The megalithic monuments of Western Europe cover a period of over 2,000 years, from the earliest neolithic to the beginning of the Bronze Age, and have excited the popular imagination for centuries. Based on the evidence of recent excavations, and the most up-to-date and controversial theoretical perspectives of archaeology, Statements in Stone is the first account to put the megalithic traditions of Brittany in a social context and to develop a social model to account for their emergence and development.

Islands in Time explores the ecological and cultural development of prehistoric island societies. It considers the prehistory of the Mediterranean and offers an explanation of the effects of isolation on the development of human communities. Evidence is drawn from a broad range of Mediterranean islands including Cyprus, Crete and the Cyclades, Malta, Lipari, Corsica and Sardinia.

"Islands in Time" explores the ecological and cultural development of prehistoric island societies, considers the prehistory of the Mediterranean and offers an explanation of the effects of isolation on the development of human communities.
This study details the fundamental questions that are raised about colonization processes, the human impact on ecosystems, cultural development on islands, and the significance of inter-island and island-mainland interaction. Evidence is drawn from a broad range of Mediterranean islands, including Cyprus, Crete and the Cyclades, Malta, Lipari, Corsica and Sardinia. Developing a general theoretical model of island sociogeography, "Islands in Time" provides insight into the broader question of how island populations inter-relate with their environments.

Contents:
Note on the use of radiocarbon dates Acknowledgements 1. Megaliths and Society, an Introduction 2. Centres of Production and Spheres of Interaction: Stone Axe Exchange in the Armorican Neolithic 3. Long Mounds and Giant Menhirs: Ritual Landscapes of the First Farmers. 4. Monuments in a Coastal Landscape: Passage Graves of the Armorican Littoral. 5. Statements of Power and Symbols of Wealth: the Great Mounds and Alignments of the Carnac Region 6. Land for the Living, Tombs for the Dead: Burial Monuments of the Late Neolithic. 7. Sealing the Tombs: the abandonment of Megaliths. 8. Conclusion: Ritual Landscapes and Social Structure in the Armorican Neolithic

Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913), first Lord Avebury, was a leading figure in the scientific, political and economic world of Victorian Britain, and his life provides an illuminating case study into the ways that these different facets were interlinked during the nineteenth century. Born into a Kent banking family, Lubbock's education was greatly influenced by his neighbour, Charles Darwin, and after the publication of The Origin of Species, he was one of his most vocal supporters. A pioneer of both entomology and archaeology and a successful author, Lubbock also ran the family bank from 1865 until his death in 1913, and served as a Liberal MP from 1870 until his ennoblement in 1900. In all these roles he proved extremely successful, but it is the inter-relations between science, politics and business that forms the core of this book. In particular it explores the way in which Lubbock acted as a link between the scientific worlds of Darwin, Huxley and Tyndall, the political world of Gladstone and Chamberlain and the business world of Edison and Carnegie. By tying these threads together this study shows the important role Lubbock played in defining and popularising the Victorian ideal of progress and its relationship to society, culture and Empire.

This is the first full-length study of the prehistoric history of the Channel Islands since 1937. Using modern techniques of anthropological archaeology and theory Patton records in detail the evidence for the Neolithic period (5000-2000 BC) and develops a model for socio-cultural change in the islands; in particular he examines the effects of insularity on their historical and cultural developemnt. In six appendices he presents details of the islands' flint assemblages, stone axes and pottery, and an inventory of sites.