Reading Between the Lines

Reading Between the Lines
Author: Kenneth Brophy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2015-10-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317430026

Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland is the first systematic analysis of Scotland’s cursus monuments and is written by one of the foremost scholars of the Neolithic in Scotland. Drawing on fifteen years of experience of cropmark interpretation, as well as his involvement in several excavations of cursus monuments and contemporary sites, Kenneth Brophy uncovers some of the secrets of the Neolithic landscape. While outlining the physical characteristics of the cursus, this book also addresses the limitations of this kind of typological description when applied to monuments which varied so remarkably in terms of materiality and size. Moving beyond a morphological account, Brophy considers what can be said of this diverse group of sites, and how they were actually built and used in prehistory, in light of several decades of aerial reconnaissance and excavation in Scotland. Through a close study of the differences, as well as the similarities, between these structures, this book offers a nuanced account of cursus monuments, finally allowing this important monument type to be better understood and placed alongside others of the period. Offering exciting new ways of thinking about these enigmatic yet important monuments, Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland is an essential resource for students and specialists in British prehistory, providing an introduction to the Early Neolithic archaeology of lowland Scotland as well as a meditation on broader aspects of monumentality and architecture.

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland

The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland
Author: Richard Bradley
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 391
Release: 2019-05-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108419925

Highlights the achievements of prehistoric people in Britain and Ireland over a 5,000 year period.

Orientation of Prehistoric Monuments in Britain: A Reassessment

Orientation of Prehistoric Monuments in Britain: A Reassessment
Author: Alistair Marshall
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 704
Release: 2021-07-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1789697069

Reassesses major axial alignment at many megalithic ritual and funerary monuments (Neolithic to Bronze Age) in Britain and Ireland, not in terms of abstract astronomical concerns, but as an expression of repeated seasonal propitiation involving community, agrarian economy and ancestry in an attempt to mitigate variable environmental conditions.

A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire

A Neolithic and Bronze Age Landscape in Northamptonshire
Author: Jan Harding
Publisher: English Heritage
Total Pages: 976
Release: 2013-01-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1848021755

The Raunds Area Project investigated more than 20 Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in the Nene Valley. From c 5000 BC to the early 1st millennium cal BC a succession of ritual mounds and burial mounds were built as settlement along the valley sides increased and woodland was cleared. Starting as a regular stopping-place for flint knapping and domestic tasks, first the Long Mound, and then Long Barrow, the north part of the Turf Mound and the Avenue were built in the 5th millennium BC. With the addition of the Long Enclosure, the Causewayed Ring Ditch, and the Southern Enclosure, there was a chain of five or six diverse monuments stretched along the river bank by c 3000 cal BC. Later, a timber platform, the Riverside Structure, was built and the focus of ceremonial activity shifted to the Cotton 'Henge', two concentric ditches on the occupied valley side. From c 2200 cal BC monument building accelerated and included the Segmented Ditch Circle and at least 20 round barrows, almost all containing burials, at first inhumations, then cremations down to c 1000 cal BC, by which time two overlapping systems of paddocks and droveways had been laid out. Finally, the terrace began to be settled when these had gone out of use, in the early 1st millennium cal BC. This second volume of the Raunds Area Project, published as a CD, comprises the detailed reports on the environmental archaeology, artefact studies, geophysics and chronology.

Round Mounds and Monumentality in the British Neolithic and Beyond

Round Mounds and Monumentality in the British Neolithic and Beyond
Author: Jim Leary
Publisher: Oxbow Books Limited
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN:

Design, geometry, and the metamorphosis of monuments / David Field -- " --a place where they tried their criminals" : Neolithic round mounds in Perth and Kinross / Kenneth Brophy -- Scotland's Neolithic non-megalithic round mounds : new dates, problems, and potential / Alison Sheridan -- Tynwald Hill and the round mounds of the Isle of Man / Timothy Darvill -- Recent work on the Neolithic round barrows of the upper Great Wold Valley, Yorkshire / Alex Gibson and Alex Bayliss -- "One of the most interesting barrows ever examined" : Liffs Low revisited / Roy Loveday and Alistair Barclay -- Neolithic round barrows on the Cotswolds / Timothy Darvill -- Silbury Hill : a monument in motion / Jim Leary -- The brood of Silbury? : a remote look at some other sizeable Wessex mounds / Martyn Barber [and others] -- The mystery of the hill / Jonathan Last -- The formative henge : speculations drawn from the circular traditions of Wales and adjacent counties / Steve Burrow -- Monumentality and inclusion in the Boyne Valley, County Meath, Ireland / Geraldine Stout -- Round mounds containing portal tombs / Tatjana Kytmannow -- Native American mound building traditions / Peter Topping -- The round mound is not a monument / Tim Ingold.

Moving on in Neolithic Studies

Moving on in Neolithic Studies
Author: Jim Leary
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2016-02-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1785701797

Mobility is a fundamental facet of being human and should be central to archaeology. Yet mobility itself and the role it plays in the production of social life, is rarely considered as a subject in its own right. This is particularly so with discussions of the Neolithic people where mobility is often framed as being somewhere between a sedentary existence and nomadic movements. This latest collection of papers from the Neolithic Studies Group seminars examines the importance and complexities of movement and mobility, whether on land or water, in the Neolithic period. It uses movement in its widest sense, ranging from everyday mobilities – the routines and rhythms of daily life – to proscribed mobility, such as movement in and around monuments, and occasional and large-scale movements and migrations around the continent and across seas. Papers are roughly grouped and focus on ‘mobility and the landscape’, ‘monuments and mobility’, ‘travelling by water’, and ‘materials and mobility’. Through these themes the volume considers the movement of people, ideas, animals, objects, and information, and uses a wide range of archaeological evidence from isotope analysis; artefact studies; lithic scatters and assemblage diversity.

Mapping Ancient Landscapes in Northamptonshire

Mapping Ancient Landscapes in Northamptonshire
Author: Alison Deegan
Publisher: English Heritage
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2013-02-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1848021690

A record of the National Mapping Programme project in Northamptonshire. It recovered and mapped archaeological evidence from field systems, through settlement remains, to funerary monuments, and ranges from the Neolithic to the 20th century.

Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies

Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies
Author: Lynne Kelly
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2015-05-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107059372

In this book, Lynne Kelly explores the role of formal knowledge systems in small-scale oral cultures in both historic and archaeological contexts. In the first part, she examines knowledge systems within historically recorded oral cultures, showing how the link between power and the control of knowledge is established. Analyzing the material mnemonic devices used by documented oral cultures, she demonstrates how early societies maintained a vast corpus of pragmatic information concerning animal behavior, plant properties, navigation, astronomy, genealogies, laws and trade agreements, among other matters. In the second part Kelly turns to the archaeological record of three sites, Chaco Canyon, Poverty Point and Stonehenge, offering new insights into the purpose of the monuments and associated decorated objects. This book demonstrates how an understanding of rational intellect, pragmatic knowledge and mnemonic technologies in prehistoric societies offers a new tool for analysis of monumental structures built by non-literate cultures.

The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour

The Cleaven Dyke and Littleour
Author: Gordon Barclay
Publisher: Society Antiquaries Scotland
Total Pages: 163
Release: 1998
Genre: Earthworks (Archaeology)
ISBN: 090390313X

Cleaven Dyke was for some centuries identified as a Roman construction. However, the authors' surveys and excavations strongly suggest that it was built as part of the Neolithic cursus monument tradition. The volume presents the comprehensive results of their study, showing in detail the segmented nature of the Dyke's construction, its alignment and the palaeoenvironmental evidence for the surrounding landscape. In addition the nearby recitlinear timber enclosure of Littleour is also described.