Although the practice of human sacrifice in the British Iron Age is mentioned by multiple authors, both ancient and modern, physical proof of such activity in the archaeological record is comparatively rare. At Winterborne Kingston, in Dorset, the skeletal remains of a young adult female found face down near the base of a cylindrical storage pit provides clear evidence of violent death in the later Iron Age. Analysis of the skeleton suggests an individual who led a hard-working life and who, having suffered an act of violence a few weeks before death, was killed, possibly with her hands tied, by a blade incision to the neck. Placement of the body further suggests that killing was enacted within the pit, execution as spectacle forming the final act in a larger ceremony involving the creation of an animal bone stack or platform.

Artificial Roman ponds present in various guises, but they are relatively rarely found in the service of rural agriculture. This article focuses on a possible example of this type from Worcestershire, where extensive excavation has been carried out. The results demonstrate the potential of a pond for the reconstruction of wider landscape usage, while the considerable quantity of associated finds potentially sheds some light on social practice. A review of similar sites across Roman Britain suggests there may be practical (in essence curatorial) issues about the fuller investigation of such features once identified, in order that a similarly high level of data can be achieved more regularly, and suggests a need for prospection/mapping for the better management of this resource, especially employing newly available LiDAR data.

By considering monetization across the Iron Age and Roman periods and across the whole of Temperate Europe some major developments become apparent. The spread of coinage in the Iron Age bears some relationship to the eventual extent of the Roman Empire. Coins stand in the archaeological record for systems of doing things, for ways people relate to each other and to things, and for ways of conceptualizing the world. They provide a useful way to approach the meeting of the worlds of the Iron Age and of Rome. Material forms of being Roman became increasingly important as a dimension of Roman identity. The commercialization implicit in Rome's ‘Cultural Revolution’ was underpinned by the extension of Roman-style monetization. In this light the monetization of Temperate Europe emerges as a process of considerable importance.

Central to this paper is the meaning of the actions that lead to iron objects being found in archaeological contexts of later prehistoric and Roman date. It is argued that the placing of iron objects within the physical landscape reflects upon the changing nature of society at this time. In Iron Age studies, many deposits in rivers, bogs and in the pits, ditches and post-holes of settlements are now interpreted as ‘special’ material buried for significant reasons, through acts that are often called ‘structured deposition’. This approach has had a deep influence on the excavation and post-excavation of Iron Age settlements and is now coming to influence the study of the deposition of artefacts on Roman sites. This paper develops the idea that much of the later prehistoric and Roman ironwork found on settlements and elsewhere was deliberately deposited for what might loosely be called ‘ritual’ or ‘religious’ motives; for much of this period the proportion of the artefacts lost accidentally was possibly quite small. Artefacts in other materials also require comparable study, but, while work that integrates the examination of items made from different materials on individual sites is important, this paper focuses upon iron due to its potential significance as a highly symbolic medium.