Prehistoric Cumbria
The survival of these monuments and objects has been influenced by processes such as the rise in sea levels on the west coast, erosion, deposition practices, industrial and agricultural development, and the changing interests and capabilities of antiquarians and archaeologists.
[18] In the north Cumbrian plain, around the Carlisle area and into southern Scotland, evidence has been found for woodland clearance and deliberate fire-setting as a method of managing the landscape during the Mesolithic period.
[19] Large Mesolithic flint-chipping sites, where flints washed up from the Irish Sea were worked into tools, have been found at Eskmeals, near Ravenglass on the west coast, and at Walney in the south.
An increase in evidence of disturbed ground, wood-clearing and cereal pollen in Cumbria during the 5th millennium BC indicates the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic period.
[23] "The evidence suggests that small-scale agriculture may have gradually become part of the Mesolithic repertoire, in addition to the established lifestyle of gathering, hunting and fishing".
The change "is marked by the appearance of ...leaf-shaped arrowheads, scrapers and polished stone axes together with pottery and ceremonial and funerary monuments".
These enclosures are associated with the building of long cairns, as at Skelmore Heads and Howe Robin, and with stone axes, as at Carrock Fell.
Later on, monuments would become more 'institutionalised'[clarification needed] and develop into stone circles and henges, reflecting a more localised and settled focus to occupation, as opposed to marking meeting points for trade and exchange as had been the case earlier.
The evidence of deer bones here and at Bardsea in South Cumbria suggests a continuation of hunter-gathering alongside more settled, agricultural, means of living.
"Wetland areas, whether open water or bog, were foci for beliefs and ritual practices alongside contemporary monuments, and it is, therefore, interesting to note there was a standing stone near Ehenside Tarn".
[38] Also at this time, possibly reflecting economic power created by the Axe Factory and repeated contact with Ireland,[39] many stone circles and henges were built across the county.
[40] The Neolithic examples include the impressive enclosure at Mayburgh, near Penrith, and a partly destroyed henge at nearby King Arthur's Round Table (KART); as well as the Castlerigg Stone Circle above Keswick.
As the region was forested during the period, deforested high ground would have been a necessary place to congregate if one wanted to witness the horizon, or the solstice sun.
[42] Some of the county’s standing stones feature carved motifs (spirals, circles, grooves and cup-marks), which may have indicated the presence of other monuments or gathering-places and/or signaled the trackways and other routes through the landscape.
[43][44] As well as providing focal points for the gathering of people for the purposes of trade, of ritual, and, in the Late Neolithic, for more 'tenurial' settlement and ownership of land, the stone circles probably had cosmological uses as well.
[47] In the Early Bronze Age, evidence of greatly increased woodland clearing combined with cereal growing has been found in the pollen record for the North Cumbrian Plain, Solway Firth and the coastal areas.
Activity round the Morecambe Bay region seems to have been less than in the West Cumbrian Coastal Plain, although there is evidence for significant settlement on Walney Island, and at Sizergh, Levens Park and Allithwaite where Beaker burials took place.
[53] Burials for inhumations (in barrows and cairns) are found on the surface, as at Oddendale, or in pits, usually with a cist formed in it, as at Moor Divock, Askham.
Ritualistic deposition into Cumbrian grave-sites include: broken artefacts, such as single beads from a necklace (as at Ewanrigg); sherds of Beaker or Collared Urn pottery; bone pins, buttons, jet, slate, clay ornaments; ochre, or red porphyry and quartz crystals (as at Birkrigg, Urswick); knives, daggers and hunting equipment.
[58] Hoards (two or more items) of deposited Bronze Age metalwork are rare in Cumbria, (notably at Ambleside, Hayton, Fell Lane, Kirkhead Cave, Skelmore Heads), for reasons that are still being discussed.
There is some sign of copper ore extraction around the Coniston area, but the most notable find is of a tuyère, (a clay pipe connecting the bellows to a furnace), found at Ewanrigg[59] and which is a rare example from the Early Bronze Age.
32 bronze artefacts have been discovered in the Furness district covering a long period of time (c. 2300 - 500 BC), suggesting that this region was held to have special meaning to the people there.
They probably spoke Cumbric, a variety of the ancient British language of Brythonic, (or Common Brittonic), the predecessor of modern Welsh, and probably named some of the county's topographical features such as its rivers (e.g. Kent, Eden, Cocker, Levens) and mountains (e.g. Blencathra).
[66] Early Iron Age finds in West Cumbria are limited to sites at Eskmeals and Seascale Moss (with another bog body).
However, Cumbria appears not to have any of the so-called 'developed hillforts' (enlarged from earlier versions, around 3-7ha in area, with multiple ditches and complex entrances),[67] suggesting that few, if any, were still being used in the pre-Roman Iron Age, apparently having been abandoned.
Woodland clearing happened, however, combined with signs of increased soil erosion: production capacity may have been seriously affected, with agriculture being forcibly replaced by pastoralism, and with a resultant "population crisis" at the beginning of the Iron Age.
A major de-forestation period, linked to increased cereal production, seems to have taken place (according to pollen records) towards the end of the 1st millennium BC.
Most of the population, the total size of which at its peak has been estimated at between 20,000-30,000 people,[73] lived in scattered communities, usually consisting of just a single family group.
This indicates a possible affinity of the tribe there (perhaps the Carvetii) to the Celtic god Lugus, whose festival, Lugnasad, occurred on 1 August, accompanied by various sacrifices.
[80][81] In the 18th century a beautiful iron sword with a bronze scabbard, dating from around 50 BC, was found at Embleton near Cockermouth; it is now in the British Museum.
