Product Description

This book employs contemporary theoretical perspectives to investigate the Neolithic period in southern britain. It is a fully reworked edition of the author's Rethinking the Neolithic (1991).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #145440 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

From the Back Cover
Understanding the Neolithic is a groundbreaking investigation of the Neolithic period (40002200 BC) in southern Britain. Whilst thoroughly examining the archaeological data of this region, Julian Thomas exposes the assumptions and prejudices which have shaped archaeologists accounts of the distant past, and presents fresh interpretations informed by social theory, anthropology and critical hermeneutics. This volume is the fully reworked and updated edition of Rethinking the Neolithic (1991), which provoked much heated debate on publication, especially in providing stimulating and radical alternative ways of interpreting archaeological evidence.
Understanding the Neolithic questions the impression that there was a universal shift from hunting and gathering to farming, and argues that monuments and other material innovations were not simply the products of economic and technological developments. Rather, new forms of material culture were used in inventive ways by local communities to transform soc

Customer Reviews

A penetrating re-appraisal of the known material.
In this book, Dr Thomas has examined much of the evidence about the Neolithic and has sought to re-interpret the society that produced it. In doing so he has revealed as untenable many of the truisms long held about early farming societies and has looked with a fresh eye on the familiar,and revealing the circularity of many of the established arguments long assumed to be fact Many of Dr Thomas' conclusions seem at once obvious and revolutionary, building up new theories from that which can be demonstrated to be fact. This is not an easy read. Dr Thomas is both challenging and complex in his analysis and interpretation of the available evidence. What he has achieved is a work both exciting and compelling in his convincing and original vision of Britain five millenia ago.

THE text book
Thomas's book provides the kind of detail which is simply not provided by other books about Neolithic Britian. While it is a few years since the initial publication, archaeology in some respects is slow moving with only a few new sites excavated each year in this period. This book is less out of date than one might think. While he situates understanding the archaeology of this period in reference to Europe, essentially this is all you'll ever need to know about British Neolithic sites and material culture as an undergrad and probably MA student, providing source references and social context. Other books by Richard Bradley and Alasdair Whittle form the core of studying this period, yet this is one book you probably shouldn't be without.