Neolithic Britain

Ingrid O'Donnell, Journal of Skyscape Archaeology an excellent, highly informative and readable text for anyone new to the subject of the Neolithic or seeking a reference on recent developments of how complicated Neolithic chronologies fit together within Britain. It is a beautifully produced, highly readable, detailed, engaging and thought-provoking, informative book, and is highly recommended.

Peter Bogucki, Journal of Anthropological Research [A] marvellously readable and intelligent book. . . . The entire book is dense with evidence (I learned about many sites for the first time) and is richly illustrated with photographs, many taken by the authors and most in color. It is a luxuriant presentation both visually and intellectually. . . . It offers valuable insights and analogies as well as a concise understanding of the current state of knowledge. The fact that it is pleasant to read is an added bonus, and the authors and Oxford University Press are to be commended for producing a model presentation of archaeological narrative and interpretation.

Jonathan Last, Archaeological Journal A book rich in detail and ideas ... Ray and Thomas have produced a narrative that, rather like the cursus monuments they describe, connects up places and offers an engaging and immersive prehistoric journey

The Prehistoric Society A very readable and persuasive book, full of interesting observations and ideas that draw together and make sense of apparently disparate and puzzling archaeological phenomena

British Archaeology [An] immensely valuable and stimulating book...a book of ideas. Specialist will be familiar with many of them, but Ray & Thomas have done more than round up their greatest hits (good and bad), instead creating a substantial new narrative that will be appreciated by colleagues, students, and interested public alike

CHOICE Neolithic Britain is extensively and excellently illustrated by photos, drawings, paintings, and engravings ... Recommended

Rob Ixer, The Fortean Times This is a really attractive, well-paced, current book ... it is a jolly good, novel read, full of well-dated, timeless data

Liza Llewellyn, The Newsletter of the Network of Ley Hunters Includes some first-rate analysis of Stonehenge and the Neolithic structures of the Orkney islands. Contains many beautiful colour photographs and illustrations.

Keith Ray is an Archaeological consultant and writer. He has been actively involved in field archaeology since 1970, when he worked with Dr Geoffrey Wainwright at the major later Neolithic henge site at Mount Pleasant, Dorchester, Dorset. He has been involved in fieldwork and research elsewhere in southern and western England and in Scotland, Wales, France, and Norway, as well as in West Africa. In 2007 he was awarded an MBE for services to archaeology in Herefordshire. He was a collaborator on the 'Gathering Time' Neolithic chronologies project, having co-organised the excavation of the early Neolithic enclosure at Hill Croft Field, Bodenham, in Herefordshire in 2006. His publications include The Archaeology of Herefordshire: An Exploration (Logaston Press, 2015) and Offa's Dyke: Landscape and Hegemony in Eighth-Century Britain (with Ian Bapty; Oxbow/Windgather, 2016). Julian Thomas is Professor of Archaeology at the University of Manchester. Early in his career, Julian worked on a number of key Neolithic sites, including the early Neolithic Hazleton North long barrow in the Cotswolds with Alan Saville, and the Hambledon Hill causewayed enclosure with Roger Mercer. He was appointed Professor of Archaeology at Manchester University in 2000. He was a co-director of the Stonehenge Riverside Project (2005-9), and is a Vice-President of the Royal Anthropological Institute. He is the author of The Birth of Neolithic Britain An Interpretive Account (OUP, 2013).