Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T08:18:09.817Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Grey waters bright with Neolithic argonauts? Maritime connections and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition within the ‘western seaways’ of Britain, c. 5000–3500 BC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Duncan Garrow  and
Fraser Sturt
Duncan Garrow
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology, Classics & Egyptology, University of Liverpool, Hartley Building, Brownlow Street, Liverpool L69 3GS, UK
Fraser Sturt
Affiliation:
Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Careful examination of the probable natural conditions for travel in the North Sea and Irish Sea during the late Mesolithic are here combined with the latest radiocarbon dates to present a new picture of the transition to the Neolithic in the British Isles. The islands of the west were already connected by Mesolithic traffic and did not all go Neolithic at the same time. The introduction of the Neolithic package neither depended on seaborne incomers nor on proximity to the continent. More interesting forces were probably operating on an already busy seaway.

Keywords

BritainIrelandIrish SeaNorth SeaMesolithicNeolithic
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 327 , March 2011 , pp. 59 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Armit, I. 2003. The drowners: permanence and transience in the Hebridean Neolithic, in Armit, I., Murphy, E., Nelis, E. & Simpson, D. (ed.) Neolithic settlement in Ireland and Western Britain: 93–100. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Ashmore, P. 2000. Dating the Neolithic in Orkney, in Ritchie, A. (ed.) Neolithic Orkney in its European context: 299–308. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Barlow, N. & Shennan, I. 2008. An overview of Holocene coastal change from Berwick-upon-Tweed to Whitby, in Tolan-Smith, C. (ed.) North-east rapid coastal zone assessment (NERCZA). Gateshead: Archaeological Research Services Ltd.Google Scholar
Behre, K. 2007. A new Holocene sea-level curve for the southern North Sea. Boreas 36:82–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berridge, P. & Roberts, A. 1986. The Mesolithic period in Cornwall. Cornish Archaeology 25:7–35.Google Scholar
Branigan, K. & Foster, P. (ed.). 1995. Barra: archaeological research on Ben Tangaval. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, A., Bradley, S., Edwards, R., Milne, G., Horton, B. & Shennan, I. 2008. Postglacial relative sea-level observations from Ireland and their role in glacial rebound modelling. Journal of Quaternary Science 23:175–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burrow, S. 1997. The Neolithic culture of the Isle of Man: a study of the sites and pottery (British Archaeological Reports British series 263). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Callaghan, R. & Scarre, C. 2009. Simulating the Western Seaways. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 28:357–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Case, H. 1969. Neolithic explanations. Antiquity 43:176-86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Childe, V.G. 1946. Scotland before the Scots. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Cobb, H. 2007. Media for movement and making the world: exploring materials and identity in the Mesolithic of the northern Irish Sea basin. Internet Archaeology 22. Available at: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue22/cobbindex.html.Google Scholar
Cooney, G. 2007. Parallel worlds or multi-stranded identities? Considering the process of ‘going over’ in Ireland and the Irish Sea zone, in Whittle, A. & Cummings, V. (ed.) Going over: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in north-west Europe (Proceedings of the Britis Academy 144): 543-66. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Cummings, V. 2009. A view from the west: the Neolithic of the Irish Sea zone. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Cunliffe, B. 2008. Europe between the oceans, 9000 BC to AD 1000. New Haven (CT) & London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 2000. Billown Neolithic landscape project, Isle of Man. Fifth Report: 1999 (Bournemouth University, School of Conservation Sciences. Research Report 7). Bournemouth: University of Bournemouth in association with Manx National Heritage.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 2001. Billown Neolithic landscape project, Isle of Man. Sixth Report: 2000 (Bournemouth University, School of Conservation Sciences, Research Report 9). Poole: School of Conservation Sciences, University of Bournemouth.Google Scholar
Davis, B., Brewer, S., Stevenson, A., Guiot, A. & DATA CONTRIBUTORS. 2003. The temperature of Europe during the Holocene reconstructed from pollen data. Quaternary Science Reviews 22:1701–1716.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, K. 2004. Palaeo-environments of the late Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods in Scotland and the North Sea: new work, new thoughts, in Saville, A. (ed.) Mesolithic Scotland and its neighbours: the Early Holocene prehistory of Scotland, its British and Irish context, and some Northern European perspectives (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph series 28): 55–72. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Fox, C. 1932. The personality of Britain. Cardiff: National Museum of Wales.Google Scholar
Griffiths, S. in prep. Chronological modelling of the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Cardiff University.Google Scholar
Hardy, K. & Wickham-Jones, C. 2002. Scotland's first settlers: the Mesolithic seascape of the Inner Sound, Skye and its contribution to the early prehistory of Scotland. Antiquity 76:825–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hardy, K. (ed.). 2009. Mesolithic and later sites around the Inner Sound, Scotland: the work of the Scotland's First Settlers project 1998-2004. Available at: http://www.sair.org.uk/sair31/(accessed 23 November 2010).Google Scholar
Henley, C. 2003. The Outer Hebrides and the Hebridean world during the Neolithic: an island history. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Cardiff University.Google Scholar
Hughes, P., Mauquoy, D., Barber, K. & Langdon, P. 2000. Mire-development pathways and palaeo-climatic records from a full Holocene peat archive at Walton Moss, Cumbria, England. The Holocene 10:465-79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lambeck, K. & Purcell, A. 2001. Sea-level change in the Irish Sea since the last glacial maximum: constraints from isostatic modelling. Journal of Quaternary Science 16:497–506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macklin, M., Benito, G., Gregory, K., Johnstone, E., Lewin, J., Michczynska, D., Soja, R., Starkel, L. & Thorndycraft, V. 2005a. Past hydrological events reflected in the Holocene fluvial record of Europe. Catena 66(1-2):145-54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macklin, M., Johnstone, E. & Lewin, J. 2005b. Pervasive and long-term forcing of Holocene river instability and flooding in Great Britain by centennial-scale climate change. The Holocene 15:937–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mccartan, S. 2004. The Mesolithic of the Isle of Man: an island perspective, in Saville, A. (ed.) Mesolithic Scotland and its neighbours, the Early Holocene prehistory of Scotland, its British and Irish context, and some Northern European perspectives (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph series 28): 271-83. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Mcgrail, S. 1983. Cross-Channel seamanship and navigation in the first millennium BC. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 2:299–337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mcgrail, S. 1990. Maritime Celts, Frisians and Saxons (Council for British Archaeology Research Report 71). London: Council for British Archaeology.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. (ed.) 2000a. Hunter-gatherer landscape archaeology: the Southern Hebrides Mesolithic project 1988-98. Volume 1: project development, palaeo-environmental studies and archaeological fieldwork on Islay. Cambridge: McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Mithen, S. 2000b. Hunter-gatherer landscape archaeology: the Southern Hebrides Mesolithic project 1988-98. Volume 2: archaeological fieldwork on Colonsay, computer modelling, experimental archaeology and final interpretations. Cambridge: McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Neil, S., Scourse, J., Bigg, G. & Uehara, K. 2009. Changes in wave climate over the north-west European shelf seas during the last 12000 years. Journal of Geophysical Research 114: C06015, doi:10.1029/2009JC005288.Google Scholar
Pailler, Y. & Sheridan, A. 2009. Everything you always wanted to know about … La Néolithisation de la Grande-Betagne et d'Irlande. Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Francaise 106:25–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, M. 1995. Neolithic communities of the Channel Islands (British Archaeological Reports British series 240). Oxford: Tempus Reparatum.Google Scholar
Peeters, H., Murphy, P. & Flemming, N. (ed.). 2009. North Sea prehistory research and management framework (NSPRMF). Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed & English Heritage. Available at: http://www.geo.uu.nl/inquanl/NSPRMF 2009 WEB quality. pdf (accessed 24 November 2010).Google Scholar
Peltier, W. 2004. Global glacial isostasy and the surface of the ice-age earth: the ice-5G (VM2) model and GRACE. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 32:111–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rainbird, P. 2007. The archaeology of islands. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritchie, A. 1983. Excavation of a Neolithic farmstead at Knap of Howar, Papa Westray, Orkney. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 113:40–121.Google Scholar
Robinson, G. 2007. The prehistoric island landscape of Scilly (British Archaeological Reports British series 447). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Saville, A. 2000. Orkney and Scotland before the Neolithic period, in Ritchie, A. (ed.) Neolithic Orkney in its European context: 91–100. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Scott, W. 1950. Eilean an Tighe: a pottery workshop of the second millennium BC. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 85:1–37.Google Scholar
Scourse, J., Uehara, K. & Wainwright, A. 2009. Celtic Sea linear tidal sand ridges, the Irish Sea Ice Stream and the Feluve Manche: palaeo-tidal modelling of a transitional passive margin depositional system. Marine Geology 259:102–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharples, N. 2005. A Late Neolithic settlement at An Doirlinn, Orosay, South Uist and some other erosion problems. Unpublished report.Google Scholar
Shennan, I. & Andrews, J. (ed.). 2000. Holocene land-ocean interaction and environmental change around the North Sea. London: Geological Society.Google Scholar
Shennan, I. & Horton, B. 2002. Holocene land- and sea-level change in Great Britain. Journal of Quaternary Science 17:511–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shennan, I., Bradley, S., Milne, G., Brooks, A., Bassett, S. & Hamilton, S. 2006. Relative sea-level changes, glacial isostatic modeling and ice-sheet reconstructions from the British Isles since the Last Glacial Maximum. Journal of Quaternary Science 21:585–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shennan, I., Milne, G. & Bradley, S. 2009. Late Holocene relative land- and sea-level changes: providing information for stakeholders. Geological Society of America Today 19:52–53.Google Scholar
Sheridan, A. 2000. Achnacreebeag and its French connections: vive the ‘auld’ alliance, in Henderson, J. (ed.) The prehistory and early history of Atlantic Europe (British Archaeological Reports International series 861): 1–16. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Sheridan, A. 2003. French connections I: spreading the marmites thinly, in Armit, I., Murphy, E., Nelis, E. & Simpson, D. (ed.) Neolithic settlement in Ireland and western Britain: 3-17. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Sheridan, A. 2004. Neolithic connections along and across the Irish Sea, in Cummings, V. & Fowler, C. (ed.) The Neolithic of the Irish Sea: 9–21. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Sheridan, A. 2007. From Picardie to Pickering and Pencraig Hill? New information on the ‘carinated bowl Neolithic’, in Whittle, A. & Cummings, V. (ed.) Going over: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in north-west Europe (Proceedings of the British Academy 144): 441-92. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, D., Murphy, E. & Gregory, R. 2006. Excavations at Northton, Isle of Harris. (British Archaeological Reports British series 408). Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 2003. Thoughts on the ‘repacked’ Neolithic revolution. Antiquity 77:67–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, J. 2007. Mesolithic-Neolithic transitions in Britain: from essence to inhabitation, in Whittle, A. & Cummings, V. (ed.) Going over: the Mesolithic- Neolithic transition in north-west Europe (Proceedings of the British Academy 144): 423-39. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. 2008. The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain, in Pollard, J. (ed.) Prehistoric Britain: 58–89. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Tipping, R. 2010. The case for climatic stress forcing choice in the adoption of agriculture in the British Isles, in Finlayson, B. & Warren, G. (ed.) Landscapes in transition: understanding hunter-gatherer and farming landscapes in the early Holocene of Europe and the Levant: (Levant Supplementary Series 8): 66–75. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Tolan-Smith, C. 2009. Mesolithic Britain, in Bailey, G. & Spikins, P. (ed.) Mesolithic Europe: 132-57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Tresset, A. 2003. French connections II: of cows and men, in Armit, I., Murphy, E., Nelis, E. & Simpson, D. (ed.) Neolithic settlement in Ireland and western Britain: 18–30. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Uehara, K., Scourse, J., Horsburgh, K., Lambeck, K. & Purcell, A. 2006. Tidal evolution of the north-west European shelf seas from the Last Glacial Maximum to the present. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: C09025, doi:10.1029/2006JC003531.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van de Noort, R. 2006. Argonauts of the North Sea: a social maritime archaeology for the 2nd millennium BC. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 76:267-87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waddell, J. 1992. The Irish Sea in prehistory. Journal of Irish Archaeology 6:29–40.Google Scholar
Westerdahl, C. 1992. The maritime cultural landscape. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 21:5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, A. 2003. The archaeology of people. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, A. 2007. The temporality of transformation: dating the early development of the southern British Neolithic, in Whittle, A. & Cummings, V. (ed.) Going over: the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in north-west Europe (Proceedings of the British Academy 144): 377-98. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, A., Bayliss, A. & Healy, F. 2008. The timing and tempo of change: examples from the fourth millennium BC in southern England. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 18:65–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittle, A.forthcoming. Gathering time: dating the early Neolithic enclosures of southern Britain and Ireland. Oxford:Oxbow.Google Scholar
Woodman, P. 1978. A re-appraisal of the Manx Mesolithic, in Davey, P. (ed.) Man and environment in the Isle of Man (British Archaeological Reports British series 54): 119-39. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
Woodman, P. 2004. Some problems and perspectives: reviewing aspects of the Mesolithic period in Ireland, in Saville, A. (ed.) Mesolithic Scotland and its neighbours, the Early Holocene prehistory of Scotland, its British and Irish context and some northern European perspectives (Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph series 28): 289-95. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.Google Scholar
Woodman, P. & Mccarthy, M. 2003. Contemplating some awful(ly interesting) vistas: importing cattle and red deer into prehistoric Ireland, in Armit, I., Murphy, E., Nelis, E. & Simpson, D. (ed.) Neolithic settlement in Ireland and western Britain: 31-9. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar