Neolithic Britain and Ireland

I recently had the opportunity to review Alex Gibson’s thought provoking volume, 'Enclosing the Neolithic: Recent studies in Britain and Europe'. That review, to which the reader is directed for further commentary, identified as a weakness the uneven spread of regional case studies, and in particular the omission of studies from the West Country, Wales and North West England, which are so important in understanding the Irish Sea Zone. The aim of this paper is to address this with regard to the material from the North West of England, and in particular Cumbria. This paper is therefore meant to be read in conjunction with Gibson’s edited volume.

Irlanda, una terra da sempre magica e un libro che la racconta, creando un itinerario unico e inedito. Dalle origini, per incontrare i misteriosi miti celtici, per poi addentrarci in una miriade di luoghi che custodiscono curiosità, storie esoteriche, presenze spettrali e molto altro. Non mancano gli innumerevoli giardini e una natura spettacolare che introduce alla forza primordiale degli elementi.
Un libro corposo, da portare con sé, nel momento in cui si vuole partire per un viaggio fuori dal comune. Ma anche da leggere comodamente a casa, e volare in una terra magica

Archaeologically monitored topsoil stripping of the site of a waste water treatment works at Ballywilliam, Donaghadee, Co Down, led to the identification and excavation of a burnt mound and a number of associated pits. Some are interpreted as troughs, and one preserved evidence of having been wood-lined. Radiocarbon determinations indicate use in the Early Bronze Age.

This book presents the proceedings of a seminar held under the aegis of the Neolithic Studies Group (NSG), one of an ongoing series of NSG Seminar Papers. The NSG is an informal organization comprising archaeologists with an interest in Neolithic archaeology. It was established in 1984 and has a large membership based mainly in the UK and Ireland, but including workers from the nations of the European Atlantic seaboard. The annual programme typically includes a seminar in London during the autumn and, in springtime , a field meeting in an area of northwest Europe known to be rich in Neolithic remains. Membership is open to anyone with an active involvement in the Neolithic of Europe. The present membership includes academic staff and students, museum staff, archaeologists from government institutions, units, trusts, and those with an amateur or avocational interest. There are no membership procedure or application forms, and members are those on the current mailing list. Anyone can be added to the list at any time, the only membership rule being that the names of those who do not attend four consecutive meetings are removed from the list (in the absence of apologies for absence or a request to remain on the list). The Group relies on the enthusiasm of its members to organize its annual meetings; the two coordinators maintain the mailing lists and finances. Financial support for the Group is drawn from a small fee payable for attendance of each meeting.

Since petrological work in the 1930s enabled some Neolithic stone axe heads to be defined as distinctive Groups which could be associated with their rock sources, it has been assumed that there were discrete ‘axe factories’ which could be pin pointed on the ground for each Group. In some parts of Britain fieldwork and excavation has confirmed the presence of axe production sites but, the source sites of the Cornish greenstone axe rock Groups have remained elusive. This is surprising as a large number of Groups have been assigned a Cornish origin with pin-point source locations provided. Recent work, however, on potential Group 1 sources and at an axe production site in West Penwith, has indicated that the picture is very much more complex than previously thought.
In this paper aspects of the smaller Group XVI, prominent in the tor enclosure of Carn Brea, are considered. A small inland greenstone site at Viaduct Farm, near Camborne, was focussed upon to see if a discrete source could be identified. Outcrops in one valley were sampled and examined against thin sections attributed to Group XVI to see if this material really was the source of Group XVI.
The results suggest that caution should be used in attributing specific source sites for Cornish axe rock groups and that a range of sources may have been used for the production of axe heads in each of these Groups.

Vein quartz as a raw material for prehistoric stone tools is a much maligned material, very often treated to a cursory analysis only, if it is analysed at all. This paper examines the role of quartz in Neolithic stone tool traditions through the typo-technological analysis based on experimental archaeology of a Neolithic quartz assemblage from Thornhill, Co. Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and a comparison with a Mesolithic quartz assemblage from Belderrig, Co. Mayo, Ireland. The analysis shows that the Neolithic quartz tradition is distinctly different from the preceding Mesolithic and appears geared towards the production and use of smaller, thinner flakes knapped using a wider range of techniques, combinations of techniques and technical procedures than in the Later Mesolithic. The use of the bipolar technique is interpreted as a social choice based on the lithic traditions of the Neolithic community and not directly related to the use of quartz cobbles or the knapping of small cores. Differences and similarities were noted between the manufacture techniques and treatment of quartz and flint by the community at Thornhill. Moreover, a complex pattern of deposition of both artefactual and natural quartz was identified in the pits and structures, suggesting that quartz played a complex dual role for the inhabitants of the site.

This commentary relates to an "Antiquity" article on the so-called "Lost Circle" of Waun Mawn in Pembrokeshire, by Prof Mike Parker Pearson and others, which proposed that there was a giant stone circle on this remote moorland which was dismantled and shipped off to Stonehenge as a form of ancestor tribute. The claims made in the article are examined and found to be unsupported by hard evidence. It is suggested that the authors have not established the presence of a stone circle at Waun Mawn, let alone any link with Stonehenge.

West Penwith, the Land’s End, the south western extremity of the British Isles has long attracted the attention of archaeologists, landscape historians, writers and artists. Still largely a rural landscape of ancient farmsteads and churchtowns, it also has a famous mining history interwoven into the distinctive character of this rugged peninsula. Across the moorland spine lie numerous prehistoric ceremonial monuments whilst in the surrounding farmland deeply embedded imprints of early settlement reveals extraordinary and rare time-depth. Today’s fields, particularly across Zennor and Morvah parishes, preserve boundaries that were laid out over 2,000 years ago. For centuries these patterns determined tenure and land use, yet in the early 19th century mining transformed the landscape of the St Just and St Ives districts. Abandoned engine houses, iconic symbols of this once great industry lie scattered along the northern coast amid mine waste and moorland between villages of terraced houses dotted with nonconformist chapels. This book is the result of over 270 pioneering archaeological surveys and conservation projects carried out over the past 35 years. It seeks deeper understanding of this amazing historic landscape and is a celebration of its unique qualities. It lays down a sound foundation for increased understanding and protection and hopefully will prove an inspiration and a source of information for all who love and care for this special place.

BOOK .S comment as there is a high level of consis tency throughout this selection. The fron tispiece, Dunfanaghy, Co Donegal, sets the tone, the effect of light and movement along with the interaction between dogs and man is such that the experience is recreated within the viewer. The first pic ture Christening, Dolphin's Bam Church, Dublin 1970, is beautifully observed and sensitively captured. The elliptical com position, redolent with meaning, depicts a priest with kindly face and gentle hands amidst a group of mothers with their babies, with the symbolic lighted candle and font completing the image structure. Within this image is contained a chapter of life in Ireland. Doyle's sense of the interrelationship of image content and the significance of timing is depicted throughout the series; were the horse's head not turned back inJameson Distillery, May Lane, 1963, the impact would be less

For more than two centuries, the close association between cattle remains and earthen long barrows in the Early Neolithic of Wiltshire, southern England, has been noted and remarked upon. A lack of published details has, however, left researchers drawing broad generalisations concerning symbolic and economical practices. In this paper new research is presented following a re-examination of the cattle remains from four Wiltshire earthen long barrows: Amesbury 42, Fussell's Lodge, Woodford G2, and Tilshead Lodge. Combining these new measurements with the existing published database the results confirm a higher ratio of both domesticated bulls and aurochs than has been previously recognised. These results contrast with those of bone assemblages from nearby contemporary causewayed enclosures, suggesting that specific types of animals were selected and deposited at these sites, perhaps as a result of particular activities. More generally, re-examination of the original archives has provided new insight into the complex and unique relationships between humans and cattle at Wiltshire earthen long barrows.

Lum- / Lumber : cut forest trees, saw timber
"timber sawn into rough planks for use," heavy, useless objects" of uncertain origin. It is said to be from lumber on the notion of "awkward to move," and perhaps to have been influenced by or associated with Lombard, the Italian immigrant class famous as pawnbrokers in old England. Lumbar and Lumbard were old alternative forms of Lombard in English.

Giga : from Greek gigas "giant"

The Island of Gigalum is situated off the south eastern tip of the Isle of Gigha to the west of the Kintyre Peninsula in the County of Argyll.  The surrounding seascape is dramatic and spectacular and the views to Gigha, Cara, Kintyre  and Jura, as well as the Northern Irish coast are impressive.

Architectures and funerary practices from the second half of the forth and the beginning of the third millennium B.C. are quite different from those in use during the previous middle Neolithic period, in many places in occidental Europe. In Western France this general trend will be expressed in very diff erent ways, if we observe regions situated north or south of the Loire River. New megalithic architectures were built on top of the soil in Brittany, or buried in the Paris Basin. No such thing in more southern regions, were the individual “burials” could even have been one of the more common practice, for a time at least. Comparisons between domestic and funerary architectures, at north, or between individual and collective burials, at south, will highlight new perspectives in the status, the composition or the disposition of funerary goods.

Skara Brae: Orkney’s Best Kept Secret provides an intimate look at the Skara Brae Site, an almost perfectly preserved series of stone age houses in Scotland, described as “Northern Europe’s best preserved neolithic village”. The chapters delve into the discovery of the Skara Brae Site, its level of preservation, and importance today.

Stretching back in time, the Hill of Tara has been the spiritual heart of Ireland, yet little is known about the site other than what has been gleaned from the ancient manuscripts, which tell us nothing about how it appeared during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. Although the excavations in the 1950’s of Ráith na Senad and Duma na nGiall, by Professor Sean P. O’Riordain and Professor Ruaidhri de Valera, have given us a glimpse into that period of history, they merely scratched the surface. It is therefore the purpose of this paper to examine an ‘historical record’ that has been overlooked ever since its discovery sixty years ago… one that is quite literally carved in stone.

Every year archaeologists are discovering more and more about the enigmatic monuments we call megalithic tombs and instead of a single, simple answer to the question of what the megalithic tombs meant to those who built them, there is a multitude of answers, each one more intriguing than the next. In Temples of Stone, Dr. Jones brings together these varied strands of interpretation in a fascinating account that sheds light on topics ranging from our ancestor's belief systems and rituals (including the use of symbols, sound, colour and even hallucinatory visions), to our ancestor's deliberate manipulations of the world around them.

In 'Temples of Stone', the world of the megaliths and the megalith builders is brought to life in a fully illustrated, popular format. All the key sites in Ireland are discussed and over one hundred ‘Sites Worth Visiting’ are listed in the final chapter, with photographs, maps and detailed directions.

The paper assesses the importance of local geology as an inspiration to the mythology and folklore of County Sligo, Ireland. The contribution of artists Gabriel Beranger and Angelo Maria Bigari; and historians Rev. William Henry and Archdeacon Terence O’Rorke, in raising the monumental and historical profile of the county is discussed. The work during the early 19th century of the officers of the Ordnance Survey (George Petrie, John O’Donovan, Thomas O’Connor and Patrick O’Keefe) in documenting and interpreting Sligo’s ancient monuments is assessed as is the contribution of local collector Roger Chambers Walker. The contribution to the development of scientific archaeology by Sligo antiquarian William Gregory Wood-Martin and his collaborator the artist and scholar William Frederick Wakeman, is noted as is the iconic role of the mythic battle of Moytura in their research and fieldwork. The overall contribution of the mythology, folklore and archaeology of Sligo to the Irish Literary revival, especially under William Butler Yeats and Lady Gregory is discussed.

Stonehenge, one of, if not the most famous of the stone circles, has long fascinated humans. Our understanding of it is based on fragmentary knowledge, and so no complete and accurate account of its origins, purpose, construction, κτλ. exists. From the work of scholars and experts in the field, together with new knowledge, we can come to some conclusions on Stonehenge, such as its building method(s), sources, and function. The definition of a "henge" is: "A monument that seems not to have been primarily a sepulchre, but that incorporated conspicuous stone or timber uprights with as many other parts (such as ditches and banks) as were needed to make it self-sufficient as a potential delimiter of astronomically significant directions." 1 In this paradigm, Stonehenge, or henges in general, had astronomical aspects, yet other views are extant. One of the periods with which we are concerned is the Mesolithic era, when humans were first active in the vicinity near to Stonehenge. At this time, pits were dug some hundred metres north of the stones, possibly holding large upright pine posts. 2 Stonehenge had four main building phases, from 3200 BCE to 1600 BCE, according to Burl. 3 From what we can tell, it was always evolving. Perhaps this was due to various people-groups that lived in the vicinity of Salisbury Plain? Many questions arise when discussing stone circles. These questions include the source(s) of materials, the technologies involved in obtaining the stones, transportation, standing the stones, and so forth. With regard to these, we know that the ancient peoples were quite intellectual, utilizing surveying, geometry, and astronomy. Stonehenge's purpose, which is disputed, ranges from calendar, to cult center, to social center. A matter of particular importance is how it is unorthodox among stone circles; Stonehenge is not a proper "stone circle." The activities and technologies involved in constructing Stonehenge, its dating, its purpose, its builders, and its differences from other stone circles will, henceforth, be discussed in this paper.

A relatively small island on the very edge of Atlantic Europe, Ireland has traditionally been viewed as one of the last settings for the Neolithic ‘revolution’. Part of this transformation involved the construction of rectangular and substantial timber houses, which have yielded evidence for depositional patterning, and for construction, maintenance and abandonment events. Perhaps most importantly, they are strikingly homogenous in size, shape and materials, suggesting they represented a fixed, even ideal, form of cultural expression. However, after approximately a century they were replaced by a much more ephemeral settlement record. This chapter explores the role of houses in Irish Neolithic society, examining their sudden island-wide appearance (and subsequent disappearance) and the implications for travel, connection and communication in early prehistoric Europe.

Prehistoric copper mining in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula continues the previous work on copper mining by the editors and main authors N. Rafel Fontanals, M.A. Hunt Ortiz, I. Soriano and S. Delgado-Raack. The site La Turquesa, a deposit mainly of Gossan type (iron cap), belongs to the same fault zone and mining basin as the already published Solano del Bepo (Rafel Fontanals et al. 2017). Mining of copper and lead (galena) at the site cannot certainly be traced back into prehistory, let alone to the Neolithic, and the earliest radiometric dates point to mining beginning before the early Middle Ages. The typo-chronology of mining tools is inconclusive, as is usual at these sites, and as the reader may infer from the comprehensive 80-page catalogue of hammerstones and picks. In his archaeo-metallurgical chapter, Montero Ruiz concludes convincingly that, currently, the most reliable date for mining at La Turquesa is in the Copper Age or the Early Bronze Age: the isotope signature of the mine's ore seems to accord with isotope ratios measured in a handful of artefacts from that period. The geology and mineralogy of the deposit is instructively summarised, adding archaeologically relevant information on visibility, accessibility and workability (with A. Andreazini and J.C. Melgarejo as co-authors). Traces of prehistoric opencast copper mining in small and irregular shafts have been heavily damaged by nineteenth-or twentieth-century mining of turquoise and variscite (with accessory chalcopyrite and malachite). The archaeological documentation of shafts and galleries from recent and pre-industrial times is cursory and does not fully attend to the three-dimensionality of the deposit. The use of more up-to-date measurement technology would have offered a clearer understanding of the site in its excavation, analysis and publication. No traces of tools were documented, making it impossible to combine

A recent genetic study has revealed that the adult male buried in the most elaborate recess of the Neolithic passage-tomb at Newgrange was the child of a first-degree incestuous union, suggesting that the complex was built as a burial monument for an endogamous family elite who may have been regarded as “god-kings.” The present paper shows how closely the bioarchaeological reality is paralled by the mythology of the site. Mythological narratives reveal the acceptance, prevalence and prestige of close consanguineous unions among the divine royalty of the Tuatha Dé Danann, the mythologically-nominated builders and users of Newgrange.

Investigation of British Mesolithic and Neolithic genomes suggests discontinuity between the two and has been interpreted as indicating a significant migration of continental farmers, displacing the indigenous population. These incomers had already acquired some hunter-gatherer genetic heritage before their arrival, and this increased little in Britain. However, the proportion of hunter-gatherer genetic ancestry in British Neolithic genomes is generally greater than for most contemporary examples on the continent, particularly in emerging evidence from northern France, while the ultimate origin of British Neolithic populations in Iberia is open to question. Both the date calculated for the arrival of new people in Britain and their westerly origin are at odds with other aspects of the existing evidence. Here, a two-phase model of Neolithization is proposed. The first appearance of Neolithic things and practices significantly predated a more substantial transfer of population, creating the conditions under which new communities could be brought into being. The rather later establishment of a major migration stream coincided with an acceleration in the spread of Neolithic artefacts and activities, as well as an enrichment of the Neolithic material assemblage.

ʻPetroglyphs: The Bend of the Boyneʼ predominately explored the hypothesis that many of the panels of artwork found within the Boyne Ensemble, are ʻmapsʼ of the site as it existed during the Neolithic. While that hypothesis was applied to a number of other sites in Ireland, the UK and France, any hypothesis must undergo repeated testing. As such, this paper, which for all intents and purposes is an addendum to ʻPetroglyphs: The Bend of the Boyneʼ, addresses a number of points and observations not previously covered, as well as a number of additional sites, both in Ireland and the UK.

At least since the advent of modern archaeology, archaeologists have proposed numerous interpretations of the petroglyphs found throughout Ireland and the UK, yet none have ever been tested, nor can they ever be tested, and therefore do not meet the criteria of a scientific hypothesis or theory. This paper explores the likelihood that many of the panels of petroglyphs decorating the orthostats and kerbstones at sites such as Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, simply depict the monuments that were constructed during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. The spatial distribution of the motifs on stones at Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth for example, were a way of drawing in the wider ritual landscape, creating for the community a way of connecting the physical landscape, with the realm of the dead.

Though many of the monuments within the Boyne Ensemble are still visible in the landscape, there are hundreds of sites where nothing can be seen, except for the panels that exhibit this enigmatic art, with hundreds more yet to be discovered. With the advances in geo-prospecting technology, and using the probable cartographic information on the panels, undiscovered sites and monuments beckon.

"For a long time settlement narratives of the Irish Neolithic have been dominated by the timber rectangular houses of the early fourth millennium, and the examination of ceremonial or ritual activity focused on the monumental court tombs, portal tombs and passage tombs that dot the landscape. An awkward and uninspiring category of evidence, pits have generally been passed over in discussions of the period. Their ubiquity cannot be ignored, however; the published summaries of excavations carried out across the island of Ireland from 1970 to 2005 show that pit-digging far outstrips any other type of activity recorded on sites dating to the Neolithic. Recent research into non-monumental or non-architectural activity at sites such as Lambay Island stone axe quarry has also deepened appreciation of a more nuanced or small-scale engagement with materials like earth and stone.

This paper represents a first attempt to characterise the phenomenon of pit-digging across Ireland through the Neolithic, with a particular emphasis on the material from eastern Leinster. Also examined are the commonalities of deposition across different contexts, from seemingly isolated pits to hilltop enclosures to passage tombs, and whether these might give us some insight into how the Neolithic world was structured.
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Report on an excavation and watching brief carried out in 2004–5 at Parnwell, Peterborough, providing an opportunity to investigate an extensive area of the clay hinterland adjacent to the gravel terraces surrounding Flag Fen. The earliest occupation took the form of a cluster of Early Neolithic pits. Subsequent activity in the Early Bronze Age was represented by a looser scatter of pits, which contained Collared and Biconical Urn pottery. A small area of Later Iron Age settlement was found at the southern edge of the site, with occupation probably continuing without a break into the Roman period, when a more substantial enclosed settlement was established. Features associated with the Romano-British settlement included a corn-drier, which had been used for roasting malt. The settlement lay within an extensive field system, which also contained a small cremation cemetery. Pollen evidence suggests that there was some regeneration of scrub or woodland following the abandonment of the settlement in the third century AD. Anglo-Saxon features consisted of fifty-seven pits with burnt fills scattered across the site, radiocarbon dated to the seventh to ninth century cal AD. These were probably associated with charcoal production, with no evidence of contemporary settlement in the immediate area.

In this book we offer an exciting new perspective on a distinctive form of megalithic monument that is found across most areas of northern Europe. In order to achieve this we have abandoned outmoded typological classifications and reintroduced the term 'dolmen' to embrace a range of sites that share a common form of megalithic architecture: the elevation and display of a substantial stone. By critically assessing the traditionally assigned role of these monuments and their architecture as megalithic tombs, the presence of the dead is reassessed and argued to form part of a process generating vibrancy to the materiality of the dolmen. As such this book argues that the megalithic architecture identified as a dolmen is not a chambered tomb at all but instead is a qualitatively different form of monument. We also provide an entirely different conception of the utility of this extraordinary megalithic architecture-one that seeks to emphasise its building as articulating discourses of wonder as a broad social strategy. In this respect it is important to remember that many of these monuments were erected very early in the Neolithic and as a consequence of new people entering new lands, or social transformation. In short, dolmens are monumental constructions employing experimental and emergent technologies to raise huge stones, which, once built, enchant those who come within their spaces. Our claim is that dolmens were megalithic installations, magical and extraordinary in construction and strategically positioned to induce both drama and awe in their encounter.

A rare Neolithic ring ditch which was the focus of a pair of graves containing cremated human remains was uncovered during archaeological works at King Alfred Way, Newton Poppleford. In the vicinity of the ring ditch were several pits or postholes, the finds from
which indicated that they were largely contemporary with the ring ditch and graves, and may represent the positions of at least two houses. A few finds, including a sherd of Early Bronze Age Beaker pottery and some sherds of later Iron Age pottery, indicate some later prehistoric use of the area. An assemblage of Peterborough ware pottery, worked flint and a radiocarbon date show that the main use of the site was during the Middle Neolithic. The detailed analyses of the human remains and palaeoenvironmental evidence are also presented.

Archaeologically monitored topsoil stripping at the site of Oakgrove Integrated College, Gransha, Co Londonderry, in 2002 led to the identification and investigation of a number of archaeological sites, including two areas of Early Neolithic activity and an Early Bronze Age burnt mound with troughs. Surface finds of Late Mesolithic and possibly Neolithic flint were also recorded.

In 9067 BP (7117 BC, 8150 14C b.p.), a tsunami from the Gulf of Mexico flooded much of the Americas and Europe. In Ireland, it raced up the Irish Channel, destroyed the land bridge to Scotland and terminated the Early Mesolithic. In the Caribbean, sixty million died. The tsunami resulted from a turbidite off the continental shelf of Louisiana, which in turn was triggered by a strike in Alabama by a satellite of planet Nibiru. This was one of many catastrophes caused by Nibiru, which ended when Nibiru struck Jupiter, punched out its core to make Venus, and left the Great Red Spot.
Nibiru, a fiery sun-like planet, entered the Solar System about 25,000 years ago, a remnant from a supernova with ten times the mass of Earth. After encounters with other planets, it ended up with four moons, a cloud of satellites and a comet-like tail. It had a 20-year orbit opposite to that of Earth, but in the same plane, preceded by eight years with a Head, which had its own collection of satellites. Every 60 years Nibiru approached much closer, and every 1200 years initiated a major disaster. Previously, it had ended the Younger Dryas, sunk Atlantis, transferred Moon from Tiamat to Earth, and drowned the mammoths.
One of its many satellites struck Alabama and set southern forests afire. An earthquake from the shock liquified a layer of quartz in the continental shelf of Louisiana, which caused friction to drop to zero. Having lost all friction, an immense section of the continental shelf began to slide into the Gulf of Mexico, 4.2 km deep. As it fell, the turbidite gained speed and hurtled toward the Yucatan Peninsula. Behind it, oil, gas and naphtha erupted from the exposed shelf. Above it, the sea rose 1.9 km. Part way out, the turbidite regained friction and tore off a huge piece of shelf, which now lies against the Yucatan Peninsula. Raised high above the turbidite and filled with silt, the tsunami rushed away in all directions.
Going north, the tsunami faced a chasm 1.9 km below sea level, erupting with petroleum products.  It crossed the chasm and spread out across the south and central plains, where it drowned all inhabitants, whose principal tribe was called Wa-gas. The wave crossed over the Great Lakes, which had not fully rebounded from the ice sheet. It careened around the western edge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and eroded a 75 km strip of ice along the edge. Hemmed in by mountains on one side and the ice sheet on the other, it lost little height, and was still about 150 m high at the edge of Alaska. Just offshore, a floating wall of ice stopped it, 2 km thick, the Barents Ice Sheet, which had crossed the Arctic as a turbidite three thousand years earlier. It left a deposit of muck, absent of mammoths. Sea level rose 1.17 m from erosion of the ice sheet.
Going west, it knocked off the tops of three islands in the Gulf of Mexico, one of which appeared on a map made by an exploration party of 400 Magdalenians from the Rhine.
Going south, the tsunami obliterated the Mayan civilization of Mu around the Caribbean, 60 million people. Those living in the mountains, in the Valley of Mexico, and on the Pacific Coast survived. It crossed Panama to the Pacific. Narrow passages between low hills prevented flooding of the interior of Brazil and Venezuela.
Going east, the tsunami washed over Florida and crossed the Atlantic. At Ireland, it rushed up the Irish Sea, crashed against the land bridge to Scotland, pushed the bridge out to sea and terminated the Early Neolithic. It rushed up the English Channel from the south, and flooded Doggerland from the north. Denmark, the Netherlands, northern Germany, most of Belgium, northern France were drowned. Habitation in Iberia ceased.
The returning outwash filled the flood channel at Natchez, 26 km wide and 300 feet high. It continued straight into the Gulf of Mexico, created giant ripple marks on the seafloor, and left no delta. Where it ponded, silt settled out and left a distinctive soil. A sea of mud cut North America in half, which lay vacant for 500 years. Dust storms harassed the northern hemisphere. During that time, the Mississippi wandered back and forth over the floodplain.
On the west coast, surviving Wa-gas returned to Europe across the Pacific, to Chechnya. On the east coast, surviving Wa-gas returned to Europe across the Atlantic, to the Isle of Man, and the Sahara. Cheyenne returned from Mexico. Iberian sailors replanted trees in Ireland, whose forests had vanished.

In this paper, I used theories of embodiment, identity, materiality and landscape dwelling to write an interpretative archaeology of the Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age periods on Cranborne Chase in Dorset.
The paper also featured fictional vignettes intended to provide possible insights into very different past lives, world views and understandings of landscape. It was also illustrated with imaginative drawings by Cornelius Barton and Erica Hemming. The paper was an avowedly experimental exercise in interpretative narrative, to try and create a bridge between sometimes dense theoretical treatments, and more populist accounts. Inspired by some of Mark Edmonds' fictional accounts of working wood and flint, I tried to portray something of people's beliefs and cosmologies, a difficult task in which I was only partly sucessful. I was particularly keen to try and envisage a Mesolithic world of animist, relational ontologies. I also wished to focus on ideas of identity, including possible multiple genders; and the activities and taskscapes of women and children, which the illustrations too supported. I would love to continue these fictional thought experiments at a future date, perhaps in a graphic novel set during the British later Iron Age.
This paper represents the final Word text, with some remaining typos, but not the final paginated typeset Archaeopress formatted article. I have also removed the illustrations, but have retained the glossary of theoretical terms included at the rear of the book, one of the aims of which was to try and explain complex theoretical concepts in more accessible terms. There is also a bibliography for suggested further reading, though of course this is only valid up to 2004, and there have subsequently been many important contributions to landscape archaeology, cultural geography and archaeological discussions of identity.

A technical report on the first of three excavation seasons at Ham Hill hillfort in Somerset, Britain's largest hillfort. The current programme of investigations have been commissioned in advance of a quarry extension on the hill, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. As a combined project between the Cambrigde Archaeological Unit and the University of Cardiff this is one of the largest investigations within a hillfort in recent years, the archaeology of which is thus far dominated by rich Mid to Late Iron Age inhabitation.

The decline in use of passage tombs, or more specifically, in the use of Carrowkeel Ware is frequently used as one of the book-ends propping up the Grooved Ware chronology in Ireland. While several sites yield evidence for both types of pottery, there is as yet no instance of a direct contextual or feature overlap between the two. The Mound of the Hostages at the Hill of Tara is no exception in this regard. However, one of the outcomes of recent modelling of phases of activity at the mound has been a much tighter estimate of when the primary use of Irish passage tombs ceased. Does this change our perception of how, why and when Grooved Ware appeared in Ireland? What changes and what stays the same? Working out from the small yet stubborn strands of evidence at the Mound of the Hostages, this contribution will explore aspects of this middle Neolithic/late Neolithic transition or interface as revealed by those sites where traces of both cultural traditions occur

Whatever their degree of abstraction, many traditions of abstract art throughout the world have a part of figuration; however, this part clearlyappears only if the meaning of the art is still known or discovered.This is notthe case for British and Irish Neolithic art and only examinations of its contextcan give some indications. Recent analyses of Irish passage tomb art haveshown that specific graphic forms were spatially associated with architecturalcomponents of the tombs.These results allow us to bring new interpretationsof passage tomb art and consequently to re‐evaluate the figurative part of this abstract iconography.

This paper presents a new synthesis of the archaeology of Ireland based on the analysis and discussion of the temporal and spatial distribution patterns of 9076 radiocarbon dates from 2679 archaeological sites. These data are used to create time-series based models of the scale of human activity in overall terms and within certain categories of archaeological context. The models are also used as proxies for population growth and decline, and as a guide to unravelling the dynamics of cultural change. Several new insights into the past are opened up using this approach. These are (i) a pattern of Late Mesolithic intensification influenced by the spread of the Neolithic in Europe; (ii) a boom-bust cycle in the Neolithic period, perhaps involving up to one million people; (iii) relatively slow growth spanning the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age; (iv) notably high population throughout the Bronze Age; (v) a sudden reduction in population around 800 BC; (vi) rapid growth at 450 BC, heralding the start of the Iron Age; (vii) continuity of industrial activity and enclosure building though the 'Late Iron Age Lull'; (viii) a trend of strong growth beginning at AD 200 and culminating in an apogee of early medieval civilization that flourished in Ireland around AD 700; (ix) slow population decline from AD700 until the late medieval period. Contextualising these data demonstrates how robust these signals are, as similar oscillations can usually be seen in data from radically different contexts. These models provide new theories about the dynamics of the past, which involve demographicstructural cycles, networks, and edge effects, and can be used to construct falsifiable explanations of the demographic forces that shaped the Irish landscape and the slow sweep of cultural change.

A discussion of some of the possible archaeological evidence for malting and the brewing of ale at Skara Brae, Orkney, a 5000 year old Neolithic village.  We gave a demonstration of malting, mashing and fermentation at the 'Neolithic Fair' which was part of the 'Neolithic Orkney in its' European Context' Conference, 1998. We were allowed 1000 words and 3 pictures in the Conference publication.

This paper examines Waun Mawn in its regional context, on the northern flank of Mynydd Preseli in Pembrokeshire. The geology is typical for the area, with outcrops of Ordovician mudstones and meta-mudstones and igneous rocks belonging to the Fishguard Volcanic Group. The landscape has been intensively glaciated on more than one occasion, and glacial and periglacial deposits are widespread. There is an extensive litter of erratic boulders (mostly of dolerite) scattered across the hillside. Many of these boulders have been used in prehistoric stone settings around Waun Mawn, 1 Figure 1. Extract from the old OS 1:25,000 map series, showing topographic and other features around Waun Mawn and Tafarn-y-bwlch. Tafarn y Bwlch and Banc Llywdlos. Included in these stone settings are single and double standing stones, ring cairns, passage and gallery graves, and what appear to be collapsed cromlechs. Parker Pearson (2017, 2019) has claimed that Waun Mawn carries traces of a dismantled "giant stone circle" which provided bluestone monoliths for Stonehenge. The evidence cited in two publications is examined, and does not withstand scrutiny. From examinations of the shallow excavations in 2017 and 2018, it is concluded that there might have been some small standing stones which were later removed or broken up, but it is not demonstrated that there ever was a small stone circle here, let alone a "giant" one. Furthermore, there have been no control studies in the neighbourhood which might demonstrate that the speculative feature has any significance. There is nothing at Waun Mawn to link this site in any way to Stonehenge, and it is concluded that the archaeologists have simply "discovered" what they wanted to find, and have created an elaborate and unnecessary bluestone narrative around it. No evidence has been brought forward in support of the claim that "this was one of the great religious and political centres of Neolithic Britain".

Geophysical survey in advance of development at Penmayne, identified a series of curvilinear anomalies thought to represent late prehistoric settlement. Targeted evaluation trenching revealed three ring-gullies associated with roundhouses of probable Middle Iron Age date. Three smaller structures, superimposed upon the ring-gullies indicated a later phase of Iron Age settlement.

The work also discovered an Early Neolithic pit, associated with sherds of carinated bowl pottery and providing two radiocarbon dates in the mid fourth millennium cal BC. The investigation has added further information about the character of Early Neolithic occupation in north Cornwall and is particularly important for providing close dating for carinated bowl pottery in the south west.

A third determination of 380-190 cal BC came from a hearth associated with a small assemblage of broadly Middle Iron Age pottery. The archaeological recording has provided another late prehistoric unenclosed settlement site for comparison with others in lowland Cornwall and increases the number of open settlements dating to the Iron Age.