Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea

Stone Age Farmers Beside the Sea

Author: Caroline Arnold

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780395776018

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Describes the Stone Age settlement preserved in the sand dunes on one of Scotland's Orkney Islands, telling how it was discovered and what it reveals about life in prehistoric times.


Farmers in Prehistoric Britain

Farmers in Prehistoric Britain

Author: Francis Pryor

Publisher: History Press

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13:

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Francis Pryor maintains that early farming in Britain has been misunderstood because British archaeology is essentially an urban activity, studied by people who have lost contact with the countryside. In this book, he draws on his experience.


Early Farmers

Early Farmers

Author: A. W. R. Whittle

Publisher: Proceedings of the British Aca

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780197265758

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Archaeology and science enable new and creative understandings of Europe's early farmers, answering questions that remain after more than a century of research. The challenge is to integrate multiple lines of evidence, scientific and more traditionally archaeological, while keeping in focus the principal questions that we want to ask of our data.


Prehistoric Britain

Prehistoric Britain

Author: Timothy Darvill

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2010-07-02

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 1136973044

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Prehistoric Britain, now in its second edition, examines the development of human societies in Britain from earliest times to the Roman conquest of AD 43, as revealed by archaeological evidence. Special attention is given to six themes which are traced through prehistory: subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society, and population.


Farmers at the Frontier

Farmers at the Frontier

Author: Kurt J Gron

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2020-02-15

Total Pages: 725

ISBN-13: 1789251419

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All farming in prehistoric Europe ultimately came from elsewhere in one way or another, unlike the growing numbers of primary centers of domestication and agricultural origins worldwide. This fact affects every aspect of our understanding of the start of farming on the continent because it means that ultimately, domesticated plants and animals came from somewhere else, and from someone else. In an area as vast as Europe, the process by which food production becomes the predominant subsistence strategy is of course highly variable, but in a sense the outcome is the same, and has the potential for addressing more large-scale questions regarding agricultural origins. Therefore, a detailed understanding of all aspects of farming in its absolute earliest form in various regions of Europe can potentially provide a new perspective on the mechanisms by which this monumental change comes to human societies and regions. In this volume, we aim to collect various perspectives regarding the earliest farming from across Europe. Methodological approaches, archaeological cultures, and geographic locations in Europe are variable, but all papers engage with the simple question: What was the earliest farming like? This volume opens a conversation about agriculture just after the transition in order to address the role incoming people, technologies, and adaptations have in secondary adoptions. The book starts with an introduction by the editors which will serve to contextualize the theme of the volume. The broad arguments concerning the process of neolithisation are addressed, and the rationale for the volume discussed. Contributions are ordered geographically and chronologically, given the progression of the Neolithic across Europe. The editors conclude the volume with a short commentary paper regarding the theme of the volume.


The First Farmers of Europe

The First Farmers of Europe

Author: Stephen Shennan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-05-03

Total Pages: 274

ISBN-13: 1108397301

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Knowledge of the origin and spread of farming has been revolutionised in recent years by the application of new scientific techniques, especially the analysis of ancient DNA from human genomes. In this book, Stephen Shennan presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists, geneticists and other archaeological scientists. He shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey. Using ideas from the disciplines of human behavioural ecology and cultural evolution, he explains how this process took place. The expansion was not the result of 'population pressure' but of the opportunities for increased fertility by colonising new regions that farming offered. The knowledge and resources for the farming 'niche' were passed on from parents to their children. However, Shennan demonstrates that the demographic patterns associated with the spread of farming resulted in population booms and busts, not continuous expansion.


Bretons and Britons

Bretons and Britons

Author: Barry Cunliffe

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2021-06-10

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 0192592475

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What is it about Brittany that makes it such a favourite destination for the British? To answer this question, Bretons and Britons explores the long history of the Bretons, from the time of the first farmers around 5400 BC to the present, and the very close relationship they have had with their British neighbours throughout this time. More than simply a history of a people, Bretons and Britons is also the author's homage to a country and a people he has come to admire over decades of engagement. Underlying the story throughout is the tale of the Bretons' fierce struggle to maintain their distinctive identity. As a peninsula people living on a westerly excrescence of Europe they were surrounded on three sides by the sea, which gave them some protection from outside interference, but their landward border was constantly threatened - not only by succeeding waves of Romans, Franks, and Vikings, but also by the growing power of the French state. It was the sea that gave the Bretons strength and helped them in their struggle for independence. They shared in the culture of Atlantic-facing Europe, and from the eighteenth century, when a fascination for the Celts was beginning to sweep Europe, they were able to present themselves as the direct successors of the ancient Celts along with the Cornish, Welsh, Scots, and Irish. This gave them a new strength and a new pride. It is this spirit that is still very much alive today.


Neolithic Stone Extraction in Britain and Europe

Neolithic Stone Extraction in Britain and Europe

Author: Peter Topping

Publisher: Oxbow Books

Published: 2021-12-31

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 1789257085

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This new title in the acclaimed Prehistoric Society Research Papers series focuses on the introduction of Neolithic extraction practices across Europe through to the Atlantic periphery of Britain and Ireland. The key research questions are when and why these practices were adopted, and what role extraction sites played in Neolithic society. Neolithic mines and quarries have frequently been seen as fulfilling economic roles linked to the expansion of the Neolithic economy. However, this ignores the fact that many communities chose to selectively dig for certain types of stone in preference to others, and why the products from these sites were generally deposited in special places such as wetlands. To address this question, 168 near-global ethnographic studies were analysed to identify common trends in traditional extraction practises to produce robust statistics about their motivations and material signatures. Repeated associations emerged between storied locations, the organisation of extraction practises, long-distance distribution of products, and the material evidence such activities left behind. This suggests that we can now probably identify mythologised/storied sites, seasonality, ritualised extraction, and the uselife of extraction site products. The ethnographic model was tested against data from 223 near-global archaeological extraction sites which confirmed a similar patterning in both material records, suggesting it can be used to interpret broad trends in many cross-cultural contexts and time periods. Finally, the new ethnoarchaeological model has been used to analyse the social context of 79 Neolithic flint mine and 51 axe quarry excavations in Britain and Ireland, and to review their European origins. The evidence which emerges confirms the pivotal role played by Neolithic extraction practices in European Neolithisation, and that the interaction of indigenous foragers with migrant miner/farmers in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere was fundamental to the adoption of the new agro-pastoral lifestyle.


Britain Begins

Britain Begins

Author: Barry Cunliffe

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 567

ISBN-13: 0199609330

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The story of the origins of the British and the Irish peoples, from the end of the last Ice Age around 10,000BC to the eve of the Norman Conquest - who they were, where they came from, and how they related to one another.


The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age

The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age

Author: Harry Fokkens

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2013-06-27

Total Pages: 1012

ISBN-13: 0199572860

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The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age is a wide-ranging survey of a crucial period in prehistory during which many social, economic, and technological changes took place. Written by expert specialists in the field, the book provides coverage both of the themes that characterize the period, and of the specific developments that took place in the various countries of Europe. After an introduction and a discussion of chronology, successive chapters deal with settlement studies, burial analysis, hoards and hoarding, monumentality, rock art, cosmology, gender, and trade, as well as a series of articles on specific technologies and crafts (such as transport, metals, glass, salt, textiles, and weighing). The second half of the book covers each country in turn. From Ireland to Russia, Scandinavia to Sicily, every area is considered, and up to date information on important recent finds is discussed in detail. The book is the first to consider the whole of the European Bronze Age in both geographical and thematic terms, and will be the standard book on the subject for the foreseeable future.