Pit-trap hunting, place-making and cosmic reciprocity in Mesolithic Britain: the excavation of a substantial pit cluster at Linmere, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire

Abstract

Substantial pits of Mesolithic date are being recognised with ever greater frequency in lowland Britain and adjacent regions of Continental Europe. Often without associated artefactual or faunal assemblages, but containing complex fill sequences, the purpose of these pits has proved difficult to establish. Here, we present the results of excavation on what is to date the largest cluster of substantial Mesolithic pits discovered in the British Isles, at Linmere, Houghton Regis, Bedfordshire. An important assemblage of faunal material was recovered from the pits. This, the morphology of the features, their landscape setting adjacent to a spring-fed stream system, and analogy with other large pit systems, are used to support an argument that these were pit-fall traps used in the hunting of the largest herbivores of the time: aurochs (wild cattle). Aggregation and feasting are implied by the character of this activity. Recuts in the partially silted pits, often containing deposits of animal bone, are linked to notions of spiritual reciprocity and commemoration. The creation and subsequent engagement with these pits is seen as tied into the construction and maintenance of social relations at scale (though gathering and consumption), along with matters of place-making, and relationship work with animals and spirits/meta-persons.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Joshua Pollard: orcid.org/0000-0002-8429-2009

Catalogue record

Export record