Prehistoric Britain

"Prehistoric Britain provides a compact and generally very readable summary of the state of thought within a broad segment of the British archaeological community in the first decade of the 21st century." (Journal of Field Archaeology, 2009) "Excellent chapters.... Needham's consideration of the exchange of objects over nine millennia to 1000 BC, informed by perspectives drawn in particular from Godelier, is a tour-de-force mixing generalization and pertinent case studies." (Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, June 2009) "What a grand surprise! Here is an important study of prehistoric Britain written in clear English!" (CHOICE, June 2009) "Prehistoric Britain offers an excellent outline of the major themes and approaches that will, no doubt, be the main theatres of debate over the next few years.... A worthy addition to any bookshelf." (Rosetta, May 2009) "This contains 14 excellent papers, mostly covering small-scale regional case studies from the early neolithic to the iron age.... Goldhahn's tale of barrows and the chapters on houses by Bori and Gerritsen are very readable." (British Archaeology, March 2009) "This collection meets admirably the aims of the Blackwell Studies in Global Archaeology series, which seeks to 'immerse readers in fundamental archaeological ideas and concepts ... thereby exposing [them] to some of the most exciting contemporary developments in the field.' ... An excellent way of taking the pulse of recent British prehistory." (Antiquity, March 2009)

Joshua Pollard is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Bristol. Since 1999, he has been actively engaged in fieldwork on the late Neolithic monument complexes at Avebury and Stonehenge in southern England. Dr Pollard is the UK editor of the Journal of Social Archaeology and has published several books, including Avebury (with Mark Gillings, 2004), and Monuments and Material Culture (editor, with Rosamund Cleal, 2004).

List of Figures vii List of Tables x Notes on Contributors xi Acknowledgements xv 1 The Construction of Prehistoric Britain 1 Joshua Pollard 2 The British Upper Palaeolithic 18 Paul Pettitt 3 The MesolithicNeolithic Transition in Britain 58 Julian Thomas 4 Foodways and Social Ecologies from the Early Mesolithic to the Early Bronze Age 90 Rick Schulting 5 Temporary Spaces in the Mesolithic and Neolithic: Understanding Landscapes 121 Lesley McFadyen 6 The Architecture of Monuments 135 Vicki Cummings 7 Lithic Technology and the Chane Opratoire 160 Chantal Conneller 8 How the Dead Live: Mortuary Practices, Memory and the Ancestors in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland 177 Andrew Jones 9 The Development of an Agricultural Countryside 202 David Field 10 Foodways and Social Ecologies from the Middle Bronze Age to Late Iron Age 225 Jacqui Mulville 11 The Architecture of Routine Life 248 Joanna Brck 12 Later Prehistoric Landscapes and Inhabitation 268 Robert Johnston 13 Ceramic Technologies and Social Relations 288 Ann Woodward 14 Exchange, Object Biographies and the Shaping of Identities, 10,0001000 B.C. 310 Stuart Needham 15 Identity, Community and the Person in Later Prehistory 330 Melanie Giles Index 351