Stone Worlds

Narrative and Reflexivity in Landscape Archaeology

Christopher Tilley author Barbara Bender author Sue Hamilton author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Left Coast Press Inc

Published:15th Feb '08

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Stone Worlds cover

This book represents an innovative experiment in presenting the results of a large-scale, multidisciplinary archaeological project. The well-known authors and their team examined the Neolithic and Bronze Age landscapes on Bodmin Moor of Southwest England, especially the site of Leskernick. The result is a multivocal, multidisciplinary telling of the stories of Bodmin Moor—both ancient and modern—using a large number of literary genres and academic disciplines. Dialogue, storytelling, poetry, photo essays and museum exhibits all appear in the volume, along with contributions from archaeologists, anthropologists, sociologists, geologists, and ecologists. The result is a major synthesis of the Bronze Age settlements and ritual sites of the Moor, contextualized within the Bronze Ages of southwestern and central Britain, and a tracing of the changing meaning of this landscape over the past five thousand years. Of obvious interest to those in British prehistory, this is a substantial presentation of a groundbreaking project that will also be of interest to many concerned with the interpretation of social landscapes and the public presentation of archaeology.

Stone Worlds will become one of the defining texts for the phenomenological approach to prehistoric archaeology. It combines narrative, dialogue, diary entries and photo essays to present sometimes conflicting ideas about human engagement with the ancient landscape, and recent artists (Henry Moore, Andy Goldsworthy) who focus upon setting as central themes in their work. The authors conducted five seasons of fieldwork in Leskernick on Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, setting out to reinterpret the landscape in its contemporary setting. They depart from a singular authoritative definition of the landscape, instead offering it to observers for their own interpretation. Covering stones in cling-film and painting them, as well as having a site poet, they present a vivid re-creation of the Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement and ritual sites of the moor. -Richard Lee, British Archaeology The directors explored the archaeologists' multifaceted perceptions of the excavation landscape. This ethnographic component is a noteworthy advance. An ethnography of archaeology can play a significant role in teasing out our experiences of landscapes and discerning how these experiences shape our understanding and exploration of archaeological sites. These innovations represent important steps towards a more full disclosure of field practice and relationships. In conclusion, this volume.represents a significant movement towards a more reflexive methodology in archeology. The complete review may be read online at: http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=3237 http://wings.buffalo.edu/ARD/cgi/showme.cgi?keycode=3237 -Anna Boozer, Anthropology Review Database

ISBN: 9781598742183

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 453g

476 pages