Land and People: Papers in Memory of John G. Evans (Prehistoric Society Research Papers)

This volume is derived, in concept, from a conference held in honour of John Evans by the School of History and Archaeology and The Prehistoric Society at Cardiff University in March 2006. It brings together papers that address themes and landscapes on a variety of levels. They cover geographical, methodological and thematic areas that were of interest to, and had been studied by, John Evans. The volume is divided into five sections, which echo themes of importance in British prehistory. They include papers on aspects of environmental archaeology, experiments and philosophy; new research on the nature of woodland on the chalklands of southern England; coasts and islands; people, process and social order, and snails and shells - a strong part of John Evans' career. This volume presents a range of papers examining people's interaction with the landscape in all its forms. The papers provide a diverse but cohesive picture of how archaeological landscapes are viewed within current research frameworks and approaches, while also paying tribute to the innovative and inspirational work of one of the leading protagonists of environmental archaeology and the holistic approach to landscape interpretation.Table of ContentsPart 1: John, Environmental Archaeology, Experiment and Philosophy 1. Professor John Gwynne Evans, 1941–2005 aka ‘Snails’ Evans – an appreciation (Michael J. Allen) 2. Culture and Environment; mind the gap (Terry O’Connor) 3. ‘We opened up a really nice porcelain door handle’ (Steve Mills) 4. Experimental Archaeology: changing science agendas and perceptual perspectives (Martin Bell) Part 2: Trees and Chalklands 5. If you go Down the Woods Today; a re-evaluation of chalkland postglacial woodland; implications for prehistoric communities (Michael J. Allen and Julie Gardiner) 6. Land Snails and Woodland Clearances: modern ecological studies and their archaeological implications (Paul Davies and Neville Gardner) 7. Peopling the landscape; prehistory of the Wylye Valley, Wiltshire (Julie Gardiner and Michael J. Allen) 8. A Landscape Tale of Two Soil Histories in Lowland Zones of England: the fen-edge of Cambridgeshire and the downland of Cranborne Chase (Charles French) 9. Cows in the Wood (Frances Healy) Part 3: Coasts and Islands 10. Living in the Sands – Bronze Age Gwithian, Cornwall, revisited (Jacqueline A. Nowakowski) 11. The Construction of Barrows in Bronze Age Orkney – an ‘assuagement of guilt’? (Jane Downes) 12. On the Islandness of St Kilda (Andrew Fleming) 13. Beaker Settlement in the Western Isles (Niall Sharples) Part 4: Archaeology, Snails and Shells 14. Environmental Change in an Orkney Wetland: plant and molluscan evidence from Quoyloo Meadow (Terry O’Connor and M. Jane Bunting) 15. Mysteries of the Middens: change and continuity across the Mesolithic~Neolithic transition (Nicky Milner and Oliver E. Craig) 16. Environmental Archaeology of the Roman villa at Rock, Brighstone, Isle of Wight (George R. Speller, Richard C. Preece and Simon A. Parfitt) 17. Ena Montana (Drap.) and Neolithic Woodland Regeneration in Southern England (Mark Robinson) Part 5: People, Process and Social Order 18. As We Were Saying: connecting people and places (Alasdair Whittle) 19. Manure and the Medieval social order (Richard Jones) 20. The Social Face of Threshing Floors (Aikaterini K. Paschali)