The Archaeology of People: Dimensions of Neolithic Life

Alasdair Whittle's new work argues powerfully for the complexity and fluidity of life in the Neolithic, through a combination of archaeological and anthropological case studies and current theoretical debate. The book ranges from the sixth to the fourth millennium BC, and from the Great Hungarian Plain, central and western Europe and the Alpine foreland to parts of southern Britain. Familiar terms such as individuals, agency, identity and structure are dealt with, but Professor Whittle emphasises that they are too abstract to be truly useful.Instead, he highlights the multiple dimensions which constituted Neolithic existence: the web of daily routines, group and individual identities, relations with animals, and active but varied attitudes to the past. The result is a vivid, original and perceptive understanding of the early Neolithic which will offer insights to readers at every level.

History

Whittle, Alasdair

Ancient Civilizations

Routledge

Problems in Neolithic Archaeology is a notable contribution to the debate about how we can write prehistory. Drawing on both processual and post-processual approaches, it reaffirms the central role of theory and interpretation while accepting as permanent the uncertainty which makes the testing of archaeological hypotheses difficult or even impossible. Dr Whittle asserts in particular the need for greater self-confidence and for the formulation of new theory and questions more appropriate to the archaeological record. The book's specific strength lies, however, in a close contextual study of the Neolithic period in western and central Europe. In this respect it provides an admirable complement to his textbook Neolithic Europe.

Problems in Neolithic Archaeology (New Studies in Archaeology)

Politics & Social Sciences

Archaeology

Cambridge University Press

Scord of Brouster: An Early Agricultural Settlement on Shetland

Oxford University School of Archaeology

Prehistoric Europe

The study of European prehistory has been revolutionized in recent years by the rapid growth rate of archeological discovery, advances in dating methods and the application of scientific techniques to archaeological material and new archaeological aims and frameworks of interpretation. Whereas previous work concentrated on the recovery and description of material remains, the main focus is now on the reconstruction of prehistoric societies and the explanation of their development. This volume provides that elementary and comprehensive synthesis of the new discoveries and the new interpretations of European prehistory. After and introductory chapter on the geographical setting and the development of prehistoric studies in Europe, the text is divided chronologically into nine chapters. Each one describes, with numerous maps, plans and drawings, the relevant archaeological data, and proceeds to a discussion of the societies they represent. Particular attention is paid to the major themes of recent prehistoric research, especially subsistence economy, trade, settlement, technology and social organization.

Gamble, Clive

Shennan, Stephen

Champion, Timothy

<p>The study of European prehistory has been revolutionized in recent years by the rapid growth rate of archeological discovery, advances in dating methods and the application of scientific techniques to archaeological material and new archaeological aims and frameworks of interpretation. Whereas previous work concentrated on the recovery and description of material remains, the main focus is now on the reconstruction of prehistoric societies and the explanation of their development. This volume provides that elementary and comprehensive synthesis of the new discoveries and the new interpretations of European prehistory. After and introductory chapter on the geographical setting and the development of prehistoric studies in Europe, the text is divided chronologically into nine chapters. Each one describes, with numerous maps, plans and drawings, the relevant archaeological data, and proceeds to a discussion of the societies they represent. Particular attention is paid to the major themes of recent prehistoric research, especially subsistence economy, trade, settlement, technology and social organization.</p>

The Times of their Lives explains how archaeologists can now move away from thinking about history in terms of thousands of years, to periods from one or two centuries down to lifetimes and generations — a little more than two decades. This vastly improved precision comes from the application of Bayesian chronological frameworks for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates. If they do the right things, archaeologists in general and prehistorians in particular need not confine themselves any longer to the long term, which has often been seen as the defining currency of the discipline.Many prehistorians are still uncomfortable with the choice of narratives now available — or have not yet critically rethought old habits. This book will show how temporally much more precise accounts of the past can be achieved, across a broad range of contexts and situations. It offers a series of case studies across much of the continent, to provide much more precise timings of key features and trends in the European Neolithic sequence than are currently available, and to construct much more precise estimates of the duration of events and phenomena. From these there is the possibility to open up new insights into the tempo of change through the detailed study of selected sites and situations across the span of the European Neolithic, from the sixth to the early third millennia cal BC. At stake is our ability to study the lives of Neolithic people everywhere at the scale of lifetimes, something unimaginable even a few years ago.

The Times of Their Lives: Hunting History in the Archaeology of Neolithic Europe

Europe

Oxbow Books

The hunt is on for the most detailed histories of people in the remote past that we can achieve. We can now routinely, through Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon dates, construct much more precise chronologies than previously, down to the scales of lifetimes and generations, and even on occasion of decades. Better timing opens estimates of duration and the evaluation of the tempo of change. Rather than the conventional default perspective of generally slow change and much continuity, in blocks of time a couple of centuries long or more, we can now examine sequences that are often much more dynamic, quicker-changing, and from time to time more interrupted and punctuated than we had previously imagined. We can now write much more precise and ambitious narratives about the actions, decisions and choices of past people; the pre- can and should come out of prehistory. Despite the absence of written records, such narratives can be aligned much more closely with those of history and its concerns with the specific and the particular, and can serve to rid archaeology of its addictions to generalization and fuzzy chronology.Coming out of a recent major project funded by the European Research Council, and with the experience of Gathering Time (Oxbow Books 2011) also behind it, The Times of their Lives sets out this case. It considers the varying timescales of archaeology, history and anthropology, and the construction of precise chronologies. It examines the reach of precision in a series of case studies across Neolithic Europe to do with big themes of settlement, monumentality and materiality through the sixth to third millennia cal BC. It goes on to consider the implications of much more precise chronologies for narratives of social differentiation and change through the Neolithic sequence, and reflects on how to combine the varying timescales presented by turning points in the long term, by the slow time of daily life, subsistence practices and population growth, and by lifetime and generational developments. It ends by looking ahead to a future archaeology, exploiting the best of archaeological science, which can write precise and detailed narratives for the people of early history. Though focused on the European Neolithic, The Times of their Lives sets a challenge for archaeology as a whole.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements1. Hunting history2. Long pasts, brief lives: the lenses of history3. The rags of time: building chronologies4. ‘Sometimes sudden and sometimes slow’: the reach of precision5. Time lords? Community and leadership across the Neolithic sequence6. An old Europe in a new light7. Kinds of history: the future of the Neolithic pastBibliographyIndex

<p>This volume explores the landscape settings of megalithic chambered monuments in Wales. Set against a broader theoretical discussion on the significance of the landscape, the authors consider the role of visual landscapes in prehistory, meanings attached to the landscape, and the values and beliefs invested in it. Wales is rich in Neolithic monuments, but the general absence of certain classic monumental forms found in the rest of Britain and Ireland, such as causewayed enclosures, henges, and cursus monuments, seems to have marginalized the Welsh record from many wider discussions on the Neolithic. Instead of seeing Wales as an area which lacks many of these 'classic' components, Cummings and Whittle argue that Wales has its own unique and individual Neolithic which is simply different from the Neolithic found further to the east. It is suggested that this difference may relate to an essentially mobile existence, with strong links back to the Mesolithic period. The authors present three detailed case studies, examining the settings of sites in southwest, northwest and southeast Wales. They outline the history of research for each region, including the previous classification of the monuments and any excavations, and describe the specific landscape settings of the monuments. They assess the significance of a variety of landscape features which would have been visible from the monuments, in particular emphasizing the mythological and symbolic significance of the sea, rivers and mountains. An illustrated inventory of sites completes the volume.</p>

Places of Special Virtue: Megaliths in the Neolithic landscapes of Wales (Cardiff Studies in Archaeology)

This book takes a fresh look at the European Neolithic and asks pertinent questions about the way in which we study it. By unsettling accepted notions regarding sedentism and the onset of farming, the contributors are able to sow that many ideas which are taken as read may need re-evaluating in the light of new modes of thinking. Sedentism and mobility form the bulk of this volume's focus, and a number of papers look at these concepts through examining/re-examining certain sites or collections of sites. Paul Halstead makes the case that sedentism does not preclude a large degree of mobility. Bailey asks us to completely re-think our attitude to the built environment of the Neolithic, arguing that we are trapped by details as to the purpose of structures, rather than on what effect their presence had on the people who used them. Taken together, these fourteen papers encourage us to move beyond the search for sedentism or mobility as a characteristic of society.Table of ContentsUnsettling the Neolithic: breaking down concepts, boundaries and origins (Douglass Bailey and Alasdair Whittle) Across the border: unstable dwellings and fluid landscapes in the earliest Neolithic of Greece (Kostas Kotsakis) Deconstructing essentialisms: unsettling frontiers of the Mesolithic-Neolithic Balkans (Dušan Boric) Can seasonality studies be used to identify sedentism in the past? (Nicky Milner) Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence for seasons of consumption and residence at Neolithic sites in Greece (Paul Halstead) Plain talk: animals, environment and culture in the Neolithic of the Carpathian Basin and adjacent areas (László Bartosiewicz) Lived experience in the Early Neolithic of the Great Hungarian Plain (Alasdair Whittle) The role of pottery in agropastoralist communities in early Neolithic southern Romania (Laurens Thissen) Sensing the place: sounds and landscape perception (Steve Mills) Beyond the meaning of Neolithic houses: specific objects and serial repetition (Douglass Bailey) Weaving house life and death into places: a blueprint for a hypermedia narrative (Ruth Tringham) Memory and ordination: environmental archaeology in tells (J.G. Evans) The spatio-temporal organisation of the early 'town' at Çatalhöyük (Ian Hodder) Settling the Neolithic: a digestif (Andrew Sherratt)

Unsettling the Neolithic

Bailey, Douglass W.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Whittle, Alasdair. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Whittle, Alasdair

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Whittle, Alasdair. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Archaeology of People: Dimensions of Neolithic Life

Problems in Neolithic Archaeology (New Studies in Archaeology)

Problems in Neolithic Archaeology (New Studies in Archaeology)

Scord of Brouster: An Early Agricultural Settlement on Shetland

Prehistoric Europe

Prehistoric Europe

The Times of Their Lives: Hunting History in the Archaeology of Neolithic Europe

The Times of Their Lives: Hunting History in the Archaeology of Neolithic Europe

Places of Special Virtue: Megaliths in the Neolithic landscapes of Wales (Cardiff Studies in Archaeology)

Unsettling the Neolithic