgh: John MacDonald.Google ScholarPubMed
David, A. 1990. Palaeolithic and Mesolithic settlement in Wales, with special reference to Dyfed. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Lancaster.Google Scholar
Davies, W.M. 1978. A study of a blanket bog at Waun-Fignen-Felin. Unpublished thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Day, P. & Mellars, P. 1994. ‘Absolute’ dating of mesolithic human activity at Star Carr, Yorkshire, and the 9600 BP radiocarbon plateau. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60, 417–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Donald, L. & Mitchell, D.H. 1994. Nature and culture on the Northwest Coast of North America. In Burch, E.S. & Ellanna, L.J. (eds), Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, 95–118. Oxford: Berg.Google Scholar
Dresser, Q. 1985. University College Cardiff Radiocarbon dates I. Radiocarbon 27, 338–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gamble, C. 1986. The Palaeolithic Settlement of North-West Europe. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Gramly, R.M. 1981. Eleven thousand years in Maine. Archaeology 34, 32–9.Google Scholar
Hack, B. & Cornish, A.P. 1991. Preliminary report on a recent collection from the 100 foot terrace at Abbots Leigh, Avon. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society 19, 33–41.Google Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Housley, R.A., Law, I.A. & Bronk, C.R. 1989. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS system: Archaeometry datelist 9. Archaeometry 31, 207–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, R.E.M., Housley, R.A., Bronk Ramsey, C. & Klinken, G.J. van 1994. Radiocarbon dates from the AMS system: datelist 18. Archaeometry 36, 337–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heyworth, A. & Kidson, C. 1982. Sea-level changes in southwest England and in Wales. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 93, 91–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hibbert, F.A. & Switsur, V.R. 1976. Radiocarbon dating of Flandrian pollen zones in Wales and northern England. New Phytologist 77, 783–807.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntley, B. & Birks, H.J.B. 1983. An Atlas of Past and Present Pollen Maps of Europe 0–13,000 years ago. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Ingold, T. 1982. Reply to Testart, A. The significance of food storage among hunter-gatherers: residence patterns, population densities and social inequalities. Current Anthropology 23, 531–2.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1976. Britain inside and outside Mesolithic Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 42, 67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1978. Northern England in the eighth millennium be: an essay. In Mellars, P.M. (ed.), The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe. 295–332. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1979. Early Flandrian hunters in the south-west. Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 13, 48–93.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1980. The early Holocene settlement of Wales. In Taylor, J.A. (ed.), Culture and Environment in Prehistoric Wales, 131–206. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 76.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M. 1986. The contents of Dr Harley's showcase. In Collcutt, S.N. (ed.), The Palaeolithic of Britain and its Nearest Neighbours: Recent Trends, 62–8. Sheffield: Department of Archaeology & Prehistory.Google Scholar
Jacobi, R.M., Tallis, J.H. & Mellars, P.A. 1976. The southern Pennine Mesolithic and the ecological record. Journal of Archaeological Science 3, 307–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamerling, P. 1979. The geology of the hydrocarbon habitat of the Bristol Channel. Journal of Petroleum Geology 2, 75–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kra, K. K. & Stuiver, M. (eds). 1986. 12th International Radiocarbon Conference, Trondheim, Norway, 1985. Radiocarbon 28, 2.Google Scholar
Kromer, B. & Becker, B. 1993. German oak and pine C14 calibration, 7200–9400 BC. Radiocarbon 35, 125–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S.L. 1991. ‘Unpacking’ reduction: lithic raw material economy in the Mousterian of west-central Italy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 10, 76–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lacaille, A.D. 1954. Palaeoliths from the lower reaches of the Bristol Avon. Antiquaries Journal 34, 1–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larsson, L. 1983. Ageröd V: An Atlantic bog site in central Scania. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia, 12. Lund: C.W.K. Gleerups.Google Scholar
Lowe, J.J. 1982. Three Flandrian pollen profiles from the Teith Valley, Perthshire, Scotland. II. Analysis of deteriorated pollen. New Phytologist 90, 371–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manley, J. & Healey, E. 1982. Excavations at Hendre, Rhuddlan: the Mesolithic finds. Arcbaeologia Cambrensis 134, 230–5.Google Scholar
Mellars, P.A. 1976. Fire ecology, animal populations and man: a study of some ecological relationships in prehistory. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 42, 15–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P. & Rheinhardt, S.C. 1978. Patterns of Mesolithic land-use in southern England: a geological perspective. In Mellars, P. (ed.), The Early Postglacial Settlement of Northern Europe. 371–96. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Moore, P.D., Webb, J.A. & Collinson, M.E. 1991. Pollen Analysis. 2nd edition. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Myers, A. 1987. All shot to pieces? Inter-assemblage variability, lithic analysis and mesolithic assemblage ‘types’: some preliminary observations. In Brown, A.G. & Edmonds, M.R. (eds), Lithic Analysis and Later British Prehistory: Some Problems and Approaches, 137–54. Oxford: British Archaeological Report 162.Google Scholar
Naylor, D. & Shannon, P.M. 1982. The Geology of Off shore Ireland and West Britain. London: Graham & Trotman.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, R.K. 1982. A conservation ethic and environment: the Koyukon of Alaska. In Williams, N.M. & Hunn, E.S. (eds), Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers, 211–28. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Norman, C. 1975. Four Mesolithic assemblages from West Somerset. Proceedings of the Somerset Archaeology & Natural History Society 119, 26–37.Google Scholar
Nuzhnyi, D. 1989. L'utilisation des microlithes geometriques et non-geometriques comme armatures de projectiles. Bulletin de la Société Prehistorique Française 86, 88–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radley, J. & Mellars, P.A. 1964. A Mesolithic structure at Deepcar, Yorkshire, England, and its affinities of its associated flint industries. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 30, 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robertson, D.W. 1988. Aspects of the Late-glacial and Flandrian environmental history of the Brecon Beacons, Fforest Fawr, Black Mountains and Abergavenny Black Mountain, South Wales (with particular reference to the Late-glacial and early Flandrian periods). Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Wales.Google Scholar
Robinson, D. & Bevins, R.E. 1986. Incipient metamorphism in the Lower Palaeozoic marginal basin of Wales. Journal of Metamorphic Geology 4, 101–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roe, D.A. 1974. Palaeolithic artefacts from the River Avon terraces near Bristol. Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spalaeological Society 13, 319–26.Google Scholar
Saville, A. 1981. Mesolithic industries in central England: an exploratory investigation using microlith typology. Archaeological Journal 138, 49–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saville, A. 1990. Hazelton North, Gloucestershire, 1979–82: The Excavation of a Neolithic Long Cairn of the Cotswold-Severn Group. London: Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission Archaeological Report 13.Google Scholar
Savory, H.N. 1966. Prehistoric Brecknocks. Brycheiniog 15, 6–16.Google Scholar
Schlanger, S. H. 1992. Recognising persistent places in Anasazi settlement systems. In Rossignol, J. & Wandsnider, L. (eds), Space, time and archaeological landscapes, 91–112. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schild, R. 1976. Flint mining and trade in Polish prehistory as seen from the perspective of Chocolate Flint. Acta Archaeologica Carpathica 16, 170.Google Scholar
Shnirelman, V.A. 1994. Cherchez le chien: perspectives on the economy of the traditional fishing-oriented people of Kamchatka. In Burch, E.S. & Ellanna, L.J. (eds), Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, 169–88. Oxford: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Silvester, R.J., Berridge, P.J. & Uglow, J. 1987. A fieldwalking exercise on Mesolithic and Neolithic sites at Nether Exe. Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society 45, 1–21.Google Scholar
Simmons, I.G., Dimbleby, G.W. & Grigson, C. 1981. The Mesolithic. In Simmons, I.G. & Tooley, M.J. (eds), The Environment in British Prehistory, 82–124. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar
Smith, A.G. 1970. The influence of Mesolithic and Neolithic man on British vegetation. In Walker, D. & West, R. G. (eds), Studies in the Vegetational History of British Vegetation, 81–96. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, A.G. 1984. Newferry and the Boreal–Atlantic transition. New Phytologist 98, 35–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, A.G. & Cloutman, E.W. 1984. Waun Fignen Felen. In Bowen, D.Q. & Henry, A. (eds), Wales; Gower, Prescelli, Fforest Fawr, 83–90. Cambridge: Quaternary Research Association Field Guide.Google Scholar
Smith, A.G. & Cloutman, W.E. 1988. Reconstruction of Holocene vegetation history at Waun-Fignen-Felen, an upland site in south Wales. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B322, 1209, 159–219.Google Scholar
Stace, C. 1991. New Flora of the British Isles. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Stainton, B. 1989. Excavation of an early prehistoric site at Stratford's Yard, Chesham. Records of Buckinghamshire 31, 49–74.Google Scholar
Stanton, Y. C. 1984. The Mesolithic period: early Postglacial hunter-gatherer communities in Glamorgan. In Savory, H.N. (ed.), Glamorgan County History Volume II, 33–121. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Street, M.J. 1991. Bedburg–Konigshoven: a pre-boreal Mesolithic site in the lower Rhineland (Germany). In Barton, N., Roberts, A.J. & Roe, D.A. (eds), The Late Glacial in North-West Europe, 256–70. London: Council for British Archaeology Research Report 77.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. & Reimer, P.J. 1993. University of Washington Quaternary Isotope Lab radiocarbon dating program rev. 3.0. Radiocarbon 35, 215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tanner, A. 1979. Bringing Home the Animals. Social and Economic Studies 23. Memorial University of Newfoundland.Google Scholar
Torrence, R. 1989. Retooling: towards a behavioural theory of stone tools. In Torrence, R. (ed.), Time, Energy and Stone Tools, 57–76. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Walker, A.J. & Otlet, R.L. 1988. Harwell radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon 30, 297–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M.J.C. 1982a. The Lateglacial and early Flandrian deposits at Traeth Mawr, Brecon Beacons, south Wales. New Phytologist 90, 177–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M.J.C. 1982b. Early- and mid-Flandrian environmental history of the Brecon Beacons, south Wales. New Phytologist 91, 147–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M.J.C. & Harkness, D.D. 1990. Radiocarbon dating the Devensian Lateglacial in Britain: new evidence from Llanilid, south Wales. Journal of Quaternary Science 5, 135–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, M.J.C. & James, J.H. 1994. A radiocarbon dated Flandrian (Holocene) pollen diagram from Cors Carmel SSSI, south-west Wales. Cambria 17.Google Scholar
Walker, M.J.C., Griffiths, H.I., Ringwood, V. & Evans, J.G. 1993. An early-Holocene pollen, mollusc and ostracod record from Llangorse Lake, south Wales, UK. The Holocene 3, 138–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wainwright, G.J. 1960. Three microlithic industries from south-west Britain and their affinities. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 26, 193–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, S.C. 1993. The Thermal Evolution of the South Wales Coalfield. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wales, Cardiff.Google Scholar
Williams, N.M. 1982. A boundary is to cross: observations on Yolngu boundaries and permission. In Williams, N.M. & Hunn, E.S. (eds), Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter-Gatherers, 131–53. Boulder: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Willis, R. 1990. Deby 29 — the functional analysis of a Late Mesolithic site in Poland, and its significance in the Polish context. In Vermeersch, P.M. & van Peer, P. (eds), Contributions to the Mesolithic in Europe, 295–7. Leuven: University Press.Google Scholar