Review (PDF) Gathering Time: Dating The Early Neolithic Enclosures Of Southern Britain And Ireland
Gathering Time presents the results of a major dating programme that re-writes the early Neolithic of Britain by more accurately dating enclosures, a phenomenon that first appeared in the early Neolithic: places of construction, labour, assembly, ritual and deposition. The project has combined hundreds of new radiocarbon dates with hundreds of existing dates, using a Bayesian statistical framework. Such formal chronological modelling is essential if significantly more precise and robust date estimates are to be achieved than those currently available from informal inspection of calibrated radiocarbon dates. The resulting dating project included over 35 enclosures - the largest study so far attempted in a Bayesian framework. This establishes a new chronology for causewayed and related enclosures in southern Britain, which appeared in the final decades of the 38th century cal BC, increased in number dramatically in the 37th century cal BC, and began no longer to be built by the end of the 36th century cal BC. Several enclosures were of short duration - in some cases probably in use for less than a generation - though some examples do conform to the conventional assumption of a long primary use-life. In Ireland, enclosures of this kind are much scarcer. The project helped to date two of these: Donegore, Co. Antrim and Magheraboy, Co. Sligo. As well as establishing a new chronology for enclosures, Gathering Time also places these results into their wider context, by considering the chronology of the early Neolithic as a whole. Well over a thousand other radiocarbon dates have been critically assessed and modelled in a Bayesian framework - for settlement, monument building and other activity, region by region across southern Britain and across Ireland as a whole (a brief comparative study of Scotland as far north as the Great Glen is also included). Generally in southern Britain other Neolithic activity can be dated before the beginnings of monument building and, among the monuments, long barrows, long cairns, and related forms clearly preceded the earliest causewayed enclosures. The first Neolithic things and practices probably appeared in south-east England in the 41st century cal BC, arguably by some kind of small-scale colonisation from the adjacent continent, and spread at a variable pace across the rest of Britain and Ireland over the next two and a half centuries or more, a process involving acculturation of local people as well as immigrants. Enclosures may have been adapted as a social strategy of harnessing the power of the distant and the exotic, and perhaps old ancestral ties to the European continent, in a dynamic and rapidly changing social milieu. Close attention is given to themes of deposition, material culture and different kinds of social interaction, from networks of exchange to episodes of violence. A high tempo of change continued, as very different constructions came to be built from the 36th century cal BC onwards: the linear and more arcane cursus monuments. The study of Irish Neolithic chronology reveals significant patterning, including a short currency for rectangular timber houses in the 37th century cal BC, but also highlights the challenge of establishing more reliable chronologies, for monuments in particular. Alternative scenarios for the date and nature of the beginning of the Neolithic in Ireland are modelled. Gathering Time ends with reflections on the nature and pace of change in prehistory. If generational timescales are now within our grasp routinely, more subtle and individualised kinds of (pre)history can and must be written, and the conventional frame of the long-term must shift from being familiar and comfortable to problematic.
Hardcover: 992 pages
Publisher: Oxbow Books (June 15, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1842174258
ISBN-13: 978-1842174258
Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 2.7 x 11.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 9.2 pounds
Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
Best Sellers Rank: #2,040,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #575 in Books > History > Ancient Civilizations > Prehistory #1784 in Books > Textbooks > Social Sciences > Archaeology #3689 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > History > Ancient
For anyone with an interest in Irish and British prehistory and, specifically how the chronologies are assembled through radiocarbon dating, the publication of Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland has been long anticipated and much, much desired. It is hard to overstate the importance of this book and how it has already rewritten our understanding of Neolithic enclosures, but it also stands as a template for other intensive studies to follow and emulate. The central importance of this study is not simply that it uses a lot of new radiocarbon dates for various sites, but it is how this data is treated and processed on such a large scale that is already leading to new and exciting insights into prehistory. As many readers of this blog, both professional archaeologists and enthusiasts, will be aware, the advance of absolute chronologies in archaeology has, in large part, been due to the development of radiocarbon dating. Prior to the seminal work carried out by Willard Libby and his team (James Arnold and Ernie Anderson), archaeological sites and were only datable through relative chronological means, such as seriation etc. In 1960 Libby, Arnold and Anderson won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for their work on radiocarbon dating. The basis of the method was that the measurement of the amount of the radioactive isotope carbon 14 (14C) surviving in a sample could be utilised to determine when, say, a piece of wood had been cut or grain harvested. These early dates relied on the assumption that the amount of 14C in the atmosphere had remained constant throughout history and, as the discipline was in its infancy, the associated standard deviations were also quite large.
Gathering Time: Dating the Early Neolithic Enclosures of Southern Britain and Ireland SOUTHERN COOKBOOK: Southern Cooking Bible: Smokin' Tasty And Authentic Southern Recipes (southern cooking, southern recipes, southern cookbook) IRELAND: The Ultimate Travel Guide and 125 Travel Tips You Must Know Box Set (Ireland, Ireland Travel Guide, Ireland Guide) Dating: Dating Advice for Women: Best 16 Dating Tips To Get The Guy, Understanding Men, Keep Him Interested and Avoid the Traps and Pitfalls Most women will never know about (Dating Advice)) Southern Cooking: for beginners - Simple Southern Food Recipes - Old South Recipes (Southern Food - Southern Meals - Southern Recipes - Soul Food - American Cuisine Book 1) The Single Parent Dating Solution: A Guide Through Roadblocks In Dating And Romance While Single Parenting (Single Parenting For Mothers, Dating Advice For Women) Britain BC: Life in Britain and Ireland Before the Romans (Text Only) The Tale of the Axe: How the Neolithic Revolution Transformed Britain Southern Pressure Cooking: Over 40 Quick and Easy Southern Meals and Secret Family Recipes for Your Pressure Cooker (Instant Pot & Southern Recipes) Cruising the Southern and Western Caribbean: A Guide to the Ships & the Ports of Call (Cruising the Southern and Western Caribbean) (Cruising the Southern & Western Caribbean) Southern Cooking Cookbooks: southern cooking recipes Collection Of the Best, Healthy, Delicious And Recommended Soul Food Cookbook (soul food for diabetes,Southern Cookbook): Best Fried Chicken How to Get Your Ex Back Fast! Toy with the Male Psyche and Get Him Back with Skills only a Dating Coach Knows (Relationship and Dating Advice for Women Book 4) The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and America Sacred Celtic Sites 2017 Wall Calendar: And Other Places of Power in Britain and Ireland Dating:Becoming Alpha To The Core 3rd Edition - Dominate the Dating Scene Through Developing the Six Key Alpha Male Traits Fast (Alpha Male, How to Attract ... Self Discipline, how to be a Success) Geological History of Britain and Ireland Book Art Studio Handbook: Techniques and Methods for Binding Books, Creating Albums, Making Boxes and Enclosures, and More (Studio Handbook Series) Sulcata Tortoise Owners Guide. Sulcata Tortoise care, behavior, feeding, enclosures, costs, health, interaction and myths. The Captive Care of Sulcata Tortoises. Neolithic Shamanism: Spirit Work in the Norse Tradition Life After Death: The Viola da Gamba in Britain from Purcell to Dolmetsch (Music in Britain, 1600-1900)
