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Microliths and maritime mobility: a continental European-style Late Mesolithic flint assemblage from the Isles of Scilly
Get PDFOnce Britain had become separated from the European mainland in the seventh millennium BC, Mesolithic stone tool traditions on opposite sides of the newly formed Channel embarked upon different directions of development. Patterns of cross-Channel contact have been difficult todecipher in this material, prior to the expansion of farming (and possibly farmers) from northern France at the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. Hence the discovery of Late Mesolithic microliths of apparently Belgian affinity at the western extremity of southern Britain—in the Isles of Scilly—comes as something of a surprise. The find is described here in detail, along with alternative scenarios that might explain it. The article is followed by a series of comments, with a closing reply from the authors
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Seaways and shared ways: imaging and imagining the movement of people, objects and ideas over the course of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, c. 5000-3500 BC
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Stepping stones to the Neolithic? Radiocarbon dating the Early Neolithic on islands within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain
Get PDFThe western seaways – an arc of sea stretching from the Channel Islands in the south, up through the Isles of Scilly, the Isle of Man and the Outer Hebrides to Orkney in the north – have long been seen as crucial to our understanding of the processes which led to the arrival of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland in the centuries around 4000 BC. The western seaways have not, however, been considered in detail within any of the recent studies addressing the radiocarbon chronology of the Earliest Neolithic in that wider region. This paper presents a synthesis of all existing 5th and 4th millennia cal BC radiocarbon dates from islands within the western seaways, including 50 new results obtained specifically for this study. While the focus here is insular in a literal sense, the project’s results have far reaching implications for our understanding of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition across Britain and Ireland and beyond. The findings broadly fit well with Whittle et al.’s (2011) Gathering Time model, suggesting that the earliest dated Neolithic in this zone falls into the c. 3900-3700 cal BC bracket. However, it is also noted that our current chronological understanding is based on comparatively few dates spread across a large area. Consequently, it is suggested that both further targeted work and an approach that incorporates an element of typo-chronology (as well as absolute dating) is necessary if we are to move our understanding of the process of transition in this key region forwards
Totemism and food taboos in the Early Neolithic: A feast of roe deer at the Coneybury "Anomaly", Wiltshire
No full textExamining the ways in which materials are deposited in Early Neolithic pits – be they artefacts, animal or human remains – still poses interpretational difficulties even for the modern theorist. Working through the detail of the Coneybury ‘Anomaly’ in Wiltshire, this paper focuses specifically upon the character of the depositional practice evident at this site within the Earlier Neolithic (c. 3850 cal. BC), and attempts to define how we might comprehend the pit as a form of totemic practice. Acts of feasting, like the one evident at the ‘Anomaly’ would have shaped the ways people conceptualised certain animals, with symbolic significance of particular species changing through time. Especially during the Earlier Neolithic, cattle began to predominate in the structures’ contexts, with certain species such as deer being underrepresented, perhaps because they were not domesticated. Alternatively wild species such as deer may have been subject to formal taboo.
To fully contextualise my argument, I will be using analogies from the many religions of Amazonia and neighbouring regions of South America, who may be classed as totemic or perspectivist. For many of these people deer are proscribed, considered scared, used in shamanic performances and appear in an anthropomorphised form. Can we work these concepts through the Neolithic material? This paper will consider the effects of possible ideological behaviour at the Coneybury ‘Anomaly’ – especially in relation to the patterns of wild deer deposition. In this, I aim to identify some of the potential archaeological correlates of Neolithic taboos, and through this begin to offer possible ways of understanding the missing link – why were deer not domesticated
Continental connections: exploring cross-Channel relationships from the Mesolithic to the Iron Age
No full textThe prehistories of Britain and Ireland are inescapably entwined with continental European narratives. The central aim here is to explore ‘cross-channel’ relationships throughout later prehistory, investigating the archaeological links (material, social, cultural) between the areas we now call Britain and Ireland, and continental Europe, from the Mesolithic through to the end of the Iron Age. Since the separation from the European mainland of Ireland (c. 16,000 BC) and Britain (c. 6000 BC), their island nature has been seen as central to many aspects of life within them, helping to define their senses of identity, and forming a crucial part of their neighbourly relationship with continental Europe and with each other. However, it is important to remember that the surrounding seaways have often served to connect as well as to separate these islands from the continent. In approaching the subject of ‘continental connections’ in the long-term, and by bringing a variety of different archaeological perspectives (associated with different periods) to bear on it, this volume provides a new a new synthesis of the ebbs and flows of the cross-channel relationship over the course of 15,000 years of later prehistory, enabling fresh understandings and new insights to emerge about the intimately linked trajectories of change in both region
From sea to land and back again: understanding the shifting character of Europe's landscapes and seascapes over the last million years
No full textThe palaeogeography of the northwest margin of Europe has changed markedly, and regularly, since humans first occupied the region around one million years ago (Parfitt et al. 2010). Britain as we know it today has morphed from peninsula to island and back again in response to glacial cycles on at least five occasions over this period. Understanding the timing, nature and extent of these changes is fundamental to appreciating the context within which archaeologically attested activity occurred. That being said, it is argued here that rather than just providing an environmental backdrop to a well-known story, knowledge of the rate, pace and degree of change can provide a secure vantage point from which to reconsider a range of key questions concerning connectivity and social change throughout prehistor
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