2015/03/16 by Ceri Houlbrook · 2 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Social Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Archaeology and Rock Art Studies #Anthropological Studies and Insights #Custodians #Popularity #History #Excavation #Narrative #Archaeology #Sociology #Law #Art #Political science #Literature
paper · doi:10.1177/1359183515577120
openalex publication_date 2015/03/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This article examines the status of coins as contemporary deposits in the British Isles. With a focus on both historical and contemporary sites, from the Neolithic long barrow of Wayland’s Smithy, Oxfordshire, to the plethora of wishing-wells and coin-trees distributed across the British Isles, it demonstrates the popularity of coins as ritual deposits. The author considers how they are perceived and treated by site custodians, and concludes with a case study of an archaeological excavation, the 2013 Ardmaddy Wishing-Tree Project, which recovered a large amount of contemporary coin deposits. This article does not aim to locate itself within the debates of site custodianship and accessibility, nor does it propose to address the broader dilemmas of a site’s ritual continuity or resurgence. Instead, its aim is to encourage archaeologists to consider the contemporary deposit as an integral part of the ritual narrative of a site, rather than as disposable ‘ritual litter’.