| Abstract: |
The natural environment of Britain in 3rd-4th millennia BC, particularly as it affected the settlement of pioneer farming communities, is discussed by J G Evans (pp 11-26). The food-collecting opportunities of the littoral were probably attractive to these people, but more precise evidence of positive correlation between soil-type and Neolithic settlement is needed before generalisations about preferred areas can be made. Climate, vegetation, forest recession in the Atlantic period, soils, and the Atlantic/Sub-Boreal vegetational changes are all considered. Evans also discusses (27-73) the impact of Neolithic man on the calcareous soils of Britain as revealed principally by land-snail analysis and soil studies at three sites. D R Brothwell (75-87) discusses dietary change and variation resulting from the domestication of plants and animals, and considers their effects on population, health and social behaviour. I F Smith (89-112) reviews the evidence for causewayed camps, seventeen of which have now received partial or extensive excavation. Siting, plans and sizes, timberwork and internal features are discussed. Recutting of ditches may account for the appearance of Ebbsfleet wares in apparently primary fill. The cult aspect is discussed and patterns of economy and trade analysed. Settlements of later Neolithic Britain are described by I J McInnes (113-30); most of the evidence for house structures comes perforce from the Highland Zone, the S British evidence consisting almost entirely of pits, hearths and occupation deposits only. A similar survey by D D A Simpson (131-52) of the nine Beaker settlements with known timber or stone structures brings the reminder that mortuary houses may have relevance to the houses of the living. Ethnographic parallels with Hebridean black-houses suggest likely numbers of inhabitants per house. The sparse European evidence suggests that Beaker groups adopted the house types (inter alia) of the indigenous Late Neolithic peoples. P J Fowler considers (153-82) the evidence of ploghs and fields for early agriculture in W Europe. Petroglyphs and surviving wooden ards suggest the use of the crook-ard by mid-2nd millennium BC at latest, quite possibly by independent invention. Ard-marks in buried soils are well attested in Europe by 3rd millennium BC (cf South Street), after which plough-type and cultivation technique seem to continue unchanged until the introduction of the mould-board plough in ?last centuries BC. Both clay and light soils show ard-marks. A type of regular field system almost certainly existed in S Britain by early 2nd millennium BC, and evidence of subdivision of large blocks of land is available. Further research should involve experimental agriculture and settlement pattern analysis. |
