Cover; The Birth of Neolithic Britain: An Interpretive Account; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; List of Figures; 1: Introduction: The Problem; 2: The Neolithization of Southern Europe; INTRODUCTION; GREECE AND THE SOUTHERN BALKANS; STARČEVO-KÖRÖS-CRIS; THE DANUBE GORGES; THE ADRIATIC AND ITALY; THE WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN AND IBERIA; CONCLUSION; 3: The Neolithization of Northern Europe; CENTRAL EUROPE: THE LINEARBANDKERAMIK; THE NORTH EUROPEAN PLAIN AND SOUTHERN SCANDINAVIA; THE LOW COUNTRIES; NORTH-WEST FRANCE: THE EMERGENCE OF MONUMENTAL BURIAL; CONCLUSION.
4: The Neolithization of Europe: ThemesINTRODUCTION; CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF EUROPEAN NEOLITHIZATION; RECENT PERSPECTIVES ON POPULATION MOVEMENT; SKILLS, PRACTICES, AND KNOWLEDGE; THE DIVERSITY OF EUROPEAN MESOLITHICS; THE 'NEOLITHIC FRONTIER'; CHANGING PATTERNS OF NEOLITHIC ECONOMIC PRACTICE; HOUSES AND 'HOUSE SOCIETIES'; CONCLUSION; 5: The Neolithic Transition in Britain: A Critical Historiography; INTRODUCTION; CULTURE HISTORY 1: VERE GORDON CHILDE; CULTURE HISTORY 2: STUART PIGGOTT AND JACQUETTA HAWKES; GRAHAME CLARK AND THE INVASION HYPOTHESIS; HUMPHREY CASE'S NEOLITHIC EXPLANATIONS.
8: Contact, Interaction, and SeafaringINTRODUCTION; ISSUES OF INSULARITY; THE MEANING OF SEA-CROSSING; TRACES OF INTERACTION; JADE AND JADEITITE AXES IN EUROPE; JADE AND JADEITITE AXES IN BRITAIN; 9: Architecture: Halls and Houses; BUILDING AND DWELLING; NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT AND OCCUPATION IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND; HOUSE SOCIETIES; THE MEANING OF THE HOUSE; HOUSES AND HALLS IN THE PRIMARY NEOLITHIC; POTS AND PLANT REMAINS: FINDS FROM HALLS; BRITISH HALLS AND THE CONTINENTAL NEOLITHIC; THE DEATH OF THE HOUSE; CONCLUSION; 10: Architecture: Timber Structures, Long Mounds, and Megaliths.
ALASDAIR WHITTLE ON THE CONTINENTAL BACKGROUNDROBIN DENNELL'S 'INDIGENISM'; IAN KINNES AND THE 'CATTLESHIP POTEMKIN'; IAN HODDER: DOMESTICATING BRITAIN; JULIAN THOMAS: RE-HISTORICIZING THE TRANSITION; THREE TYPES OF REVISIONISM: 1, GABRIEL COONEY; THREE TYPES OF REVISIONISM: 2, ALISON SHERIDAN; THREE TYPES OF REVISIONISM: 3, PETER ROWLEY-CONWY; A NEW BEGINNING?; CONCLUSION; 6: Mesolithic Prelude?; INTRODUCTION; UNPACKING HUNTER-GATHERER 'COMPLEXITY'; MOBILE HUNTER-GATHERERS IN BRITAIN; HUNTER-GATHERER LANDSCAPES; DIET AND DIVERSITY; THE EMERGENCE OF PLACE.
SHELL MIDDENS AND THE SPIRIT OF PLACEMIDDENS, LANDSCAPE, AND SEASCAPE; LITHICS AND SOCIETY; CONCLUSION; 7: Times and Places; DATING THE MESOLITHIC-NEOLITHIC TRANSITION; ASSESSING THE DATING EVIDENCE; COMPOUND TEMPORALITY; PRIMARY NEOLITHIC PLACES; ASCOTT-UNDER-WYCHWOOD, OXFORDSHIRE; FIR TREE FIELD, DORSET; HAZLETON NORTH, GLOUCESTERSHIRE; CANNON HILL, BERKSHIRE; GWERNVALE, POWYS; BIGGAR COMMON, SOUTH LANARKSHIRE; EWEFORD WEST, EAST LOTHIAN; THE CONEYBURY 'ANOMALY', WILTSHIRE; THE SWEET TRACK, SOMERSET; BALFARG, FIFE; THE PICT'S KNOWE, DUMFRIES AND GALLOWAY; DISCUSSION.
0
8
8
8
8
The beginning of the Neolithic in Britain is a topic of perennial interest in archaeology, marking the end of a hunter-gatherer way of life with the introduction of domesticated plants and animals, pottery, polished stone tools, and a range of new kinds of monuments, including earthen long barrows and megalithic tombs. Every year, numerous new articles are published on different aspects of the topic, ranging from diet and subsistence economy to population movement, architecture, and seafaring. Thomas offers a treatment that synthesizes all of this material, presenting a coherent argument to explain the process of transition between the Mesolithic-Neolithic periods. Necessarily, the developments in Britain are put into the context of broader debates about the origins of agriculture in Europe, and the diversity of processes of change in different parts of the continent are explored. These are followed by a historiographic treatment of debates on the transition in Britain.