Celebrates Alison Sheridan’s influential research on Neolithic to Bronze Age material culture, pottery, and monumentality in Britain and Ireland.
This third title in the new Oxbow Reflections series celebrates the academic career of leading British prehistorian Alison Sheridan as seen through her many contributions to collected works and monographs published by Oxbow Books. In collaboration with the author, we have selected papers that reflect some of the major themes that have been the subject of her long-term research into the understanding and interpretation of many aspects of material culture and monumentality in the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age of Britain and Ireland, within their European context
Alison has published meticulously researched contributions on specific object types and materials from countless excavations and research projects, from jewellery of jet, faience, amber and gold to jadeitite axeheads, with a particular focus on Scotland. She is most renowned for her decades’ long work on developing a typological and chronological framework for the introduction, manufacture and use of pottery in the Scottish and Irish Neolithic and on the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in Britain and Ireland, re-evaluating the evidence in the light of developments in radiocarbon dating and isotope and ancient DNA analysis.
In these papers we see demonstrated the breadth and development of some of Alison’s key interests and most influential ideas that continue to inspire scholars and stimulate debate. Includes an introduction by the author.
Celebrates the career and influence of Alison Sheridan on our understanding of material culture and society in Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Ireland in their European context, seen through her Oxbow Books publications. Papers are selected to demonstrate key areas of her research and the development of her ideas.
Sources
Editorial note
Preface
1. Introduction
2. The Neolithization of Britain and Ireland: The Big Picture (from B.
Finlayson and G. Warren (eds), Landscapes in Transition. 2010)
3. Ancient DNA and Modelling the MesolithicNeolithic Transition in Britain
and Ireland (with Alasdair Whittle, from A. Whittle, J. Pollard and S.
Greaney (eds), Ancient DNA and the European Neolithic: Relations and Descent.
2022)
4. Interdigitating Pasts: The Irish and Scottish Neolithics (from P. Bickle,
V. Cummings, D. Hofmann and J. Pollard (eds), The Neolithic of Europe: Papers
in Honour of Alasdair Whittle. 2017)
5. Making Sense of Scottish Neolithic Funerary Monuments: Tracing
Trajectories and Understanding their Rationale (with Rick Schulting, from
A.-B. Gebauer, L. Sørensen, A. Teather and A.C. Valera (eds), Monumentalising
Life in the Neolithic: Narratives of Change and Continuity. 2020)
6. Grooved Ware in Orkney (from M. Copper, A. Whittle and A. Sheridan (eds),
Revisiting Grooved Ware: Understanding Ceramic Trajectories in Britain and
Ireland, 32002400 cal BC. 2023)
7. Grooved Ware in Britain and Ireland, 2023: Retrospect and Prospect (from
M. Copper, A. Whittle and A. Sheridan (eds), Revisiting Grooved Ware:
Understanding Ceramic Trajectories in Britain and Ireland, 32002400 cal BC.
2023)
8. A Rumsfeld Reality Check: What We Know, What We Dont Know and What We
Dont Know We Dont Know About the Chalcolithic in Britain and Ireland (from
M.J. Allen, J. Gardiner and A. Sheridan (eds) Is There a British
Chalcolithic? People, Place and Polity in the Later Third Millennium. 2012)
9. Contextualising Kilmartin: Building a Narrative for Developments in
Western Scotland and Beyond, from the Early Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age
(from A.M. Jones, J. Pollard, M.J. Allen and J. Gardiner (eds), Image, Memory
and Monumentality; Archaeological Engagements with the Material World. 2012)
10. Dating the Scottish Bronze Age: There is Clearly Much that the Material
Can Still Tell Us (from C. Burgess, P. Topping and F. Lynch (eds), Beyond
Stonehenge: Essays on the Bronze Age in Honour of Colin Burgess. 2007)
11. Discussion of Disc Bead and Spacer Plate Necklaces of Jet and Jet-like
Materials (from J. Hunter and A. Woodward, Ritual in Early Bronze Age Grave
Goods: An Examination of Ritual and Dress Equipment from Chalcolithic and
Early Bronze Age Graves in England. 2015)
12. Fifty Shades of Green: The Irresistible Attraction, Use and Significance
of Jadeitite and Other Green Alpine Rock Types in Neolithic Europe (with
Pierre Pétrequin, Anne-Marie Pétrequin, Serge Cassen, Michel Errera, Estelle
Gauthier and Frédéric Prodéo, from C. Rodríguez-Rellán, B.A. Nelson and R.
Fábregas Valcarce (eds), A Taste for Green: A Global Perspective On Ancient
Jade, Turquoise and Variscite Exchange. 2019)
