Overview

One of the principal characteristics of the European Neolithic is the development of monumentality in association with innovations in material culture and changes in subsistence from hunting and gathering to farming and pastoralism. The papers in this volume discuss the latest insights into why monumental architecture became an integral part of early farming societies in Europe and beyond. One of the topics is how we define monuments and how our arguments and recent research on temporality impacts on our interpretation of the Neolithic period. Different interpretations of Göbekli Tepe are examples of this discussion as well as our understanding of special landmarks such as flint mines. The latest evidence on the economic and paleoenvironmental context, carbon 14 dates as well as analytical methods are employed in illuminating the emergence of monumentalism in Neolithic Europe. Studies are taking place on a macro and micro scale in areas as diverse as Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany, the Dutch wetlands, Portugal and Malta involving a range of monuments from long barrows and megalithic tombs to roundels and enclosures. Transformation from a natural to a built environment by monumentalizing part of the landscape is discussed as well as changes in megalithic architecture in relation to shifts in the social structure. An ethnographic study of megaliths in Nagaland discuss monument building as an act of social construction. Other studies look into the role of monuments as expressions of cosmology and active loci of ceremonial performances. Also, a couple of papers analyse the social processes in the transformation of society in the aftermath of the initial boom in monument construction and the related changes in subsistence and social structure in northern Europe. The aim of the publication is to explore different theories about the relationship between monumentality and the Neolithic way of life through these studies encompassing a wide range of types of monuments over vast areas of Europe and beyond.

Full Product Details

Author:   Anne Birgitte Gebaer ,  Lasse Sørensen ,  Anne Teather ,  António Carlos de Valera
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
ISBN:  

9781789254945

ISBN 10:   1789254949
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   15 September 2020
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Introduction. Gebauer, A. B., Sørensen, L., Teather, A. & A. C. Valera. List of contributors. List of content.   Thoughts on Monumentalism Chapter. 1. Teather, A. Neolithic monumentality for the 21st Century.   Origin of Monumentalism Chapter. 2. Watkins, T. Monumentality in Neolithic Southwest Asia: making memory in time and space Chapter. 3. Kinzel, M. and Clare, L. Monumental compared to what? A Perspective from Göbekli Tepe   Chapter. 4. Hodder, I. From communal to segmentary: an alternative view of Neolithic ‘monuments’ in the Middle East. Comments on chapter 2 and 3   Chapter. 5. Jeunesse, Chr. Elite houses or specialised buildings? Some comments about the special buildings of Göbekli Tepe in relation to chapter 2 and 3   Chapter. 6. Response to comments by Ian Hodder and Christian Jeunesse by Trevor Watkins   Chapter. 7. Response to comments by Ian Hodder and Christian Jeunesse by Lee Clare and Moriz Kinzel with notes on a potential Upper Mesopotamian “Late PPNA Hunter-Crisis”   Monuments and social change Chapter. 8. Sørensen, L. Monuments and social stratification within the early Funnel Beaker Culture in South Scandinavia .   Chapter. 9. Behrens, A. Do Hundreds of megalithic monuments signify a full Neolithic way of life? The establishment of Neolithic societies on Rügen Island, Germany   Chapter.  10.  Brozio, J. P. From hierarchies in balance to social imbalance - transformation processes in the later Funnel Beaker north societies in the western Baltic Sea region (3100-2900 BCE)   Chapter. 11. Müller, J., J. P. Brozio, W. Dörfler and W. Kirleis Narratives of third millennium transformations: new biographies of Neolithic societies, landscapes and monuments   Chapter. 12. Nobles, G.  Settling the Monumental Issue in the Dutch Wetlands   Chapter. 13. Wunderlich, M. Celebrating stones – Megalith building traditions among Angami-Naga, Northeast-India   Chapter. 14. Wadskjær, A.V. & G. Hjortlund Megalithic structures and settlements in the Valley of Posic, Amazonas, Northern Peru     Funerary monuments   Chapter. 15. Larsson, L. Stones as Boundaries – Stones as Markers. A megalithic tomb in Southern Portugal   Chapter. 16. Pospieszny, Ł., M. Jakubczak and G. Kiarszys Putting earthen long barrows back on map. Remarks about the Middle Neolithic monumentality of northern Poland   Chapter. 17. Papiernik, P., R. Brzejszczak, D. Kacper Płaza, J. Wicha, and P. Wronecki In the search of the lost heritage. Non-invasive exploration of the monumental Funnel Beaker culture long barrows in the area of Wietrzychowice in central Poland   Chapter. 18. Sheridan, A. and R. Schulting Making sense of Scottish Neolithic funerary monuments: tracing trajectories and understanding their rationale   Chapter. 19. Gebauer, A. B. Group benefits? The story of a cluster of megalithic monuments in Danish Funnel Beaker society   Enclosures and Landscapes Chapter. 20. Parkinson, E., S. Stoddart, C. Malone, C. Brogan and R. McLaughlin Storied Structures, Sustainability and Resilience in late Neolithic Malta: Excavations at the Santa Verna, Gozo   Chapter. 21. Valera, A. C. Ephemeral and Cosmological Monumentality: the ‘strange’ ditched enclosures of Chalcolithic South Portugal   Chapter. 22. Sanches, M. J. and A. M. Vale Connecting stories of the Neolithic in North-Eastern Portugal. Walled enclosures and their relationships with the genealogy of the landscape.   Chapter. 23. Czerniak, L., A. Matuszewska, M. Dziewanowski, L. Pospieszny, M. Jakubczak and M. Szubski The Neolithic roundel and its social context on the furthest reaches of the Danubian World.     Chapter. 24. Andersson, M. and M. Artursson, The living and the dead – the Early Neolithic monumental landscape of southwestern Scania, southern Sweden.   Conclusion: Chapter. 25. Thomas, J. The Lives of Monuments and Monumentalising Life

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Author Information

Anne Birgitte Gebauer is a researcher at the National Museum of Denmark. She completed her magister degree at University of Aarhus in 1981. Her main research interests are the origin of agriculture, funerary rites, megalithic tombs and ceramic analysis. Lasse Sørensen is Head of the Department of Ancient Cultures of Denmark and the Mediterranean at the National Museum of Denmark. He completed his PhD at the University of Copenhagen in 2015. His main research interest is the Mesolithic and Neolithic of northern Europe and the Aegean. Anne Teather specialises in the European Neolithic. She has worked extensively on prehistoric chalk artefacts and she has pioneered new approaches to material culture studies. She is currently directing a field project at Tenants Hill, Dorset, with her non-profit community archaeology company 'Past Participate'. António Carlos Neves de Valera has a degree in History and in Archaeology and a master and a PhD in Archaeology (Universities of Lisbon and Porto). Has developed research since 1988 focused in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of Central and South Portugal. He coordinates the Global Archaeological Research Program of Perdigões complex of ditched enclosures and is head of the research unit of Era Arqueologia Company and integrates the ICArEHB centre of Algarve University.

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