Placing pits: Landscape Occupation and Depositional Practice During the Neolithic in East Anglia

摘要

This paper takes Neolithic pits as a starting point from which to investigate the broader issues of settlement and deposition in Britain at that time. It suggests that while sites made up primarily, and often only, of pits have recently been incorporated much more readily into accounts of the period, they are still not tuell understood. It is only by investigating the character of occupation across the landscape as a whole, and the nature of deposits in a variety of different contexts, that we will be able to understand pits, settlement, or deposition fully. On the basis of a study of this kind, it is suggested that pits were sited in specific locations which might be considered suitable for v settlement''; it is also demonstrated that deposition varied considerably between contexts and over time. By including large numbers of sites known only through 'grey' reports and Historic Environment Records, the study draws on an important body of work which has heen under-used in the past. The paper focuses primarily on East Anglia, a region well-knoiun for its pit sites but not well-knoiun for its monuments; in doing so, it aims to counterbalance the weight of previous narratives which have tended to focus on other parts of Britain.