Dave Yates (University of Reading, UK)

This paper discusses the results of a contextual study of "patterned" or "structured" deposition of metalwork in Hampshire, Sussex and Kent. The research investigated the relationship between hoards and single finds and the organisation of the prehistoric landscape. Recent well-provenanced discoveries in developer-led excavation and those reported in the Portable Antiquities Scheme are starting to provide a clear pattern of placement. The results suggest that prestige bronzes reinforced both the regiment landscape (coaxial field systems) and the wild chaos of nature. A comparative study in time and space of metal placement within the landscape may be a way to discover important changes and differences in cosmological and religious organisation.