This collection of papers by an international chort of contributors explores the nature of the maritime connections that appear to have existed in the Transmanche/English Channel Zone during later prehistory. Organised into three themes, ‘Movement and Identity in the Transmanche Zone’; ‘Travel and exchange’; ‘Identity and Landscape’, the papers seek to articulate notions of frontier, mobility and identity from the end of the 3rd to the beginning of the 1st millennium BC, a time when the archaeological evidence suggests that the sea facilitated connections between peoples on both sides of the Channel rather than acting as a barrier as it is so often perceived today. Recent decades have since a massive increase in large-scale excavation programmes on either side of the Channel in advance of major infra-structure and urban development, resulting in the acqusition of huge, complex new datasets enabling new insights into later prehistoric life in this crucially important region. Papers consider the role of several key archaeologists in transforming our appreciation of the connectivity of the sea in prehistory; consider the extent to which the Channel zone developed into a closely unified cultural zone during later Bronze Age in terms of communities that serviced the movement of artefacts across the Channel with both sides sharing widely in the same artefacts and social practices; examine funerary practices and settlement evidence and consider the relationship between communities in social, cultural and ideological terms; and consider mechanisms for the transmission of ideas and how they may be reflected in the archaeological record.

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table Of Contents
• Preface
• 1. To think of leaving: mobility and identities in Western Europe during the Bronze Age
• 2. On migrations: Sigfried Jan De Laet (1914–1999): his role in Belgian Bronze Age archaeology after the Second World War and the diffusion of cultural characteristics
• 3. Marcel Édouard Mariën (1918–1991) and the metal ages in Belgium. Undoing the Atlantic wall
• 4. Transmanche in the Penard/Rosnoën stage. Wearing the same sleeve or keeping at arm’s length?
• 5. At World’s End: the Channel Bronze Age and the emergence and limits of the Atlantic complex
• 6. Rythmes et contours de la géographie culturelle sur le littoral de la Manche entre le IIIe et le début du Ier millénaire
• 7. The Atlantic Early Iron Age in Gaul
• 8. Following the Whale’s Road: perceptions of the sea in prehistory
• 9. Circular funerary monuments at the beginning of the Bronze Age in the north of France: architecture and duration of use
• 10. Evolution of rites and funerary systems during the Early and Middle Bronze Age in the north-west of France
• 11. La nécropole de Soliers ‘PA.EOLE’ (14) : nouvelles données en faveur d’un complexe medio-atlantique
• 12. Open Bronze Age settlement forms in the north of France: state of knowledge and study strategies
• 13. Les découvertes récentes de mobilier céramique Bronze ancien-début Bronze final dans le nord-ouest de la France
• 14. Bronze Age ceramic traditions and the impact of the natural barrier: complex links between decoration, technique and social groups around the Channel
• 15. Evolution des faciès céramiques au Bronze final et à l’aube du premier Âge du Fer, entre Somme, Escaut et rivages de la Manche (France, région Nord-Picardie)
• 16. The Channel: border and link during the Bronze Age
• 17. Water between two worlds – reflections on the explanatory value of archaeological finds in a Bronze Age river landscape
• 18. Le passage des Alpes : voyages et échanges entre l’Italie et la Suisse (2200–700 av. J.-C.)