Mesolithic Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century - Softcover

Woodman, Peter

9781842172001: Mesolithic Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century

Softcover

ISBN 10: 184217200X ISBN 13: 9781842172001

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2005

The term 'Mesolithic' was born in the nineteenth century from the need to label a 'hiatus' period and was not generally accepted as a useful term by many scholars until around fifty years later. It has been championed by some, but still concerns others because of the difficulty of defining what it represents. This volume highlights the enthusiasm for Mesolithic studies in the 21st century and the feeling that there is a need to explore the many facets of Mesolithic lifeways. Approaches are now moving away from the traditional Mesolithic canon that seems to have been based on a particular set of biological and/or ecological perspectives and are now looking for new directions and new theoretical arenas which can only help stimulate Mesolithic debate. The papers in this volume take a range of approaches to a period that has largely been devoid of explicit theoretical discussion. They deconstruct and explore a broad variety of subjects, including mobility, complexity, seasonality, death & burial, gender & sexuality, social relations, music, human agency, ethnoarchaeology and emotion.

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From the Publisher:

Nicky Milner is a Professor at the University of York, specialising in the Mesolithic period. She has co-directed excavations at Star Carr since 2004.

Peter Woodman is Emeritus Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork. He is the leading scholar of the Irish Mesolithic. His research interests lie in the areas of the early human settlement and ecology of Ireland and Atlantic Europe and the antiquarian history of Archaeology.

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