Download or read book Marking Place written by Jonathan Last and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2022-01-31 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latest in the Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers series arising from the NSG conference of November 2019. This collection showcases and explores the wide range of current work on causewayed enclosures and related sites, and assesses what we still want to know about these sites in light of the monumental achievement of the seminal publication Gathering Time (2011). Papers comprise reports on recent development-led fieldwork, academic research and community projects, and the volume concludes with a reflection by the authors of Gathering Time. Much archaeological work is concerned with identifying gaps in our knowledge and developing strategies for addressing them; we perhaps spend less time thinking about how research should proceed when we already know, relatively speaking, quite a lot. The programme of dating causewayed enclosures in southern Britain that was published in 2011 as Gathering Time (Oxbow Books) gave us a new, more precise chronology for many individual sites as well as for enclosures as a whole, and as a consequence a far better sense of their significance and place in the story of the British Early Neolithic. Arguably causewayed enclosures are now the best understood type of Neolithic monument. Yet work continues, and in the last few years new discoveries have been made, older excavations published and further work undertaken on well-known sites. Viewing this research within the new framework for these monuments allows us to assess where our understanding of enclosures has got to and where the focus of future research should lie.
Download or read book The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland written by Vicki Cummings and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-18 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland provides a synthesis of this dynamic period of prehistory from the end of the Mesolithic through to the early Beaker period. Drawing on new excavations and the application of new scientific approaches to data from this period, this book considers both life and death in the Neolithic. It offers a clear and concise introduction to this period but with an emphasis on the wider and on-going research questions. It is an important text for students new to the study of this period of prehistory as well as acting as a reference for students and scholars already researching this area. The book begins by considering the Mesolithic prelude, specifically the millennium prior to the start of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland. It then goes on to consider what life was like for people at the time, alongside the monumental record and how people treated the dead. This is presented chronologically, with separate chapters on the early Neolithic, middle Neolithic, late Neolithic and early Beaker periods. Finally it considers future research priorities for the study of the Neolithic.
Download or read book The Drowning of a Cornish Prehistoric Landscape written by Andy M. Jones and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2023-06-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 2018 and 2019, Cornwall Archaeological Unit undertook two projects at Mounts Bay, Penwith. The first involved the excavation of a Bronze Age barrow and the second, environmental augur core sampling in Marazion Marsh. Both sites lie within an area of coastal hinterland, which has been subject to incursions by rising sea levels. Since the Mesolithic, an area of approximately 1 kilometer in extent between the current shoreline and St Michaels Mount has been lost to gradually rising sea levels. With current climate change, this process is likely to occur at an increasing rate. Given their proximity, the opportunity was taken to draw the results from the two projects together along with all available existing environmental data from the area. For the first time, the results from all previous palaeoenvironmental projects in the Mounts Bay area have been brought together. Evidence for coastal change and sea level rise is discussed and a model for the drowning landscape presented. In addition to modeling the loss of land and describing the environment over time, social responses including the wider context of the Bronze Age barrow and later Bronze Age metalwork deposition in the Mounts Bay environs are considered. The effects of the gradual loss of land are discussed in terms of how change is perceived, its effects on community resilience, and the construction of social memory and narratives of place. The volume presents the potential for nationally significant environmental data to survive, which demonstrates the long-term effects of climate change and rising sea levels, and peoples responses to these over time.
Download or read book New Light on the Neolithic of Northern England written by Gill Hey and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2021-01-31 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These papers highlight recent archaeological work in Northern England, in the commercial, academic and community archaeology sectors, which have fundamentally changed our perspective on the Neolithic of the area. Much of this was new work (and much is still not published) has been overlooked in the national discourse. The papers cover a wide geographical area, from Lancashire north into the Scottish Lowlands, recognising the irrelevance of the England/Scotland Border. They also take abroad chronological sweep, from the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition to the introduction of Beakers into the area. The key themes are: the nature of transition; the need for a much-improved chronological framework; regional variation linked to landscape character; links within northern England and with distant places; the implications of new dating for our understanding ‘the axe trade; the changing nature of settlement and agriculture; the character early Neolithic enclosures; the need to integrate rock art into wider discourse.
Download or read book Enclosures in Neolithic Europe written by G. Varndell and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These papers come from a conference on Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures in Europe held in London in 1999. They present a series of snapshots of some of the sites and regions at the forefront of current research on causewayed enclosures in Europe, and as such are a complement to the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England (RCHME) project which has systematically recorded all known Neolithic enclosures in England by both analytical topographic survey techniques and aerial transcription. The detailed regional data collected by the RCHME project has allowed a radical reinterpretation of these sites and the recognition that there are regional groups of enclosures. This series of papers serves to broaden the discussion about the structure and form of causewayed monuments beyond lowland England, looking at a wide geographical range of sites across central Europe, as well as considering some sites which do not conform to the traditional type but which have been proved by excavation to have a Neolithic context. This collection of papers provides a long-awaited and important addition to the debate on these enigmatic prehistoric sites.
Download or read book The Power of the Line written by Aleksander Dzbyński and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-07-18 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Extensive research in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and cognitive science clearly suggests that the development of a material culture in prehistory was a serious contribution to the mathematization of the human mind. An underestimated interface in this process, as cognitive and philosophical studies suggest, was the capability to perceive the external world in a metaphorical way. This book uses several examples to tell this story. It does not claim the right to present a universal story, applicable for the whole human species, although it also questions that universality. The cornerstone of the story is structured by the relationship between body, language, and material culture. The examples presented in this book, however, also allow us to contemplate a less universal phenomenon; the similarities and differences between Near Eastern and European culture in the period of the development of farming. As such, this book also investigates whether clay tokens – an invention originated from Near Eastern societies – were also responsible for the development of mathematical abilities in prehistoric societies in Europe. In Europe, however, the lack of material representations of numbers in the form of small objects was replaced by linear concepts. Linearity, from its simple manifestations in the monumental form to its complex use in later megalithic structures, requires more thought because it served not only as an ephemeral symbol and a metaphor, but also as a practical tool in building anthropogenic spaces. Only when we see a metaphor in the omnipresent linearity can we understand it properly in combination with the cosmologic aspects of architecture, the role of the human body, and the concept of numbers. As such, the book distinguishes between two dichotomous development paths of mathematization and numerosity in Europe and the Near East – the birthplace of farming: the measuring stick metaphor and the object collection metaphor. The book also discusses further transformations of the measuring stick metaphor into more rational concepts throughout the course of technological developments in Europe.
Download or read book Neolithic Britain written by Rodney Castleden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The climax of the Stone Age in Britain, the Neolithic period (4700-2000BC), was a period of startling achievement. The British Isles are rich in Neolithic sites, which give us evidence of a complex and surprisingly developed archaic society. The author surveys 1100 secular and ceremonial sites in Britain, selecting some for detailed explanation; from these a sense of the diversity and dynamism of the living Neolithic communities emerges. He presents a comprehensive, profusely illustrated and up-to-date view of the Neolithic, organised by county. Archaeologists and prehistorians will find this book of interest and it should prove indispensable to students of archaeology as a source of information about the British Neolithic.
Download or read book Rising Ground written by Philip Marsden and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2016-03-25 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The travel writer and Cornwall native explores his home on a journey by foot to Land’s End in this “fascinating and hauntingly evocative” memoir (Literary Review). A Guardian, Financial Times, Observer, and Scotsman Book of the Year In 2010, Philip Marsden moved with his family to a rundown farmhouse in Cornwall, England. From the moment he arrived, Marsden was fascinated by the landscape and the traces of human history all around him. Wanting to experience the place more fully, he set out to walk across Cornwall, to the evocatively named Land’s End. Rising Ground is a record of that journey, but it is also so much more: a beautifully written meditation on place, nature, and human life that encompasses history, archaeology, geography, and the love of place that suffuses us when we finally find home. Firmly in a storied tradition of English nature writing that stretches from Gilbert White to Helen MacDonald, Rising Ground reveals the ways that places and peoples have interacted over time, from standing stones to footpaths, ancient habitations to modern highways. What does it mean to truly live in a place, and what does it take to understand, and honor, those who lived and died there long before we arrived? "A fascinating study of place and its meaning."—Observer, UK
Download or read book The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland written by Richard Bradley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-16 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Highlights the achievements of prehistoric people in Britain and Ireland over a 5,000 year period.
Download or read book The Creation of Monuments written by Alistair Oswald and published by Liverpool University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-15 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neolithic Causewayed enclosures are amongst the oldest, rarest and most enigmatic of the ancient monuments found in Europe. First recognised as a distinct type in the 1920s, sixty-nine certain or probable examples have now been identified in the British Isles. As a class, they are of outstanding importance, for while their precise functions remain unclear, they represent the first non-funerary monuments and the earliest instance of the enclosure of open space. This book presents an overview of the findings of a systematic national programme of research, carried out by the RCHME, now merged with English Heritage. Every certain, probable and suggested causewayed enclosure in England has been investigated through integrated aerial and field survey. Specialist reconnaissance flying has been undertaken, along with the thorough analysis of aerial photographs taken from the 1920s onwards. This has greatly increased the number of sites known, turning the spotlight onto many that have received little or no archaeological attention in the past. The aerial surveys now available offer a new basis for improved understanding. Analytical field investigations of the few causewayed enclosures that are well preserved as earthworks have also squeezed fresh information out of even those long familiar to archaeologists. Far from merely ‘dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s’ of past fieldworkers, these detailed surveys have led to the rejection of some long-held theories and the proposal of new interpretations. This book significantly advances the understanding of causewayed enclosures both as individual monuments and as a class. It is a major contribution to the understanding of the British Neolithic, and to ‘landscape archaeology’ more generally.
Download or read book Monumental Beginnings written by Ed Danaher and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Neolithic Settlement in Ireland and Western Britain written by Ian Armit and published by Oxbow Books Limited. This book was released on 2003 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The past few years have seen an upsurge in the numbers of known Neolithic settlements in Ireland. Many of these sites have been excavated by archaeologists based in field units, but few are well-known to the wider archaeological community. The papers in this volume, which were presented at a conference held at Queen's University Belfast in 2001, provided a forum for a discussion of the new Neolithic material from Ireland in its wider geographical context. Although the bulk of the emerging Irish settlement evidence relates to substantial houses, many of these papers consider wider themes, including issues of contact and communication along the sea routes and coastal margins of northwest Europe, questions of diversity and regional patterns of sedentism and mobility, and variations in regional food production strategies. The volume includes twenty-six papers representing a series of studies ranging geographically from Orkney to the French Atlantic facade. Contents: Introduction ( Ian Armit, Eileen Murphy, Eiméar Nelis and Derek Simpson ); French Connections I: Spreading the marmites thinly ( Alison Sheridan ); French Connections II: Of cows and men ( Anne Tresset ); Contemplating some awful(ly interesting) vistas: Importing cattle and red deer into prehistoric Ireland ( Peter Woodman and Margaret McCarthy ); Terminology, time and space: Labels, radiocarbon chronologies and a 'Neolithic' of small worlds ( Patrick Ashmore ); Rooted or routed? Landscapes of Neolithic settlement in Ireland ( Gabriel Cooney ); The early farming settlement of south western England in the Neolithic ( Roger Mercer ); Neolithic settlement in the lowlands of Scotland: A preliminary survey ( Gordon Barclay ); Once upon a time Skara Brae was unique ( David Clarke ); The Drowners: Permanence and transience in the Hebridean Neolithic ( Ian Armit ); Neolithic Northton: A review of the evidence ( Eileen Murphy and Derek Simpson ); Billown and the Neolithic of the Isle of Man ( Timothy Darvill ); The Early Neolithic and the Manx environment ( Peter J Davey and Jim B Innes ); Rheast Buigh, Patrick: Middle Neolithic exploitation of the Manx uplands? ( Peter J Davey and Jenny Woodcock ); What do we mean by Neolithic settlement? Some approaches, 10 years on ( Alex Gibson ). The Irish 'house boom'. Irish Neolithic houses ( Ian Armit, Eileen Murphy, Eiméar Nelis and Derek Simpson ); Excavations at Thornhill, Co. Londonderry ( Paul Logue ); Neolithic houses in Ballyharry townland, Islandmagee, Co. Antrim ( Dermot G Moore ); Neolithic structure at Drummenny Lower, Co. Donegal: An environmental perspective ( Cathy Dunne ); The excavation of a Neolithic house at Enagh townland, Co. Derry ( Cormac McSparran ); Archaeological excavations of a Neolithic settlement at Coolfore, Co. Louth ( Cóilín O Drisceoil ); A Neolithic house in Cloghers, Co. Kerry ( Jacinta Kiely ); Neolithic beginnings on Roughan Hill and the Burren ( Carleton Jones ). Irish Neolithic settlement architecture: A reappraisal ( Sarah Cross ); Donegore and Lyles Hill, Neolithic enclosed sites in Co. Antrim: The lithic assemblages ( Eiméar Nelis ); Neolithic expectations ( Richard Bradley ).
Download or read book Neolithic Enclosures in Atlantic Northwest Europe written by Timothy Darvill and published by Oxbow Books Limited. This book was released on 2001 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirteen papers from the meeting of the Neolithic Studies Group. Contents: Neolithic enclosures in northwest Europe: some recent things (T Darvill & J Thomas); Enclosures and related structures in Brittany and western France (C Scarre); Neolithic enclosed settlements in Cornwall (R J Mercer); Early enclosures in southeast Cornwall (K Ray); Recent work on Neolithic enclosure in Devon (F M Griffith); Clegyr Boia: a potential Neolithic enclosure and associated monuments on the St David's peninsular, southwest Wales (B Vyner); Bridging the Severn Estuary: two possible earlier Neolithic enclosures in the Vale of Glamorgan (S Burrow, T Driver & D Thomas); Survey at Hindwell Enclosure, Walton, Powys, Wales (A Gibson, H Becker, E Grogan, N Jones & B Masterson); A time and place for enclosure: Gardom's Edge, Derbyshire (J Barnatt, B Bevan & M Edmonds); Neolithic enclosures: reflections on excavations on Wales (J Thomas); Neolithic enclosures in Scotland (G Barclay); Neolithic enclosure in the Isle of Man (T Darvill); Donegore Hill and other Irish Neolithic enclosures (A Sheridan); Danish causewayed enclosures
Download or read book Petrification Processes in Matter and Society written by Sophie Hüglin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-13 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Petrification is a process, but it also can be understood as a concept. This volume takes the first steps to manifest, materialize or “petrify” the concept of “petrification” and turn it into a tool for analyzing material and social processes. The wide array of approaches to petrification as a process assembled here is more of a collection of possibilities than an attempt to establish a firm, law-generating theory. Divided into three parts, this volume’s twenty-plus authors explore petrification both as a theoretical concept and as a contextualized material and social process across geological, prehistoric and historic periods. Topics connecting the various papers are properties of materials, preferences and choices of actors, the temporality of matter, being and becoming, the relationality between actors, matter, things and space (landscape, urban space, built space), and perceptions of the following generations dealing with the petrified matter, practices, and social relations. Contributors to this volume study specifically whether particular processes of petrification are confined to the material world or can be seen as mirroring, following, triggering, or contradicting changes in social life and general world views. Each of the authors explores – for a period or a specific feature – practices and changes that led to increased conformity and regularity. Some authors additionally focus on the methods and scrutinize them and their applications for their potential to create objects of investigation: things, people, periods, in order to raise awareness for these or to shape or “invent” categories. This volume is of interest to archaeologists, geologists, architectural historians, conservationists, and historians.
Download or read book An Archaeology of Natural Places written by Richard Bradley and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-15 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume explores why natural places such as caves, mountains, springs and rivers assumed a sacred character in European prehistory, and how the evidence for this can be analysed in the field. It shows how established research on votive deposits, rock art and production sites can contribute to a more imaginative approach to the prehistoric landscape, and can even shed light on the origins of monumental architecture. The discussion is illustrated through a wide range of European examples, and three extended case studies. An Archaeology of Natural Places extends the range of landscape studies and makes the results of modern research accessible to a wider audience, including students and academics, field archaeologists, and those working in heritage management.
Download or read book Monuments in the Making written by Vicki Cummings and published by Windgather Press. This book was released on 2021-11-30 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dolmens are iconic international monumental constructions which represent the first megalithic architecture (after menhirs) in north-west Europe. These monuments are characterised by an enormous capstone balanced on top of smaller uprights. However, previous investigations of these extraordinary monuments have focussed on three main areas of debate. First, typology has been a dominant feature of discussion, particularly the position of dolmens in the ordering of chambered tombs. Second, attention has been placed not on how they were built but how they were used. Finally much debate has centred on their visual appearance (whether they were covered by mounds or cairns). This book provides a reappraisal of the dolmen as an architectural entity and provides an alternative perspective on function. This is achieved through a re-theorising of the nature of megalithic architecture grounded in the results of a new research/fieldwork project covering Britain, Ireland and Scandinavia. It is argued that instead of understanding dolmen simply as chambered tombs these were multi-faceted monuments whose construction was as much to do with enchantment and captivation as it was with containing the dead. Consequently, the presence of human remains within dolmens is also critically evaluated and a new interpretation offered.
Download or read book Down the Bright Stream The Prehistory of Woodcock Corner and the Tregurra Valley Cornwall written by Sean R. Taylor and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2022-06-23 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume reports on a series of fieldwork projects carried out in the Tregurra Valley, to the east of Truro, Cornwall between 2009-2015. The fieldwork led to the identification of a large number of pits and hearths across the site, the majority of which that have proved dateable spanning the Early Neolithic to the end of the Early Bronze Age.
