Books > Humanities > Archaeology > Archaeology by period / region > Prehistoric archaeology
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Making One's Way in the World - The Footprints and Trackways of Prehistoric People (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R1,426
Discovery Miles 14 260
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Making One's Way in the World - The Footprints and Trackways of Prehistoric People (Hardcover)
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Donate to Against Period Poverty
Total price: R1,446
Discovery Miles: 14 460
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The book draws on the evidence of landscape archaeology,
palaeoenvironmental studies, ethnohistory and animal tracking to
address the neglected topic of how we identify and interpret past
patterns of movement in the landscape. It challenges the pessimism
of previous generations which regarded prehistoric routes such as
hollow ways as generally undatable. The premise is that
archaeologists tend to focus on 'sites' while neglecting the
patterns of habitual movement that made them part of living
landscapes. Evidence of past movement is considered in a
multi-scalar way from the individual footprint to the long distance
path including the traces created in vegetation by animal and human
movement. It is argued that routes may be perpetuated over long
timescales creating landscape structures which influence the
activities of subsequent generations. In other instances radical
changes of axes of communication and landscape structures provide
evidence of upheaval and social change. Palaeoenvironmental and
ethnohistorical evidence from the American North West coast sets
the scene with evidence for the effects of burning, animal
movement, faeces deposition and transplantation which can create
readable routes along which are favoured resources. Evidence from
European hunter-gatherer sites hints at similar practices of niche
construction on a range of spatial scales. On a local scale,
footprints help to establish axes of movement, the locations of
lost settlements and activity areas. Wood trackways likewise
provide evidence of favoured patterns of movement and past
settlement location. Among early farming communities alignments of
burial mounds, enclosure entrances and other monuments indicate
axes of communication. From the middle Bronze Age in Europe there
is more clearly defined evidence of trackways flanked by ditches
and fields. Landscape scale survey and excavation enables the
dating of trackways using spatial relationships with dated features
and many examples indicate long-term continuity of routeways. Where
fields flank routeways a range of methods, including scientific
approaches, provide dates. Prehistorians have often assumed that
Ridgeways provided the main axes of early movement but there is
little evidence for their early origins and rather better evidence
for early routes crossing topography and providing connections
between different environmental zones. The book concludes with a
case study of the Weald of South East England which demonstrates
that some axes of cross topographic movement used as droveways, and
generally considered as early medieval, can be shown to be of
prehistoric origin. One reason that dryland routes have proved
difficult to recognise is that insufficient attention has been paid
to the parts played by riverine and maritime longer distance
communication. It is argued that understanding the origins of the
paths we use today contributes to appreciation of the distinctive
qualities of landscapes. Appreciation will help to bring about
effective strategies for conservation of mutual benefit to people
and wildlife by maintaining and enhancing corridors of connectivity
between different landscape zones including fragmented nature
reserves and valued places. In these ways an understanding of past
routeways can contribute to sustainable landscapes, communities and
quality of life.
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