The Past in Prehistoric SocietiesThe idea of prehistory dates from the nineteenth century, but Richard Bradley contends that it is still a vital area for research. He argues that it is only through a combination of oral tradition and the experience of encountering ancient material culture that people were able to formulate a sense of their own pasts without written records. The Past in Prehistoric Societies presents case studies which extend from the Palaeolithic to the early Middle Ages and from the Alps to Scandinavia. It examines how archaeologists might study the origin of myths and the different ways in which prehistoric people would have inherited artefacts from the past. It also investigates the ways in which ancient remains might have been invested with new meanings long after their original significance had been forgotten. Finally, the author compares the procedures of excavation and field survey in the light of these examples. The work includes a large number of detailed case studies, is fully illustrated and has been written in an extremely accessible style. |
Contents
towards an archaeology | 17 |
legacies of the immediate past | 49 |
monuments and the formation | 82 |
from revision to revival | 112 |
prehistoric times | 149 |
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Common terms and phrases
alignment ancient Aosta archaeological sequence archaeology artefacts associated axis Balnuaran of Clava buildings built burial mounds cairns Carnac carved causewayed enclosure cemetery chapter chronology cists Colt Hoare considered construction cromlech cursus Dartmoor decorated menhirs deposits distinctive distribution earlier Early Bronze Age earthworks emphasising Europe evidence examples excavated existing extended Figure groups human identified important incorporated individual interpretation Kafka kind landscape Late Bronze Age later layout Linear Pottery Culture Linearbandkeramik living long barrows long houses long mounds Machrie Moor material culture megalithic tombs memory monoliths Neolithic period Northern France older organisation particular passage graves past Petit Chasseur phase pits positions region relationship remains reused Roman Roman Iron Age round barrows seems settlement significance similar Sopp Source square enclosures standing stones statue menhirs stone circles stone rows Stourhead structural sequence suggests Tara Tène timber circles Tomnaverie tradition wall Waterbolk