Middens and Rivers

The latest fascinating paper from Feastnet Project explores the science of how multi-isotope analysis of the remains found in the monumental middens can give us insights into the feasting networks that created them.

Carmen Esposito, Angela L. Lamb, Morten B. Andersen, Marc-Alban Millet, Edward Inglis, Federico Lugli, Alexandra J. Nederbragt, Richard Madgwick,

Diverse feasting networks at the end of the Bronze Age in Britain (c. 900-500 BCE) evidenced by multi-isotope analysis,

iScience, 2025, 113271, ISSN 2589-0042,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2025.113271.

(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225015329)

Abstract: Summary

During the Bronze Age-Iron Age transition, climatic change and economic upheaval signaled societal shifts across Europe. Longstanding trade networks broke down and in southern Britain new sites, termed middens, emerged. These vast mounds of cultural debris represent the coming together of vast numbers of people and animals for feasts on a scale unparalleled in British prehistory. Faunal remains are key for assessing the catchments of these feasting events and the scale and nature of community connectivity. This study examines networks and scales of mobility that centered on these enigmatic sites through analysis of the largest multi-isotope dataset on faunal remains (n = 254) yet generated in archaeology, aided by a random forest 87Sr/86Sr isoscape of Britain. The data evidence diverse site roles, with some middens anchoring wide-ranging networks and others being local centers for specialist economies, providing nuanced resolution into the social and economic dynamics of this transitional phase.

I'm biased in that I have always lived at All Cannings Cross, one of the middens and I know the landscape well. I have the tiniest of quibbles about a theme in the paper which is completely peripheral to it as a scientific paper but as a background to any future Landscape Archaeology research is worth raising. 

A couple of quotes from the paper:

"The continuity of practices and the presence of dark anthropogenic soils are typical traits of middens, as is the close association to rivers;"

"Given the proximity of all middens to rivers, it is likely that waterways played a role in the movement of people, objects and livestock,"

Two of the middens they investigate are at Wallingford and Runneymede, both riverside sites.

But the four surrounding the Pewsey Vale; Potterne, East Chisenbury, All Cannings Cross aand Stanton St Bernard, I'm not so sure.

The Vale before drainage and canalisation of the streams was the infamous Cannings Marsh. It still has a network of small streams and ditches and I doubt any use of the river for transport was possible upstream of Marden and Pewsey.

Here's the map of the middens,  overlain with the geology (https://geologyviewer.bgs.ac.uk/?_ga=2.135734066.2042960007.1757534554-1084134619.1757534554) key at the link, and the river system, major streams in orange, lesser blue,  (https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/73ed24b6d30441648f24f043e75ebed2/page/Location)