To better appreciate the overall distribution of barrows and graves, we constructed an exhaustive database for Dorset county, collecting available information about barrow monuments and Bronze Age burials, from the Bell Beaker period to the end of the Bronze Age (2500-800 cal BC). This proved to be essential in order to develop a fine-scale and diachronic analysis of the Bronze Age burials, and their relationship with man-made and natural environments. This task, the most time-consuming, allowed the construction of a substantial dataset for Dorset including 2158 barrows, 653 ring-ditches, and 60 burial places, yielding a total of 1271 graves and details of 1028 burials.
Component analyses of this dataset, barrow stratigraphy and radiocarbon dates show that the main chronological division within graves, spanning from 2500 to 1500 cal BC lays not on the various pottery types that have attracted main attention, but a rather swift transition in funerary rite, from inhumation to cremation around 2000 cal BC. As previously observed, a gendered expression (male/female) in grave goods is perceptible within the best-furnished graves. Component analysis shows for the first time the structure of the early Bronze Age society, with a class system with at least three levels: few elite graves, a larger corpus of middle-ranked burials, common graves and, possibly, a fourth level of unaccompanied burials. With the emergence of elite burials during the early Bronze Age, barrow structures show a wider diversity in shape and larger dimensions (up to 55m in diameter), some architectures being apparently dedicated to the upper classes.
Spatial analysis shows that barrows are located in high and visible places, with a preference for relatively fertile inner Chalklands and secondarily for coastlands. The distribution of grave goods show an higher concentration of burials and especially middle-ranked burials around elite ones, the latter being regularly spaced in the landscape. At the Wessex scale, the distribution of elite burials is not random but rather follows some rules: they are located singly or in narrow clusters, distanced from 12 to 27km apart. As such they might be considered as probable central elements in territories that can be modelled considering the elite burials and using Thiessen polygons, (250-500km² on coastlands and up to 2000km² in the hinterland).
Review of settlements mainly uncovered by development-led archaeology shows the concomitant development of a structured landscape. Several instances of early field systems in southern Britain attest their appearance from the early 2nd millennium BC concomitant with the emergence of Wessex elites. Although difficult to identify, a small series of early roundhouses in southern Britain attest the existence of a model that will later develop in the Bronze Age. Together with the dense mesh of barrows, roundhouses suggest well settled societies, contrary to the accepted view of rather nomadic communities due to the scarcity of structured settlements. Enclosures cannot still indubitably related to the early Bronze Age, although they remain plausible. However, some main Late Neolithic central places – especially Stonehenge and the lesser known Knowlton Circles - seem to have played a prominent role for early Bronze Age society, as suggested by recorded activity or barrow distribution.
The spatial analyses of terrestrial and water networks show that nearly all elite burials were connected together or to the sea. We examined especially the relation between barrows and ancient road networks, such as Roman roads. In Dorset, barrows do not show a much higher density along Roman roads but their parallel arrangements to them or to ancient droveways are a clue for road infrastructures dating back to the early Bronze Age. But, the most striking evidence is the close proximity of elite burials to Roman roads (60-1500m), stressing the crucial importance of controlling communication routes for the elite. Further inland, the Roman road network avoid the Stonehenge area but the Icknield Way, an early medieval itinerary which merges with a Roman road in Dorset, might have been in use from the Bronze Age. Similarly on coastlands, elite burials are found at the bottom of estuaries or at the mouth of River Avon, connecting Stonehenge area to the English Channel.
