Experimental Archaeology and Neolithic Architecture

Experimental Archaeology and Neolithic Architecture PDF Author: John Hill
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1036400220
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Our understanding of the construction processes involved with British Neolithic architecture needs further investigation. The people were preliterate and there is no archaeological evidence of written or pictorial information regarding construction. So how could they build complex monuments like Stonehenge without a plan? This book argues that the Neolithic builders used rudimentary techniques to plan before building their monuments (circa 4000 – 2500 BC) – essentially, using ropes to set out the physical design of any structure they intended to build, whilst finger reckoning numeracy dictated how their measured ropes were folded to position the monument’s features. Finally, they used the sun’s shadow at midday to achieve orientation. To support this premise, the book offers both the results of the author’s “rope experiments” and instructions for repeating them. Importantly, this form of experimental archaeology delivers a unique approach for understanding the nature of complex Neolithic architecture. Essentially, the book explains the mental processes involved between design and construction.

Experimental Archaeology and Neolithic Architecture

Experimental Archaeology and Neolithic Architecture PDF Author: John Hill
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1036400220
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book Here

Book Description
Our understanding of the construction processes involved with British Neolithic architecture needs further investigation. The people were preliterate and there is no archaeological evidence of written or pictorial information regarding construction. So how could they build complex monuments like Stonehenge without a plan? This book argues that the Neolithic builders used rudimentary techniques to plan before building their monuments (circa 4000 – 2500 BC) – essentially, using ropes to set out the physical design of any structure they intended to build, whilst finger reckoning numeracy dictated how their measured ropes were folded to position the monument’s features. Finally, they used the sun’s shadow at midday to achieve orientation. To support this premise, the book offers both the results of the author’s “rope experiments” and instructions for repeating them. Importantly, this form of experimental archaeology delivers a unique approach for understanding the nature of complex Neolithic architecture. Essentially, the book explains the mental processes involved between design and construction.

The Use of Experimental Archaeology to Examine and Interpret Pre-Pottery Neolithic Architecture

The Use of Experimental Archaeology to Examine and Interpret Pre-Pottery Neolithic Architecture PDF Author: Samantha Jo Dennis
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description


The Constructed Past

The Constructed Past PDF Author: Philippe Planel
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134828276
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 576

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Book Description
The Constructed Past presents group of powerful images of the past, termed in the book construction sites. At these sites, full scale, three-dimensional images of the past have been created for a variety of reasons including archaeological experimentation, tourism and education. Using various case studies, the contributors frankly discuss the aims, problems and mistakes experienced with reconstruction. They encourage the need for on-going experimentation and examine the various uses of the sites; political, economical and educational.

Archaeology by Experiment

Archaeology by Experiment PDF Author: John Coles
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317606094
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 197

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Book Description
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.

The Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire

The Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire PDF Author: John Hill
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527567400
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Recumbent Stone Circles are a distinctive architectural style of British stone circle. Built circa 2500 BC, they dominated the Late Neolithic landscape of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This book discusses their archaeology and, using experimental archaeology, explains how the original builders went about building these magnificent stone circles. Sharing the results of the author’s unique experiments, the book demonstrates how measured ropes were used to set out the geometrical design of the stone rings, as well as dictate the dimensions of the circle’s respective orthostats. Moreover, given the book’s provision of instructions on to repeat these experiments, the reader will be able to explore how these circles not only captured their corresponding astronomy, but how they were also positioned in the landscape so that they were astronomically aligned towards each other, creating a network of inter-aligned stone circles that enabled the prehistoric communities to synchronise both time and space across the vast regions of Aberdeenshire.

Experimental Archaeology

Experimental Archaeology PDF Author: James R. Mathieu
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Six of the eleven papers in this volume are revised versions of those given at a symposium session at the SAA meeting in Chicago in 1999, along with an introduction and four extra contributions.

Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe

Tracking the Neolithic House in Europe PDF Author: Daniela Hofmann
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461452899
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 406

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Book Description
The Neolithic period is noted primarily for the change from hunter-gatherer societies to agriculture, domestication and sedentism. This change has been studied in the past by archaeologists observing the movements of plants, animals and people. But has not been examined by looking at the domestic architecture of the time. Along with tracking the movement of sedentism, Neolithic houses are also able to show researchers the beginnings of cultural identity, group representation through the construction and decoration of these structures. Additionally as agriculture moved west and north in this era, the architecture and material culture shows this change and its significance. Chapters are arranged chronologically so that authors can address differences and similarities of their region to neighboring ones. To ensure continuity, authors have framed the chapters around the following considerations: construction materials and architectural characteristics; how houses facilitated or perpetua

Monumentalising Life in the Neolithic

Monumentalising Life in the Neolithic PDF Author: Anne Birgitte Gebaer
Publisher: Oxbow Books
ISBN: 1789254973
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
One of the principal characteristics of the European Neolithic is the development of monumentality in association with innovations in material culture and changes in subsistence from hunting and gathering to farming and pastoralism. The papers in this volume discuss the latest insights into why monumental architecture became an integral part of early farming societies in Europe and beyond. One of the topics is how we define monuments and how our arguments and recent research on temporality impacts on our interpretation of the Neolithic period. Different interpretations of Göbekli Tepe are examples of this discussion as well as our understanding of special landmarks such as flint mines. The latest evidence on the economic and paleoenvironmental context, carbon 14 dates as well as analytical methods are employed in illuminating the emergence of monumentalism in Neolithic Europe. Studies are taking place on a macro and micro scale in areas as diverse as Great Britain, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Germany, the Dutch wetlands, Portugal and Malta involving a range of monuments from long barrows and megalithic tombs to roundels and enclosures. Transformation from a natural to a built environment by monumentalizing part of the landscape is discussed as well as changes in megalithic architecture in relation to shifts in the social structure. An ethnographic study of megaliths in Nagaland discuss monument building as an act of social construction. Other studies look into the role of monuments as expressions of cosmology and active loci of ceremonial performances. Also, a couple of papers analyse the social processes in the transformation of society in the aftermath of the initial boom in monument construction and the related changes in subsistence and social structure in northern Europe. The aim of the publication is to explore different theories about the relationship between monumentality and the Neolithic way of life through these studies encompassing a wide range of types of monuments over vast areas of Europe and beyond.

The Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire

The Recumbent Stone Circles of Aberdeenshire PDF Author: John Hill
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 9781527565852
Category : Stone circles
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Recumbent Stone Circles are a distinctive architectural style of British stone circle. Built circa 2500 BC, they dominated the Late Neolithic landscape of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This book discusses their archaeology and, using experimental archaeology, explains how the original builders went about building these magnificent stone circles. Sharing the results of the authorâ (TM)s unique experiments, the book demonstrates how measured ropes were used to set out the geometrical design of the stone rings, as well as dictate the dimensions of the circleâ (TM)s respective orthostats. Moreover, given the bookâ (TM)s provision of instructions on to repeat these experiments, the reader will be able to explore how these circles not only captured their corresponding astronomy, but how they were also positioned in the landscape so that they were astronomically aligned towards each other, creating a network of inter-aligned stone circles that enabled the prehistoric communities to synchronise both time and space across the vast regions of Aberdeenshire.

Replicating the Past

Replicating the Past PDF Author: Stephen C. Saraydar
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 188

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Book Description