Description
Book SynopsisThese papers highlight recent archaeological work in Northern England, in the commercial, academic and community archaeology sectors, which have fundamentally changed our perspective on the Neolithic of the area. Much of this was new work (and much is still not published) and has been overlooked in the national discourse. The papers cover a wide geographical area, from Lancashire north into the Scottish Lowlands, recognising the irrelevance of the England/Scotland Border. They also take a broad chronological sweep, from the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition to the introduction of Beakers into the area.
The key themes are: the nature of transition; the need for a much-improved chronological framework; regional variation linked to landscape character; links within northern England and with distant places; the implications of new dating for our understanding of the axe trade; the changing nature of settlement and agriculture; the character of early Neolithic enclosures; and the need to integrate rock art into wider discourse.
Trade ReviewThe authors, editors and contributors are to be congratulated and commended on bringing these excellent volumes to publication. * Antiquity *
This fine volume … [is] a fine counterbalance to the biases at the very core of the historical narrative of the Neolithic in Britain. * Archaeological Journal *
Until recently, archaeologists took a broad-brush, sometimes ignoring local and regional nuances, so it is refreshing that Hey, Frodsham, and their team look at the Neolithic in terms of a northern tradition … The editors have skilfully integrated the academic, commercial and community sectors to provide a multi-interpretive approach to this dynamic period … This book is a much-needed addition to the Neolithic bookshelf and will be a useful reference for ongoing and future research. * Current Archaeology *
This book, like the 2016 conference in Carlisle from which it derives, is an explicit bid to sing the glories of stone axe quarries, rock art, stone circles and other landscape features which proclaim the intense regionality of Britain’s earliest farming communities. * British Archaeology *
Table of ContentsList of contributors List of figures List of tables and appendices Introduction
Gill Hey and Paul Frodsham Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Langdale and the Northern Neolithic
Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson Chapter 2: Stainton West: a Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Site on the Banks of the River Eden
Fraser Brown Chapter 3: The last hunter of a wise race: evidence for Neolithic practices in northern England
Seren Griffiths Chapter 4: ‘
Weird and atypical, even degenerate’… or then again, maybe not? Early Neolithic Enclosures in the North
Al Oswald and Mark Edmonds Chapter 5: Documenting English Rock Art: a review of the ‘big picture’
Kate E. Sharpe Chapter 6: New Light on the Neolithic: a perspective from North-East England
Clive Waddington Chapter 7: Street House in the Neolithic Period,
Stephen J. Sherlock Chapter 8: Recent work on the Neolithic landscapes of Cumbria and North Lancashire
Helen Evans, Antony Dickson and Denise Druce Chapter 9: Out of the Shadows: an emerging Neolithic in the Yorkshire Dales
Yvonne Luke Chapter 10: ‘A most noble work', at the Heart of Neolithic Britain. Some Thoughts on the Long Meg Complex in the Light of Recent Fieldwork
Paul Frodsham Chapter 11: A View from North of the Border
Alison Sheridan Chapter 12: Monumentality in Neolithic Britain: The Case of South West Scotland
Julian Thomas Chapter 13: A New Survey of The Carles Stone Circle, Castlerigg, Cumbria
Al Oswald and Constance Durgeat Chapter 14: Two Newly-Identified Possible ‘Hengiform’ Monuments in the North Pennines
Stewart Ainsworth, David McOmish, Al Oswald and Andrew Payne Chapter 15: The End of the Neolithic?: Early Bell Beaker Groups in Northern England
A. P. Fitzpatrick
