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Landscape, Monuments and Society
Cranborne Chase, in central southern England, is the area where British field archaeology developed in its modern form. The site of General Pitt Rivers' pioneering excavations in the nineteenth century, Cranborne Chase also provides a microcosm of virtually all the major types of filed monument present in southern England as a whole. Much of the archaeological material has fortuitously survived, offering the fullest chronological cover of any part of the prehistoric British landscape. Martin Green began working in this region in 1968 and was joined by John Barrett and Richard Bradley in 1977 for a fuller programme of survey and excavation that lasted for nearly ten years. In this important study, they apply some of the questions in prehistory to one of the first regions of the country to be studied in such detail. The book is a regional study of long-term change in British prehistory, and contains a unique collection of data. A landmark in the archaeological literature, it will be essential reading for students and scholars of British prehistory and social and historical geography, and also for all those involved with archaeological methods.
The Marlborough Downs
This volume usefully brings together the results of fieldwork since the 1970's on the Downs north and west of Marlborough. Excavations on the Ogbourne enclosures show that they are not cattle kraals, as once thought, but developed settlement sites of the later Bronze Age incorporated into an extensively farmed and ordered landscape. Further excavations in open settlements at Burderop Down and on farmsteads at Dean Bottom and Rockley Down yielded pottery, stone, metal, faunal and environmental evidence adding to our understanding of Bronze Age communities; not least is an important Beaker assemblage from Dean Bottom. Extensive report on excavations with specialist chapters on finds and environmental evidence.
Capturing the Senses
This open-access book surveys how digital technology can contribute effectively to improving our understanding of the past, through a sensory engagement based on the evidence of material culture. In particular, it encourages specialists to consider senses and human agency as important factors in studying ancient space, while recognising the role played by digital tools in enhancing a human-centred form of analysis. Significant advances in archaeological computing, digital methods, and sensory approaches have led archaeologists to rethink strategies and methods for creating narratives of the past. Recent progress in data visualisation and implementation, as well as other nascent digital senso...
The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland
Sited at the furthest limits of the Neolithic revolution and standing at the confluence of the two great sea routes of prehistory, Britain and Ireland are distinct from continental Europe for much of the prehistoric sequence. In this landmark 2007 study - the first significant survey of the archaeology of Britain and Ireland for twenty years - Richard Bradley offers an interpretation of the unique archaeological record of these islands based on a wealth of current and largely unpublished data. Bradley surveys the entire archaeological sequence over a 4,000 year period, from the adoption of agriculture in the Neolithic period to the discovery of Britain and Ireland by travellers from the Mediterranean during the later pre-Roman Iron Age. Significantly, this is the first modern account to treat Britain and Ireland on equal terms, offering a detailed interpretation of the prehistory of both islands.
Knowledge and Power in Prehistoric Societies
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 Story of Stonehenge
A comprehensive history of the prehistoric megalithic structure at Stonehenge and those who built it.
Stonehenge
Stonehenge is one of the most famous ancient monuments in the world and its solar alignment is one of its most important features. Yet although archaeologists have learned a huge amount about this iconic monument and its development, a sense of mystery continues about its purpose. This helps fuel numerous theories and common misconceptions, particularly concerning its relationship to the sky and the heavenly bodies. A desire to cut through this confusion was the inspiration for this book, and it fills a gaping hole in the existing literature. The book provides both an introduction to Stonehenge and its landscape and an introduction to archaeoastronomy—the study of how ancient peoples under...
Hambledon Hill, Dorset, England
A programme of excavation and survey directed by Roger Mercer between 1974 and 1986 demonstrated that Hambledon was the site of an exceptionally large and diverse complex of earlier Neolithic earthworks, including two causewayed enclosures, two long barrows and several outworks, some of them defensive. The abundant cultural material preserved in its ditches and pits provides information about numerous aspects of contemporary society, among them conflict, feasting, the treatment of the human corpse, exchange, stock management and cereal cultivation. The distinct depositional signatures of various parts of the complex reflect their diverse use. The scale and manner of individual episodes of co...
Rewriting History
Every generation re-writes history in its own way'. Re-writing History applies Collingwood's dictum to a series of topics and themes, some of which have been central to prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology for the past century or more, while some have been triggered by more recent changes in technology or social attitudes. Some issues are highly controversial, like the proposals for the Stonehenge World Heritage sites. Others challenge long-held popular myths, like the deconstruction of the Celts and by extension the Picts. Yet some traditional tenets of scholarship have gone unchallenged for too long, like the classical definition of civilization itself. But why should it matter? Surel...
