Visualising the Neolithic : abstraction, figuration, performance, representation

313 Pages·2012·16.34 MB·English

by  Andrew Cochrane

V n
isualising the eolithic

Visualising the Neolithic: Abstraction,
Figuration, Performance, Representation
Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 13
Edited by
Andrew Cochrane and Andrew Meirion Jones
Oxbow Books
Oxford and Oakville
Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Series Editor: Timothy Darvill
Published by
Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK
© Oxbow Books and the authors, 2012
ISBN 978-1-84218-477-7
This book is available direct from:
Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK
(Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone])
and
The David Brown Book Company
PO Box 511, Oakville, CT 06779, USA
(Phone: [phone]; Fax: [phone])
or from our website
www.oxbowbooks.com
Front image (the cow): Drumsinnot, Co. Louth, Ireland. © Ken Williams 2012.
Back image: Orthostat L19, Newgrange Site 1, Co. Meath, Ireland. © Ken Williams 2012.
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Visualising the Neolithic : abstraction, figuration, performance, representation / edited by Andrew Cochrane
and Andrew Meirion Jones.
p. cm. -- (Neolithic studies group seminar papers ; v. 13)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-84217-477-7
1. Neolithic period--Great Britain. 2. Neolithic period--Europe. 3. Passage Graves culture--Great Britain. 4.
Passage Graves culture--Europe. 5. Megalithic monuments--Great Britain. 6. Megalithic monuments--Europe.
7. Rock art--Great Britain. 8. Rock art--Europe. 9. Great Britainx--Antiquities. 10. Europe--Antiquities. I.
Cochrane, Andrew. II. Jones, Andrew Meirion.
GN776.22.G7V57 2012
936.1--dc23
2012029362
Printed in Great Britain by
Hobbs the Printers
Totton, Hampshire
Foreword
This book presents the proceedings of a seminar organized by the Neolithic Studies
Group (NSG), working in association with the Lithic Studies Society, and forms part of an
ongoing series of NSG seminar papers. The NSG is an informal organization comprising
archaeologists with an interest in Neolithic archaeology. It was established in 1984 and has
a large membership based mainly in the UK and Ireland, but also including workers from
the nations of the Atlantic seaboard. The annual programme includes two or three meetings
spread throughout the year and includes seminars held in London and field meetings at
various locations in north-west Europe.
Membership is open to anyone with an active interest in the Neolithic in Europe. The
present membership includes academic staff and students, museums staff, archaeologists
from government institutions, units, trusts and amateur organizations. There is no
membership procedure or application forms and members are those on the current mailing
list. Anyone can be added to the mailing list at any time, the only membership rule being
that names of those who do not attend any of four consecutive meetings are removed from
the list (in the absence of apologies for absence or requests to remain on the list).
The Group relies on the enthusiasm of its members to organize its annual meetings
and the two co-ordinators to maintain mailing lists and finances. Financial support for the
group is drawn from a small fee payable for attendance of each meeting.
Anyone wishing to contact the Group and obtain information about forthcoming
meetings should contact the co-ordinators at the following addresses:
timothy DarVill Kenneth Brophy
School of Applied Sciences Department of Archaeology
Bournemouth University University of Glasgow
Poole Glasgow
Dorset BH12 5BB G12 8QQ
Alternatively visit the NSG website: http://www.neolithic.org.uk/
This book is dedicated to the artist and photographer Ken Williams
whose work is actively forwarding archaeological research
and whose photographs embellish the cover of this book.

To view more of Ken’s wonderful photography go to:
www.shadowsandstone.com
Contents
Foreword by Timothy Darvill and Kenneth Brophy ..........................................................................v
List of Contributors ......................................................................................................................ix
1. Visualising the Neolithic: an introduction...........................................................................1
Andrew Cochrane and Andrew Meirion Jones
2. Strange swans and odd ducks: interpreting the ambiguous waterfowl
imagery of Lake Onega ........................................................................................................15
Antti Lahelma
3. ‘Noble death’: images of violence in the rock art of the White Sea ...........................34
Liliana Janik
4. Reading between the grooves: regional variations in the style and deployment
of ‘cup and ring’ marked stones across Britain and Ireland ..........................................47
Kate Sharpe
5. Ben Lawers: carved rocks on a loud mountain ...............................................................64
Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson
6. Living rocks: animacy, performance and the rock art of the Kilmartin region,
Argyll, Scotland .....................................................................................................................79
Andrew Meirion Jones
7. The halberd pillar at Ri Cruin cairn, Kilmartin, Argyll ..................................................89
Stuart Needham and Trevor Cowie
8. Painting a picture of Neolithic Orkney: decorated stonework
from the Ness of Brodgar ................................................................................................111
Nick Card and Antonia Thomas
9. Inside and outside: visual culture at Loughcrew, Co Meath ........................................125
Elizabeth Shee Twohig
10. The figurative part of an abstract Neolithic iconography: hypotheses
and directions of research in Irish and British Passage tomb art ...............................140
Guillaume Robin
11. Assuming the jigsaw had only one piece: abstraction, figuration
and the interpretation of Irish Passage tomb art ..........................................................161
Robert Hensey
viii Contents
12. Composing the Neolithic at Knockroe ..........................................................................179
Andrew Cochrane
13. The circle, the cross and the limits of abstraction and figuration
in north-western Iberian rock art ....................................................................................198
Lara Bacelar Alves
14. The Grimes Graves Goddess: an inscrutable smile ........................................215
Gillian Varndell
15. The life and death of Linearbandkeramik figurines ........................................226
Daniela Hofmann
16. ‘The ‘no’s’ to the left have it!’: sidedness and materiality
of prehistoric artefacts ..........................................................................................243
Bisserka Gaydarska
17. The shell, the pin and the earring: Balkan Copper Age mortuary
costumes in context ...............................................................................................260
John Chapman
18. Trapped in postures ..............................................................................................279
Stratos Nanoglou
19. Discussion: personality and Neolithic visual media ........................................291
David Robinson
List of Contributors
lara Bacelar alVes roBert hensey
[email protected] Contact via: Dept. of Archaeology
School of Geography and Archaeology
richarD BraDley NUI Galway, Co. Galway
Department of Archaeology http://independent.academia.edu/
University of Reading RobertHensey
Whiteknights
Reading, RG6 6AH Daniela hofmann
Cardiff University Centre for Lifelong
[email protected]
Learning
Senghennydd Road
nicK carD
Cardiff, CF24 4AG
Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology
[email protected]
Orkney College (UHI)
Kirkwall, KW15 1LX
liliana JaniK
[email protected]
Department of Archaeology
University of Cambridge
John chapman
Downing Street
Durham University
Cambridge, CB2 3DZ
Department of Archaeology
[email protected]
Durham, DH1 3LE
[email protected]
anDrew merion Jones
Archaeology
anDrew cochrane Faculty of Humanities
Sainsbury Institute for the Study of
University of Southampton
Japanese Arts and Cultures
Highfield
64 The Close
Southampton, SO17 1BF
Norwich, NR1 4DW
[email protected]
[email protected]
antti lahelma
treVor cowie Department of Archaeology
Department of Archaeology University of Helsinki
National Museums Scotland Unioninkatu 38F
Chambers Street P.O Box 59
Edinburgh, EH1 1JF 00014 Helsingin yliopisto
[email protected] Finland
[email protected]
BisserKa gayDarsKa
Durham University
Department of Archaeology
Durham, DH1 3LE
[email protected]