In Dialogue: Tradition and Interaction in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition

Description

This book developed from discussions following the 2012 In Dialogue: Tradition and Interaction in the Mesolithic–Neolithic Transition conference held in Manchester, UK. This conference provided a forum to compare not only the processes through which material innovations were adopted and elaborated during the Early Neolithic, but also the ways in which these processes have been understood and represented within the respective archaeological research traditions. The book examines the developments that followed the introduction of farming into Britain and Southern Scandinavia (Denmark and Southern Sweden). Contributors to the volume discuss the idiosyncratic social and cultural patterns that emerged at this pivotal period. An overarching narrative is woven by scholars from both regions who seamlessly integrate material culture, dwelling practices, controversial theory and ritual activities into a detailed image of the changing world of the early Neolithic in North-West Europe. Through a theoretically informed approach, the relationship between material culture, subsistence regimes, monumentality, ceremonial activity and social relations is explored. The process in which people became 'Neolithic' is complex and required changes not just in subsistence but in every facet of their lives; this is what this book wishes to investigate. By leaving the traditional colonization and adoption debate for a more nuanced approached, an intricate cultural tapestry can be woven. From their organisation of the landscape to their place in the world, things were fundamentally altered: this is where the authors of this book focus their attention. This is a regionally focused, theoretically and methodologically complementary set of papers by specialists who offer a comprehensive and authoritative overview of different aspects of this fundamental transition. Front Cover Title Page Copyright Table of Contents Preface Section 1: The House Chapter 1: House Societies and the Beginning of the British Neolithic Chapter 2: The Empty House: Early Neolithic Settlement Structure in Southern Scandinavia Chapter 3: When Artefacts Can’t Speak: Towards a New Understanding of British Early Neolithic Timber Structures Section 2: Monumentality Chapter 4: Constructed or Conceived Landscapes – Some Thoughts on the Subject of Human Experiences in the Neolithic, and Historic Landscapes Chapter 5: Neolithisation and Introduction of Causewayed Enclosures. Two Structurally Related Processes Section 3: Materiality Chapter 6: Both Artefact and Phenomenon: A Material Approach to Engagements with Fire in the Late Mesolithic of Britain Chapter 7: Pots in Context: Aspects on Pottery Production and Use in the Early Neolithic Funnel Beaker (TRB) Culture on Öland, SE Sweden Section 4: The Transition Chapter 8: Timing and Process in the Fifth and Early Fourth Millennium cal BC Chapter 9: Late Mesolithic-Early Neolithic in Southern Scandinavia: Tradition and Interaction Chapter 10: In Dialogue: From Social Analysis to Epistemological Concerns