Download or read book A Study of Activity at Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures Within the British Isles written by Brian Glenn Albrecht and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Study of Activity at Neolithic Causewayed Enclosures Within the British Isles written by Brian G. Albrecht and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Argues that activities at enclosures should not be categorically separated from the everyday activities of those who visited the enclosures. ... Looking in detail at the spatial and temporal distribution of objects in association with chronology ... perhaps more deposits within causewayed enclosures were the result of everyday activities which occurred while people gathered at these sites and not necessarily the result of a 'ritual' act. A re-interpretation of the detail from nine causewayed enclosures within three 'regions' of the British Isles (East Anglia, Sussex and Wessex) are examined [should read: is examined], ... [going] beyond the deposition of objects ... [to include] enclosure construction, object modification such as flint knapping, animal butchery, and the use of pottery and wood."--From distributor's Web site, 8 April 2015, which is based on the author's abstract, page 1.

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 Enclosures in Neolithic Europe written by G. Varndell and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2002-01-01 with total page 329 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 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 Neolithic Britain written by Keith Ray and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic in Britain was a period of fundamental change: human communities were transformed, collectively owning domesticated plants and animals, and inhabiting a richer world of material things: timber houses and halls, pottery vessels, polished flint and stone axes, and massive monuments of earth and stone. Equally important was the development of a suite of new social practices, with an emphasis on descent, continuity and inheritance. These innovations set in train social processes that culminated with the construction of Stonehenge, the most remarkable surviving structure from prehistoric Europe. Neolithic Britain provides an up-to-date, concise introduction to the period of British prehistory from c. 4000-2200 BCE. Written on the basis of a new appreciation of the chronology of the period, the result reflects both on the way that archaeologists write narratives of the Neolithic, and how Neolithic people constructed histories of their own. Incorporating new insights from the extraordinary pace of archaeological discoveries in recent years, a world emerges which is unfamiliar, complex and challenging, and yet played a decisive role in forging the landscape of contemporary Britain. Important recent developments have resulted in a dual realisation: firstly, highly focused research into individual site chronologies can indicate precise and particular time narratives; and secondly, this new awareness of time implies original insights about the fabric of Neolithic society, embracing matters of inheritance, kinship and social ties, and the 'descent' of cultural practices. Moreover, our understanding of Neolithic society has been radically affected by individual discoveries and investigative projects, whether in the Stonehenge area, on mainland Orkney, or in less well-known localities across the British Isles. The new perspective provided in this volume stems from a greater awareness of the ways in which unfolding events and transformations in societies depend upon the changing relations between individuals and groups, mediated by objects and architecture. This concise panorama into Neolithic Britain offers new conclusions and an academically-stimulating but accessible overview. It covers key material and social developments, and reflects on the nature of cultural practices, tradition, genealogy, and society across nearly two millennia.

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 Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe written by Chris Fowler and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 856 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Neolithic —a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe—has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic —from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta —offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Download or read book A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire written by Jan Harding and published by English Heritage. This book was released on 2013-01-15 with total page 976 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Raunds Area Project investigated more than 20 Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in the Nene Valley. From c 5000 BC to the early 1st millennium cal BC a succession of ritual mounds and burial mounds were built as settlement along the valley sides increased and woodland was cleared. Starting as a regular stopping-place for flint knapping and domestic tasks, first the Long Mound, and then Long Barrow, the north part of the Turf Mound and the Avenue were built in the 5th millennium BC. With the addition of the Long Enclosure, the Causewayed Ring Ditch, and the Southern Enclosure, there was a chain of five or six diverse monuments stretched along the river bank by c 3000 cal BC. Later, a timber platform, the Riverside Structure, was built and the focus of ceremonial activity shifted to the Cotton 'Henge', two concentric ditches on the occupied valley side. From c 2200 cal BC monument building accelerated and included the Segmented Ditch Circle and at least 20 round barrows, almost all containing burials, at first inhumations, then cremations down to c 1000 cal BC, by which time two overlapping systems of paddocks and droveways had been laid out. Finally, the terrace began to be settled when these had gone out of use, in the early 1st millennium cal BC. This second volume of the Raunds Area Project, published as a CD, comprises the detailed reports on the environmental archaeology, artefact studies, geophysics and chronology.

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 Gathering Time written by A. W. R. Whittle and published by Oxbow Books Limited. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gathering Time presents the results of a major dating programme that re-writes the early Neolithic of Britain by more accurately dating enclosures, a phenomenon that first appeared in the early Neolithic: places of construction, labour, assembly, ritual and deposition. The project has combined hundreds of new radiocarbon dates with hundreds of existing dates, using a Bayesian statistical framework. Such formal chronological modelling is essential if significantly more precise and robust date estimates are to be achieved than those currently available from informal inspection of calibrated radiocarbon dates. The resulting dating project included over 35 enclosures - the largest study so far attempted in a Bayesian framework. This establishes a new chronology for causewayed and related enclosures in southern Britain, which appeared in the final decades of the 38th century cal BC, increased in number dramatically in the 37th century cal BC, and began no longer to be built by the end of the 36th century cal BC. Several enclosures were of short duration - in some cases probably in use for less than a generation - though some examples do conform to the conventional assumption of a long primary use-life. In Ireland, enclosures of this kind are much scarcer. The project helped to date two of these: Donegore, Co. Antrim and Magheraboy, Co. Sligo. As well as establishing a new chronology for enclosures, Gathering Time also places these results into their wider context, by considering the chronology of the early Neolithic as a whole. Well over a thousand other radiocarbon dates have been critically assessed and modelled in a Bayesian framework - for settlement, monument building and other activity, region by region across southern Britain and across Ireland as a whole (a brief comparative study of Scotland as far north as the Great Glen is also included). Generally in southern Britain other Neolithic activity can be dated before the beginnings of monument building and, among the monuments, long barrows, long cairns, and related forms clearly preceded the earliest causewayed enclosures. The first Neolithic things and practices probably appeared in south-east England in the 41st century cal BC, arguably by some kind of small-scale colonisation from the adjacent continent, and spread at a variable pace across the rest of Britain and Ireland over the next two and a half centuries or more, a process involving acculturation of local people as well as immigrants. Enclosures may have been adapted as a social strategy of harnessing the power of the distant and the exotic, and perhaps old ancestral ties to the European continent, in a dynamic and rapidly changing social milieu. Close attention is given to themes of deposition, material culture and different kinds of social interaction, from networks of exchange to episodes of violence. A high tempo of change continued, as very different constructions came to be built from the 36th century cal BC onwards: the linear and more arcane cursus monuments. The study of Irish Neolithic chronology reveals significant patterning, including a short currency for rectangular timber houses in the 37th century cal BC, but also highlights the challenge of establishing more reliable chronologies, for monuments in particular. Alternative scenarios for the date and nature of the beginning of the Neolithic in Ireland are modelled. Gathering Time ends with reflections on the nature and pace of change in prehistory. If generational timescales are now within our grasp routinely, more subtle and individualised kinds of (pre)history can and must be written, and the conventional frame of the long-term must shift from being familiar and comfortable to problematic.

Download or read book Plants in Neolithic Britain and Beyond written by Andrew S. Fairbairn and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2000-12-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant-centred issues are fundamental in the definitions and explanations of the Neolithic as a phenomenon.The meeting of the Neolithic Studies Group from which this volume developed aimed to provide a forum for the wide range of approaches now applied to Neolithic archaeobotany at site and landscape scales of resolution.

Download or read book Settlement in the Irish Neolithic written by Jessica Smyth and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2014-05-29 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Irish Neolithic has been dominated by the study of megalithic tombs, but the defining element of Irish settlement evidence is the rectangular timber Early Neolithic house, the numbers of which have more than quadrupled in the last ten years. The substantial Early Neolithic timber house was a short-lived architectural phenomenon of as little as 90 years, perhaps like short-lived Early Neolithic long barrows and causewayed enclosures. This book explores the wealth of evidence for settlement and houses throughout the Irish Neolithic, in relation to Britain and continental Europe. More importantly it incorporates the wealth of new, and often unpublished, evidence from developer-led archaeological excavations and large grey-literature resources. The settlement evidence scattered across the landscape, and found as a result of developer-funded work, provides the social context for the more famous stone monuments that have traditionally shaped our views of the Neolithic in Ireland. It provides the first comprehensive review of the Neolithic settlement of Ireland, which enables a more holistic and meaningful understanding of the Irish Neolithic.

Download or read book The Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles written by Stuart Piggott and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-03-19 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After an outline of the continental background of the British neolithic cultures the book contains two subdivisions. Professor Piggott first describes those cultures that he classes as primary: that is those bought to Britain by colonists who bought a knowledge of agriculture. He then shows how there arose derivative secondary neolithic cultures showing a resurgence of earlier characteristics. Finally all the British neolithic cultures are considered in relation to one another and to their continental setting, and an outline of relative and absolute chronology is made.

Download or read book Along the Road written by Lutz Klassen and published by Aarhus Universitetsforlag. This book was released on 2014-10-27 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume takes a new look at causewayed enclosures in South Scandinavia based on a research area restricted to the Djursland Peninsula in eastern Jutland. The Djursland Peninsula in eastern Jutland was selected as region of concentration because of the richness of the region in terms of megalithic graves and burial mounds and because it has the largest number by far of known Neolithic enclosures within the northern TRB Group distribution area. Given that the awareness of as many enclosures as possible is necessary in any attempt to evaluate their significance for Neolithic societies within a given area, a major part of this work is devoted to the development of predictive modelling for the detection of enclosures in the landscape. It is only in relation to this step that it is possible to engage with such questions as the reasons for which certain locations were chosen as enclosure sites and how these relate to the history of Neolithic settlement within the wider region. The latter is at the heart of practically all settlement archaeological studies of the period under consideration in South Scandinavia. However, it has never been critically reviewed nor tested by comparisons with the results from other regions. A separate section is devoted to examining the European dimension of the Scandinavian enclosures in closer detail.

Download or read book The Neolithic of the Irish Sea written by Chris Fowler and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2015-03-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of 24 papers aims to reconsider the nature and significance of the Irish Sea as an area of cultural interaction during the Neolithic period. The traditional character of work across this region has emphasised the existence of prehistoric contact, with sea routes criss-crossing between Ireland, the Isle of Man, Anglesey and the British mainland. A parallel course of investigation, however, has demonstrated that the British and Irish Neolithics were in many ways different, with distinct indigenous patterns of activity and social practices. The recent emphasis on regional studies has further produced evidence for parallel yet different processes of cultural change taking place throughout the British Isles as a whole. This volume brings together some of these regional perspectives and compares them across the Irish Sea area. The authors consider new ways to explain regional patterning in the use of material objects and relate them to past practices and social strategies. Were there practices that were shared across the Irish Sea area linking different styles of monuments and material culture, or were the media intrinsic to the message? The volume is based on papers presented at a conference held at the University of Manchester in 2002.

Download or read book Neolithic Archaeology in the Intertidal Zone written by E. J. Sidell and published by Oxbow Books. This book was released on 2007-10-16 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is based upon a conference which took place in 1999, reflecting the developing interest in intertidal archaeology and concentrating on the Neolithic period, as well as elements of associated Mesolithic and Bronze Age archaeology. Since then, the papers have been revised to include new discoveries and reflect the increasing interest and importance attached to the intertidal zone. All papers have supporting environmental data and radiocarbon dates. The volume has a wide geographical spread and details the work of archaeologists working in fragile and rapidly eroding environments is evaluated: the papers demonstrate the high quality research being undertaken around the British coast to salvage archaeology by record and undertake detailed research to place it in its proper context.