Neolithic Landscape Research Articles

Pottery Neolithic landscape modification at Dhra'

This report of the discovery of low walls running across the slopes east of the Dead Sea presents an important landmark in the history of farming, for these were terrace walls put in place to conserve soil and control water around 6000 cal BC. The authors point to some of the implications of what they see as early landscape modification at the scale of a small community or household.

Rethinking the ‘Cursus Problem’ – Investigating the Neolithic Landscape Archaeology of Rudston, East Yorkshire, UK, using GIS

In terms of their interpretation, cursus monuments remain arguably the most enigmatic class of Neolithic landscape monument. This paper reconsiders this ‘cursus problem’ through the study of the complex of cursuses that surrounds the village of Rudston, East Yorkshire. Using a GIS-based analysis, it is argued that two distinct forms of architecture can be recognised. In the earlier phase it is possible to recognise the importance of somatic experience generated through movement along the interior of the monuments, incorporating elements of visual surprise in addition to constant visual relationships with earlier monuments. By the later phase, somatic experience becomes less important, with the cursus forming a more naturalised role in harmony with the natural landscape and less structured for movement. The results of this analysis have wider implications for the study of both cursus landscapes elsewhere and prehistoric landscape archaeology more generally.

La investigación del arte rupestre desde la geografía: la pintura neolítica del ámbito mediterráneo de la Península Ibérica

The rock art of the Mediterranean Arch (which includes what are conventionally called Levantine Rock Art, Schematic Rock Art and Macroschematic Rock Art, among other styles), designated as part of the Human Heritage in 1997, is studied from the point of view of the Archaeology of Landscape. The information sources used were field work, cartographic analysis and analysis in GIS, besides two Rock Art Archives: the UNESCO Document and the Corpus of Levantine Cave Painting (Corpus de Pintura Rupestre Levantina). The initial hypothesis was that this rock art was involved in the process of neolithisation of the Eastern part of Iberia, of which it is a symptom and a result, and it must be understood as an element of landscape construction. If this is true, it would have a concrete distribution in the form of locational patterns. Through statistical procedures and heuristical approaches, it has been demonstrated that there is a structure of the neolithic landscape, defined by rock art, which is possible to interpret functional and economically.

Rock-art and the transition to farming. The Neolithic landscape of the central Mediterranean coast of Spain

This paper deals with the analysis of stylistic variation between the different rock-art traditions that coexisted in the central Mediterranean coastal area of Spain in the Neolithic period – the Macro Schematic tradition, the Schematic tradition and the Levantine tradition. The stylistic variation is analyzed in different scales from the panel with its compositions and superimpositions, to the shelter – shared or exclusive – and the landscape, focussing on patterns of distribution and relationships with settlement sites. This stylistic analysis enables us to study the chronological aspects of the process of Neolithization; while the symbolic character of these marks on the landscape offers an insight into the perception and use of space by the communities who made them.

The Neolithic Landscape of the Carnac Region, Brittany: New Insights from Digital Approaches

The typology and chronology of the Neolithic monuments of the Carnac region of Brittany have been much debated. However, the landscape of which they are a part has been under-researched, in part due to the difficulty of conducting landscape research in the field. Through complimenting fieldwork with digital approaches, this paper demonstrates that the Neolithic monuments were deliberately situated in distinct landscape settings. By investigating the characteristics of the locations of the various types of monuments, new insight can be shed on the ways in which the monuments were experienced and perceived.

Visualizing Neolithic Landscape: The Early Settled Communities in Western Anatolia and Eastern Aegean Islands

An early Neolithic settlement with western Anatolian-type material was recently found on the island of Gökçeada (Imbroz). None of the colonization models indicate that Gökçeada is the most promising island for early colonization. In this article I suggest that the importance of islands may also lie in their symbolic significance. The early Neolithic communities built up place-myths about the islands. Place-myths are closely related to place-images, which are generally derived from visual experiences. Myths enabled a Neolithic community to establish a sense of belonging to the islands. This might have led to permanent settlement of some of the islands.

Visualizing Neolithic Landscape: The Early Settled Communities In Western Anatolia and Eastern Aegean Islands

An early Neolithic settlement with western Anatolian-type material was recently found on the island of Gökçeada (Imbroz). None of the colonization models indicate that Gökçeada is the most promising island for early colonization. In this article I suggest that the importance of islands may also lie in their symbolic significance. The early Neolithic communities built up place-myths about the islands. Place-myths are closely related to place-images, which are generally derived from visual experiences. Myths enabled a Neolithic community to establish a sense of belonging to the islands. This might have led to permanent settlement of some of the islands.

Did prehistoric landscape management retard the post-glacial spread of woodland in Southwest Asia?

Pre-Bronze Age human impacts on the East Mediterranean environment have been hard to detect in pollen diagrams and other off-site contexts. New evidence shows that despite a relatively rapid post-glacial wetting-up of the climate, the re-advance of oak woodland across Southwest Asia was slow. Among the factors likely to have contributed to the apparent disjunction between climate and vegetation is Neolithic landscape management, particularly through regular use of late-season ground fires to encourage grasses at the expense of trees and shrubs.

Lecture summaries 1999 - 2000

Four lecture summaries:Roman Britain as protectorate, political symbol and military training-groundScience and the passed: the archaeology of excrementScottish hydro-hotels and the tourist industry in 19th-century ScotlandThe Billown Neolithic Landscape Project, Isle of Man: changing perceptions of the western seaways in early prehistory

The Holocene vegetation dynamics and the formation of Neolithic and present-day Slovenian landscape

This paper presents the results of palaeoecological research to investigate the Holocene vegetation development of the Slovenian landscape and the impact of the first farmers upon it. Four study sites were selected and at each site a complete Holocene sedimentary sequence was analysed by using the following techniques: loss-on-ignition, geochemistry, radiocarbon dating, pollen analysis and analysis of micro-charcoal concentration. The results of the study suggest that the Neolithic landscape was probably very dynamic and composed of small patches with different vegetation composition. This vegetation has no present-day analogues. The present-day Slovenian landscape formed only several millennia after the transition to farming.

The ritual landscape of ‘Boar Mountain’ Basin: The Niuheliang site complex of north‐eastern China

Abstract The relic Neolithic landscape at Niuheliang was recognized and partially excavated by the Liaoning Provincial Archaeological Research Institute in the mid‐1980s. A decade later, scholars are competing to re‐interpret the landscape's symbolic and ritual nature deriving from its unique and unprecedented complexity within the East Asian Neolithic. In these new interpretations, the old pitfall of untestable speculation is joined by politically emotive considerations in acting to shape the significance of Niuheliang within the origins of Chinese civilization.

Lithic Distributions in the Upper Meon Valley: Behavioural Response and Human Adaptation on the Hampshire Chalklands

The results of an area-intensive surface collection survey are described and evidence for a coarse-grained response to the distribution of resources is presented. Surface collection surveys have occurred over many areas of southern England with attention focused especially on the neolithic landscape of the monument zone. The results of such surveys provide an indication of the social landscape within which monument building occurred. However, to fully appreciate human behaviour in an active and emergent landscape, the results of similar investigations from what appear passive landscapes must be available as well as evidence for human exploitation in earlier and later periods. The upper Meon valley survey represents one of only few attempts to redress that imbalance and to assess objectively the nature of occupation away from the monument zone throughout the prehistoric period. The results demonstrate an intensity of occupation equal to that in other parts of Wessex but confined, predominantly, to the mesolithic and earlier neolithic periods. The survey also provides a case-study in interpretation. The emphasis is less on places than on the space in which they occurred.

NEOLITHIC SOILS, MIDDENS AND ALLUVIUM IN THE LOWER WELLAND VALLEY

Summary. The soil micromorphological analysis of buried soils and probable ‘midden’ deposits buried beneath alluvium from six sites in the lower Welland valley between Maxey and Etton (Cambridgeshire) has revealed a deforested early Neolithic landscape which quickly became subject to seasonal alluviation. This paper suggests that the Neolithic/Bronze Age use of this landscape is directly related to its interpretation as an alluviated floodplain rather than an alluviated, former dry‐land landscape.

The Reconstruction of Neolithic Landscape in North China

The attempt to reconstruct the landscape of North China in the Neolithic Age presents an interesting insight into its comparison with Central Europe of the same period. For Yang-shao Cultute in North China was formed between 4000 and 3000 B.C., while in Europe Danubian Culture was observed during the same period. Furthermore, in both cases settlements were founded on loess soil.As to the study of Cental Europe, it has already been clarified that forests were the main constituent of the landscape in the Neolithic Age. We could obtain a similar result through analytical researches on North China as well, for the following reasons.1) Some of the mammalian remains which were excavated at the ruins of the period from the Neolithic Age to the Yin Dynasty were attested of southern origin. It is assumed, therefore, that the climate of that age was warmar than that of today.2) Among the Divination Incriptions of the Yin Dynasty, we find several suggeesting divination of rain for each month, This indicates that in the region it rained more of ten than today.3) The results of pollen analysis are as follows: In the analysis of Pan-po site, it has been discovered that non-arboreal pollens were larger than arborel pollens in number. We cannot regard this result, however, as reflecting the vegetation of the time in question, because the samles used in the analysis were taken from the sandy soil. On the other hand, through the pollen analysis of Peking sites, arboreal pollens were found dominant, and forests consisting of mixed oak trees in that area. The existence of peat deposits was also proved, suggesting an expanse of swamps. All these discoveries correspond to the aforementioned assumption of climate.4) The antithetical expressions of ‘mountain’ and ‘swamp’ appearing in the verses of Shi-jing can also be considered to show that there once existed marshland in the loess region.For the reasons mentioned above, it is posible to assume that North China in the Neolithic Age was warmer and more humid than today, with a vast expanse of swamps and forests dominating its landscape.