The ‘western seaways’ are an arc of sea extending from the Channel Islands in the south, through the Isles of Scilly around to Orkney in the north. This maritime zone has long been seen as a crucial corridor of interaction during later prehistory. Connections across it potentially led, for example, to the eventual arrival of the Neolithic in Britain, almost 1000 years after it arrived on the near continent. This book’s primary focus is Early Neolithic settlement on islands within the ‘western seaways’ – sites that offer significant insight into the character of the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in this particular maritime zone. It also explores a series of directly related, wider themes: the nature and effects of ‘island-ness’ in later prehistory; the visibility of material connections across the sea; the extent of Neolithic settlement variability across Britain; and the consequences of geographical biases in research for our understanding of the prehistoric past. At the heart of the book lie the results of three substantial excavations at L’Erée, Guernsey; Old Quay, St Martin’s (Isles of Scilly); and An Doirlinn, South Uist. Key findings include: the first major Mesolithic flint assemblage recovered from Scilly; one of the most extensively excavated and long-lasting Neolithic/Bronze Age occupation sites in the Channel Islands; the first substantial Neolithic settlement on Scilly; and the longest sequence of Neolithic/Early Bronze Age occupation on a single site from the Outer Hebrides. In order to contextualise the significance of these findings, we also present an extended discussion and broad synthesis of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeology on each island group.

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1. Introduction
  • 1.1. Introduction to the Stepping Stones project
  • 1.2. The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain, Ireland and north-west France
  • 1.3. The ‘western seaways’
  • 1.4. The changing palaeogeography of Britain and Ireland
    • Channel Islands
    • Isles of Scilly
    • Outer Hebrides
    • Summary
  • 1.5. Early Neolithic settlement in Britain and Ireland
  • 1.6. The Mesolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age archaeology of the Channel Islands, Isles of Scilly and Outer Hebrides
    • Channel Islands
    • Isles of Scilly
    • Outer Hebrides
  • 1.7. Volume overview: key themes
• Chapter 2. L’Erée, Guernsey, Channel Islands
  • 2.1. Introduction
    • Geology and topography
    • Previous work at the site
    • Research objectives
  • 2.2. Survey and excavation strategy
    • Survey strategy
    • Excavation strategy
    • Excavation methodology
  • 2.3. Results
    • The soil sequence
    • Artefact distributions within the stratified deposits
    • Archaeological features
  • 2.4. Prehistoric pottery (by Anwen Cooper)
  • 2.5. Chipped stone (by Anne Pirie & Donovan Hawley)
  • 2.6. Worked stone (by Duncan Garrow & John Renouf)
  • 2.7. Micromorphology (by Charles French)
  • 2.8. Environmental analysis (by Julie Jones, Rob Scaife and Fraser Sturt)
  • 2.9. Radiocarbon dating (by Duncan Garrow & Seren Griffiths)
  • 2.10. Discussion: Mesolithic to Bronze Age occupation at L’Erée
• Chapter 3. Old Quay, St Martin’s, Isles of Scilly
  • 3.1. Introduction
    • Geology, topography and environment
    • Previous work at the site
    • Research objectives
  • 3.2. Excavation strategy and methodology
  • 3.3. Results
    • The soil sequence
    • Artefact distributions
    • Archaeological features
  • 3.4. Prehistoric pottery (by Henrietta Quinnell with Roger Taylor)
  • 3.5. Worked flint, chert and quartz (by Martin Tingle & Hugo Anderson-Whymark)
  • 3.6. Worked stone (by Henrietta Quinnell with Roger Taylor)
  • 3.7. Pumice (by Katharine Sawyer)
  • 3.8. Environmental analysis (by Julie Jones, Ceren Kabukcu & Fraser Sturt)
  • 3.9. Radiocarbon dating (by Duncan Garrow & Seren Griffiths)
  • 3.10. Discussion: Mesolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Romano-British occupation at Old Quay
• Chapter 4. An Doirlinn, South Uist, Outer Hebrides
  • 4.1. Introduction
    • Geology, topography and environment
    • Previous work at the site
    • Research objectives
  • 4.2. Excavation strategy and methodology
  • 4.3. Results
    • Phase 1: Hebridean Neolithic
    • Phase 2: Grooved Ware
    • Phase 3: Beaker
    • Phase 4: Modern
  • 4.4. Prehistoric pottery (by Mike Copper)
  • 4.5. Chipped stone (by Anne Pirie)
  • 4.6. Worked and utilised stone (by Hugo Anderson-Whymark)
  • 4.7. Pumice (by Elise Fraser)
  • 4.8. Bone (by Duncan Garrow with Jaco Weinstock)
  • 4.9. Environmental evidence (by Ceren Kabukcu, Julie Jones & Fraser Sturt)
  • 4.10. Radiocarbon dating (by Duncan Garrow & Seren Griffiths)
  • 4.11. Discussion: Early Neolithic to Early Bronze Age occupation at An Doirlinn
• Chapter 5. Discussion: ‘insular connectivity’ across the western seaways
  • 5.1. Introduction: ‘islandness’ – a context-specific concept
  • 5.2. Differential traditions of research
  • 5.3. Settlement variability
  • 5.4. Material signatures of connectivity and ‘islandness’
  • 5.5. Summary: ebbs and flows, contrasts and contradictions, connections and separations
• Appendix 1. Chipped stone post-excavation analysis sampling strategies
• Bibliography