Fuelling the Iron Age: an analysis of the evidence of prehistoric charcoal burning

This paper is an analysis of the evidence of late prehistoric charcoal kilns in Britain. The paper aims to create a guide useful to archaeologists to raise awareness of the feature type and its importance, and to aid in the identification of the feature type during excavation. Despite evidence from experimental archaeology suggesting that increasing industrial processes in the Iron Age and Roman periods required high quantities of charcoal, few features have been identified as charcoal pits in the archaeological record. This may be because of a lack of understanding, and unfamiliarity of the feature type. To help resolve this, this paper presents an overview of possible Iron Age and Roman charcoal pits in the British archaeological record. Using this data alongside datasets retrieved from European research, a set of identifying criteria has been presented.