The Banjo enclosure

 In my first post about hunting I discussed the so-called 'desert kites'.  These were game drive systems that consisted of long double lines of single stones (rarely amounting to so much as a primitive wall) with, every so often, a cairn or pile of stones.  At one end this double line was widely separated but the lines would gradually draw closer and at the narrowest end would lead into an impound corral or abut on a river, a lake or a fall where animals (in this case, gazelles) could be immobilized for killing.  I mentioned that this technique was world-wide, extending from the equator to the arctic, and was used by a wide variety of peoples for a wide variety of game (but most often ungulates).  

One thing that I didn't emphasize was that this game-drive method was only suitable for bare terrain: semi-arid plains, deserts, or tundra.  Game-drive systems using single-stone drive lines were rarely or ever used in more temperate climates, grassy plains, or, of course, in mixed wooded country.  This is simply because in such climate regimes single lines of stones would not be invisible. [1]  Community game drives and capture/killing were still performed but in modified form.

  I have been reviewing the literature on the 'banjo enclosure' which is characteristic of the British Isles during the late Iron Age (4th century BC to 1st century AD).  The banjo system consists of a roundish impound with game drive lines leading into it.  

The banjo enclosure at Sparrow's Copse.[2]
Sparrow's Copse is in Oxfordshire at about 51.540030° N, 1.413791° W
.

As the game drive 'antennae' or 'rays' are sometimes straight the entire assemblage resembles a banjo.  How are these constructed?  The banjo enclosure, including the antennae, consists of an inner bank with an outer ditch.  It has been suggested that as the banjo enclosure becomes larger (the average size is about 0.6 ha. but they may range as large as 2 ha.) this order is reversed having the ditch on the inside and the bank on the outside.[3]  For our purposes this doesn't much matter - the point is that the ditch and bank technique for creating the antennae and the corral is a modification of the 'stone lines' which I have been discussing up until now.  Scholars suggest that we should imagine the antennae banks as supplemented with hedges or blinds such that once animals are led into the drive lines their vision is sharply restricted.  

It's important to note this.   After about 2000 years the organic materials that completed a banjo enclosure are now disappeared.  What do I mean by 'organic materials'?  I mean the various blinds and 'scares' made of bushes, hedges, or hides have left no trace in the archaeological record.

One thing that is certain is that the bank and ditch antennae were, in some examples, extended to a considerable length with additional linear features. 

After reviewing this material I find it hard to come to any other conclusion than that this is a late Iron Age game-drive system.  The similarities are striking.  For example, we read this:

 "The entrance passages ... in areas where flint is common, they are paved with flint nodules." This is strongly reminiscent of the practice of the Amerindian impound at Muddy Creek in Wyoming. [4]  Why would these areas be paved with stone?  Because it makes the ground slippery for hooves and so the animal cannot spontaneously turn at the last minute - even if they were inclined to do so.

And there seems to have been an awareness that a height drop between the entrance antennae and the impound proper helped to prevent game from getting out of the impound.  The same technique is used in prehistoric America. [5]

Cult is involved as well.  Mandelbaum is concerned to emphasize the role that shamans play in communal game drives among the Cree indians.  A shamanic structure is often present at Cree game drives and this might go some way to explain the extra structures sometimes found in association with banjo enclosures. [6]  There are also indications that magico/religious practices were involved at the Ruby Impound site in Wyoming [7].

Another confirmation that this a classic game-drive system is that, in some of the examples I've seen, the antennae curve as the impound is approached so the animals cannot see where they are headed until the very last minute.

Between 150 and 200 of these banjo impounds are described.  They were discovered as a type only recently because the great majority are on level ground and are only visible as crop marks.  The thinking among scholars is that there must have been many more that will never be discovered due, among other things, to the destruction consequent to agricultural work. 

The researchers here provide interesting explanations of the function of these structures: McOmish says:

"..., many are now thought to be occupation sites, possibly of high status."[8]

I find it curious that the archaeologists on the spot are unable to formulate the game-drive hypothesis with respect to these structures.  It's one thing to suggest alternate hypotheses or to reject the game-drive hypothesis itself.  But the game-drive explanation for these structures is not even mentioned so that it can be dismissed.  One can only reach the conclusion that the researchers in the area of banjo enclosures have never heard of a hunting practice thousands of years old and used world-wide.

Footnotes

[1] Kornfeld et al. [2016] 400. "Even short grass can hide the drive lines during a normal grass year."

[2] Winton [2003] 20, Fig. 3.

[3] McOmish [2011/2018] 4.

[4] Flint nodules: McOmish, ibid.; at Muddy Creek impound in Wyoming.  Kornfeld et al. [2016] 391 say "An area of artificially placed boulders was found that created a pavement constructed at the edge of a flat area that forms part of the rim of the depression in which the corral lies."

[5] Height difference between entrance way and the impound floor. 

In McOmish, ibid, " ... at Church End Ring, Wiltshire, for example, the enclosure could only have been entered by way of steep ledge, such is the height difference between the entrance passage and the enclosure."   

In Kornfeld et al. [2016], "Postholes between the boulder pavement and the corral indicate a ramp was present; the animals were driven in the downstream direction onto the ramp, which dumped them into the corral and eliminated the need for an entrance gate."  

Mandelbaum sketches the design of such a ramp for the impound entrance constructed by Cree Indians.  

Mandelbaum [1940] 55, fig. 6: 

[6] Mandelbaum [1940] 52, 54.  " A pound had to be built under the supervision of a shaman who had been given the power to do so by a spirit helper." and "The shaman who directed the construction and operation of a pound (Fig. 5), chose the site in a thicket; ... "

[7] Kornfeld et al. [2016] 386-9. "The sophistication of the corral and related structures was matched or superseded by a religious structure alongside the final drive line. The identification of the remains as a religious structure is based on a number of features associated with the structure and the architecture of the structure itself."

[8] McOmish  [2011/2018] 6.

Bibliography

Kornfeld et al. [2016]³ : Kornfeld, Marcel with George C. Frison, and Mary Lou Larson. Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers of the High Plains and Rockies, Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group. London and New York. 2016. ISBN 978-0-12-268561-3.

Mandelbaum [1940] : Mandelbaum, David G., The Plains Cree., Anthropological Papers Vol. 37, Pt. 2. American Museum of Natural History, New York. 1940. Online here.

McOmish [2011/2018] : McOmish, David. Banjo Enclosures; Introduction to Heritage Assets, Historic England. 2018. Online here.

Winton [2003] : Winton, Helen. 'Possible Iron Age 'Banjo' Enclosures on the Lambourn Downs', Oxoniensia (68), pp. 15-26.  Online here.