The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
Edited by Chris Fowler, Jan Harding, and Daniela Hofmann
Abstract
This book offers a comprehensive and detailed study of the European Neolithic from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta. Drawing on contributions representing different archaeological traditions and perspectives, it covers the period from c. 6500 BC, when a Neolithic lifestyle is identified in parts of Greece, to c. 2500 BC, when it reaches northernmost Europe. Given this broad chronological frame, the book also touches on many ‘Mesolithic’, ‘Chalcolithic’, or even ‘Bronze Age’ societies, and the way in which they co-existed and interacted with ‘Neolithic’ societies. It explores the significance of environmental factors and demography in the spread of the Neolithic, as well as the roles played by ‘indigenous’ communities and ‘migrating’ farmers. It also considers the different scales and kinds of migration and other mechanisms of diffusion, from inter-marriage over several generations to the movement of entire communities in one season, and ends with three commentaries which develop key debates for Neolithic studies. The evidence presented in this book reflects the strength and diversity of Neolithic archaeology across Europe.
Keywords:
Europe,
Neolithic,
Iberia,
Malta,
demography,
indigenous communities,
farmers,
migration,
inter-marriage,
archaeology
Bibliographic Information
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Print Publication Date:
- Mar 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199545841
- Published online:
- Dec 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199545841.001.0001
Editors
Chris Fowler,
editor
Chris Fowler is a Lecturer in Later Prehistoric Archaeology at Newcastle University, UK. He is the author of The Archaeology of Personhood: An Anthropological Approach (Routledge, 2004) and numerous publications on mortuary practices and monuments in the Neolithic of the geographical British Isles and/or archaeological studies of bodies and personhood. He is currently applying a relational approach to the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age mortuary archaeology of Northeast England.
Jan Harding,
editor
Jan Harding, Newcastle University.
Daniela Hofmann,
editor
Daniela Hofmann, Hamburg University.
