Paper short abstract:

Various sites throughout the Middle Thames Valley (MTV) have been recorded in recent years due to the growing number of developer funded excavations. Such an explosion of commercially driven research has led to numerous opportunities to explore hugely complex and expansive sites. Long term and large-scale projects have provided opportunities to develop iterative research frameworks. The scale of these excavations permitted the investigation of whole occupation sites, monuments and land in between. Apparently `empty` land zones or ones with little trace of inhabitation contrast with other foci that are places of persistent or episodic habitation. The inhabitants would have had an awareness, whether through memory or oral tradition, of what went before and an understanding of how this shaped their world, ideas and beliefs.

Paper long abstract:

Discoveries at Horton, T5 Heathrow and Harlington have revealed general, prolonged reuse of a landscape with evidence for settlement and established tenure of fertile landscape from the Neolithic to medieval periods. Specific evidence, however, has suggested that particular landscape features were singled out for long-term interaction, sometimes with separate phases of activity covering several millennia. These may relate to small pits, placed deposition within features, or the reuse and development of long-standing monuments.

This paper considers to what extent memory and tradition played a part in the reuse of such features. Features show evidence for the very specific act of retention of coveted/curated artefacts, perhaps even heirlooms, and their ultimate deposition within significant contexts. Were the communities merely continuing specific practices long held within their cultures, commonly practiced throughout their lives? Or were such acts merely the result of specific 'events', singular to a small community or group?