Research and Sources for Wayland’s Smithy
It was long believed that the barrow was used for centuries as a burial place, but recent reassessment of the archaeological evidence suggests that its use was short-lived and intensive.
Early Investigations
Early antiquarian investigators believed that the monument was a small cave, and it was not until the early 19th century that it was recognised as a barrow. The site was still suffering from damage, however, and this led to local pressure to excavate the site in order to present it to the public in a more orderly manner.
These excavations, carried out in July 1919 and June 1920, were haphazardly organised and poorly recorded, even by the standards of the time. They consisted of cleaning the chambers by spade, but they served to confirm that the stone burial chamber was transepted, to show that it had held burials and to indicate the likely existence of an earlier structural phase.
Modern Excavations
Further excavations of the site took place in 1962–3. These revealed that the trapezoidal long mound concealed an earlier oval barrow and mortuary area. After these excavations were complete, the site was reconstructed to what is thought to be its original form.
Radiocarbon Dating
Recent radiocarbon dating of Wayland’s Smithy was carried out alongside dating of other long barrows in southern England, as part of a ground-breaking project led by English Heritage in association with Cardiff University and University of Central Lancashire.
The project has revolutionised the way we think about the Neolithic. Long-held views of the chronology of long barrows in England, and the duration of their use, have been overturned.
Radiocarbon dating has been available to archaeologists for more than 50 years, with high-precision calibration based on wood dated by dendrochronology available for the Neolithic period in England for the last 20 years.
On its own, this method provides reliable yet broad ranges for the dates of individual samples, usually spanning 250 years or more. But when combined with Bayesian statistics, a method in which samples are studied and interpreted in their archaeological context (their appearance in different layers in the soil, for example), the span can be narrowed, sometimes to within a few decades.
The Evidence from Wayland’s Smithy
This technique has been used to re-assess the archaeological evidence from Wayland’s Smithy. More precise dating of the bones previously discovered there has revealed that the Neolithic Age was marked by more violence than has traditionally been imagined.
It has also dispelled the long-held view that the barrow was used over centuries. Instead, its use was short-lived and intensive, probably under a decade in the case of Wayland’s Smithy I. Such short timescales support the impression of small communities keeping alive memories of their immediate kin and people they knew, rather than some tribal ancestors or past heroes.
A Revolution in Thinking
The dating programme demands a revolution in our thinking about prehistory, and not just that of early Neolithic burial monuments in southern Britain. Finally, we can now think about Neolithic history – ideas, events and people at specific times over 5,000 years ago.
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Further Reading
Akerman, JY, ‘Observations on the celebrated monument at Ashbury, in the county of Berks, called Wayland Smith’s Cave’, Archaeologia, 32 (1847), 312–14 [accessed 3 Sept 2014]
Ashbee, P, The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain (London, 1970)
Darvill, T, Long Barrows of the Cotswolds and Surrounding Areas (Stroud, 2004)
Lynch, F, Megalithic Tombs and Long Barrows in Britain (Princes Risborough, 1997)
Thurnam, J, ‘On Wayland’s Smithy and on the traditions connected with it’, Wiltshire Archaeology and Natural History Magazine, 7 (1862), 321–33
Whittle, A, ‘Wayland’s Smithy, Oxfordshire: excavations at the Neolithic tomb in 1962–63 by RJC Atkinson and S Piggott’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, 57:2 (1991), 61–101 [publishes the results of the almost complete excavation of the long barrow in 1962–3 by Atkinson and Piggott]
Whittle, A, Bayliss, A and Wysocki, M, ‘Once in a lifetime: the date of the Wayland’s Smithy long barrow’, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 17 (2007), Supplement S1: 103–21 [presents the new radiocarbon results which have radically changed thinking about the date of use of the tomb] [subscription required; accessed 3 Sept 2014]
Collections
The archives from the 1960s excavations are held at Reading Museum store and contain many useful photographs. The objects from the excavation are also at Reading Museum.
Two skulls from the 1919 excavation of the transepted chambers are held at the Natural History Museum.
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