Publisher's Synopsis
This book provides an innovatory approach to the publication of archaeological fieldwork, while exploring broad issues relating to the nature of the British Bronze Age and its regional variability. It offers a major critique of current excavation practice and more particularly its British Bronze Age data bases. Through the medium of the Bronze Age of southern Britain and recent excavations at the extensive and renowned Bronze Age settlement and ritual complex at Leskernick, northwest Bodmin Moor, the book examines:
- our current understanding of the Bronze Age across Britain
- the methodologies which have been applied to the excavation and study of Bronze Age sites
- the implications of these for fieldwork practice.
The volume forms a stand-alone essay of wide relevance to extant British Bronze Age studies, and to growing debate concerning the nature of field research and commercial excavation practice. It additionally provides a companion volume to the interdisciplinary volume: B. Bender, S. Hamilton, and C. Tilley Stone Worlds: Exploring Prehistoric and Contemporary Landscapes (currently being refereed by UCL Press). The format of Excavating Stone Worlds wholly breaks the mould of traditional fieldwork write-ups in its issue-led structure, and in its significantly different use of format, text, and imagery. The Appendices provide alternative routes into the data bases encompassed by the book, and present useful synthetic data on the British Bronze Age as a whole.
