Neolithic Settlement and Subsistence

Question 1

What is the Neolithic?

Answer 1

The Neolithic Package:

• Domestication of animals and plants, pottery

Question 2

Diffusionist framework for Neolithicisation

Answer 2

-Classic idea of the spread of farming/farming peoples, in a diffusionist framework Ammerman & Cavalli Sforza ‘waves of advance’. -Population pressure → expansion

Question 3

LBK

Answer 3

• In central & NW Europe, earliest Neolithic is represented by Linearbandkeramik (LBK) pottery using peoples, c. 5600-4900 BC
• They lived in substantial longhouses
• Although the positions of the houses themselves ‘migrated’ around LBK settlements over time, leaving remains of earlier buildings next to new ones; these seem to have been fairly permanently occupied places within the landscape

Question 4

Processes of Neolithization

Answer 4

• What was/were process(es) by which these innovations arrived in Britain & Ireland?
• How & why were they adopted?
• What were effects on indigenous hunter-gatherer fisher communities?
• Two main arguments: immigration/colonisation, versus adoption/adaptation by indigenous communities.
• Seems to have been quite rapid in Britain – within 2-3 generations perhaps…

Question 5

Evidence for colonisation

Answer 5

• Across NW Europe evidence of very rapid change in diet from marine to terrestrial resources.
• Early passage graves, Brittany and chambered cairns
• Achnacreebeag pottery, & some Early Neo Breton pottery

Question 6

Evidence against colonisation

Answer 6

• No single identifiable Continental origin point;
• Selection & recombination of elements from different areas;
• Regional differences, e.g. houses in SE Eng & parts of lowland Scotland;
• Portal tombs in Wales, Cornwall, W Scotland;
• Pottery, domesticated plants & animals c. 4000 BC;
• Long barrows c. 3800 3500 BC;
• Causewayed enclosures c. 3650-3350 BC.
-So, perhaps more a series of spatially & temporally varied transformations rather than a Neolithic ‘revolution’…

Question 7

Landnam Theory

Answer 7

Based on pollen evidence from Danish wetlands such as Ordrup Mose, palaeoecologist Johannes Iversen proposed ‘Landnam theory’ – slash & burn by early farmers led to decline in tree cover, esp. elms.
-At same time, rise in herbaceous plant & grass species, & scrub & subsequent regeneration.
-Across British Isles, decline broadly synchronous, c. 4331-3265 cal. BC, which does coincide with inception of Neolithic.
-Could onset of agriculture really have had such profound effect on elms & other species though?
-Discovery of Scolytus scolytus beetles in Neolithic deposits in SE England may be significant – beetle is one vector for fungus Ophiostoma (Ceratocystis) ulmi, cause of modern Dutch elm disease Also argued, however, that
presence of beetle only demonstrates suitable habitat, not evidence for disease itself.
-Some dated declines in pollen diagrams pre-date the Neolithic, & also much regional variation. Most now suggest multi-causal explanations – climatic change & disease, exacerbated by human & livestock impact.
-The cereal ‘signature’ of Neolithic cultivation often very faint. Accompanying weed species may be more reliable
-Nature, scale & impact of Neolithic arable & pastoral agriculture still matter of huge debate.

Question 8

Ferriter’s Cove

Answer 8

• At Ferriter’s Cove on SW coast of Ireland, c. 4500 – 4200 BC, Meso. tools incl. polished axes found with remains of fish, shellfish, pig – & domestic cattle = & sheep.
• A failed colony? Or trade with farmers?

Question 9

Neolithic tool kits

Answer 9

• Early Neolithic stone tools included leaf-shaped arrowheads, end scrapers & side scrapers, serrated blades, laurel-leaf blades; & sickle blade
• Scrapers used in cleaning animal skins for making leather, & blades used as knives.
• Several sickle blades would have been attached to a curved piece of wood or antler to form a sickle for cutting crops.

Question 10

Flint mining

Answer 10

• In parts of Britain, the need for high quality flint led to beginning of flint mining by the early Neolithic.
• One site was Grimes Graves in Norfolk.
• Antler picks & scapula shovels used to dig vertical & horizontal shafts.

Question 11

Pike o Stickle

Answer 11

-The Neolithic axe quarries at Great Langdale, Cumbria
- Better, easier to reach sources of superior stone all around the Lake District, but these were not as heavily worked as this
-Sound would have been heard in the valley below as it echoed down from the mountain
-Steep, difficult, dangerous climb
- Used on a seasonal basis due to cold, snow and danger?
-Symbolic considerations?
Used for initiations? Used to impress others?

Question 12

Settlement Locations

Answer 12

-As in Mesolithic, a lot of initial Neolithic occupation would have been in small clearings.
-In ‘Little House on the Prairie’ model of colonisation, assumed people had to hack out clearings from the forest
-In reality, they may have made much use of existing open areas, or clearings
created by tree-throws & beavers.
-Evidence from E England discussed by Joshua Pollard, Mark Knight & Chris Evans shows some early Neolithic people deliberately made use of tree-throws as the root
mass could act as the back of shelters.
-Over time, some trees may have taken on symbolic qualities.
-Some Neolithic monuments and Neolithic flint scatters lie directly on top of evidence for Mesolithic inhabitation, as on Handley Common near Cranborne Chase
-This suggests generations or centuries of use of some places in the landscape across the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

Question 13

Early Neolithic pottery

Answer 13

-Early Neolithic Carinated Bowls made and used across Britain and Ireland between c. 4000-3600 BC.
-Examples from northern England are called Grimston Ware, some from northern Ireland Lyle’s Hill Ware, after two type-sites.
-From around c. 3600 BC onwards, developed bowls and ‘baggy pots’ appear across Britain and Ireland.
-At approximately the
same time, from c. 3500 BC, decorated bowls begin to appear too
-Some forms of vessel seem to have had particular contextual associations

Question 14

Neolithic Settlements

Answer 14

• In central & southern England, & probably Wales too, most earlier Neolithic settlement might have been seasonally mobile, & involved lightweight &insubstantial structures such as Apache wickiups. -Bannock shelters, or charcoal burners’ huts.
• Arable agriculture might have involved small-scale, seasonal, long-fallow or swidden cultivation

Question 15

Claish Neolithic building

Answer 15

-Calibrated 14C dates of c. 3900-3500 BC were obtained from carbonised material in the postpipes & postholes.

Question 16

Balbridie & Lockerbie

Answer 16

At Balbridie, a large timber hall initially thought to be Pictish/early medieval produced 14C dates of 3700-3100 BC

• Over 20,000 cereal grains found, most emmer, with some barley & free threshing wheat.
• At Lockerbie College another large timber building associated with Carinated Bowl pottery, in northern England & Scotland dated to c. 3900-3700 BC.

Question 17

Warren Fields

Answer 17

-Fieldwork from 2004 at Warren Field, Crathes in Aberdeenshire excavated a
Neolithic building built between 3810-3760 BC, close to the Mesolithic pit alignment.
-The Meso pits were recut during 4160-3650 BC. Like
Balbridie and Claish, the structure was probably burnt down, after c. 50 years of occupation.
-Lots of evidence for cereal cultivation & storage was recovered.
-Finds included flint, Early Neo pottery & part of a carbonised wooden bowl.

Question 18

Papa Westray

Answer 18

• On Orkney island of Papa Westray, stone buildings excavated at Knap of Howar occupied c. 3600-3100 BC.
• These are forerunners of the middle & later Neolithic stone structures at Skara Brae, Barnhouse, & Ness of Brodgar.

Question 19

Sweet Track

Answer 19

-Near Glastonbury in Somerset, peat digging uncovered part of a timber structure.
-Investigated by archaeologists in the 1980s it
proved to be a prehistoric trackway, made of split planks, supported on timber piles.
-This became known as the Sweet Track, & was dendro dated to 3807-6 BC, almost at beginning of the Neolithic. -It was just one of a series of prehistoric trackways that extended for many kilometres across Somerset Levels, which before modern drainage would have been a mixture of marsh, peat bog, reed swamp and alder carr.
-Some sections of Sweet Track crossed very wet areas, with pools of standing water and reed swamp, as in the famous (infamous?) reconstruction
-The stone axe the man carries is based on a jadeite stone axe head found next to the Sweet Track & the Meare yew wood bow is another Somerset Neolithic find
-These may have been accidental losses, but were perhaps deliberate deposits.
-Other sections of Sweet Track crossed drier ground
& were constructed from brushwood mats

Question 20

Irish Neolithic buildings

Answer 20

-In Ireland, many more timber & stone rectangular buildings dating from earlier Neolithic have been
excavated; as at Knockadoon, Lough Gur & Ballyglass
-Some round buildings were also found at Lough Gur
-Over 100 buildings now known, from c. 3800 BC onwards.

Question 21

Livestock Management

Answer 21

• The coppicing of woodland probably began in the early Neolithic
• Livestock such as cattle and pigs would have been grazed in open woodland & clearings, sheep more on increasing areas of grassland & heath.
• Seasonal movements with livestock?
• Cattle may have had great social & symbolic significance. e.g. India

Question 22

Later Neolithic stone tools

Answer 22

-Later Neolithic tools were in more varied and complex forms, & were sometimes much larger in size than earlier Neolithic forms

Question 23

Impressed Wares

Answer 23

• Impressed Wares appear from c. 3400 BC
• Called Peterborough Ware in England & Wales, It is present in regional but overlapping sub-styles called Ford, Mortlake, Ebbsfleet and Fengate.

Question 24

Grooved Ware

Answer 24

-Grooved Ware pottery appears in Orkneys & northern Scotland from c. 3200 BC, & in southern Britain & Ireland by 2900 BC, lasting until c. 2200-2000 BC.
-It thus overlapped with both Impressed/Peterborough Ware, & with Beakers.
-Initially termed Rinyo-Clacton Ware, after type sites in Orkney & E England.
-Not yet clear if Grooved Ware originated in Orkney, from pottery such as Unstan Ware; or in eastern England from earlier Impressed Wares –Orkney more likely.
-It can be divided into styles such
as Woodland and Durrington Walls.
-These overlap in time & space
-Possibly influenced by Irish passage tomb designs Grooved Ware did not originate there.
-Irish Grooved Ware thus introduced from Britain, & found at sites such as Knowth and Newgrange.
-It may also have influenced or been influenced by designs on the Folkton chalk ‘drums’

Question 25

Peterborough Ware

Answer 25

• Grooved Ware and Peterborough Ware also overlap in time and space, but there are some differences in context, especially in sub-types.
• Grooved Ware rarely occurs in long mounds & enclosures, or in rivers or bogs, but is more common in pits.
• Peterborough Ware very rarely accompanies burials, but has been found in wet or boggy contexts.
• Ebbsfleet is commonly found in long mounds, but scarce in pits; whereas Fengate is largely confined to pits.

Question 26

Wyke Down later Neolithic buildings

Answer 26

• On Cranborne Chase at Wyke Down, two circular timber buildings were closely associated with a small henge
• Nearby pits contained Grooved Ware, & pieces of decorated daub
• But were these ‘domestic’ dwellings?

Question 27

Carved stone balls & related objects

Answer 27

-Found in particular regions in Scotland, & Orkney, sometimes in funerary contexts, the purpose of these enigmatic artefacts remains unknown, but demonstrates skill in stone carving and geometry

Question 28

Later Neolithic buildings in Orkney

Answer 28

At Skara Brae on Orkney, a middle - late Neolithic settlement (c. 3100-2500 BC) excavated by Gordon Childe in 1920s.

• Consists of stone & earth-walled buildings, some interconnected, preserving many internal stone features.
• At Skara Brae, internal features such as central hearths, flanking bed stalls, pits & stone-lined tanks, & so called ‘dressers’; provide amazing insights into the social organisation of space & complexity of these societies.
• These houses would originally have been roofed with timber & turf.

Question 29

Barnhouse

Answer 29

• At Barnhouse, near Stones of Stenness stone circle, a team headed by Colin Richards & Jane Downes excavated a settlement occupied during c. 3200-2700 BC.
• Though less upstanding remains survived, quality of the excavation & changing theoretical ideas allowed a detailed evocation of life of community.
• Houses probably roofed with turf, & were associated with finds of worked bone & Grooved Ware

Question 30

Barnhouse, Structure 8

Answer 30

• Structure 8 was last building inhabited on site, & may have had a nondomestic role.
• A Grooved Ware vessel was buried beneath its clay floor & building may have been linked to practices conducted at the Maes Howe tomb & Stones of Stenness themselves.