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New Radiocarbon Dates Show Early Neolithic Date of Flint-Mining and Stone Quarrying in Britain
Abstract
New radiocarbon ( ¹⁴ C) dates suggest a simultaneous appearance of two technologically and geographically distinct axe production practices in Neolithic Britain; igneous open-air quarries in Great Langdale, Cumbria, and from flint mines in southern England at ~4000–3700 cal BC. In light of the recent evidence that farming was introduced at this time by large-scale immigration from northwest Europe, and that expansion within Britain was extremely rapid, we argue that this synchronicity supports this speed of colonization and reflects a knowledge of complex extraction processes and associated exchange networks already possessed by the immigrant groups; long-range connections developed as colonization rapidly expanded. Although we can model the start of these new extraction activities, it remains difficult to estimate how long significant production activity lasted at these key sites given the nature of the record from which samples could be obtained.
... Chronologies for Neolithic flint mining in Europe were until recently broad and imprecise, relying largely on historic radiocarbon dates with broad standard deviations, or dates obtained from bulk samples of charcoal (Whittle et al. 2011, 257). A recently completed project led by Stephen Shennan (Schauer et al. 2019a;2019b;Edinborough et al. 2020) has attempted to determine the main phases of Neolithic mining in northwest Europe. They have ascertained that there are two such phases of mining at c.4200-3800 cal BC and 3500-2900 cal BC (Schauer et al. 2019a, 158), with the first phase taking place around the same time as the expansion of farming from northern France and Belgium (Crombé et al. 2020, 1). ...
... In Britain, we now have an additional 39 radiocarbon dates for mining and quarrying sites that imply mining began between 4000 and 3700 cal BC (Edinborough et al. 2020). Some Neolithic flint mine shafts were the focus of subsequent Bronze and Iron Age depositional activity. ...
... A range of radiocarbon determinations of charcoal pieces and small mammals together with finds of early Neolithic ceramics from the mine shafts at Sallerup in Scania, Sweden, and from Hov and Bjerre in Northern Jutland, Denmark, have also shown that these mines were established during the beginning of the fourth millennium BC, indicating that they are contemporary with the other Western European flint mines (Rudebeck 1986;1994;Sørensen 2014). It has been proposed that the flint extracted from mines was used to manufacture axes for forest clearance during the primary phase of land cultivation at the beginning of the Neolithic, a view which seems to be increasingly supported through new dates on the beginnings of agriculture (Sørensen and Karg 2014;Gron and Sørensen 2018;Schauer et al. 2019a;Edinborough et al. 2020). Therefore, flint mines are likely to correspond with the wider European technological developments associated with the adoption of pastoralism and agriculture (Schauer et al. 2019b). ...
Neolithic flint mines across northern Europe during the transition between the fifth and fourth millennia BC show similarities in their dating, extraction methods and morphology, as do contemporary forms of monumentality such as causewayed enclosures, earthen long barrows and megalithic tombs during this period. Recent research has identified further similarities in the expressions of art motifs within the mines. While certainly found during different excavations, most of these motifs incised in chalk have not been reported on. Following archival analysis, this paper details these similarities in motifs that extend between sites in the UK, Denmark, Belgium and potentially Poland, and perhaps increasingly over time to other, non-mining, sites. We argue that the practice of flint mining and incising of art motifs may indicate shared specific cultural beliefs at the beginning of the Neolithic in northern Europe that have not been previously recognized.
... This joint project between French and British teams uses aerial prospection, walk-over surveys, site-mapping, excavations, artefact studies, geological investigations, and bioarchaeological and palaeoenvironmental analyses to provide the most detailed archaeological knowledge possible for this Neolithic region. We also take a quantitative approach using large, aggregated radiocarbon and flint and copperbased datasets Edinborough et al. 2020). ...
... The wellpreserved mining site of Vert-la-Gravelle (Vert-Toulon) "La Crayère" is of particular interest here, as there are very few of these types of mining contexts in Europe. Many other mining centers are well-known in France; in Pays d'Othe, Jablines (Bostyn and Lanchon 1992), Normandie (Desloges et al. 2010), Oise and elsewhere in Europe, in England at Grime's Graves and on the South Downes (Healy, 2018;Edinborough et al., 2020), Germany (Arnhofen), The Netherlands (Rijckholt) and Belgium (Spiennes, Collet et al., 2008), but in these complexes the burials are unclear, and dwellings are very rare (only in Jablines region and in Krzemionky in Poland (Oliva, 2011)). The unique importance of this site is the subject of a forthcoming paper focused entirely on excavations at Vert-la-Gravelle (Vert-Toulon) "La Crayère" and surrounds (Martineau in Prep). ...
... Following standard chronometric hygiene procedures where data of greater than a 200 year standard error are excluded from this type of analysis (Shennan et al. 2013;Timpson et al. 2014;Edinborough et al. 2020), a series of summary Summed Probability Distribution (SPD) models are presented for the 11 sites in the Les Marais de Saint-Gond region (Champagne, Marne) using rcarbon code (Bevan and Crema 2020; Crema and Bevan 2020) (Figs. 3 and 4). ...
We present and model new radiocarbon data for the Neolithic marshes of Marais de Saint-Gond Marne in France. We then provide the first radiocarbon-based synthesis of human activity in this region. The earliest flint mine pits dug in France were dated to between 7518 and 7356 cal BC (95% probability) in the Mesolithic period. A Neolithic sequence of activity has been reconstructed in detail for the mine and hypogeums in the Vert-la-Gravelle “La Crayère” site. Using summed probability distribution frequencies with new radiocarbon results from flint mines, hypogeum-burials and settlements, we show the peak of regional population is consistent with the advent of the hypogeum construction during the Néolithique récent/Néolithique final between 3650 and 2900 cal BC (95% probability).
... In recent papers (Schauer et al. 2019;Edinborough et al. 2020) we have shown that the main phases of exploitation and supra-regional distribution of many of the major mines were much shorter than the mine's extraction period as a whole and that their rise and demise reflected changing patterns of demand for their products. In Britain the main period of systematic flint-mining and quarrying was ~4000-3500 BCE and the first and strongest demand for axeheads was created by the need for these tools to clear forest among an incoming immigrant farmer population (Edinborough et al 2020), who brought the relevant technologies with them. ...
... In recent papers (Schauer et al. 2019;Edinborough et al. 2020) we have shown that the main phases of exploitation and supra-regional distribution of many of the major mines were much shorter than the mine's extraction period as a whole and that their rise and demise reflected changing patterns of demand for their products. In Britain the main period of systematic flint-mining and quarrying was ~4000-3500 BCE and the first and strongest demand for axeheads was created by the need for these tools to clear forest among an incoming immigrant farmer population (Edinborough et al 2020), who brought the relevant technologies with them. In southern Scandinavia too, the short phase of underground flint mining coincided with the arrival of incoming farmer groups (Mittnik et al. 2018). ...
... Our rationale for choosing this 200km spatial focus is that, since the deposition locations of the great majority of products from a given stone source fall within a 200 km radius of the source (e.g. Schauer et al. 2020) (with the exception of jade axes, treated separately here), and areas more than 200 km away from a source would be unlikely to be exerting a direct demand on source production in any case, this is where the impact of the circulation of copper would be felt. The SPDs of stone sources within the region are plotted against this hinterland. ...
The authors of this article consider the relationship in European prehistory between the procurement of high-quality stones (for axeheads, daggers, and other tools) on the one hand, and the early mining, crafting, and deposition of copper on the other. The data consist of radiocarbon dates for the exploitation of stone quarries, flint mines, and copper mines, and of information regarding the frequency through time of jade axeheads and copper artefacts. By adopting a broad perspective, spanning much of central-western Europe from 5500 to 2000 bc , they identify a general pattern in which the circulation of the first copper artefacts was associated with a decline in specialized stone quarrying. The latter re-emerged in certain regions when copper use decreased, before declining more permanently in the Bell Beaker phase, once copper became more generally available. Regional variations reflect the degrees of connectivity among overlapping copper exchange networks. The patterns revealed are in keeping with previous understandings, refine them through quantification and demonstrate their cyclical nature, with additional reference to likely local demographic trajectories.
... Our focus in what follows is also primarily on the Early Neolithic (~4100-3400 BCE), and hence, later styles such as shaft-hole axeheads (Roe 1968(Roe , 1979 have also been removed. Similarly, in the case of materials of known source, we only consider those sources exploited in the Early Neolithic on the basis of their radiocarbon dates (see Edinborough et al. 2019) or the dates of their finds contexts (e.g. Whittle et al. 2011). ...
... A final point to note in this section is that it is almost impossible to assess properly the factors that might have affected the distance that axeheads travelled from their source without also considering the likely uneven spatial distribution of the contemporary Early Neolithic human population who used them. As a proxy with which to infer such patterns of Early Neolithic population, we therefore make use of a database of spatially referenced radiocarbon dates (see Schauer et al. 2019 for details of sources) that we restrict both to those falling within our geographic area and within the time bracket of 4100 to 3400 BCE (n = 1550), when known axehead-producing flint mines and quarries in Britain were in use on the basis of the available radiocarbon dates from their sources (see Edinborough et al. 2019). Finally, although forming only a very small minority, those dates relating to hard-rock quarrying and flint mining have been removed from these lists to ensure that they offer independent lines of evidence. ...
... The separation of sources in the k-means regions might indicate something about the structure of the Neolithic axehead distribution system. Figure 8 compares the summed probability distributions (SPD) for three dated sources of hard-stone axeheads and ten dated sources of flint, using anthropogenic radiocarbon dates collected as part of the NEOMINE project (see Edinborough et al. 2019). These dates are each compared with an SPD made up of dates found within a 1-km hinterland of each axehead of each type, with hinterlands merged when axeheads were found in close proximity so that dates are counted only once for each plot. ...
Neolithic stone axeheads from Britain provide an unusually rich, well-provenanced set of evidence with which to consider patterns of prehistoric production and exchange. It is no surprise then that these objects have often been subject to spatial analysis in terms of the relationship between particular stone source areas and the distribution of axeheads made from those stones. At stake in such analysis are important interpretative issues to do with how we view the role of material value, supply, exchange, and demand in prehistoric societies. This paper returns to some of these well-established debates in the light of accumulating British Neolithic evidence and via the greater analytical power and flexibility afforded by recent computational methods. Our analyses make a case that spatial distributions of prehistoric axeheads cannot be explained merely as the result of uneven resource availability in the landscape, but instead reflect the active favouring of particular sources over known alternatives. Above and beyond these patterns, we also demonstrate that more populated parts of Early Neolithic Britain were an increased pull factor affecting the longer-range distribution of these objects.
... The second project directly dated archival material from mining and quarrying sites that were thought to date from the start of the Neolithic in Britain and continental north-west Europe (6500-1500 cal bc: Schauer et al. 2019b;2019a;Edinborough et al. 2020). The goal here was to determine if stone axes (the primary products of mines and quarries) were in increased demand for clearing forest during the economic change to agriculture at this time, and, if so, precisely when this occurred. ...
... 24 At these different scales of analysis, the recontextualized narrative permits the puzzle to be convincingly answered while the non-compliant results are explicable either by producing new knowledge, or by reassessing the facts of the record. For flint mining, radiocarbon dates from Church Hill, West Sussex, demonstrated that there was an early Bronze Age phase that had been previously suspected but not substantiated (Edinborough et al. 2020). In the case of Beaker human remains from Linch Hill, Oxfordshire, that surprisingly produced a Neolithic radiocarbon date, it was suggested that the human remains from this site were mislabelled at some point post-excavation. ...
Narrative Science examines the use of narrative in scientific research over the last two centuries. It brings together an international group of scholars who have engaged in intense collaboration to find and develop crucial cases of narrative in science. Motivated and coordinated by the Narrative Science project, funded by the European Research Council, this volume offers integrated and insightful essays examining cases that run the gamut from geology to psychology, chemistry, physics, botany, mathematics, epidemiology, and biological engineering. Taking in shipwrecks, human evolution, military intelligence, and mass extinctions, this landmark study revises our understanding of what science is, and the roles of narrative in scientists' work. This title is also available as Open Access.
... New radiocarbon dates suggest that the end of axequarrying events took place 3696-3484 cal. BC (95.4 per cent probability) (Edinborough et al. 2020), while recent excavations at Copt Howe suggest that the motifs are likely to have been carved 3300-2900 cal. BC on the basis of comparisons with Irish passage-tomb art (Bradley et al. 2019, 190). ...
This paper presents key results of the Making a Mark project (2014–2016), which aimed to provide a contextual framework for the analysis of mark making on portable artefacts in the British and Irish Neolithic by comparing them with other mark-making practices, including rock art and passage tomb art. The project used digital imaging techniques, including Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), and improved radiocarbon chronologies, to develop a new understanding of the character of mark making in the British and Irish Neolithic. Rather than considering this tradition in representational terms, as expression of human ideas, we focus on two kinds of relational material practices, the processes of marking and the production of skeuomorphs, and their emergent properties. We draw on Karen Barad's concept of ‘intra-action’ and Gilles Deleuze's notion of differentiation to understand the evolution and development of mark-making traditions and how they relate to other kinds of social practices over the course of the Neolithic.
... The prevailing view concerning the 'Neolithisation' of Britain involves an influx of migrants from continental Europe towards the end of the 5 th millennium cal BC (Cummings, Morris, 2018;Brace et al. 2019), who brought with them a developed agro-pastoral regime, potting traditions, and an advanced know-how for extracting lithic raw materials and their exchange over great distances (Miles 2016;Sheridan 2010; see also Edinborough et al. 2020;Schauer et al. 2020). While evidence for pre-Neolithic contact between continental farmers and British hunter-gatherers suggested to some that farming spread through the island via processes of acculturation, genetic studies indicate that ultimately the sites made-up of clusters of round or oval pits containing pottery, worked and burnt flint, and charred plant remains inter alia (Garrow 2006). ...
Current models view southeast England as where Neolithic lifeways were first introduced to Britain from continental Europe c. 4000 cal BC, however, there has been little work detailing this process in coastal East Anglia. In 2019, work at the Freston causewayed enclosure provided the first view of a major gathering space associated with semi-mobile farming communities of the Early Neolithic in the county of Suffolk and located on a major estuary close to the North Sea. Excavation produced a rich assemblage of worked flint and Mildenhall Ware pottery (potentially for feasting), plus evidence for the consumption of cereals and hazelnuts.
Modelling in demographic ecology offers insights into population stability and instability in village societies. In this study we explore the hypothesis that among storage dependent fisher-hunter-gatherers, access to high resource diversity favors reduced demographic volatility over time. To better understand this relationship, we generate summed probability distributions (SPDs) from legacy radiocarbon records to model the population histories of Middle to late Holocene groups residing in the Mid-Fraser Canyon and the Lower Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Our analysis indicates that Lower Fraser populations (with high subsistence resource diversity) were highly stable after 4000 years ago. In contrast, Mid-Fraser populations (with lower subsistence resource diversity) were very low 2000–4000 cal. BP, peaked at high densities by ca. 1200–1300 cal. BP, and were again low until the final centuries before first contacts with Europeans. We argue that climate related impacts on anadromous fish resources likely affected Mid-Fraser populations to a more substantial degree than those of the Lower Fraser. These results offer wider implications concerning demographic volatility and its effects on cultural stability and social change. Our study offers a means by which legacy radiocarbon data may be studied using a permutation-based statistical inference of SPDs.
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.
Outlined here is a new and detailed assessment of two Early Neolithic pits discovered in 1933 by Dr. E.C. Curwen on New Barn Down, Worthing. Newly obtained radiocarbon dates that place the pits between 4000–3800 BC make them amongst the earliest Neolithic features in Sussex and southern England.
It is proposed that the pits (collectively known as Pit X) display connections not only to the nearby flint mines, but also to the immediate coastal zone and to wider England. The examination illuminates the practices of an Early Neolithic community, who were not only extracting flint from the nearby mines, but also familiar with new forms of material culture and social customs.
Within sight of the Neolithic axe quarries on the Langdale Pikes is a group of massive boulders at Copt Howe. The two largest command a direct view of the stone source where the sun sets into the mountainside at the midsummer solstice. Both are decorated by pecked motifs which resemble features of Irish passage tomb art. Small-scale excavation in 2018 showed that a rubble platform had been built at the foot of the main decorated surface and sealed two further motifs of similar character. New work has established an important sequence in Great Langdale. Recently obtained radiocarbon dates indicate that the main period of axe production was between 3800 and 3300 bc , whilst Irish megalithic art is later and was made between about 3300 and 2900 bc , suggesting that Copt Howe achieved its importance after axe-making had ceased or was in decline. That is consistent with an increasing emphasis on relations between northern Britain and Ireland during the Late Neolithic period. Perhaps Copt Howe itself was treated as a ‘natural’ passage tomb.
Fieldwork undertaken between October 1984 and September 1986 at four of the six neolithic flint mining sites in West Sussex recorded the remains of shafts, drift mines and flintworking areas adjacent to the mines. Sample excavations at two of these sites, Long Down and Harrow Hill, revealed that ploughing had truncated nearly all the surviving remains in those areas under cultivation. The flintwork, pottery and organic material retrieved from the excavations provided information on the flint artefacts produced at these sites, and fragments of possibly carinated pottery, together with radiocarbon dating, proved that mining took place at Long Down in the early neolithic period (4000–3500 BC). The discovery of drift mines at Harrow Hill is significant, as they are the only open-cast or drift mines to have been investigated at a prehistoric flint mining site in southern England. A supplementary report can be found on the ADS website.
The roles of migration, admixture and acculturation in the European transition to farming have been debated for over 100 years. Genome-wide ancient DNA studies indicate predominantly Aegean ancestry for continental Neolithic farmers, but also variable admixture with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Neolithic cultures first appear in Britain circa 4000 bc, a millennium after they appeared in adjacent areas of continental Europe. The pattern and process of this delayed British Neolithic transition remain unclear. We assembled genome-wide data from 6 Mesolithic and 67 Neolithic individuals found in Britain, dating 8500–2500 bc. Our analyses reveal persistent genetic affinities between Mesolithic British and Western European hunter-gatherers. We find overwhelming support for agriculture being introduced to Britain by incoming continental farmers, with small, geographically structured levels of hunter-gatherer ancestry. Unlike other European Neolithic populations, we detect no resurgence of hunter-gatherer ancestry at any time during the Neolithic in Britain. Genetic affinities with Iberian Neolithic individuals indicate that British Neolithic people were mostly descended from Aegean farmers who followed the Mediterranean route of dispersal. We also infer considerable variation in pigmentation levels in Europe by circa 6000 bc.
New radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling have refined understanding of the character and circumstances of flint mining at Grime's Graves through time. The deepest, most complex galleried shafts were worked probably from the third quarter of the 27th century cal bc and are amongst the earliest on the site. Their use ended in the decades around 2400 cal bc, although the use of simple, shallow pits in the west of the site continued for perhaps another three centuries. The final use of galleried shafts coincides with the first evidence of Beaker pottery and copper metallurgy in Britain. After a gap of around half a millennium, flint mining at Grime's Graves briefly resumed, probably from the middle of the 16th century cal bc to the middle of the 15th. These 'primitive' pits, as they were termed in the inter-war period, were worked using bone tools that can be paralleled in Early Bronze Age copper mines. Finally, the scale and intensity of Middle Bronze Age middening on the site is revealed, as it occurred over a period of probably no more than a few decades in the 14th century cal bc. The possibility of connections between metalworking at Grime's Graves at this time and contemporary deposition of bronzes in the nearby Fens is discussed.
The Fijian archaeological record is segmented into a series of phases based on distinctive transformations in ceramic forms. Interpretations of the mid-sequence (1500-1300cal BP) transition between the Fijian Plainware phase and the Navatu phase are contentious, with alternative explanations of population replacement versus internal processes of culture change. We present and analyze a series of Fijian Plainware and Navatu phase AMS radiocarbon dates acquired from superimposed but stratigraphically separated occupation floors at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes site on the southwest coast of Viti Levu. Employing an OxCal Bayesian sequential model, we seek to date the temporal span for each occupation as well as the interval of time occurring between occupation floors. The latter is estimated to be 0-43 calendar years at 2 sigma probability. The magnitude of ceramic and other differences between the Fijian Plainware and Navatu phase occupations at Sigatoka is substantive. We conclude that the abruptness of this change can be explained only by exogenous replacement at the Sigatoka site.
Knowledge of the origin and spread of farming has been revolutionised in recent years by the application of new scientific techniques, especially the analysis of ancient DNA from human genomes. In this book, Stephen Shennan presents the latest research on the spread of farming by archaeologists, geneticists and other archaeological scientists. He shows that it resulted from a population expansion from present-day Turkey. Using ideas from the disciplines of human behavioural ecology and cultural evolution, he explains how this process took place. The expansion was not the result of 'population pressure' but of the opportunities for increased fertility by colonising new regions that farming offered. The knowledge and resources for the farming 'niche' were passed on from parents to their children. However, Shennan demonstrates that the demographic patterns associated with the spread of farming resulted in population booms and busts, not continuous expansion.
Significance
The relationship between human population, food production, and climate change is a pressing concern in need of high-resolution, long-term perspectives. Archaeological radiocarbon dates have increasingly been used to reconstruct past population dynamics, and Britain and Ireland provide both radiocarbon sampling densities and species-level sample identifications that are globally unrivalled. We use this evidence to demonstrate multiple instances of human population downturn over the Holocene that coincide with periodic episodes of reduced solar activity and climate reorganization as well as societal responses in terms of altered food-procurement strategies.
We review the history of Bayesian chronological modeling in archaeology and demonstrate that there has been a surge over the past several years in American archaeological applications. Most of these applications have been performed by archaeologists that are self-taught in this method because formal training opportunities in Bayesian chronological modeling are infrequently provided. We define and address misconceptions about Bayesian chronological modeling that we have encountered in conversations with colleagues and in anonymous reviews, some of which has been expressed in the published literature. Objectivity and scientific rigor is inherent in the Bayesian chronological modeling process. Each stage of this process is described in detail and we present examples of this process in practice. Our concluding discussion focuses on the potential Bayesian chronological modeling has for enhancing understandings of important topics.
Edinborough, K.S.A.; (2005) Evolution of bow-arrow technology. Doctoral thesis, University of London. Abstract: This thesis examines the development of bow-arrow technology in terms of modem evolutionary theory. Previous approaches that propose functional-adaptive technological trajectories are critiqued. Different theoretical approaches towards technology and associated units of analysis are examined. Behavioural ecology, evolutionary archaeology, and dual inheritance theory are shown to hold most promise for explaining trait-lineages in a given technological tradition. Previous approaches to bow-arrow technology are analysed, and an evolutionary archaeological methodology appropriate for examining lithic armatures is presented. Environment, historical contingency, selection, drift, population dynamics and social learning mechanisms are seen as key complex factors requiring case by case examination. An evolutionary case study with nine temporally, geographically, and culturally related stratigraphic phases containing a total of 3600 complete lithic armatures from the south Scandinavian middle Mesolithic (c. 6600-5400 BC) is presented. The phases are described in terms of associated fine-grained archaeological data and previous interpretations. A Bayesian chronological framework is constructed for the case study, using modelling facilities in the OxCal calibration package. This method time-steps and calculates relative occupation durations of point bearing phases in terms of available archaeological and radiometric data. The chronological model covers the culture-historical periods termed Blak, Kongemose and Early Ertebolle phases. The validity of previous typological interpretations of projectile point sequences is questioned in light of these results. The nine time-stepped lithic armature assemblages are then analysed to describe inter- and intra-site point trait variation. A linked series of descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques identify key morphological attributes that summarise trait variation within and between phases. Variation is graphically represented and related to different social learning populations, reduction strategies, and engineering constraints. A remarkably long-term homogenous pattern of complex projectile point manufacture is found for the Kongemose phases, compared to the temporally bracketing Blak and Ertebolle phases. Faunal, climatic, and population level factors are then modelled to account for variation and stability of the case study's armature traits. Faunal data from the Tagerup and Segebro sites, spanning the case study period, are examined for possible diet breadth changes, in relation to point-trait variation. No functional relationship is found between point-shape and potential target-prey. A population model is then constructed in OxCal using all published south Scandinavian radiometric data from the final Maglemose to the final Ertebolle cultural phases. A simple model of landmass reduction, forestation cover and mammalian population density levels demonstrates reduced land mass alone would not significantly affect human population levels - even with relatively high human population densities. Holocene 5180 and A14C data is used as a proxy for contemporaneous climatic fluctuations. These proxies are plotted and superimposed onto the population graph. A correlation between climate change, population fluctuation, and projectile point technology is found. As changes in point morphology and lithic reduction strategies coincide with apparent regional drops in population, drift processes may account for some variation in point-shape. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1444653
The uploaded document here is my thesis, available through the British Library.The correct citing of this text is Teather, A.M. 2008. Mining and Materiality in the British Neolithic. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Sheffield.
The 2016 Archaeopress book of the thesis differs slightly and is edited.
In this book Anne Teather develops a new approach to understanding the Neolithic flint mines of southern Britain. These mines include some of the earliest - and also some of the largest - monumental constructions that transformed the landscape of Britain during the period of social change that accompanied the transition from foraging to farming 6000 years ago. Yet the sophisticated architecture of these mines and the unique deposits that they contained have received relatively little attention from archaeologists. This book draws together the results of an extensive analysis of archival records and material to illustrate how these mines and the activities that took place in them can be seen as integral to Neolithic life.
Previous studies of the flint mines have focused on the functional demands of flint extraction and the ways in which the raw flint material was distributed and processed into tools such as axes. Yet there is compelling evidence that the voids – shafts and galleries created through the process of flint extraction – were not merely the abandoned features of flint exploitation but instead should be seen as dynamic and monumental architectural spaces where creative and meaningful social actions took place. This interpretation is evidenced through the recognition of repeated motifs of chalk art inscribed on the walls of the mines and in the deliberate placement and deposition of artefacts. These artefacts include both naturalistic and abstract forms made of chalk, items that have not previously been recognised as a cohesive class of material.
The book draws together for the first time a comprehensive typology, chronology and classification system for prehistoric chalk artefacts. The concept of artefact is broadened to include natural materials whose selection and placement in specific archaeological contexts is pivotal in understanding depositional complexity and the symbolic meaning conveyed by elements of the natural world.
This paper describes all the major procedures adopted by the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre (SUERC) Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory. This includes sample pretreatment, graphite production, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) measurement, associated stable isotope measurements, data handling, and age calculations, but with the main emphasis being on the chemical pretreatment methods. All of the above enable the laboratory to provide a complete analytical service comprising advice on sample selection, preparation and analysis of samples, and Bayesian analysis of resulting
14
C (and other) data. This applies to both our research and commercial activities. The pretreatment methods that we mainly focus on are used to remove contaminant carbon from a range of sample types or to isolate a particular chemical fraction from a sample prior to combustion/hydrolysis, graphitization, and subsequent AMS
14
C measurement. The methods described are for bone (collagen extraction, with and without ultrafiltration), cremated bone, tooth enamel, charcoal, grain, carbon residues, shell, wood (including alpha-cellulose isolation), peat, sediments, textiles, fuel/biofuel, and forensic samples.
This report contains details of all the radiocarbon determinations obtained on samples dated from Grime’s Graves up to the end of 2012. A series of chronological models is presented, providing a more precise chronology for the site.
The calibration of radiocarbon measurements is based on a number of mathematical assumptions that are rarely considered by users of the various available calibration programs. As 14C ages take on mathematical properties best known from quantum physics, a quantum theoretical approach provides a useful basis to evaluate the reliability of processes of calibration and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon datasets. We undertake such an evaluation here through a consideration of the mathematics of calibration, the normalization process, and through an archaeological case study. We demonstrate that the normalization function deemed necessary for 14C histogram shape-correction is identical to the default prior widely used in Bayesian calibration. We highlight flaws in default Bayesian calibration algorithms which may affect archaeological studies that are overly reliant on high calibration precision, especially when based on relatively small (N<100) sample sizes. The observed differences between algorithms have consequences for radiocarbon models that claim sub-generational (~25–30 calendar years) precision.
First settlement of Polynesia, and population expansion throughout the ancestral Polynesian homeland are foundation events for global history. A precise chronology is paramount to informed archaeological interpretation of these events and their consequences. Recently applied chronometric hygiene protocols excluding radiocarbon dates on wood charcoal without species identification all but eliminates this chronology as it has been built for the Kingdom of Tonga, the initial islands to be settled in Polynesia. In this paper we re-examine and redevelop this chronology through application of Bayesian models to the questioned suite of radiocarbon dates, but also incorporating short-lived wood charcoal dates from archived samples and high precision U/Th dates on coral artifacts. These models provide generation level precision allowing us to track population migration from first Lapita occupation on the island of Tongatapu through Tonga’s central and northern island groups. They further illustrate an exceptionally short duration for the initial colonizing Lapita phase and a somewhat abrupt transition to ancestral Polynesian society as it is currently defined.
Theories of cultural evolution have
developed rapidly in recent years, but the
number of archaeological case studies that
make use of these ideas to develop and test hypotheses
remains small. This chapter addresses
the specific evolutionary mechanisms affecting
technological stability and change in projectile
point technology in data-rich Mesolithic southern
Scandinavia, with a case study focusing on
Zealand and westernmost Scania.
An extensive regional database of archaeological
data was collated from seven previously
excavated Middle–Late Mesolithic southern
Scandinavian archaeological sites dating from
about 6500–4600 BCE (Edinborough 2004).
A chronological model was created for the nine
archaeological site phases represented, using
all available stratified
14C results. Variation between
projectile points found in these site
phases was then characterized in terms of the
lithic technology used to produce them, using
some key point dimensions. Two hypotheses
were then considered as possible explanations
of the observed patterns. First, the possibility
that the changes could be accounted for as a
result of changing prey priorities was investigated
by carrying out a correspondence
analysis of osteological count data from four
archaeological phases spanning the entire duration
of the case study. Second, it was postulated
that the technological patterns could be
accounted for in light of various models of the
effect of variation in population size on the
transmission of cultural traditions. For this
purpose, a model of regional population history
was constructed using all available radiometric
data. Evidence of fluctuating population sizes
through time was then correlated with the
evidence of stability and change in projectile
points.
Current calibration methods for single and replicate 14C dates are compared. Various forms of tabular and graphic output are discussed. Results from all the methods show reasonable agreement but further methodological development and improvements in computer output are required. Comparison of existing techniques for a series of non-contemporaneous dates showed less agreement amongst participants on this issue. We recommend that calibrated dates should be presented as a combination of graphs and ranges, in preference to mean and standard deviation.
Since the discovery of prehistoric flint mines across Europe during the nineteenth century, mining has been recognized as a central component of the Neolithic ‘package’. In the south of Britain a small group of mines date to the early fourth millennium BC, posing a problem for traditional interpretations of the Early Neolithic, as they appear a significant period of time before other Neolithic monuments. This paper will look at evidence preserved in the mines of southern England, examining whether these sites demonstrate flint-mining techniques already practised in Continental Europe. Central to the research is a notion that complex activities, such as mining, involve long periods of trial and error before evolving into an accomplished working methodology.
Following its initial arrival in SE Europe 8,500 years ago agriculture spread throughout the continent, changing food production and consumption patterns and increasing population densities. Here we show that, in contrast to the steady population growth usually assumed, the introduction of agriculture into Europe was followed by a boom-and-bust pattern in the density of regional populations. We demonstrate that summed calibrated radiocarbon date distributions and simulation can be used to test the significance of these demographic booms and busts in the context of uncertainty in the radiocarbon date calibration curve and archaeological sampling. We report these results for Central and Northwest Europe between 8,000 and 4,000 cal. BP and investigate the relationship between these patterns and climate. However, we find no evidence to support a relationship. Our results thus suggest that the demographic patterns may have arisen from endogenous causes, although this remains speculative.
The IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon calibration curves have been revised utilizing newly available and updated data sets from 14C measurements on tree rings, plant macrofossils, speleothems, corals, and foraminifera. The calibration curves were derived from the data using the random walk model (RWM) used to generate IntCal09 and Marine09, which has been revised to account for additional uncertainties and error structures. The new curves were ratified at the 21st International Radiocarbon conference in July 2012 and are available as Supplemental Material at www.radiocarbon.org. The database can be accessed at http://intcal.qub.ac.uk/intcal13/. © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona.
If radiocarbon measurements are to be used at all for chronological purposes, we have to use statistical meth-ods for calibration. The most widely used method of calibration can be seen as a simple application of Bayesian statistics, which uses both the information from the new measurement and information from the 14 C calibration curve. In most dating applications, however, we have larger numbers of 14 C measurements and we wish to relate those to events in the past. Baye-sian statistics provides a coherent framework in which such analysis can be performed and is becoming a core element in many 14 C dating projects. This article gives an overview of the main model components used in chronological analysis, their mathematical formulation, and examples of how such analyses can be performed using the latest version of the OxCal soft-ware (v4). Many such models can be put together, in a modular fashion, from simple elements, with defined constraints and groupings. In other cases, the commonly used "uniform phase" models might not be appropriate, and ramped, exponential, or normal distributions of events might be more useful. When considering analyses of these kinds, it is useful to be able run sim-ulations on synthetic data. Methods for performing such tests are discussed here along with other methods of diagnosing pos-sible problems with statistical models of this kind.
The extent to which non-agricultural production in prehistory had cost-benefit motivations has long been a subject of discussion. This paper addresses the topic by looking at the evidence for Neolithic quarrying and mining in Britain and continental northwest Europe and asks whether changing production through time was influenced by changing demand. Radiocarbon dating of mine and quarry sites is used to define periods of use. These are then correlated with a likely first-order source of demand, the size of the regional populations around the mines, inferred from a radiocarbon-based population proxy. There are significant differences between the population and mine-date distributions. Analysis of pollen data using the REVEALS method to reconstruct changing regional land cover patterns shows that in Britain activity at the mines and quarries is strongly correlated with evidence for forest clearance by incoming Neolithic populations, suggesting that mine and quarry production were a response to the demand that this created. The evidence for such a correlation between mining and clearance in continental northwest Europe is much weaker. Here the start of large-scale mining may be a response to the arrival by long-distance exchange of high-quality prestige jade axes from a source in the Italian Alps.
The Scottish National Antarctic Expedition (1902–1904) made the first topographical survey and scientific investigation of Laurie Island, one of the South Orkney Islands, and completed an extensive oceanographical research programme in the Scotia and Weddell Seas. When the expedition returned to Scotland, the leader, William Speirs Bruce, embarked on an ambitious attempt to publish the expedition’s scientific results in a series of high-quality reports. Sadly, by the time it came to the eighth volume (on geology) his funds were exhausted, and the series was abandoned. Nevertheless, many of the contributions that had been intended for that volume were produced; some were published elsewhere whilst unpublished proofs and archive notes survive for others. From these various sources the volume as planned by Bruce can be reconstructed. The key contributor was J. H. H. Pirie, a medical doctor and primarily the expedition’s surgeon. Despite his limited relevant experience his geological observations were commendable, with the notable exception of an important palaeontological misidentification that was inexplicably supported by eminent British experts. The archive material illuminates the background to Pirie’s contributions and the ways in which his unpublished work came to be preserved.
If radiocarbon measurements are to be used at all for chronological purposes, we have to use statistical methods for calibration. The most widely used method of calibration can be seen as a simple application of Bayesian statistics, which uses both the information from the new measurement and information from the 14 C calibration curve. In most dating applications, however, we have larger numbers of 14 C measurements and we wish to relate those to events in the past. Bayesian statistics provides a coherent framework in which such analysis can be performed and is becoming a core element in many 14 C dating projects. This article gives an overview of the main model components used in chronological analysis, their mathematical formulation, and examples of how such analyses can be performed using the latest version of the OxCal software (v4). Many such models can be put together, in a modular fashion, from simple elements, with defined constraints and groupings. In other cases, the commonly used “uniform phase” models might not be appropriate, and ramped, exponential, or normal distributions of events might be more useful. When considering analyses of these kinds, it is useful to be able run simulations on synthetic data. Methods for performing such tests are discussed here along with other methods of diagnosing possible problems with statistical models of this kind.
People usually study the chronologies of archaeological sites and geological sequences using many different kinds of evidence, taking into account calibrated radiocarbon dates, other dating methods and stratigraphic information. Many individual case studies demonstrate the value of using statistical methods to combine these different types of information. I have developed a computer program, OxCal, running under Windows 3.1 (for IBM PCs), that will perform both 14 C calibration and calculate what extra information can be gained from stratigraphic evidence. The program can perform automatic wiggle matches and calculate probability distributions for samples in sequences and phases. The program is written in C++ and uses Bayesian statistics and Gibbs sampling for the calculations. The program is very easy to use, both for simple calibration and complex site analysis, and will produce graphical output from virtually any printer.
Various ways of dividing up the chronological and cultural content of the Neolithic of the British Isles have been proposed. Thus Piggott assigned the Windmill Hill culture to Early and Middle phases, and the Peterborough and other cultures to a Late phase (1954); Clarke proposed similar Early, Middle and Late phases, with the addition of a Final phase (1970,275); Case divided the Irish Neolithic into a beginning, a middle and an end (1969a) (a scheme recently further subdivided by ApSimon (1976)), his stages marked by various cultural innovations and developments. Though based on such cultural changes, these schemes—necessary as they are—all tend to create the impression of steady and consistent human activity, though manifesting itself in different ways at different times, over the by now vast span of the British Neolithic. Nor has this impression been altered greatly by the large number of radiocarbon dates-over 150—available for cultural activity over the period from at the latest 3500 bc down to 2000 bc or soon after.
The central massif of the Lake District around Great Langdale and Scafell Pike was one of the major locations for the production of Neolithic, polished stone axes. In response to the continuing erosion of the axe production sites a field survey was undertaken in 1984 and 1985. 566 distinct working sites were identified, within 35 groups; each site was recorded and the site data and high-scale survey plans are presented in microfiche. A fourfold categorization of the working sites is suggested which relates production methods to significant geological, topographic and geomorphic elements of the landscape. The quantity of axe waste, particularly in the Langdale area, confirms that production was on a massive scale and the variations in strategy and methods of extraction suggest a development through time towards greater sophistication and organization. Estimates of relative flake quantities for each group of sites have been used to compare the varying levels of activity at each group. A similar analysis was used to estimate the extent to which differing strategies were used at the two main production areas. Petrographic analysis of the outcrops which were exploited and the debitage associated with axe manufacture suggest that it may be possible to attribute dispersed products to specific production areas.
A new framework for the consideration of Neolithic axes is proposed, consisting of six rock classes defined by rock composition and working properties. The use of rock from these classes varied systematically in Britain, and reflected local geology. Flint exploitation, whose significance in the production of axes has been grossly underestimated, is considered in especial detail (with a full survey of flint mines and quarries). A major study of axe morphology is reported on. The paper includes gazetteers of caches of stone axes (many previously unpublished) and of axes found in burials.
During late Greenland Interstadial 1 (the Allerød chronozone), southern Scandinavia witnessed an abrupt cultural transition. This period marks the end of Late Magdalenian/Final Palaeolithic Federmessergruppen in the region, and the beginning of the Bromme culture. The latter is characterised by a restricted territorial range, loss of bow-arrow technology, and a general reduction in material culture complexity. Different hypotheses for the origin of the Bromme culture have been put forward, variously stressing local continuity or discontinuity. Different environmental and cultural factors have been suggested to force the observed changes, but crucially their precise timing remains elusive. Here, we review competing hypotheses for this cultural transition, and evaluate them using an audited regional database of the available 14C dates. We construct a series of Bayesian calibration models using the IntCal09 calibration curve to clarify timings of cultural continuity/discontinuity, probable duration of different techno-complexes, and relationships between environmental changes and material culture transitions. Our models suggest that the Bromme culture emerged late in the Allerød, and that the Laacher See-eruption most probably forced this cultural event horizon.
A statistical approach to the display of sets of 14C dates is suggested. All available dates of any particular culture are used to calculate the two quartiles and the median dates for it. The ‘dispersion’of the dates is then displayed as a bar showing the extreme dates, the quartiles and the median; thus neither individual dates nor their standard deviations are shown. This ‘dispersion diagram’saves much space when the dates of several cultures are to be displayed.
The argument is developed that the inter-quartile range, which does not change very much when new dates become available and are added to the set, is a good index of the time span during which a culture flourished, and this range should normally be quoted rather than the mean, median or extreme dates of the culture. With samples of nine or more it can be shown by the Hypergeometric Distribution that there is a 97% chance of two cultures being different if their inter-quartile ranges just fail to overlap, so that this method of display is useful in assessing the overlap of cultures. The fact that the dispersion diagram contains within it a measure of the statistical uncertainties of the individual estimates and therefore can replace the standard deviation of each individual 14C date is discussed.
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Excavations at Easton Down, Winterslow, 1931-2
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L’outillage de pierre polie en métadolérite du type A: Les ateliers de Plussulien (Côtes-d’Armor): Production et diffusion au Néolithique dans la France de l’ouest et au delà
- Le Roux
La fibrolite, un matériau pour façonner des haches, mais encore ? Le travail de la fibrolite au Néolithique dans l’Ouest de la France
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Blackpatch flint mine excavation 1922. Sussex Archaeological
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