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Author: Anne Teather Publisher: Oxbow Books ISBN: 1789251516 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
The social processes involved in acquiring flint and stone in the Neolithic began to be considered over thirty years ago, promoting a more dynamic view of past extraction processes. Whether by quarrying, mining or surface retrieval, the geographic source locations of raw materials and their resultant archaeological sites have been approached from different methodological and theoretical perspectives. In recent years this has included the exploration of previously undiscovered sites, refined radiocarbon dating, comparative ethnographic analysis and novel analytical approaches to stone tool manufacture and provenancing. The aim of this volume in the Neolithic Studies Group Papers is to explore these new findings on extraction sites and their products. How did the acquisition of raw materials fit into other aspects of Neolithic life and social networks? How did these activities merge in creating material items that underpinned cosmology, status and identity? What are the geographic similarities, constraints and variables between the various raw materials, and how does the practise of stone extraction in the UK relate to wider extractive traditions in northwestern Europe? Eight papers address these questions and act as a useful overview of the current state of research on the topic.
Author: Martyn Barber Publisher: Liverpool University Press ISBN: 1848021887 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 108
Book Description
Only rarely in Europe do the surface remains of Neolithic flint mines remain so dramatically for all to see as those located along the South Downs and in the Breckland of England. Even within England they represent a diminishing resource and only ten sites have been recorded with any certainty. As examples of our earliest industrial heritage they represent archaeological sites of the first importance and have a special part to play in the history of technology. However, despite a lengthy history of archaeological investigation, they have rarely been considered nationally as a class of monument. Although some sites such as Grime's Graves are well known through excavation campaigns, others are known only through obscure articles and unpublished archival material. Many of those that survive as earthworks or cropmarks have never been surveyed previously or accurately planned. Consequently, English Heritage has compiled detailed plans of the surface areas of all of the known flint mines and investigated the sites of other potential examples. Using a combination of field survey, aerial photography and archival research, this volume looks at each site in its own right as a major and important complex and - for the first time - offers a synthesis of the evidence to date.
Author: Society for American Archaeology. Meeting Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
The papers in this volume came out of a symposium focusing on mining and its wider impact, at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. A number of fundamental questions were posed to the presenters, including: did the raw mined material have a symbolic value?, were the mines considered special places? were the miners craft specialists? did they have a particular social niche? In the wider landscape perspective, it was hoped that the case studies would also throw some light upon the choices of site locations: were mines and quarries simply positioned at the most convenient source of raw material, or were other considerations such as quality, rarity or colouration involved? Arguably the special nature of certain mining locations was linked to the local communities worldview, they must have been associated with traditional stories and oral histories. The presence of graffiti or rock art can often betray a 'special' location. Similarly, assemblages of carefully placed artefacts or pottery can also reveal specialised deposition, even amongst relatively mundane 'functional' tool types. Finally, the rare occurrence of burials in some mines and quarries offers further perspectives on how these sites may have been perceived by contemporary communities. The archaeological record does suggest a multiplicity of activities were focussed upon some mining sites, which do not easily fit with interpretations of extraction strategies. Although it could never be effectively argued that all mining had ritualised or ceremonial undertones, in some cases there was a definite and demonstrable special nature to the mining activity: this book presents some of those case studies.(Oxbow Books 2004)
Author: Mark Edmonds Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1135782342 Category : Education Languages : en Pages : 261
Book Description
The aim of this work is to explore the changing character and social roles of stone tools of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in Britain. As well as contributing to current theoretical debate about the interpretation of material culture, this study provides a context in which to consider some of the major horizons of change in British pre-history. From stone axe quarries to the final ceremonial burial or breakage of tools at ritual monuments, Edmonds examines the evidence both regionally and chronologically. He looks at modifications in the form of tools and the methods used to produce them, taking into consideration the changing material and social conditions under which tools were produced, acquired, used and deposited. The result is the delineation of a prehistoric sequence in Britain, from the end of the Mesolithic era and the transition to Neolithic.
Author: Peter Topping Publisher: Oxbow Books ISBN: 1789257085 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
This new title in the acclaimed Prehistoric Society Research Papers series focuses on the introduction of Neolithic extraction practices across Europe through to the Atlantic periphery of Britain and Ireland. The key research questions are when and why these practices were adopted, and what role extraction sites played in Neolithic society. Neolithic mines and quarries have frequently been seen as fulfilling economic roles linked to the expansion of the Neolithic economy. However, this ignores the fact that many communities chose to selectively dig for certain types of stone in preference to others, and why the products from these sites were generally deposited in special places such as wetlands. To address this question, 168 near-global ethnographic studies were analysed to identify common trends in traditional extraction practises to produce robust statistics about their motivations and material signatures. Repeated associations emerged between storied locations, the organisation of extraction practises, long-distance distribution of products, and the material evidence such activities left behind. This suggests that we can now probably identify mythologised/storied sites, seasonality, ritualised extraction, and the uselife of extraction site products. The ethnographic model was tested against data from 223 near-global archaeological extraction sites which confirmed a similar patterning in both material records, suggesting it can be used to interpret broad trends in many cross-cultural contexts and time periods. Finally, the new ethnoarchaeological model has been used to analyse the social context of 79 Neolithic flint mine and 51 axe quarry excavations in Britain and Ireland, and to review their European origins. The evidence which emerges confirms the pivotal role played by Neolithic extraction practices in European Neolithisation, and that the interaction of indigenous foragers with migrant miner/farmers in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere was fundamental to the adoption of the new agro-pastoral lifestyle.
Author: Chris Fowler Publisher: OUP Oxford ISBN: 0191666890 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 1303
Book Description
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.
Author: Miles Russell Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited ISBN: Category : History Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
The Neolithic was a period of prolific activity for the South Downs in Sussex, when enclosures and monuments were being built, ditches cut, large areas cleared and flint was extracted from the ground. This study features one of the last, great unpublished excavation archives relating to fieldwork conducted on the Neolithic monuments of the South Downs, carried out by John Henry Pull in the 1920s-50s. It includes reports from four major areas of flint mining (Blackpatch, Church Hill, Cissbury and Tolmere), largely based on contemporary records and accounts, with comments and observations from Miles Russell. The specialist reports and studies of artefact assemblages are to be published in a separate report.
Author: Anne M. Teather
Author: Anne M. Teather
Author: Anne Mary Teather
Author: Miles Russell
Author: Anne Teather
Author: Martyn Barber
Author: Society for American Archaeology. Meeting
Author: Mark Edmonds
Author: Peter Topping
Author: Chris Fowler
Author: Miles Russell