Arras culture

The Arras culture is an archaeological culture of the Middle Iron Age in East Yorkshire It takes its name from the cemetery site of Arras near Market Weighton in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which was discovered in the 19th century. Its defining characteristic is a method of inhumation not found elsewhere in the British Isles at this time, and it is thought to represent a culturally distinct group of people who inhabited the area at the time. Strong parallels exist with continental burial rites however.

The Arras culture burials differ from the funerary rites of other contemporary British peoples in three key ways. Firstly, they used large inhumation cemeteries, whereas elsewhere in Britain at the time the dominant funerary practise seems to have been a form of excarnation, and is at any rate invisible in the archaeological record. Other characteristic features of the Arras culture burials include the rectangular ditch which was used to mark the boundary of the enclosure of the barrow built over the grave; and the two-wheeled vehicles, often dismantled, buried with the deceased in higher-status burials. Examples include the burials at Wetwang. These vehicles have given them the name of chariot burials, although this interpretation of the vehicle has been questioned. This burial practice appears to be closely related to a distinct group of later Iron Age burials in northern France and Belgium, the only difference being the lack of fineware pottery in the richest British graves. One indication that this interpretation may be correct is the fact that later, in the Roman period, the tribe inhabiting this region was known as the Parisii, a name shared with the Gaulish tribe that lived around Paris. This similarity was explained by means of a large-scale folk migration, moving northwards from the continent to settle in eastern Britain c.450 BCE. This suggestion has fallen from favour, and if an invasion took place, it is more likely to have been a take-over by a foreign elite, without large-scale population displacement. An alternative explanation is that the British Arras culture was an attempt by some of the natives to imitate a continental practice in order to increase their prestige; the upper echelons of this British tribe may have been trying to distinguish themselves by copying foreign ways. However, the vehicle burial aspect of the culture developed in Britain only in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, which suggests either that it was adopted independently, or that they were forgotten and then re-introduced by the immigrants. Either way, the Arras culture indicates strong cultural and economic links between the two regions during the period.

References

• Stead, I. M. (1979). The Arras culture. Yorkshire Philosophical Society (York). ISBN 0-902-35703-4.