The Iron Age Round-House Later Prehistoric Building in Britain and Beyond

by Harding, D. W.

• ISBN13: 9780199558575
• ISBN10: 0199558574
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In contrast to Continental Europe, where the Iron Age is abundantly represented by funerary remains as well as by hill-forts and major centres, the British Iron Age is mainly represented by its settlement sites, and especially by houses of circular ground-plan, apparently in marked contrast tothe Central and Northern European tradition of rectangular houses. In lowland Britain the evidence for timber round-houses comprises the footprint of post-holes or foundation trenches; in the Atlantic north and west, the remains of monumental stone-built houses survive as upstanding ruins,testimony to the building skills of Iron Age engineers and masons. D. W. Harding's fully illustrated study explores not just the architectural aspects of round-houses, but more importantly their role in the social, economic and ritual structure of their communities, and their significance assymbols of Iron Age society in the face of Romanization.

Author Biography

D. W. Harding is Abercromby Professor Emeritus in the University of Edinburgh.

Table of Contents

Iron Age Britain in its European Context

Identifying Houses: Principles and Problems

Post-Hole and Pit: Interpreting Timber Structures

Galleries, Cells and Corbelling: Interpreting Stone Structures

Origins and Antecedents

Round and Rectangular in the Romano-British Iron Age

Later Iron Age Buildings in the Atlantic North and West

Experimental Reconstruction: A Case Study of Wessex Round-Houses

Houses Fit for Gods and Heroes

Houses, Homesteads, Villages, Towns

Round-Houses, Settlement and Society

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