Paper short abstract:

This paper will focus on Roman and post-Roman period activity at Crickley Hill: activity that strongly suggests a significant role for oral tradition and ritual practices in maintaining the significance of the site in the landscape over many centuries.

Paper long abstract:

Crickley Hill (in the Vale of Gloucester) has intermittent settlement and ritual practices from the Neolithic through to the modern day; this paper focuses upon activity at the Iron Age hillfort during the Roman and post-Roman periods. In the early and later Roman periods, ritual monument initially constructed in the late Neolithic - Early Bronze Age (the 'Long Mound') formed the focus for sporadic votive deposition. During the 5th century, the hilltop was reoccupied (perhaps by the nearby villa estate community), and the monument became incorporated within the post-Roman elite sector of the settlement.

Although possibly representing an earlier (2nd century AD) monument, it is argued that it was during this post-Roman phase of activity that the 'Short mound' - a smaller mound modelled upon the Long Mound - was constructed on the periphery of the settlement. The replication of Long Mound features, that lay buried until their excavation in the 1970s, suggests the existence of mechanisms for retaining knowledge over many centuries. The current explanation is that this must have involved the development of oral tradition, and possibly ritual performance, but to what extent might associated memories have been 'social' - and might there be other explanations?

This site gives a rare glimpse into the relationship between community and landscape during the 5th century - commonly seen as a time when religious systems, beliefs, and ritual behaviour, underwent radical change and renegotiation. It provides an opportunity to consider notions of continuity and transformation, and the inter-relationship of memory and power.