Landscape Stability and the Formation of Social Memory in Prehistoric Britain

People know places through inhabiting their textures and contours, and relating places in space and time. Historically significant places come into being through inhabitation, and the world becomes sedimented with memories. These memories may be manifest within and referenced by materials. Prehistorians have tended to interpret the creation and maintenance of social memory in evidence of long-term continuities of inhabitation and the veneration of ancient structures and the people who built and inhabited them. Archaeological research has recognised material culture as a transmitter for social memories. Although there are now numerous archaeological studies of social memory in the landscapes, this literature has offered little commentary on the role of the landscape, its material properties and agencies in creating and recollecting social memories. This thesis treats the landscape as an active participant in the processes of memory-making and asks how a landscape's rate of change will affect the maintenance of memories across short and long timescales. The project characterises landscapes as relatively stable, changing slowly over long durations or relatively dynamic, changing rapidly over shorter periods. The approach is applied to three case study regions: the Welsh Severn Estuary, an intertidal zone and relatively dynamic landscape; Bodmin Moor, a moorland and relatively stable landscape; and the Somerset Levels, a valley wetland and relatively dynamic landscape. Within each case study, the character of landscape stability and prehistoric human activity have been assessed and compared, allowing for an interpretation of prehistoric inhabitation in the face of relatively stable or relatively dynamic landscapes. The results confirm that landscapes actively participated in creating and recollecting memories during prehistory. Through mnemonic landmarks, inhabitants came to know their surroundings, and people did not lose the memory of significant places even as the rhythms of dynamic landscapes erased many remains of past inhabitants.