26th June 2012, 12:51 PM
P Prentice Wrote:merely pointing out that the range they come in is extremely limited. most of mine less than 1.2 across and 0.5 deep
profiles may vary but so did Neo people (and diggers) so probably irrelevant
although i like the idea of pitfall traps and grub hunting pits - the evidence from pit group sites does not support either
if you think about the placed deposits at the base of causewayed enclosure ditch/pits, such as Etton, i would contend that pit digging was a way of penetrating the earth in order to put something back; sometimes with material culture, sometimes from a midden but probably with ceremony
But up here the deposits aren't placed in any discernible way. Unless you firstly decide that all forms of intentional back-filling as being ritual. Also what of the postholes?
Shape/size of a pit can be an indication of its function if the function was shape dependent. For instance the arguments/experiments regarding grain storage in pits. Also think of fire pits/hearths, post pits, animal traps, waterholes, cess-pits, structual hollows, stakeholes etc etc.......
To lump all pits in one category is to ignore vital evidence.
But..........yes...........in East Anglia and down south aren't the pits in question more uniform in size/shape? Or have the unusually shaped/sized ones been ignored? I don't know, only scanned stuff about them or read general discussion stuff.
In my area the pits with neolithic date range from shallow approx 0.35m diameter by up to 0.1m deep to 3.5m by 3.5m by 0.46m deep, of all shapes and profiles from steep sided flat bottomed to bowl shaped v-shaped. I got pits cut down to (but not through) the chalk bedrock, others are cut into the chalk bedrock, ones cut into clay, some cut into natural features such a s tree-throws, some cut into earlier features. I got neolithic pottery in natural features too.
Fills range from one or two fills of mixed ?midden material with burnt stones and charcoal to multiple fills/slumping episodes. I got silted up fills, pit side erosion, back-filled chalk, backfilled earth........I got packing fills, packing stones.........I even got a potential neolithic house!
Further afield there are other neo houses, midden deposits, further variety of pits and a possible pit alignment...............
It doesn't look like the same pattern of neo sites just being clusters or singular pits.
BUT, and the big BUT is the other associated features...........e.g. postholes and structures are mainly only in areas of less truncation.
Is that enough of a distinct difference for a regional tradition?
If not, look at Skara Brae,
Or Ceidhe Fields
Or the Carrowkeel area