Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland is the first volume to be devoted solely to the Irish Neolithic, using an innovative landscape and anthropological perspective to provide significant new insights on the period. Gabriel Cooney argues that the archaeological evidence demonstrates a much more complex picture than the current orthodoxy on Neolithic Europe, with its assumption of mobile lifestyles, suggests. He integrates the study of landscape, settlement, agriculture, material culture and burial practice to offer a rounded, realistic picture of the complexities and the realities of Neolithic lives and societies in Ireland.

A fully illustrated study of the Neolithic monuments of Brittany which investigates how and by whom they were built, using the latest research and field studies. The emphasis is on the landscape setting of these monuments, and how that landscape may have influenced or inspired their construction.

These essays examine for the first time the relationship between landscape and prehistoric monuments across Europe, placing the issue in a regional and intellectual context.

The past few years have seen an upsurge in the numbers of known Neolithic settlements in Ireland. Many of these sites have been excavated by archaeologists based in field units, but few are well-known to the wider archaeological community. The papers in this volume which were presented at a conference held at Queen's University, Belfast in 2001, provided a forum for a discussion of the new Neolithic material from Ireland in its wider geographical context. Although the bulk of the emerging Irish settlement evidence relates to substantial houses, many of these papers consider wider themes, including issues of contact and communication along the sea routes and coastal margins of north-west Europe, questions of diversity and regional patterns of sedentism and mobility, and variations in regional food production strategies. The volume includes twenty-six papers representing a series of studies ranging geographically from Orkney to the French Atlantic facade. Contents: Introduction ( Ian Armit, Eileen Murphy, Eiméar Nelis and Derek Simpson ); French Connections I: Spreading the marmites thinly ( Alison Sheridan ); French Connections II: Of cows and men ( Anne Tresset ); Contemplating some awful(ly interesting) vistas: Importing cattle and red deer into prehistoric Ireland ( Peter Woodman and Margaret McCarthy ); Terminology, time and space: Labels, radiocarbon chronologies and a 'Neolithic' of small worlds ( Patrick Ashmore ); Rooted or routed? Landscapes of Neolithic settlement in Ireland ( Gabriel Cooney ); The early farming settlement of south western England in the Neolithic ( Roger Mercer ); Neolithic settlement in the lowlands of Scotland: A preliminary survey ( Gordon Barclay ); Once upon a time Skara Brae was unique ( David Clarke ); The Drowners: Permanence and transience in the Hebridean Neolithic ( Ian Armit ); Neolithic Northton: A review of the evidence ( Eileen Murphy and Derek Simpson ); Billown and the Neolithic of the Isle of Man ( Timothy Darvill ); The Early Neolithic and the Manx environment ( Peter J Davey and Jim B Innes ); Rheast Buigh, Patrick: Middle Neolithic exploitation of the Manx uplands? ( Peter J Davey and Jenny Woodcock ); What do we mean by Neolithic settlement? Some approaches, 10 years on ( Alex Gibson ). The Irish 'house boom'. Irish Neolithic houses ( Ian Armit, Eileen Murphy, Eiméar Nelis and Derek Simpson ); Excavations at Thornhill, Co. Londonderry ( Paul Logue ); Neolithic houses in Ballyharry townland, Islandmagee, Co. Antrim ( Dermot G Moore ); Neolithic structure at Drummenny Lower, Co. Donegal: An environmental perspective ( Cathy Dunne ); The excavation of a Neolithic house at Enagh townland, Co. Derry ( Cormac McSparran ); Archaeological excavations of a Neolithic settlement at Coolfore, Co. Louth ( Cóilín O Drisceoil ); A Neolithic house in Cloghers, Co. Kerry ( Jacinta Kiely ); Neolithic beginnings on Roughan Hill and the Burren ( Carleton Jones ). Irish Neolithic settlement architecture: A reappraisal ( Sarah Cross ); Donegore and Lyles Hill, Neolithic enclosed sites in Co. Antrim: The lithic assemblages ( Eiméar Nelis ); Neolithic expectations ( Richard Bradley ).

A detailed consideration of the ways in which human-environment relations altered with the beginnings of agriculture in the Neolithic of northern Europe.

The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland provides a synthesis of this dynamic period of prehistory from the end of the Mesolithic through to the early Beaker period. Drawing on new excavations and the application of new scientific approaches to data from this period, this book considers both life and death in the Neolithic. It offers a clear and concise introduction to this period but with an emphasis on the wider and on-going research questions. It is an important text for students new to the study of this period of prehistory as well as acting as a reference for students and scholars already researching this area. The book begins by considering the Mesolithic prelude, specifically the millennium prior to the start of the Neolithic in Britain and Ireland. It then goes on to consider what life was like for people at the time, alongside the monumental record and how people treated the dead. This is presented chronologically, with separate chapters on the early Neolithic, middle Neolithic, late Neolithic and early Beaker periods. Finally it considers future research priorities for the study of the Neolithic.

The Neolithic --a period in which the first sedentary agrarian communities were established across much of Europe--has been a key topic of archaeological research for over a century. However, the variety of evidence across Europe, the range of languages in which research is carried out, and the way research traditions in different countries have developed makes it very difficult for both students and specialists to gain an overview of continent-wide trends. The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe provides the first comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic --from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta --offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation. Chapters written by leading experts in the field examine topics such as the movement of plants, animals, ideas, and people (including recent trends in the application of genetics and isotope analyses); cultural change (from the first appearance of farming to the first metal artefacts); domestic architecture; subsistence; material culture; monuments; and burial and other treatments of the dead. In doing so, the volume also considers the history of research and sets out agendas and themes for future work in the field.

Engagingly written and packed with illustrations, Early Ireland offers an authoritative introduction to the riches of Irish prehistory.

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