Ritual Deposition in Prehistoric Britain

Ritual deposits are one of the most spectacular features of prehistoric archaeology in Britain and beyond, ranging from pots smashed inside burial chambers, to bronze swords cast into rivers, to gold coins buried in a field. In Ritual Deposition in Prehistoric Britain, Duncan Garrow investigates instances of this phenomenon throughout the whole of prehistory in Britain, from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age, providing readers with a broad historical and thematic overview of the subject as well as specific case studies. The book begins with an in-depth discussion of how ritual deposits have been approached interpretively over the course of archaeology's history, from its early beginnings to the present day; in doing so, Garrow investigates key concepts, from the earliest ideas of stratigraphy to more recent applications of structured deposition. The book then explores the concept of ritual deposition across five period-specific chapters, looking at objects placed intentionally in the ground in a wide variety of ways. Key themes explored include the ways in which acts of deposition helped to create place and to negotiate materiality. The book argues that intentional deposition, while seemingly destructive, was a highly creative practice that was central to past people's lives and understandings of the world.Tracing the threads of this fascinating practice over an extended timespan, Garrow offers a much-needed broad survey of ritual deposition and brings new perspectives to bear on an intriguing and exciting range of material evidence.This is an open access title available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International licence. It is free to read on the Oxford Academic platform and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.