Author Description

These papers highlight recent archaeological work in Northern England, in thecommercial, academic and community archaeology sectors, which have fundamentallychanged our perspective on the Neolithic of the area. Much of this was new work (andmuch is still not published) has been overlooked in the national discourse. It is worthnoting that this would be the first volume dedicated to the Neolithic of northernEngland since Neolithic Studies in No Man's Land in 1996 and would complimentOxbow's volume Prehistory without borders, which focused on the Tyne-Forth areaover a wider time span. The papers cover a wide geographical area, from Lancashire north into the ScottishLowlands, recognising the irrelevance of the England/Scotland Border. They also take abroad chronological sweep, from the Mesolithic/Neolithic transition to theintroduction of Beakers into the area. The key themes are: the nature of transition; theneed for a much-improved chronological framework; regional variation linked tolandscape character; links within northern England and with distant places; theimplications of new dating for our understanding 'the axe trade; the changing natureof settlement and agriculture; the character early Neolithic enclosures; the need tointegrate rock art into wider discourse.