Broxmouth biographies: Roundhouses as mnemonic devices in Iron Age Scotland

Summary

Broxmouth hillfort in SE Scotland saw continued occupation for almost 800 years (c. cal. 600 BC - AD 200), during which around 30 generations of inhabitants shaped the settlement and its surroundings. Activity at Broxmouth can be broadly split into six (both enclosed and unenclosed) phases, the last of which (c. cal. 200 BC - AD 200) is characterised by re-enclosure, and well-preserved roundhouses of timber and stone. The form, fabric and development of the roundhouses over time suggest that these last inhabitants were well aware of the long biography of the site, and made conscious efforts to draw upon and engage with it. This paper will demonstrate how biographical and materiality approaches, coupled with Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates, have allowed for the biographies of the roundhouses to be more closely intertwined with those of their inhabitants. This has revealed the central role of roundhouses, and their associated deposits, in the negotiation of past and present at Broxmouth, and in the communication of both household and communal identities.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Biographies of Enclosure in Global Context

Keywords

Spatial Coverage