The Lower And Middle Palaeolithic Periods In Britain (routledge Library Editions: Archaeology) (volume 25)

Reissuing works originally published between 1930 and 1996, this set presents a rich selection of renowned and lesser-known scholarship across the subject. Classic previously out-of-print works are brought back into print here in this set of research, guidance and surveys. It includes works of theory and of practical research, ranging over a wide range of themes from archaeology and place-names to industrial archaeology to the rock art of Africa. This book is one of a series of volumes resulting from the World Archaeological Congress, September 1986 which addressed world archaeology in its widest sense, investigating how people lived in the past and how and why changes took place to result in the forms of society and culture which exist now. The series brought together archaeologists and anthropologists from many parts of the world, academics from contingent disciplines, and also non-academics from a wide range of cultural backgrounds who could lend their own expertise to the discussions. This book is an exploration of the way in which the animal world features in the works of art of a variety of cultures of different times and places. Contributors have adopted a variety of perspectives for looking at the complex ways in which past and present humans have interrelated with beings they classify as animals. Some of the approaches are predominantly economic and ecological, some are symbolic and others philosophical or theological. All these different views are included in the interpretation of the artworks of the past, revealing some of the foci and inspirations of cultural attitudes to animals. Originally published 1989 This book deals with the earliest period of human settlement in Britain, proposing a series of archaeological stages for the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic periods. An introduction on the problems and methods of studying the Palaeolithic and Pleistocene periods leads into the technical argument, a sequence of development derived from evidence of stone artefacts and other signs of human activity at stratified sites in south-east England. Materials from all occupied parts of Britain are related to this basic sequence and, stressing that Britain lay on the edge of the Palaeolithic world, the author also brings in essential evidence from Europe and farther afield. The final chapter suggests the probable way of life of human groups in this period. This broad survey synthesises material from widely scattered sources including museums from all over Britain and has an extensive bibliography. Originally published in 1981. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Original Title Page 6 Original Copyright Page 7 Table of Contents 8 Plates 10 Figures 12 Tables 16 Preface 18 1 Background to a Study of the Old Stone Age in Britain 20 2 The Pleistocene Background 53 3 The Search for a Basic Lower Palaeolithic Sequence 84 4 Expanding the Basic Sequence 113 5 More Sites, and the Question of Variation 150 6 The Middle Palaeolithic 252 7 Towards the Archaeology of the Period: Some Conclusions, Interpretations and Speculations 287 Bibliography 304 Summary 320 Index 340 Experimental archaeology is a new approach to the study of early man. By reconstructing and testing models of ancient equipment with the techniques available to early man, we learn how he lived, hunted, fought and built. What did early man eat? How did he store and cook his food? How did he make his tools and weapons and pottery? Such everyday questions, besides the more dramatic mysteries associated with the monuments of Easter Island and Stonehenge and the colonization of Polynesia, can all be explored by experiment A comprehensive discussion of what can be established about the culture and daily life of medieval Germany. Besides methodological questions, the author considers what can be learnt about the history of settlement and architecture, of technology, of economic and social matters, of churches and missions, and of population, diet and vegetation. This volume develops a new approach to plant exploitation and early agriculture in a worldwide comparative context. The studies throughout the book come from a worldwide range of geographical contexts, from the Andes to China and from Australia to the Upper Mid-West of North America. Originally published 1989.