Landscape Monuments And Society

Cranborne Chase, in central southern England, is the area where British field archaeology developed in its modern form. The site of General Pitt Rivers' pioneering excavations in the nineteenth century, Cranborne Chase also provides a microcosm of virtually all the major types of filed monument present in southern England as a whole. Much of the archaeological material has fortuitously survived, offering the fullest chronological cover of any part of the prehistoric British landscape. Martin Green began working in this region in 1968 and was joined by John Barrett and Richard Bradley in 1977 for a fuller programme of survey and excavation that lasted for nearly ten years. In this important study, they apply some of the questions in prehistory to one of the first regions of the country to be studied in such detail. The book is a regional study of long-term change in British prehistory, and contains a unique collection of data. A landmark in the archaeological literature, it will be essential reading for students and scholars of British prehistory and social and historical geography, and also for all those involved with archaeological methods.

Atlantic Europe is the zone par excellence of megalithic monuments, which encompass a wide range of earthen and stone constructions from inpressive stone circles to modest chambered tombs. A single basic concept lies behind this volume - that the intrinsic qualities encountered within the diverse landscapes pf Atlantic Europe both informed the settings chosen for the monuments and played a role in determining their form and visual appearance. Monuments and Landscape in Atlantic Europe goes significantly beyond the limits of existing debate by inviting archaeologists from different countries with the Atlantic zone (including Britain, France, Ireland, Spain and Sweden) to examine the relationship between landscape features and prehistoric monuments in their specialist regions. By placing the issue within a broader regional and intellectual context, the authors illustrate the diversity of current archaeological ideas and approaches converging around this central theme.

This 2002 book explores social memory in the ancient Greek world using the evidence of landscapes and monuments.

This book critically investigates the flourishing monument phenomenon in post-apartheid South Africa, notably the political discourses that fuel it; its impact on identity formation, its potential benefits, and most importantly its ambivalences and contradictions.

Kirk Savage explores the National Mall in Washington D.C., site of some of the most important & poignant memorials in the U.S. He shows how the idea of monument has changed over the decades, & how the 19th century concept of the monument has given way to the late 20th century idea of 'space', the monument as an experience.

Archaeological evidence suggests that Neolithic sites had many different, frequently contradictory functions, and there may have been other uses for which no evidence survives. How can archaeologists present an effective interpetation, with the consciousness that both their own subjectivity, and the variety of conflicting views will determine their approach. Because these sites have become a focus for so much controversy, the problem of presenting them to the public assumes a critical importance. The authors do not seek to provide a comprehensive review of the archaeology of all these causewayed sites in Britain; rather they use them as case studies in the development of an archaeological interpetation.

Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland is the first systematic analysis of Scotland’s cursus monuments and is written by one of the foremost scholars of the Neolithic in Scotland. Drawing on fifteen years of experience of cropmark interpretation, as well as his involvement in several excavations of cursus monuments and contemporary sites, Kenneth Brophy uncovers some of the secrets of the Neolithic landscape. While outlining the physical characteristics of the cursus, this book also addresses the limitations of this kind of typological description when applied to monuments which varied so remarkably in terms of materiality and size. Moving beyond a morphological account, Brophy considers what can be said of this diverse group of sites, and how they were actually built and used in prehistory, in light of several decades of aerial reconnaissance and excavation in Scotland. Through a close study of the differences, as well as the similarities, between these structures, this book offers a nuanced account of cursus monuments, finally allowing this important monument type to be better understood and placed alongside others of the period. Offering exciting new ways of thinking about these enigmatic yet important monuments, Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland is an essential resource for students and specialists in British prehistory, providing an introduction to the Early Neolithic archaeology of lowland Scotland as well as a meditation on broader aspects of monumentality and architecture.

Reassesses major axial alignment at many megalithic ritual and funerary monuments (Neolithic to Bronze Age) in Britain and Ireland, not in terms of abstract astronomical concerns, but as an expression of repeated seasonal propitiation involving community, agrarian economy and ancestry in an attempt to mitigate variable environmental conditions.