No pottery at the western periphery of Europe: why was the Final Mesolithic of Britain and Ireland aceramic?

The past decade has witnessed an intensification of research into the use of pottery by hunter-gatherers. Long viewed by Western scholars as a marginal practice among these groups, pottery production is now known to have been widespread among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, many of whom practised no o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Antiquity 2020-10, Vol.94 (377), p.1152-1167
Main Authors: Elliott, Ben, Little, Aimée, Warren, Graeme, Lucquin, Alexandre, Blinkhorn, Edward, Craig, Oliver E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Archaeology
Ceramic materials
Ceramics
Cooking
Culture
Excavation
Farming
Hunter-gatherers
Hunting and gathering societies
Innovations
Iron Age
Mesolithic
Pottery
Prehistory
Technology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The past decade has witnessed an intensification of research into the use of pottery by hunter-gatherers. Long viewed by Western scholars as a marginal practice among these groups, pottery production is now known to have been widespread among prehistoric hunter-gatherers, many of whom practised no other activities associated with agriculture. In emphasising the centrality of ceramics to these communities, however, we risk marginalising those who did not adopt pottery. Here, the authors critically examine a series of different models proposed for hunter-gatherer pottery innovation and adoption within the context of the aceramic communities who inhabited Britain and Ireland during the fifth millennium cal BC.
ISSN:0003-598X
1745-1744
DOI:10.15184/aqy.2020.174