Alasdair Whittle
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264140
- eISBN:
- 9780191734489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264140.003.0029
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This concluding chapter does not aim to be a magisterial overview or a comprehensive summary. The preceding chapters speak for themselves of the range and quality of research currently being carried ...
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This concluding chapter does not aim to be a magisterial overview or a comprehensive summary. The preceding chapters speak for themselves of the range and quality of research currently being carried out across north-west Europe relevant to the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. Instead, the chapter offers some brief, personal reflections on what we are doing well and what we could still do better, and thus tries to define some of the continuing challenges for future research.Less
This concluding chapter does not aim to be a magisterial overview or a comprehensive summary. The preceding chapters speak for themselves of the range and quality of research currently being carried out across north-west Europe relevant to the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition. Instead, the chapter offers some brief, personal reflections on what we are doing well and what we could still do better, and thus tries to define some of the continuing challenges for future research.
Alasdair Whittle and Vicki Cummings
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264140
- eISBN:
- 9780191734489
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264140.003.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the significance of the transition from hunter-gatherer existence to farming society. It raises the following question: What if we started ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the significance of the transition from hunter-gatherer existence to farming society. It raises the following question: What if we started with the radical premise that most or all societies in the post-glacial period – whatever their subsistence or technological base – were normally in a state of transformation, which would offer a quite different perspective on the holy grail of finding moments of Mesolithic–Neolithic transition? The chapter then sets out the focus of the book, namely the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in north-west Europe.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a brief discussion of the significance of the transition from hunter-gatherer existence to farming society. It raises the following question: What if we started with the radical premise that most or all societies in the post-glacial period – whatever their subsistence or technological base – were normally in a state of transformation, which would offer a quite different perspective on the holy grail of finding moments of Mesolithic–Neolithic transition? The chapter then sets out the focus of the book, namely the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in north-west Europe.
Alasdair Whittle and Vicki Cummings (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264140
- eISBN:
- 9780191734489
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264140.001.0001
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology
The processes involved in the transformation of society from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers were complex. They involved changes not only in subsistence but also in how people ...
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The processes involved in the transformation of society from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers were complex. They involved changes not only in subsistence but also in how people thought about themselves and their worlds, from their pasts to their animals. Two sets of protagonists have often been lined up in the long-running debates about these processes: on the one hand incoming farmers and on the other indigenous hunter-gatherers. Both have found advocates as the dominant force in the transitions to a new way of life. North-west Europe presents a very rich data set for this fundamental change, and research has both extended and deepened our knowledge of regional sequences, from the sixth to the fourth millennia bc. One of the most striking results is the evident diversity from northern Spain to southern Scandinavia. No one region is quite like another; hunter-gatherers and early farmers alike were also varied and the old labels of Mesolithic and Neolithic are increasingly inadequate to capture the diversity of human agency and belief. Surveys of the most recent evidence presented here also strongly suggest a diversity of transformations. Some cases of colonization on the one hand and indigenous adoption on the other can still be argued, but many situations now seem to involve complex fusions and mixtures. This wide-ranging set of papers offers an overview of this fundamental transition.Less
The processes involved in the transformation of society from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers were complex. They involved changes not only in subsistence but also in how people thought about themselves and their worlds, from their pasts to their animals. Two sets of protagonists have often been lined up in the long-running debates about these processes: on the one hand incoming farmers and on the other indigenous hunter-gatherers. Both have found advocates as the dominant force in the transitions to a new way of life. North-west Europe presents a very rich data set for this fundamental change, and research has both extended and deepened our knowledge of regional sequences, from the sixth to the fourth millennia bc. One of the most striking results is the evident diversity from northern Spain to southern Scandinavia. No one region is quite like another; hunter-gatherers and early farmers alike were also varied and the old labels of Mesolithic and Neolithic are increasingly inadequate to capture the diversity of human agency and belief. Surveys of the most recent evidence presented here also strongly suggest a diversity of transformations. Some cases of colonization on the one hand and indigenous adoption on the other can still be argued, but many situations now seem to involve complex fusions and mixtures. This wide-ranging set of papers offers an overview of this fundamental transition.
Peter J. Hayward and John S. Ryland (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780199549443
- eISBN:
- 9780191847943
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199549443.001.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Aquatic Biology
This guide to the marine fauna of the continental shelf seas of north-west Europe provides dichotomous identification keys for macrobenthic invertebrates and coastal fish. An introduction to the ...
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This guide to the marine fauna of the continental shelf seas of north-west Europe provides dichotomous identification keys for macrobenthic invertebrates and coastal fish. An introduction to the marine environment of the region is followed by a guide to the animal groups covered, and each major taxonomic group is treated, in twelve separate chapters, each commencing with a brief description of the morphological and biological characteristics of the group. Technical terms are defined, with especial reference to their significance in classification and importance for identification. Keys to higher taxonomic categories, where useful, and to families lead to keys for the identification of selected species. Confirmatory diagnoses are given for most families. Short descriptions and notes on occurrence and distribution are provided for each species, and the majority are illustrated by line drawings. Coverage varies from group to group, being fairly comprehensive for conspicuous, well-known animals, such as anthozoans, molluscs, echinoderms, and fish, while the selection of species is smaller for some taxonomically difficult or poorly documented groups, such as sponges and sea squirts. However, where possible, the actual or potential diversity of each group within the region is indicated at family level. This edition incorporates systematic and phylogenetic revisions current at submission. Keys have been reviewed and improved; nomenclature has been updated, and descriptions and distributions have been improved or revised where appropriate. Species additional to those in the first edition include several seen to be more common than previously apparent, and a number of newly arrived exotics.Less
This guide to the marine fauna of the continental shelf seas of north-west Europe provides dichotomous identification keys for macrobenthic invertebrates and coastal fish. An introduction to the marine environment of the region is followed by a guide to the animal groups covered, and each major taxonomic group is treated, in twelve separate chapters, each commencing with a brief description of the morphological and biological characteristics of the group. Technical terms are defined, with especial reference to their significance in classification and importance for identification. Keys to higher taxonomic categories, where useful, and to families lead to keys for the identification of selected species. Confirmatory diagnoses are given for most families. Short descriptions and notes on occurrence and distribution are provided for each species, and the majority are illustrated by line drawings. Coverage varies from group to group, being fairly comprehensive for conspicuous, well-known animals, such as anthozoans, molluscs, echinoderms, and fish, while the selection of species is smaller for some taxonomically difficult or poorly documented groups, such as sponges and sea squirts. However, where possible, the actual or potential diversity of each group within the region is indicated at family level. This edition incorporates systematic and phylogenetic revisions current at submission. Keys have been reviewed and improved; nomenclature has been updated, and descriptions and distributions have been improved or revised where appropriate. Species additional to those in the first edition include several seen to be more common than previously apparent, and a number of newly arrived exotics.
Clive Gamble
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198297598
- eISBN:
- 9780191916533
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198297598.003.0007
- Subject:
- Archaeology, European Archaeology
Our understanding of the first peopling of Britain has recently undergone a transformation. On the one hand there have been fundamental advances in the investigation ...
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Our understanding of the first peopling of Britain has recently undergone a transformation. On the one hand there have been fundamental advances in the investigation of Pleistocene environments and chronology, while on the other exceptionally well preserved archaeological sites of the period have now been investigated. These data are allowing us to reinterpret the society and palaeo-ecology of the people who inhabited this small corner of north-west Europe between 500,000 and 35,000 years ago. In order to put these findings into their proper context I will, however, need to roam more widely across the Palaeolithic world and consider the evolutionary changes and geographical processes that were involved over such long time-spans. One aspect I will concentrate upon in this contribution is that, although these earliest inhabitants did not dramatically transform the landscape, in the manner that either prehistoric farmers did with fields and ritual monuments (see Whittle in this volume) or, later, more complex societies achieved through trade, cities and the military machine (see Cunliffe and Härke in this volume), we can, none the less, see the beginnings of such shaping in the way they went about their daily and lifetime routines. My point is that these early hominids (a term which includes ourselves and all our fossil ancestors) were not slaves to nature, ecological creatures determined in everything by the environment, but rather creative builders of social networks that linked their daily landscapes of habit into very different social worlds. Their act of living in the worlds of half a million years ago was every bit as transformative for those environments as our acts of living are today. In other words, the idea that our earliest ancestors lived solely in a natural landscape because they had very simple technologies, smaller brains, and tiny social groupings, while we by contrast create and inhabit a complex cultural world, needs to be revised. Moreover, the second theme of this volume, population diversity and movement, is also illustrated in these early beginnings.
Less
Our understanding of the first peopling of Britain has recently undergone a transformation. On the one hand there have been fundamental advances in the investigation of Pleistocene environments and chronology, while on the other exceptionally well preserved archaeological sites of the period have now been investigated. These data are allowing us to reinterpret the society and palaeo-ecology of the people who inhabited this small corner of north-west Europe between 500,000 and 35,000 years ago. In order to put these findings into their proper context I will, however, need to roam more widely across the Palaeolithic world and consider the evolutionary changes and geographical processes that were involved over such long time-spans. One aspect I will concentrate upon in this contribution is that, although these earliest inhabitants did not dramatically transform the landscape, in the manner that either prehistoric farmers did with fields and ritual monuments (see Whittle in this volume) or, later, more complex societies achieved through trade, cities and the military machine (see Cunliffe and Härke in this volume), we can, none the less, see the beginnings of such shaping in the way they went about their daily and lifetime routines. My point is that these early hominids (a term which includes ourselves and all our fossil ancestors) were not slaves to nature, ecological creatures determined in everything by the environment, but rather creative builders of social networks that linked their daily landscapes of habit into very different social worlds. Their act of living in the worlds of half a million years ago was every bit as transformative for those environments as our acts of living are today. In other words, the idea that our earliest ancestors lived solely in a natural landscape because they had very simple technologies, smaller brains, and tiny social groupings, while we by contrast create and inhabit a complex cultural world, needs to be revised. Moreover, the second theme of this volume, population diversity and movement, is also illustrated in these early beginnings.
Alasdair Whittle and Colin Renfrew
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198297598
- eISBN:
- 9780191916533
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198297598.003.0009
- Subject:
- Archaeology, European Archaeology
This chapter reviews the development of agriculture in Britain and Ireland from the Neolithic period to the middle of the Bronze Age (approximately 4000 to 1500 bc in ...
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This chapter reviews the development of agriculture in Britain and Ireland from the Neolithic period to the middle of the Bronze Age (approximately 4000 to 1500 bc in calendar years), and the associated questions of the identity of the people involved, the density of populations, and their effect on the landscape. This brief account is set in the context of the wider development of an agricultural way of life on the adjacent continental mainland, going as far back as 6000 bc in central Europe. I hope to raise questions as much as to answer them, and to concentrate wherever possible on new evidence and approaches. I should like to frame my discussion by setting out four hypotheses: 1. Overall, change was slow, but punctuated by spurts or accelerations (notably around 5500 bc, 4000 bc, and 1500 bc), whose nature is still poorly understood. This hypothesis stands in opposition to a general tendency to envisage a steadily intensifying evolution of subsistence methods, population levels, and landscapes. 2. There was much continuity of population both in continental Europe and in Britain and Ireland, but the role of colonization still needs seriously to be considered. This hypothesis seeks to re-examine both the assumption in continental research of major colonization with the onset of the Neolithic and the recent British consensus that the beginnings of the Neolithic were essentially to do with the acculturation of an indigenous population. 3. Although some landscapes had been cleared of substantial tracts of woodland by about 2500–2000 bc, population levels in most parts of Britain and Ireland remained relatively low at least until the middle of the Bronze Age, and the lifestyle can be characterized by continuing mobility and/or short-term sedentism. This hypothesis restates recent opposition to the notion that the introduction of agriculture entailed sedentary existence, rapidly growing population, and intensifying production right from the start. The coming of agriculture in a more familiar guise, although preceded in Britain and Ireland by herding and piecemeal cultivation from about 4000 bc, was not seen till as late as about 1500 bc onwards.
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This chapter reviews the development of agriculture in Britain and Ireland from the Neolithic period to the middle of the Bronze Age (approximately 4000 to 1500 bc in calendar years), and the associated questions of the identity of the people involved, the density of populations, and their effect on the landscape. This brief account is set in the context of the wider development of an agricultural way of life on the adjacent continental mainland, going as far back as 6000 bc in central Europe. I hope to raise questions as much as to answer them, and to concentrate wherever possible on new evidence and approaches. I should like to frame my discussion by setting out four hypotheses: 1. Overall, change was slow, but punctuated by spurts or accelerations (notably around 5500 bc, 4000 bc, and 1500 bc), whose nature is still poorly understood. This hypothesis stands in opposition to a general tendency to envisage a steadily intensifying evolution of subsistence methods, population levels, and landscapes. 2. There was much continuity of population both in continental Europe and in Britain and Ireland, but the role of colonization still needs seriously to be considered. This hypothesis seeks to re-examine both the assumption in continental research of major colonization with the onset of the Neolithic and the recent British consensus that the beginnings of the Neolithic were essentially to do with the acculturation of an indigenous population. 3. Although some landscapes had been cleared of substantial tracts of woodland by about 2500–2000 bc, population levels in most parts of Britain and Ireland remained relatively low at least until the middle of the Bronze Age, and the lifestyle can be characterized by continuing mobility and/or short-term sedentism. This hypothesis restates recent opposition to the notion that the introduction of agriculture entailed sedentary existence, rapidly growing population, and intensifying production right from the start. The coming of agriculture in a more familiar guise, although preceded in Britain and Ireland by herding and piecemeal cultivation from about 4000 bc, was not seen till as late as about 1500 bc onwards.