British Archaeology Is published bimonthly Next issue out June 10 2022
Membership and Subscriptions Help support our work and become a member of the Council for British Archaeology (cba) for just £44 a year. You will receive British Archaeology (six issues), access to the digital back catalogue, regular newsletters, updates and priority booking for cba events. We also offer a magazineonly subscription: uk print £35 or digital £26.99. Visit our website for details of European and worldwide rates. Find us online at www.archaeologyuk.org/join Email: member@archaeologyuk.org or subscribe@archaeologyuk.org Phone: 01904 671417 Editor Mike Pitts editor@archaeologyuk.org Magazine design by Mike Sigrist Advertising Geoff Connelly geoff@hall-mccartney.co.uk Copyright © authors (text and pictures) and the cba (typography and design) 2022. Views expressed may not reflect cba policy and the
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92 Micklegate, York, yo1 6jx Founded in 1944, the Council for British Archaeology promotes archaeology for all. It makes the case for safeguarding our archaeological heritage, and increasing public participation and understanding. It has a growing membership of individuals of all ages and over 600 organisations, and partnerships with Archaeology Scotland, cba Wales/ Cymru and cba English Regional Groups. The cba is an environmental charity registered in England & Wales (287815) and Scotland (sc041971), and a company limited by guarantee (1760254)
On the cover: The government has an ambitious – some say unrealistic – treeplanting scheme in England designed to tackle climate change and biodiversity loss. Millennia of woodland history suggest an alternative course. See feature on page 32. Photo Mike Pitts
From the editor
Once again your magazine brings you extraordinary new insights into British prehistory derived from analysing ancient dna. An era of Bronze Age immigration has been identified, starting around 1000bc. Including the recolonisation of the islands after the end of the Ice Age, this is the fourth such moment of significant population change to be recognised – but unlike the previous three, nothing in the conventional archaeological record had hinted at its occurrence.
A second study also brings a story entirely beyond the reach of traditional research, this time concerning a small Neolithic community. Family relationships have been established, to reveal the founding importance of a single man and his four wives. That we can get so close to lives so long ago still feels wondrous, though that is the essence of archaeology: thinking about people whose worlds were often very different from our own, finding empathy across cultures, time and space.
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This issue’s contributors include
David Reich is professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School. For the second time in British Archaeology he and Ian Armit describe how ancient dna has identified a significant migration era in prehistoric Britain. This one is Bronze Age: see page 18
Julian Thomas is an archaeologist at the University of Manchester who has been discovering a landscape of Neolithic monuments in Herefordshire. On page 26 he and colleagues join the dots between earthworks, halls and a tomb
Iñigo Olalde is a specialist in ancient genomics at the University of Basque Country, Spain and part of a team that has achieved the astonishing feat of mapping a family tree from burials in a Neolithic cairn. They reveal all on page 38
Radiocarbon dates Unless otherwise noted, 14c dates in British Archaeology are calibrated at 95% confidence (cal ad or cal bc, expressed as ad or bc), rounded out after Mook (1986). See “Radio-carbon dating” by m Christie et al, WikiJournal of Science (2018), doi: 10.15347/wjs/2018.006
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