Dissertations / Theses: 'Neolithic'

1

Spicer, Nigel Christopher. "Reframing the Neolithic." Thesis, University of Bradford, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10454/13481.

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In advancing a critical examination of post-processualism, the thesis has – as its central aim – the repositioning of the Neolithic within contemporary archaeological theory. Whilst acknowledging the insights it brings to an understanding of the period, it is argued that the knowledge it produces is necessarily constrained by the emphasis it accords to the cultural. Thus, in terms of the transition, the symbolic reading of agriculture to construct a metanarrative of Mesolithic continuity is challenged through a consideration of the evidential base and the indications it gives for a corresponding movement at the level of the economy; whilst the limiting effects generated by an interpretative reading of its monuments for an understanding of the social are considered. Underpinning these constraints is the conceptual privileging of the individual consequent upon the post-processual reaction to the totalising frameworks of modernist knowledge and the metanarratives of progress they construct – as exemplified in the economic reading of Childe. In examining the form of this reaction, the wider post-processual transposition of postmodernism within contemporary archaeological theory is also considered. In utilising Giddens’ concept of reflexivity, it is argued that rather than the ‘cultural turn’ itself, it is the inflection of the epistemological frameworks of the Enlightenment with a teleological reading of the past as progress that represents the postmodern within contemporary archaeological theory and it is through this understanding of postmodernism as expressing the capacity that modernity has to be self-aware that the conditions are established for the recovery of the Neolithic as a holistic object.

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2

Coolidge, J. W. "Southern Turkmenistan in the Neolithic a petrographic case study /." Oxford : Archaeopress, 2005. http://books.google.com/books?id=BjVmAAAAMAAJ.

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3

Wiriyaromp, Warrachai, and n/a. "The neolithic period in Thailand." University of Otago. Department of Anthropology, 2008. http://adt.otago.ac.nz./public/adt-NZDU20080904.111233.

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There are two principal models that purport to interpret the evidence for the origins of the Neolithic period in Thailand. Both stress the importance of rice cultivation and the domestication of a range of animals. One incorporates archaeological and linguistic evidence in identifying the origins as the result of the diffusion of farming communities into Southeast Asia and India from a source in the Yangtze River valley. The alternative stresses a local evolutionary pathway whereby indigenous hunter-gatherers began to cultivate rice within Thailand. This dissertation is centred on the results of the excavation of Ban Non Wat, in the Upper Mun Valley of Northeast Thailand. This has provided one of the largest, best dated and provenanced samples of occupation and mortuary remains of a Neolithic community so far available in Southeast Asia. Its principal objective is to define the motifs incised, impressed and painted onto the surface of ceramic mortuary vessels, in order to permit a comparison with other assemblages first in Thailand, then in Southeast Asia north into China. It is held that if there are close parallels over a wide geographic area, in these motifs, then it would support a model of diffusion. If there are not, then the alternative of local origins would need to be examined closely. It is argued that the similarity in motifs, particularly a stylised human figure, between Thai and Vietnamese sites lends support to a common origin for these groups. The motifs are not so obvious when examining the southern Chinese data, although the mode of decoration by painting, incising and impressing recur there. This, in conjunction with mortuary rituals, weaving technology, the domestic dog, and the linguistic evidence, sustains a model for demic diffusion. However, the presence of ceramic vessels also decorated with impressed/incised techniques in maritime hunter-gatherer contexts stresses that the actual Neolithic settlement may have been more complex.

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4

Nishiaki, Yoshihiro. "Lithic technology of Neolithic Syria /." Oxford : Archaeopress, 2000. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37198619c.

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5

Karsten, Per. "Att kasta yxan i sjön en studie över rituell tradition och förändring utifrån skånska neolitiska offerfynd /." Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell International, 1994. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/31654751.html.

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6

Squair, Robert Hay. "The neolithic of the Western Isles." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.285026.

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7

Cleal, R. M. J. "The Later Neolithic in Eastern England." Thesis, University of Reading, 1985. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.370644.

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8

Nelis, E. L. "Lithics of the Northern Irish Neolithic." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2004. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.403150.

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9

Patton, Mark. "Neolithic communities of the Channel Islands /." Oxford : Tempus reparatum, 1995. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb369589366.

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10

Svanlund, Simon. "Stridsyxekulturens bebyggelsemönster : En undersökning av samtida utgrävningar i Skåne och hur ett bebyggelsemönster avspeglar sin kultur." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper (KV), 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-39846.

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The goal with this work is to study the settlement during the Middle Neolithic B. Looking at the settlement pattern of the Battle Axe C culture (BAC) in Scania we might be able to get a picture of how the social structure of the BAC looked like and how it differed from' earlier and later culture groups.. What can a change in settlement tell archaeologists today about this and what problems do archeologist have to take into consideration.

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11

Liu, Li. "The Chinese neolithic : trajectories to early states /." Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/cam051/2004049440.html.

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12

Erdogu, Burcin. "Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures in Turkish Thrace." Thesis, Durham University, 2001. http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/3994/.

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The subject of this thesis are the Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures in Turkish Thrace. Turkish Thrace acts as a land bridge between the Balkans and Anatolia. Along this land bridge it might be expected that there has been a transfer of ideas, exchange and movement of objects between two regions. Intensive survey in a selected part of Turkish Thrace - the Edime region - and systematic field collection techniques on selected sites were conducted. Intensive surveys in the Edime region have provided important evidence relating to past land use and settlement systems. On the basis of examination settlements and artefacts, local Neolithic and Chalcolithic cultures closely related to the Balkan cultures were defined. One of the research problems in Turkish Thrace is the apparent dramatic decrease in population in the late Chalcolithic period. All late Chalcolithic sites are small relative to those of other Chalcolithic cultures in the Balkans. There are as yet no geographical studies, soil analysis or pollen diagrams from Turkish Thrace. However, it seems most likely that the depopulation of Turkish Thrace can be explained by a combination of environmental changes, soil changes or exchange network collapse. In Neolithic and Chalcolithic period, some of the Anatolian material looks similar to those of the Balkans. Similarities may be explained by the interaction sphere model. An interaction sphere is defined as an information or item exchange system through which aspects of culture are transferred and which ultimately produces regional similarities. Metabasite stone axes from the Şarköy axe factories were found in the Early Neolithic levels of Hoca Çeşme as well as on settlements in the Edime region. Honey flint of Northeast Bulgaria and Aegean Spondylus were found in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlements of Turkish Thrace. These examples begin to introduce the nature of the exchange network in Turkish Thrace.

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13

Harris, Oliver. "Identity, emotion and memory in Neolithic Dorset." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2006. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/56125/.

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Dwelling and practice represent two of the most powerful approaches that have been developed in archaeology over recent years. Together they offer a way of thinking about the past that recognises bom the agency of past peoples and the way in which they are always situated within their worlds. Yet both these approaches can be accused of a certain essentialism: they often fail to consider the socially contextual nature of identity, emotion and memory and the vital importance of these to how people go about the business of living their lives. By incorporating understandings of embodiment, gender, personhood, conviviality, emotional geographies, social memory and forgetting, among other themes, this thesis is an attempt to redress that. The first half of the thesis is thus an explicitly theoretical engagement with these broad, complex, but vital topics. In order to further this argument the second half of the thesis then applies these understandings to a single extended case study over three chapters: the Neolithic of Dorset This detailed and in-depth examination of one part of the country between 4000 and 2200 cal BC allows both the importance, and the applicability, of this theoretical approach to be set out Through this case study new understandings of people, landscape, materiality and monuments will emerge. The intention is to offer complex and coherent narratives that interweave the rich evidence of Neolithic occupation from Dorset with a sophisticated theoretical understanding that will allow new understandings of this particular place and time to emerge. Without a serious attempt to consider how identity, emotion and memory may have been both important and different in the past, archaeology is doomed to produce a picture of prehistory that not only falls short, but also reflects and reifies the conditions of the present.

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Teather, Anne Mary. "Mining and materiality in the British Neolithic." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2008. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/10323/.

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This thesis considers flint mines and their deposits within the early to late Neolithic in southern Britain. It proposes that flint mines have been perceived as peripheral to the wider changes that occurred during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, and that their deposits have suffered in equal terms from a lack of inclusion in discourses about the period. The theoretical argument aims to demonstrate that chalk art. artefacts and natural substances were a material component of Neolithic life and need to be fully integrated into our analytical categories within archaeology. This is achieved by addressing the overriding emphasis on functionality in interpretations of material culture, which it is argued has inhibited our acceptance of these important classes of material as archaeological evidence. A venues are proposed to overcome these concerns, specifically using materiality as the framing concept for an integrated approach to substances, artefacts and monumentality. These ideas are applied to an analysis of chalk art, the placement of chalk artefacts and natural substances, and the nature of architecture in southern British Neolithic flint mines. Through this, mining sites are suggested to be monumental in exhibiting deliberately created architectural spaces which were subject to symbolic use and, at times, modification. Typologies of chalk art and artefacts are proposed which facilitate a greater degree of critical analyses, and new artefact categories are created to describe natural artefacts which focus on their substance and manufacture (or biography) as opposed to perceived function. Chalk art, artefacts and natural substances are also situated within a broader regional analysis of the Neolithic in Sussex and Wessex, revealing them to have been both a rare and yet recognisable manifestation of Neolithic practice.

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15

Jones, Carleton. "Perceived and constructed landscapes in Neolithic Ireland." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1997. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272978.

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16

Glass, Margaret. "Animal production systems in neolithic Central Europe /." Oxford : Tempus reparatum, 1991. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb366774234.

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17

Dineley, Merryn. "Barley, malt and ale in the Neolithic /." Oxford : J. and E. Hedges, 2004. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb39145126s.

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18

Anagnostou, Paolo <1976&gt. "The genetic signature of Neolithic in Greece." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2011. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/3628/1/Anagnostou_Paolo_tesi.pdf.

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The Neolithic is characterized by the transition from a subsistence economy, based on hunting and gathering, to one based on food producing. This important change was paralleled by one of the most significant demographic increase in the recent history of European populations. The earliest Neolithic sites in Europe are located in Greece. However, the debate regarding the colonization route followed by the Middle-eastern farmers is still open. Based on archaeological, archaeobotanical, craniometric and genetic data, two main hypotheses have been proposed. The first implies the maritime colonization of North-eastern Peloponnesus from Crete, whereas the second points to an island hopping route that finally brought migrants to Central Greece. To test these hypotheses using a genetic approach, 206 samples were collected from the two Greek regions proposed as the arrival point of the two routes (Korinthian district and Euboea). Expectations for each hypothesis were compared with empirical observations based on the analysis of 60 SNPs and 26 microsatellite loci of Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region I. The analysis of Y-chromosome haplogroups revealed a strong genetic affinity of Euboea with Anatolian and Middle-eastern populations. The inferences of the time since population expansion suggests an earlier usage of agriculture in Euboea. Moreover, the haplogroup J2a-M410, supposed to be associated with the Neolithic transition, was observed at higher frequency and variance in Euboea showing, for both these parameters, a decreasing gradient moving from this area. The time since expansion estimates for J2a-M410 was found to be compatible with the Neolithic and slightly older in Euboea. The analysis of mtDNA resulted less informative. However, a higher genetic affinity of Euboea with Anatolian and Middle-eastern populations was confirmed. These results taken as a whole suggests that the most probable route followed by Neolithic farmers during the colonization of Greece was the island hopping route.

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19

Anagnostou, Paolo <1976&gt. "The genetic signature of Neolithic in Greece." Doctoral thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2011. http://amsdottorato.unibo.it/3628/.

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The Neolithic is characterized by the transition from a subsistence economy, based on hunting and gathering, to one based on food producing. This important change was paralleled by one of the most significant demographic increase in the recent history of European populations. The earliest Neolithic sites in Europe are located in Greece. However, the debate regarding the colonization route followed by the Middle-eastern farmers is still open. Based on archaeological, archaeobotanical, craniometric and genetic data, two main hypotheses have been proposed. The first implies the maritime colonization of North-eastern Peloponnesus from Crete, whereas the second points to an island hopping route that finally brought migrants to Central Greece. To test these hypotheses using a genetic approach, 206 samples were collected from the two Greek regions proposed as the arrival point of the two routes (Korinthian district and Euboea). Expectations for each hypothesis were compared with empirical observations based on the analysis of 60 SNPs and 26 microsatellite loci of Y-chromosome and mitochondrial DNA hypervariable region I. The analysis of Y-chromosome haplogroups revealed a strong genetic affinity of Euboea with Anatolian and Middle-eastern populations. The inferences of the time since population expansion suggests an earlier usage of agriculture in Euboea. Moreover, the haplogroup J2a-M410, supposed to be associated with the Neolithic transition, was observed at higher frequency and variance in Euboea showing, for both these parameters, a decreasing gradient moving from this area. The time since expansion estimates for J2a-M410 was found to be compatible with the Neolithic and slightly older in Euboea. The analysis of mtDNA resulted less informative. However, a higher genetic affinity of Euboea with Anatolian and Middle-eastern populations was confirmed. These results taken as a whole suggests that the most probable route followed by Neolithic farmers during the colonization of Greece was the island hopping route.

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20

Cochrane, Andrew James. "Irish Passage tombs : Neolithic images, contexts and beliefs." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2006. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/54305/.

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This thesis seeks to take the motifs on Irish Passage tombs beyond their traditional role as passive epiphenomenon and furthers understands them as performing active roles in the Neolithic. Rather than view the images through a textual representational analogy, I utilise visual cultural and neurological studies, set within a worldview perspective to paint a picture of the possible ambiguities of life and belief at some passage tomb locations. I explore the richness of evidence from the archaeological data and literature, to move beyond previous positions, and suggest new ways to deal with a past that develops multiple narratives. Such an account is thick with paradoxes, similarities, differences, tensions, emotions, life, death, pleasures and pain. Visions, context and belief layered together often generate ruptures in daily life that can facilitate new imaginings within the rhythms and sequences of images. Within such a perspective the Irish passage tomb motifs present fresh conditions for possibility and diverse understanding. In combining broader and more fine-grained analysis of particular passage tomb sites located in the north, east and south of Ireland, I demonstrate that social complexities operate at all scales. Magnified via cosmological perspectives, images on passage tombs interact with spectators through two-way intimate engagements. The assemblages that accompany the motifs are not static, instead they display notions of material animacy. Humans do not control all these interactions, for the motifs and objects are dynamic montages. These actions can be enhanced via process, such as the sequential nature of some images or by the application of liquid solutions, especially when conducted at particular times and places. With passage tombs acting as 'stages' and 'islandscapes', I construct interpretations that include both carnivalesque and axis mundi environments, which subvert, disrupt and perpetuate social beliefs. Such performances may have created dialogues and myths about the specialness of these places. These conversations would in turn factor and texture new illusions and simulations of the world, whilst creating fresh opportunities for experience.

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Loveday, Roy. "Cursuses and related monuments of the British Neolithic." Thesis, University of Leicester, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2381/27649.

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Excavated sites provide the morphological criteria for cursus identification. Two principal plans exist: type A (convex terminals), type B (squared terminals); and three structural forms: ditched enclosures, pit (?post) defined enclosures and linearbanks. Application to cropmarks reveals a continuum from very short (5Om) to greatly elongated sites (564Om), divisible into groups titled MAJOR and MINOR CURSUSES and OBLONG DITCHES. The latter grade into cropmarks of ovate and trapeziform plan necessitating initially common treatment as ELONGATED DITCHES. Some may represent former multiple round barrows but the principal oblong ditch range is set apart. To an even greater degree than cursuses these are concentrated in the Midland/East Anglian region. Despite 1st millennium bc dates for three sites (two European) the majority can be ascribed to the Neolithic. Two types of monument are indicated: long mortuary enclosures and turf built long barrows. Long mortuary enclosures are distinguished from palisade enclosures(mound features) and regarded like shallow flanking ditches elsewhere (eg Dalladies) as delimiting the intended barrow precinct. Mounds probably stood within some priorto plough erosion but the heavy demands of turf construction ensured that they attained monumental permanence in the Midland / East Anglian region. Bank barrows with nominal mounds may also have been common there (extended oblong ditches). They represent the other element needed for Later Neolithic cursus development. It is suggested that this ancestry best explains cursus purpose: as a temenos associated with ancestral/mortuary practices. Extreme proportions ensured siting on extensively, rather than intensively, utilized land (in some cases wooded) but exceptional demands on land and labour are indicated only in Wessex and East Yorkshire. AIthough cursuses were probably the earliest pan tribal monuments, the form seems to have been refined during the 2nd millennium in their early heartland to the virtual exclusion of henges.

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22

Snashall, Nicola. "The idea of residence in the Neolithic Cotswolds." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.274974.

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23

Van, Hove Doortje. "Imagining Calabria : a GIS approach to Neolithic landscapes." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.400497.

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24

Davies, Simon R. "The early Neolithic tor enclosures of Southwest Britain." Thesis, University of Birmingham, 2010. http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/1141/.

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Along with causewayed enclosures, the tor enclosures of Cornwall and Devon represent the earliest enclosure of large open spaces in Britain and are the earliest form of surviving non-funerary monument. Their importance is at least as great as that of causewayed enclosures, and it might be argued that their proposed associations with settlement, farming, industry, trade and warfare indicate that they could reveal more about the Early Neolithic than many causewayed enclosure sites. Yet, despite being recognised as Neolithic in date as early as the 1920s, they have been subject to a disproportionately small amount of work. Indeed, the southwest, Cornwall especially, is almost treated like another country by many of those studying the Early Neolithic of southern Britain. When mentioned, this region is more likely to be included in studies of Ireland and the Irish Sea zone than studies concerning England. Perhaps this is due, in part, to interpretations of Carn Brea and Helman Tor as defended settlements of people who relied upon agriculture for the bulk of their subsistence, conducted economic trade with other areas, and formed a quasi-political unity through warfare. This interpretation does not sit well with post-processual suggestions of a mobile, wild resource based early Neolithic, with the emphasis on cultural change, in neighbouring Wessex chalkland areas. The aim of this thesis is to re-examine the evidence from the southwest and to interpret it with reference to and in contrast with the potentially radically different interpretations of the Early Neolithic in nearby Wessex. By understanding the southwestern landscapes before the tors were enclosed, placing the tor enclosures in their cultural landscape contexts, using ethnographic analogy and re-examining the existing archaeological record, it is possible to achieve a better understanding of tor enclosures and to demonstrate their importance for understanding other elements of the Early Neolithic in Britain.

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Pollard, Carl Joshua. "Traditions of deposition in the neolithic of Wessex." Thesis, Cardiff University, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.603085.

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This thesis seeks to demonstrate intentional selection, and spatial and associational patterning in the past deposition of artefactual, faunal and human remains in the British Neolithic. Drawing on theory from material culture studies and anthropology, it is suggested that depositional practices were the result of, and played a part in the creation and maintenance of, systems of cultural classification and symbolic order. Furthermore, that deposition was often actively employed in ascribing sets of meanings and references to places, events and practices through a process of material culture signification and connotation. A major part of the thesis takes the form of a series of detailed case studies of depositional practices within excavated sites in the Avebury and Stonehenge regions of Wiltshire. A variety of contexts, including pits, funerary monuments and enclosures of both Earlier and Later Neolithic date, are examined; within which consciously motivated acts of deposition are seen as a recurrent feature. In a broader discussion, implications developing from the case studies and analysis of depositional activity at other sites elsewhere in southern Britain are related to issues of Neolithic perceptions of identity, locality, time, ancestry and the supernatural. Particular attention is paid to the way in which depositions contributed to the structuring and classification of space within monuments. In a final section, depositional practices are considered in relation to a wider debate surrounding Neolithic origins and processes of becoming and being Neolithic.

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Gardiner, Paula Judy. "The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in south west England." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/1983/a1034199-f5d8-43e8-8651-f81d79f4551e.

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27

Croft, Paul W. "An osteological study of Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 1988. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272464.

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McElearney, Graham Francis Xavier. "Digital archaeology and the neolithic of the peak." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.444267.

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Gangal, Kavita. "Models of the Neolithic dispersal in Southern Asia." Thesis, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10443/2905.

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The Fertile Crescent in the Near East is one of the independent sources of the Neolithic. Farming and pottery making spread across Europe from the Fertile Crescent from 9,000 to 6,000 years ago at an average rate of about 1 km/yr. The Neolithic in the Near East and the Indian subcontinent is far less explored in terms of absolute (14C) dates as compared to the European Neolithic. The Neolithic chronology in the Indian subcontinent is mainly established with comparative dating and few 14C dates are available from the region. Hence, though a strong causal connection between the Neolithic of the Near East and the Indus valley has been suggested, any detailed study has been challenging. The different nature of the archaeological and 14C dates and their uncertainties make it difficult to combine them in any quantitative analysis of the Neolithic. We overcome this by allocating different uncertainties and thus compile a comprehensive database of Early Neolithic dates in South Asia. Using the earliest Neolithic arrival time(s) for each site, the globally averaged Neolithic dispersal speed from the Near East to the Indian subcontinent is calculated to be U = 0.65 ± 0.1 km/yr. Further inspection of the data shows that the Neolithic sites were restricted to the Fertile Crescent until about 7,000 BCE, and only later spread along the northern and southern borders of modern Iran. Analysis identifies two distinct routes of the Neolithic dispersal, one from the northern Zagros and the other from the southern Zagros, with significantly different dispersal speeds (about 0.6 km/yr for the southern route and 2 km/yr for the northern route). Furthermore, when combined with the Indus sites, the data suggests that the Neolithic plausibly reached the Indian subcontinent from the Northern Zagros. The Neolithic of the Near East is studied further by using a two dimensional spatial diffusion model that incorporates palaeo-vegetation and topography data. Further expanding the scope of the diffusion model, the spread of incipient farming in the Indian subcontinent is studied. Depending on the environment, different staple food crops dominate in different regions (e.g. wheat in north-western India and rice in eastern India); and the model considers the spread of these different staple crops allowing for the altitude and water requirement for these crops.

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Spence, Yana Marianne Ingrid. "Problems of origin in structure and design of Minoan domestic architecture." Thesis, University of London, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.321664.

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Monks, Sarah J. "The role of conflict and competition in the development of prehistoric west Mediterranean societies from the late 4th to early 2nd millennium BC." Thesis, University of Reading, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.244942.

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Turner, Sarah Elizabeth. "Constructing landscapes : art in Neolithic and modern southern Brittany." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2005. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1446864/.

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The aim of this thesis is to study the concept 'Neolithic art' in one area of southern Brittany, between the Etel and Auray rivers, with some attention to the best known sites in the Gulf of Morbihan. The thesis is divided into three main sections each of which 'translates' 'Neolithic art' from a particular perspective, or, in terms of the title of the thesis 'constructs landscapes' through 'art'. The thesis is therefore a study of 'art' and how it is part of, and is understood in, the surrounding world. Each section of the thesis is considered as a 'frame', which discusses 'Neolithic art' from a different perspective. Each frame develops one idea of a landscape, which is explored through, and which creates 'art'. The first 'frame' is considered in Chapter 2 of the thesis, and is an enquiry into how the genre 'Neolithic art' was created and developed in Brittany as an archaeological study. The second 'frame', Chapters 3 to 5, is a subjective account of how 'Neolithic art' might have been constructed or used in the Neolithic period itself. The third frame, considered in Chapter 6, is an examination of how tourists might understand and create 'Neolithic art' in Brittany. As each frame is developed it is shown that one must go beyond the motifs to understand the concept 'art'. It is through 'art' features such as the colour, texture and shape of monuments, in essence the monuments themselves, and through different sensory experiences of the monuments and the surrounding world, which are beyond the carved motifs, that we see, within the context of the thesis, how complex and wide reaching the sense of 'art' really is and how it must be considered as part of our experience of the environment in which we live. Together the three frames offer three different but inter-dependent experiences of Neolithic 'art' in the landscape, and result in the creation of three recognisably different constructions of 'art' in the lived-through-world. Taken together, the three frames show how 'art' can be constructed, but also how it constructs meaning, in the lived-through-world - constructing landscapes through 'art' - in different, contrasting and changing ways. By considering the same objects within different frames of experience the intention is to show, from the micro-scale (motif) to the macro-sale (monuments and landscape), how 'Neolithic art' can be created, how it can mean, and how it is constantly changing, multivalent and broad reaching.

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Davison, Kate. "The Neolithic of Europe : mathematical modelling and radiocarbon data." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.489272.

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Palaeo-demography of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition remains a dominant topic in recent prehistoric debate. This thesis is concerned with the mathematical modelling of this transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic in Europe, from about 7000 to 4000 BC. A database of 1420 radiocarbon dates is compiled and forms the chronology of the Neolithic against which the success of our modelling is assessed. Population dynamics models are used to study the dispersal of the Neolithic in Europe from a localised area in the Near East in the first instance, solving the twodimensional reaction-diffusion-advection equation on a spherical surface. Initially the focus is on the role of major river paths and coastlines in the advance of farming, to model the rapid advances of the Linear Pottery (LBK) and the Impressed Ware traditions along the Danube-Rhine corridor and the Mediterranean coastline, respectively. The standard reactiondiffusion equation is thus supplemented with an advection term, confined to the proximity of major rivers and coastlines to account for the anisotropic diffusion in those areas. The model allows for the spatial variation in both the human mobility (diffusivity) and carrying capacity, reflecting the local altitude and latitude: Further, motivated by the radiocarbon dates from pottery bearing sites in Eastern Europe, a population dynamics model is developed to suggest the presence of two waves of advance, one from the Near East, and another through Eastern Europe. Our modelling successfully accounts for the regional variations in the spread of the Neolithic, consistent with the radiocarbon data, thus we provide a quantitative framework in which a unified interpretation of the Western and Eastern Neolithic can be developed. Finally we lay the foundations upon which subsequent modelling of the population behaviour behind the initial wave of advance can be built, with particular regard to the Chalcolithic Cucuteni-Tripolye culture in Eastern Europe.

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Lynch, Hannah Louise. "A study of cross-Pennine interaction during the Neolithic." Thesis, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.437949.

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Lewis, Jodie. "Monuments, ritual and regionality : the neolithic of northern Somerset." Thesis, University of Bristol, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.340351.

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Meakes, Alison A. "Scientific analysis of Neolithic period ceramics from Fars, Iran." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/36039/.

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This thesis forms the first application of scientific analysis (thin section petrography, electron microprobe and scanning electron microscopy) to Neolithic ceramics from Fars province, Iran. The research specifically addresses the questions surrounding the choice of raw materials, production techniques and the use and consumption of ceramic vessels at these village sites. I have sought to attempt a deeper understanding of the past socio-economic context of ceramic production and consumption, as well as draw comparisons with wider ceramic technologies in the surrounding regions of Iran, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Central Asia. Analysis and interpretation of decorated ceramics from Neolithic Southwest Iran has traditionally focused on decorative designs, where coloured pigments have clearly played an influential role. However, very little was specifically known about the raw materials, manufacture, and production stages of these wares. The samples selected for analysis include newly excavated and previously unpublished ceramics that have been incorporated into an updated typology. This is then used to provide detailed characterisation of the materials and techniques employed by past potters to create the wares. Ceramics from different sites and valley locations were compared, and the development and changes in pigment raw materials and painted motif selection is demonstrated across different village sites and throughout the Neolithic time period. The introduction of manganese black and bichrome designs at Tol-e Nurabad is particularly interesting amidst the widely used iron oxide pigments and monochrome designs recorded from other sites. The choice of these raw materials is considered in respect to potters’ interaction with their surrounding landscape and in the context of other crafts and productive technologies. The transfer of potting knowledge is also considered, with visible evidence of a range of skill levels and marked corrections and adjustments made to painted motifs on the vessels studied. The use and consumption of vessels in Neolithic Fars is based on the remains of kitchen hearths and cooking equipment, namely clay balls and river cobbles, combined with use-wear analysis to show that plain wares were not subjected to direct heat and that painted wares were most likely used in the presentation and consumption of food. The painted motifs and decorative designs created on Neolithic vessels in this study are compared to other excavated sherds and whole or reconstructed vessels and show a broad similarity in apparent manufacture and painted designs. I suggest that this is evidence of the capacity of ceramics to store visual information, and to signify the Neolithic style of design that was actively shared and participated in across village sites in Fars. This was potentially done to demonstrate group membership and contribute to the construction of community, perhaps at feasting events which have been proposed across this region during the Neolithic, which would have provided venues for the consumption of such ceramics alongside the transference of decorative schemes between villages. Wider comparisons with contemporary Neolithic wares in the surrounding Iranian region, as well as Mesopotamia, Anatolia and Central Asia are also drawn, linking the communities of Fars with wider Neolithic technologies and styles.

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Baxter, Mary Isobel. "Human remains from the British Neolithic : a taphonomic perspective." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2001. https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/272066.

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Coolidge, Jennifer Whitney. "Southern Turkmenistan in the Neolithic : a petrographic case study." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2001. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.394977.

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Peterson, Rick. "Neolithic pottery from Wales : traditions of construction and use /." Oxford : Archaeopress, 2003. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb390715580.

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Baird, Douglas. "Neolithic chipped stone assemblages from the Azraq Basin, Jordan, and the significance of the Neolithic of the arid zones of the southern Levant." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/19860.

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Andersson, Elin. "De första jordbrukarna och gånggrifterna på Falbygden. : Immigranter eller lokal uppfinningsrikedom, det är frågan?" Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Arkeologi, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-353517.

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This essay will discuss where the people who built the passage graves and the first farmers at the Falbygden area in Sweden came from. That the first farmers built the passage graves is today a given fact, but how did the Neolithic transition take form in Scandinavia? Two theories have been put forward over the past century, that they learned through cultural diffusion, or that the first farmers were immigrants. Recent DNA- and Strontiumanalyses have been made on skeletons from passage graves from Falbygden and on skeletons from different regions across Europe, both from Mesolithic and Neolithic people. These results show that the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers shares no or little continuity with the Neolithic farmers, even in cases where the two groups lived in close neighbouring for a long time.

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Sanders, Jeffrey R. "Sacral landscapes : narratives of the megalith in north western Europe." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/2671.

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The construction of archaeological narrative is influenced by a number of factors. Some come from within disciplinary boundaries, whilst others are traced from the wider influences of social, cultural or academic contexts. This thesis examines three areas identified as Neolithic ‘landscapes’, all of which have been the subject of archaeological investigation since the 19th century. The history of research of these areas allows an evaluation of how these disparate influences interact. In this way, the three landscapes act as an arena in which to explore aspects of the archaeological approach itself. This leads to a critical examination of the interpretative tools available to the archaeologist. How concepts such as ‘landscape’ are formed and affect discourse is explored. Wider themes of demarcation, typology and the underlying assumptions of research are investigated in relation to the interpretation of the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of North Western Europe. The large span of time that these periods encompass allows exploration of change from the short to very long term, although this is not always utilised within archaeological accounts. The treatment of time is therefore considered in conjunction with explanations of change in prehistory. A powerful approach to time is suggested by combining aspects of the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Fernand Braudel and the potential for this is evaluated against the archaeological record of the three areas. How the assumptions of the archaeological approach are acted out within the historiography of each area highlights a number of recurring metaphors that are used to interpret the material record. These promote a portrayal of Neolithic life that combines with the range of influences from the history of archaeology itself to promote an idea of the prehistoric mentalité. A very durable and underlying type that constantly resurfaces in these accounts is the idea of the ‘sacral landscape’, which is the central topic of this thesis.

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Conroy, Rachel. "Consuming symbols : a study into the appearance and early role of ceramics in south eastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq from a social perspective." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2006. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.521049.

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This thesis presents a social perspective of the appearance and early role of ceramics during the Neolithic period in south eastern Turkey, northern Syria and northern Iraq. The need for an appreciation of the social context of this material is underpinned by the tendency in Near Eastern archaeology to use ceramics as tools to assist the formulation of chronologies, define supposed cultural boundaries and to reconstruct patterns of influence and interaction. Studies of the earliest ceramics have tended to adhere to these concerns and the social aspects of their appearance have been neglected. A number of different avenues are explored within this thesis, in order to approach the social context of early ceramics from differing perspectives. The material background and traditions of the Neolithic period are summarised, to place ceramic and other containers within a single framework for understanding. This contextual approach has been lacking from other studies of early ceramics. It is argued that ceramics did not present distinct functional advantages over existing container types and moves towards developing approaches that offer a social insight. This focuses on the increasingly complex role of consumption-related activities during the Neolithic period and the place of ceramics and other containers within this context. The theme of materiality and tradition is first approached in this chapter and forms a key strand of interpretation throughout the rest of the thesis. Ceramics are approached as a new technology and the relationship between ceramic and plaster manufacture during the Neolithic is re-evaluated. The patterns of development for plaster and ceramic technology are compared, as well as the actual manufacturing processes, in an attempt to define their relationship from a social perspective. The outcome of this is an enhanced understanding of the importance of material traditions during the Neolithic and the social significance of both technologies. A detailed analysis of the nature of early ceramic assemblages is undertaken. This concentrates on the themes of contexts of discovery, contexts of use and decoration. Material from the site of Umm Dabaghiyah in northern Iraq is presented as a case study. The aim of this analysis is to approach the social milieu of ceramic production and use. In the concluding sections, the significance of ceramics as material and symbol in the Neolithic is approached. It is argued that ceramics should be seen as an integral part of a wider Neolithic materiality, rather than an isolated aspect of material culture. The thesis concludes that the rewards of approaching early ceramics from a social perspective demonstrate the need for new methods of analysis. Ceramics must be studied within their wider context, as it is only against this background that they can be understood. It is argued that this issue needs to be addressed at the level of excavation, recording and publication in order to increase the possibilities for the study and interpretation of archaeological ceramics and the communities making and using them.

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Malmström, Helena. "Ancient DNA as a Means to Investigate the European Neolithic." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Evolutionsbiologi, 2007. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-8162.

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The transition from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a farming lifestyle, i.e. the Neolithisation, is arguably the most important event in human prehistory. While the geography and dating of the Neolithisation is well known, the process is still under debate, especially if it occurred through diffusion of ideas or with migrating farmers. The process accelerated when alternative use of domesticated animals increased. Especially the use of dairy products, and the consumption of unprocessed milk, appears to be of importance. As milk consumption (lactose digestion) is dependent upon genetic components, it is debated whether the genetic disposition allowed for dairy production to evolve, or if the usages of dairy products added selection pressure that eventually lead to present day allele frequencies. Molecular genetics have the potential to solve this and similar questions, but only if the contamination problem, where authentic DNA can be distinguished from modern contaminating DNA, can be resolved. Here I investigate the nature and extent of contamination with modern human DNA in museum specimens and explore several approaches to minimise this contamination and to authenticate DNA results from ancient humans. I use real-time quantification, pyrosequencing and FLX-generated clonal sequencing assays to generate data on ancient humans and ancient dogs. I further use the techniques to study the development of lactase persistence and the nature of animal domestication. The results presented show that sample-based contamination is extensive, but can be minimised if treated with bleach. I retrieved authentic HVSI sequences from 30 Neolithic hunter-gatherers and farmers from Sweden, of which eighteen also yielded nuclear data indicating that the farmers had a higher frequency of the allele linked to lactase persistence compared to the hunter-gatherers. I conclude that genetic data from ancient humans as well as from ancient animals can be retrieved and used, but only under high stringency.

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Thomas, Antonia. "Art and architecture in Neolithic Orkney : process, temporality and context." Thesis, University of the Highlands and Islands, 2016. https://pure.uhi.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/art-and-architecture-in-neolithic-orkney(8a1d24c9-bfe6-4dd8-a215-70076c10600e).html.

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This thesis presents a contextual analysis of Neolithic art and architecture in Orkney. Focussing upon the Heart of Neolithic Orkney World Heritage Site, it details the results of original fieldwork at three sites with in situ dressed and decorated stonework: Maeshowe, Skara Brae and the Ness of Brodgar. It combines the re-interpretation of known architecturally-situated carvings with primary data from new survey and excavation work, and reports the discovery of many previously unrecorded examples. This study reveals a diversity of stoneworking practices at these three sites which contradicts a broad catch-all term of 'art', demanding a more nuanced investigation. Previous studies have discussed the in situ decoration at Maeshowe and Skara Brae, but these have never been compared in detail, and the long histories of attention at these sites have led to questions over the authenticity of their carvings. The discovery of hundreds of comparable, in situ decorated stones from sealed Neolithic deposits during excavations at the Ness of Brodgar demolishes these doubts. The insight that this fieldwork has allowed is crucial. Excavation exposes aspects of the architecture which normally remain hidden, and allows the recording of decoration and stoneworking in situ, and as it is first revealed. This takes the discussion beyond the surface to allow an understanding of how stones were worked and decorated as part of the processes of construction and occupation. This challenges many narratives of Neolithic art and architecture, which have tended to focus upon superficial aspects of visual form, overlooking the ways in which buildings and stones came to be worked, carved, built and appreciated. It allows an exploration of how buildings and carvings emerge though process, and how the temporality of the working, decoration and appreciation of particular stones relates to the wider context of art and architecture in Neolithic Orkney.

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Bonga, Lily A. "Late Neolithic pottery from mainland Greece, ca. 5,300--4,300 B.C." Thesis, Temple University, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3564797.

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The Late Neolithic (defined here as the LN I of Sampson1993 and Coleman 1992) is both the culmination and the turning point of Greek Neolithic culture from the preceding phases. It lasts some 1,000 years, from approximately 5,300 to 4,300 B.C. The ceramic repertoire of the Late Neolithic period in Greece is a tremendously diverse body of material. Alongside this diversity, other aspects of the ceramic assemblage, such as Matt-painted and Black-burnished pottery, share broad similarities throughout regions, constituting a " koine." The commanlities, however, are most apparent during the earlier part of the Late Neolithic (LN Ia); in the later phase (LN Ib) phase, more regional variations proliferate than before.

In the Late Neolithic, all categories of pottery—monochrome, decorated, and undecorated—are at their technological and stylistic acme in comparison with earlier periods. While some of the pottery types demonstrate unbroken continuity and development from the preceding Early and Middle Neolithic phases, new specialized shapes and painting techniques are embraced.

For the first time in the Neolithic, shapes appear that are typically thought of by archaeologists as being for food processing (strainers and "cheese-pots"), cooking (tripod cooking pots and baking pans), and storing (pithoi ). More recent research, however, has demonstrated that these "utilitarian" vessels were more often than not used for purposes other than their hypothesized function. These new "utilitarian" vessels were to dominate the next and last phase of the Neolithic, the Final Neolithic (also called the Chalcolithic, Eneolithic, or LN II) when painted pottery disappears from most Greek assemblages just before the beginning of the Bronze Age.

During the past two decades, there has been much research into Late Neolithic Greece, particularly in Northern Greece (Macedonia). This dissertation incorporates the most up-to-date information from these recent excavations with the older material from sites in Thessaly, Central Greece, and Southern Greece. Since this study draws solely upon published material, both old and new, there are certain limitations to the type of analysis that can be performed. The approach, then, is more of an art-historical and historiographical overview than a rigorous archaeological analysis. It provides an overview of the major classes of pottery (decorated, monochrome, and undecorated) and their primary shapes, motifs, and technological aspects. While it emphasizes commonalities, regional and chronological variations are also highlighted. The technological means of production of vessels, their use, circulation, and deposition are also considered.

The structure of this paper is that each pottery chapter is devoted to a broad class (such as Matt-painted), which is broadly defined and then more closely examined at the regional level for chronological and stylistic variations. Likewise, a sub-section then discusses the technology of a particular class and its regional and or chronological similarities and differences. When necessary, outdated scholarship is addressed and rectified.

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Thomas, Julian Stewart. "Relations of power : the Neolithic of central south-west England." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 1986. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/6019/.

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This thesis argues that the traditional methods of archaeological research have had the effect of forcing the British Neolithic into a mould formed by modern western values. This orthodoxy might be challenged through the use of ethnographic material concerning the structure and operation of precapitalist societies. However, it is often the case that the variability of the ethnographic record is merely used to patch up archaeological explanations of the past. A methodology is therefore proposed in which anthropological theory is used in the construction of a model of Neolithic social relations in northwest Europe, and the archaeological evidence for the study area is used to detect contrasts with this model. It is recognised that lithic assemblages, faunal remains, mortuary practices and monuments cannot of themselves be sufficient for the development of an holistic view of a prehistoric society. Instead, each class of data can be used in much the same way as an historian might use a written text: to search for distortions and contradictions between each form of data and the general model. Having developed methodology, general theory and the European model in the first three chapters, each subregion of the study area is discussed. Subsequent chapters concern southern Wessex, the Mendip and Cotswold Hills, the Upper Thames Valley and the Avebury region. It is argued that a change can be discerned in Neolithic Europe from large social units articulated about kinship and the circulation of livestock and prestige items, to smaller communities whose external relations are more temporary and opportunistic in nature. Despite this, it is shown that in the study area considerable variability exists, seen in the settlement record, economic activities, mortuary practices and the building of monuments. This variability, it is argued, can be accounted for by variation in the social relations of production between different areas, and consequently in the forms of power and authority in operation.

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Schulting, Rick J. "Slighting the sea : the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in northwest Europe." Thesis, University of Reading, 1998. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.323511.

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Harding, Jan. "Exploring space and time : the Neolithic monuments of lowland England." Thesis, University of Reading, 1993. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.319656.

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Bains, Roseleen K. "The social significance of Neolithic stone bead technologies at Çatalhöyük." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 2012. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1368215/.

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This project aims to better understand the social significance of stone bead production and use, from a technological perspective, at the large Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük, Turkey. This is done by closely examining technological practices and choices, reconstructing the manufacturing process, and analysing production contexts in order to determine the organization of production at Çatalhöyük, and the presence of craft specialization, all based on a large dataset providing both synchronic and diachronic perspectives of life at Çatalhöyük. Specifically, contexts with production evidence are identified and examined, manufacture marks on finished and unfinished beads are analysed, perforating tools are examined for use-wear, and some basic bead making experiments are also conducted. More importantly, the reasons behind the presence of craft specialization, and what factors may have propelled it, are also discussed. Technology is a fundamental aspect of daily life for Neolithic people, whether it is obtaining raw materials, manipulating them into finished products, using them, or exchanging them; technology is therefore a tangible form of constructing, maintaining, and propagating social ideologies. Stone bead technologies at Çatalhöyük provide important information regarding what regions the people of Çatalhöyük were interacting with, the skillsets they possessed, and why beads were made they way they were and what significance these beads had to both bead makers, bead consumers, and Neolithic society in general. Similarly, depositional practices and contextual analyses of contexts with evidence of bead use, such as burials and placed deposits, support the idea that stone beads were multipurpose, socially valued goods that became integral to daily, ritual, and social life at Neolithic Çatalhöyük, performing important functions such as the communication of ideas, the forging of relationships, marking important transitions in the lives of people and households, and creating, maintaining and propagating identities, both communal and personal. Stone beads conspicuously performed an integral social role at Çatalhöyük; the story of their manufacture and use is inextricably linked to all aspects of Neolithic life at Çatalhöyük, including identity, technology and symbolism and ritual.

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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Neolithic'

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