This week we have a guest blog post from Mackenzie who has been helping with our Stone Age house project as part of a student placement from Southampton University. We’ve now moved on to daubing our wattle wall and Mackenzie shares a bit more about this process below…

Hello! I am Mackenzie, I am a Masters’s student at the University of Southampton specialising in Osteoarchaeology. My personal interests in archaeology pertain to the investigation of animal (zooarchaeology) and human remains (osteoarchaeology) from the past. I am very interested in the assessment of disease pathology as well as burial practices and how these themes inform archaeologists today of past cultural behaviours. I completed my undergraduate degree in Anthropology at Portland State University in the USA and have participated in mortuary excavations in Poland at a medieval village site (see image above). 

Any who, enough about me…

Let’s get dirty! Last week the Wessex team completed wattling the west wall of the house and now it is time for the team to get down and dirty with some daub! In preparation for the Wessex team, Archaeologist Claire, work placement student Christian, and myself reconstituted the daub that was used on the previous Neolithic house. Just like a pre-made pancake mix, all we did to reconstitute the old daub was just add water! Because Butser is all about recreating the past experience, we did not simply use a spade to stir together our daub and water… nope, nope, nope we tried using a cow scapula!

I should note, in the past the scapula would have been hafted onto some sort of wooden handle, but our idea to try it out was very last minute and we did not have time to create a haft so we improvised as one often does in archaeology. Once we concluded that the Scapula method was indeed feasible, we did revert back to our modern tools of spades and feet- I think Claire had a bit too much of a good time stomping around in her wellies, we all know how she feels about cow poo after her last few blog posts!

On a more desk-based note, I have been holed up in Heartly Library at the University of Southampton trying to read up as much as I can on the houses of the Neolithic (see references below). I have found this much more interesting than expected, particularly combined with my personal experience of the build, and many revelations have come to pass… the biggest one of all being… Neolithic people were just like us! 

As archaeologists, and non-archaeologists, we tend to separate ourselves from people of the past. We always talk about how much more “advanced” we are today. In reality, when it all boils down, we are the same. This house construction project has proven that we use the same tools, such as axes and chisels. We use the same materials, the division of labour is likely to be very similar, and the activities done both in and outside of the house would have likely been similar to how we use our spaces today.

My research has shown me that in the British Isles many Neolithic houses were rectangular ranging in sizes up to 242m2, these houses typically had an entrance on the North-West wall, 2-3 rooms or cells and possibly lofts for grain storage. All these features are demonstrated in our reconstruction!

My time here at Butser has been invaluable through these experiences I have felt a deeper connection with our Neolithic Ancestors and a greater realisation of the continuity of cultural traditions overtime. Everyday at the farm is a day full of fun and I am continually astonished by the possibilities for new discovery presented in archaeology. There is always something to be learned, a source of inspiration and some way to get dirty!

References 

Werra, D., 2010. Longhouses and long-distance contacts in the Linearbandkeramik communities on the north-east border of the oecumene: “à parois doubles in Chełmno Land (Poland). In Anthropologica et Præhistorica, 121. Pp. 121-142. 

Smyth, J., 2006. The Role of the house in early Neolithic Ireland. In European Journal o. f Archaeology, 9(2-3). Pp. 229-257. 

Pyzel, J., 2012. “Chapter 8: Change and Continuity in the Danubian Longhouses of Lowland Poland”. In Hoffmann and Smyth (eds.) Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe. Springer, New York. 

Fairweather, A. and Ralston, I., 1993. The Neolithic timber hall at Balbridie Grampian Region, Scotland: the building, the date, the plant macrofossils. Antiquity, 67. Pp. 313-323. 

Darvill, T. and Thomas, J., 2002. Neolithic houses in northwest Europe and beyond (Vol. 1). Oxbow Books.