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The Mesolithic in Britain proposes a new division of the Mesolithic period into four parts, each with its distinct character. The Mesolithic has previously been seen as timeless, where little changed over thousands of years. This new synthesis draws on advances in scientific dating to understand the Mesolithic inhabitation of Britain as a historical process. The period was, in fact, a time of profound change: houses, monuments, middens, long-term use of sites and regions, manipulation of the environment and the symbolic deposition of human and animal remains all emerged as significant practices in Britain for the first time. The book describes the lives of the first pioneers in the Early Mesolithic; the emergence of new modes of inhabitation in the Middle Mesolithic; the regionally diverse settlement of the Late Mesolithic; and the radical changes of the final millennium of the period. The first synthesis of Mesolithic Britain since 1932, it takes both a chronological and a regional approach. This book will serve as an essential text for anyone studying the period: undergraduate and graduate students, specialists in the field and community archaeology groups.
Providing evidence about prehistoric life in Britain, this book focuses on the little studied communities of the South West and Wales. It offers useful case studies from nationally important Bronze Age sites such as Brean Down on the Somerset Levels.
While awe-inspiring cave paintings were a hallmark of the Upper Paleolithic Era in Europe, they became uncommon in the Mesolithic Period that followed. Scholars believe that this, along with a number of other changes observed in the transition to the Mesolithic Period, was a reaction to a changing environment, caused by the melting of glaciers at the end of the last glacial period. This title paints a vivid picture of a key period of human history. Descriptions of specific discoveries and sites—such as England’s Starr Carr and India’s Bagor—help readers understand how archaeologists learn about life in the Mesolithic Period.
The general perception of the archaeology of the Mesolithic in Britain and Ireland is that the period is somewhat impoverished. Often assumed to have an exceptionally limited range of evidence, the period is also perceived as a theoretical backwater, devoid of the vibrant, engaging narratives that have transformed other branches of prehistoric archaeology over the last 20 years. However, new approaches, producing a distinctive 'Mesolithic' archaeology, are beginning to supersede the traditional accounts and demonstrate that such assumptions about the Mesolithic are wholly misplaced. This volume, aimed at a broader archaeological readership, introduces this new generation of researchers and offers an urgently needed teaching resource for students who want a deeper understanding of the period. The book provides up-to-date information on a variety of important topics: technology, gender, subsistence, analogy, ritual, landscape and death. Additionally, a range of important Mesolithic sites are discussed throughout the text, with new interpretations and theories being explored. The book's combination of high-quality academic research and comprehensive reading lists ensure that it will be of value to second or final-year students studying a module on the Mesolithic, and essential reading for post-graduate students.
A pan-European overview of the archaeology of hunter-gatherer societies, written by experts in each region.
The Origins of Britain (1980) follows the path of man’s occupation of Britain from the scattered pockets of habitation in the earliest Palaeolithic period through to his growing domination of the landscape and his capacity to mould his environment evident in the late Bronze Age. Among the many subjects which the book discusses in detail are the extent of knowledge of astronomy and mathematics in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain, and the extent to which the pattern of life in the Iron Age was already set by the end of the preceding Bronze Age.