Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (786 page)

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

General and now little-used term applied to the early and middle Neolithic communities of western Europe, especially the
CHASSEY
,
CORTAILLOD
,
LAGOZZA
,
WINDMILL HILL
, and
ALMERIA
. Although each had different specific characteristics they were seen as having more in common amongst themselves that with the LBK and TRB cultures of central and eastern parts of Europe. In particular, the presence of megalithic tombs, long barrows, round-based pottery, and an absence of painted decoration was used to characterize the differences.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Style of plain or little decorated early and middle Neolithic pottery found in the western parts of the British Isles, especially Ireland. In 1961 Humphrey Case defined Western Neolithic ware pottery as being round-based bowls, normally thin-walled, hard, generally dark-brown, and with a shouldered profile. Four substyles were recognized in Ireland: Dunmurry style; Ballymarlagh style, Limerick style, and the Lyles Hill style. The last mentioned was used by Isobel Smith in 1974 to help define a widespread class of early Neolithic pottery that she called the
Grimston–Lyles Hill
series; these vessels are now more commonly known as
CARINATED
bowls.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

A very large Cotswold–Severn-style long barrow with a chalk mound some 100m long and up to 3m high, perhaps constructed in two or more phases. Extensive excavations directed by Stuart
PIGGOTT
and Richard
ATKINSON
between 1955 and 1956 revealed that the mound was built from chalk quarried out of two flanking ditches originally 3m deep and 7m wide. The chamber, small in comparison to the mound, is of transepted plan and opens from the east end of the mound. Two pairs of cells open from the passage and there is a fifth cell at the far end of the passage. When first constructed the tomb was entered from a small forecourt which was later filled with stones. The burials lay scattered across the floors of all the cells within the chamber; at least 46 individuals in all, although many were incomplete disarticulated skeletons. Some pottery and personal ornaments were included with the burials. One of the burials had probably been shot with an arrow tipped by a leaf-shaped flint arrowhead. Radiocarbon dates suggest that the main period of use was between 3800 bc and 3400 bc. Sometime after 3000 bc the tomb fell out of use and was blocked up. Soil and stones were placed in the passage and chambers, and stones were piled up in the forecourt. A facade of large sarsen boulders was set up across the front making further access to the interior impossible.
[Rep. S. Piggott , 1963,
The West Kennet long barrow. Excavations 1955–56
. London: HMSO]

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

See
AVEBURY
.

 
Back
  -  
 
New Search

Westropp , Hodder Michael
(1820–85)
[Bi].

Irish archaeologist born in Co. Cork as the son of a moderately wealthy landowner. Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he was a flamboyant student who regarded himself as English because of family connections several generations earlier. While at Trinity he began work developing the Cycle of Development which was a framework for understanding the way that human societies developed under broadly similar conditions. In 1867 he published a
Handbook of archaeology
, the first such volume of its kind, and later produced works on Irish round towers. His most enduring contribution to scholarship was his definition and proposed introduction in 1872 of the term ‘
MESOLITHIC
’ as the technologically recognizable phase between the
PALAEOLITHIC
and the
NEOLITHIC
. It was not until 1893 and the work of J. A. Brown , however, that the term found its way into wider archaeological literature.
[Rev.:
Antiquity
, 57 (1983) 205–10]