1st Edition

Ancestral Geographies of the Neolithic Landscapes, Monuments and Memory

By Mark Edmonds Copyright 1999
    186 Pages
    by Routledge

    186 Pages
    by Routledge

    Archaeological evidence suggests that Neolithic sites had many different, frequently contradictory functions, and there may have been other uses for which no evidence survives. How can archaeologists present an effective interpetation, with the consciousness that both their own subjectivity, and the variety of conflicting views will determine their approach.
    Because these sites have become a focus for so much controversy, the problem of presenting them to the public assumes a critical importance. The authors do not seek to provide a comprehensive review of the archaeology of all these causewayed sites in Britain; rather they use them as case studies in the development of an archaeological interpetation.

    Setting and Scenes, Origins, Ancestral Geographies, Keeping to the Path, Working Stone, A Gift from the Ancestors, The Living and the Dead, Attending to the Dead, A Time and a Place for Enclosure, Drawing the Line, Arenas of Value, The Pattern of Things, Changes in the Land, Post Excavation, Bibliography.

    Biography

    Mark Edmonds is Senior Lecturer in landscape archaeology at the University of Sheffield. He is the author of Stone Tools and Society.

    'The text speaks for itself. It is a vivid, scholarly and sensitive view.' - The Archaeologist

    'As a specialist, I found Ancestral Geographies unusually enjoyable as well as stimulating, and I think it will work well for other kinds of readers at different stages and with different interests. For a sense of how life might have been both in daily spheres and at unusual monuments in the Early Neolithic, this is a brilliant introduction.' - Landscape History

    'This is a wonderful book, beautifully written, and elegant summary of Edmonds' own views and of the conclusions of an exciting new generation of British prehistorians.' - Ian Hodder, Cambridge Archaeological Journal