The Neolithic of the Irish Sea

by Cummings, Vicki; Fowler, Chris

• ISBN13: 9781842171097
• ISBN10: 1842171097
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-02-01
• Publisher: Oxbow Books Ltd

Summary

This collection of 24 papers aims to reconsider the nature and significance of the Irish Sea as an area of cultural interaction during the Neolithic period. The traditional character of work across this region has emphasised the existence of prehistoric contact, with sea routes criss-crossing between Ireland, the Isle of Man, Anglesey and the British mainland. A parallel course of investigation, however, has demonstrated that the British and Irish Neolithics were in many ways different, with distinct indigenous patterns of activity and social practices. The recent emphasis on regional studies has further produced evidence for parallel yet different processes of cultural change taking place throughout the British Isles as a whole. This volume brings together some of these regional perspectives and compares them across the Irish Sea area. The authors consider new ways to explain regional patterning in the use of material objects and relate them to past practices and social strategies. Were there practices that were shared across the Irish Sea area linking different styles of monuments and material culture, or were the media intrinsic to the message? The volume is based on papers presented at a conference held at the University of Manchester in 2002.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
List of Contributors	xi
Acknowledgements	xii
Introduction: locating The Neolithic of the Irish Sea: materiality and traditions of practice	1	(8)
Vicki Cummings
Chris Fowler
Neolithic connections along and across the Irish Sea	9	(13)
Alison Sheridan
An Irish sea change: some implications for the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition	22	(7)
Rick J. Schulting
Connecting the mountains and sea: the monuments of the eastern Irish Sea zone	29	(8)
Vicki Cummings
The searchers: the quest for causewayed enclosures in the Irish Sea	37	(9)
Kenneth Brophy
Tales of the land, tales of the sea: people and presence in the Neolithic of Man and beyond	46	(9)
Timothy Darvill
Fluid horizons	55	(9)
Aaron Watson
Falling off the edge of the Irish Sea: Clettraval and the two-faced Neolithic of the Outer Hebrides	64	(8)
Cole Henley
Labouring with monuments: constructing the dolmen at Carreg Samson, south-west Wales	72	(9)
Colin Richards
Stones that float to the sky: portal dolmens and their landscapes of memory and myth	81	(10)
Alasdair Whittle
In touch with the past? Monuments, bodies and the sacred in the Manx Neolithic and beyond	91	(12)
Chris Fowler
Rock art, identity and death in the early Bronze Age of Ireland and Britain	103	(10)
Edward Evans
Thomas A. Dowson
The setting and form of Manx chambered cairns: cultural comparisons and social interpretations	113	(10)
Vicki Cummings
Chris Fowler
Where is the Cumbrian Neolithic?	123	(6)
Helen Evans
The Isle of Man: central or marginal in the Neolithic of the northern Irish Sea?	129	(16)
Peter Davey
Neolithic worlds; islands in the Irish Sea	145	(15)
Gabriel Cooney
Axes, kula, and things that were `good to think' in the Neolithic of the Irish Sea regions	160	(14)
Keith Ray
Materiality and traditions of practice in Neolithic south-west Scotland	174	(11)
Julian Thomas
Evidence of absence? The Neolithic of the Cheshire Basin	185	(6)
David Mullin
Away from the numbers: diversity and invisibility in late Neolithic Wales	191	(11)
Rick Peterson
By way of illustration: art, memory and materiality in the Irish Sea and beyond	202	(12)
Andrew Jones
The early Bronze Age on the Isle of Man: back into the mainstream?	214	(10)
Jenny Woodcock
Layers of life and death: aspects of monumentality in the early Bronze Age of Wales	224	(9)
Marcus Brittain
Memory, tradition and materiality: the Isles of Scilly in context	233
Trevor Kirk