Jessica Smyth and Richard P. Evershed
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265758
- eISBN:
- 9780191771965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265758.003.0018
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This chapter reflects on the collaboration on a recent interdisciplinary project, SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating), ...
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This chapter reflects on the collaboration on a recent interdisciplinary project, SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating), which involved undertaking systematic molecular and compound-specific stable isotope analyses, alongside radiocarbon dating, on lipid residues from c.450 Irish Neolithic pottery vessels. Somewhat unusually, analyses were carried out by an archaeologist, who was trained ‘on the job’. The project thus provided an ideal opportunity to combine different research perspectives and to engage in two-way communication between archaeology and science. The authors explore how this dialogue developed and its implications for the study of early farming societies, as well as for the role of pottery in future research.Less
This chapter reflects on the collaboration on a recent interdisciplinary project, SCHERD (a Study of Cuisine and animal husbandry among Early farmers via Residue analysis and radiocarbon Dating), which involved undertaking systematic molecular and compound-specific stable isotope analyses, alongside radiocarbon dating, on lipid residues from c.450 Irish Neolithic pottery vessels. Somewhat unusually, analyses were carried out by an archaeologist, who was trained ‘on the job’. The project thus provided an ideal opportunity to combine different research perspectives and to engage in two-way communication between archaeology and science. The authors explore how this dialogue developed and its implications for the study of early farming societies, as well as for the role of pottery in future research.
Alison Sheridan and Pierre Pétrequin
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780197265758
- eISBN:
- 9780191771965
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265758.003.0019
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
Case studies are presented to discuss various ways, good and bad, in which ‘hard science’ has been used to construct aspects of the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland. The use of radiocarbon dating and ...
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Case studies are presented to discuss various ways, good and bad, in which ‘hard science’ has been used to construct aspects of the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland. The use of radiocarbon dating and dietary evidence to characterise the Neolithisation process is reviewed; the disjunction between existing archaeological narratives and the results of a genetic and morphometric analysis of the Orkney vole as a Neolithic arrival in Orkney is considered; and the reasons for the success of Projet JADE, a major international research programme investigating axeheads and other artefacts made of jadeitite and other alpine rocks, are explored. Conclusions are reached about the way in which ‘hard science’ can be used to inform archaeological narratives (and vice versa).Less
Case studies are presented to discuss various ways, good and bad, in which ‘hard science’ has been used to construct aspects of the Neolithic of Britain and Ireland. The use of radiocarbon dating and dietary evidence to characterise the Neolithisation process is reviewed; the disjunction between existing archaeological narratives and the results of a genetic and morphometric analysis of the Orkney vole as a Neolithic arrival in Orkney is considered; and the reasons for the success of Projet JADE, a major international research programme investigating axeheads and other artefacts made of jadeitite and other alpine rocks, are explored. Conclusions are reached about the way in which ‘hard science’ can be used to inform archaeological narratives (and vice versa).
Andrew Meirion Jones
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199556427
- eISBN:
- 9780191804380
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199556427.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Ancient History / Archaeology
This chapter examines the issue of scale and materials. It presents two case studies. The first examines how both the gigantic and the miniature were deployed in the passage tombs of Neolithic ...
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This chapter examines the issue of scale and materials. It presents two case studies. The first examines how both the gigantic and the miniature were deployed in the passage tombs of Neolithic Ireland; the second focuses on the miniature cups of the Early Bronze Age of the south. It argues that materials offer a way of inhabiting the world that would be otherwise difficult to comprehend; and that physical scale provides the potential for articulating geographic scale and a way of articulating people.Less
This chapter examines the issue of scale and materials. It presents two case studies. The first examines how both the gigantic and the miniature were deployed in the passage tombs of Neolithic Ireland; the second focuses on the miniature cups of the Early Bronze Age of the south. It argues that materials offer a way of inhabiting the world that would be otherwise difficult to comprehend; and that physical scale provides the potential for articulating geographic scale and a way of articulating people.
