The Butser Ancient Farm Horton Neolithic Building - Its Construction and Significance to the Interpretation of Buildings of Early Neolithic Britain and Ireland.

In 2019 a substantial building, based on archaeological evidence of early British Neolithic dwelllings, was constructed by site staff, volunteers, and staff of Wessex Archaeology at the Experimental Archaeology site, Butser Ancient Farm in Hampshire, England. The archaeological feature on which our building was based was excavated in 2012 by Wessex Archaeology as part of a pre-extraction programme of investigation at the Kingsmead Quarry, Horton, in Berkshire England. Structures with very similar ground plans have also been recorded in Ireland. Such specific morphological similarities, their sudden appearance and disappearance over a very narrow chronology suggests a 'type', of unusual form and unknown origin. This article explores issues that were faced during the design and construction of the building and the light those issues shed upon the peculiarities of these structures. This paper seeks to question the straightforward interpretation of this class of building 'simply' as a 'house' and explores, tentatively, alternate interpretations of structure and usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]