24th June 2012, 11:09 AM
Quote:As a slight side issue, why are there usually earlier pits under or close to barrows and the like?
Interesting. Am currently looking at pits filled with little bits of Beaker and flint. Two done in detail from one site - cross-fitting sherds identified. Could just be rubbish disposal except the pits have been hacked into solid chalk and don't appear to have been used before or after the (single) fill event. Seems like overkill. Next to a later burial mound on the south of Cranborne Chase in Dorset.
Quote:is there such a thing as a distinctive regional tradtion in neolithic pit world
Temporality needs to be considered as well as regionality. I don't think that any "meaning" (if you can assume that meanings were attached to them) or distinct purpose lasted for a few thousand years. A pit at the start of the Neolithic might "mean" something completely different to a pit the same size and shape in exactly the same place in the Late Neolithic.