Variations on a Theme: An Account of Some Possible Kerbed Boulders in the South Pennines and Cumbria

Abstract

This Note describes a number of features comprising sub-circular stone patterns, arguably deliberate settings, relating to much larger rocks, located in the upland of Calderdale, West Yorkshire and in central Cumbria and in Ireland. Parallels in south-west England are outlined, and suggestions made regarding interpretation. Connections are made with other forms of the appropriation of natural features, and with the way that archaeologists come to notice things.

Keywords:

• kerbed boulder
• South Pennines
• social construction
• materiality

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to Frank Jolley for his expertise in producing digital versions of my plans. Peter Rodgers has most patiently provided me with a great deal of unpublished information and images. Gaby Burns and Jim Nolan have supplied essential data, images and advice for which I am most grateful. Thanks are also extended to Chris Scarre who commented favorably and constructively on an earlier version of this paper.

Notes

1. These features are not unknown to professional archaeologists and dating is the key to further interpretation. Following a site visit Louise Brown, Community Archaeologist with Pennine Prospects, a LEADER-funded heritage body, will advise on an excavation strategy for one of the South Pennine sites. This is projected for autumn 2015.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Shepherd

The author has been involved in archaeology for over fourteen years and his fieldwork has led to the location and recording of numerous prehistoric features in the South Pennines. With an academic background in social psychology his preoccupation is with the ways that people come to express their relationships with places.