Andrew Cochrane - Visualising the Neolithic : abstraction, figuration, performance, representation

Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers
Series Editor: Timothy Darvill

Published by
Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK

Oxbow Books and the authors, 2012
ISBN 978-1-84217-477-7
EPUB ISBN: XXXXXXXXXXXXX

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Front image (the cow): Drumsinnot, Co. Louth, Ireland. Ken Williams 2012.
Back image: Orthostat L19, Newgrange Site 1, Co. Meath, Ireland. Ken Williams 2012.

A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Visualising the Neolithic : abstraction, figuration, performance, representation / edited by Andrew Cochrane
and Andrew Meirion Jones.
p. cm. -- (Neolithic studies group seminar papers ; v. 13)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-84217-477-7
1. Neolithic period--Great Britain. 2. Neolithic period--Europe. 3. Passage Graves culture--Great Britain. 4.
Passage Graves culture--Europe. 5. Megalithic monuments--Great Britain. 6. Megalithic monuments--Europe.
7. Rock art--Great Britain. 8. Rock art--Europe. 9. Great Britainx--Antiquities. 10. Europe--Antiquities. I.
Cochrane, Andrew. II. Jones, Andrew Meirion.
GN776.22.G7V57 2012
936.1--dc23

2012029362

Printed in Great Britain by
Hobbs the Printers
Totton, Hampshire

Foreword

This book presents the proceedings of a seminar organized by the Neolithic Studies Group (NSG), working in association with the Lithic Studies Society, and forms part of an ongoing series of NSG seminar papers. The NSG is an informal organization comprising archaeologists with an interest in Neolithic archaeology. It was established in 1984 and has a large membership based mainly in the UK and Ireland, but also including workers from the nations of the Atlantic seaboard. The annual programme includes two or three meetings spread throughout the year and includes seminars held in London and field meetings at various locations in north-west Europe.

Membership is open to anyone with an active interest in the Neolithic in Europe. The present membership includes academic staff and students, museums staff, archaeologists from government institutions, units, trusts and amateur organizations. There is no membership procedure or application forms and members are those on the current mailing list. Anyone can be added to the mailing list at any time, the only membership rule being that names of those who do not attend any of four consecutive meetings are removed from the list (in the absence of apologies for absence or requests to remain on the list).

The Group relies on the enthusiasm of its members to organize its annual meetings and the two co-ordinators to maintain mailing lists and finances. Financial support for the group is drawn from a small fee payable for attendance of each meeting.

Anyone wishing to contact the Group and obtain information about forthcoming meetings should contact the co-ordinators at the following addresses:

Alternatively visit the NSG website: http://www.neolithic.org.uk/

This book is dedicated to the artist and photographer Ken Williams whose work is actively forwarding archaeological research and whose photographs embellish the cover of this book.

To view more of Kens wonderful photography go to: www.shadowsandstone.com

Contents

1. Visualising the Neolithic: an introduction
Andrew Cochrane and Andrew Meirion Jones

2. Strange swans and odd ducks: interpreting the ambiguous waterfowl imagery of Lake Onega
Antti Lahelma

3. Noble death: images of violence in the rock art of the White Sea
Liliana Janik

4. Reading between the grooves: regional variations in the style and deployment of cup and ring marked stones across Britain and Ireland
Kate Sharpe

5. Ben Lawers: carved rocks on a loud mountain
Richard Bradley and Aaron Watson

6. Living rocks: animacy, performance and the rock art of the Kilmartin region, Argyll, Scotland
Andrew Meirion Jones

7. The halberd pillar at Ri Cruin cairn, Kilmartin, Argyll
Stuart Needham and Trevor Cowie

8. Painting a picture of Neolithic Orkney: decorated stonework from the Ness of Brodgar
Nick Card and Antonia Thomas

9. Inside and outside: visual culture at Loughcrew, Co Meath
Elizabeth Shee Twohig

10. The figurative part of an abstract Neolithic iconography: hypotheses and directions of research in Irish and British Passage tomb art
Guillaume Robin

11. Assuming the jigsaw had only one piece: abstraction, figuration and the interpretation of Irish Passage tomb art
Robert Hensey

12. Composing the Neolithic at Knockroe
Andrew Cochrane

13. The circle, the cross and the limits of abstraction and figuration in north-western Iberian rock art
Lara Bacelar Alves

14. The Grimes Graves Goddess: an inscrutable smile
Gillian Varndell

15. The life and death of Linearbandkeramik figurines
Daniela Hofmann

16. The nos to the left have it!: sidedness and materiality of prehistoric artefacts
Bisserka Gaydarska

17. The shell, the pin and the earring: Balkan Copper Age mortuary costumes in context
John Chapman

18. Trapped in postures
Stratos Nanoglou

19. Discussion: personality and Neolithic visual media
David Robinson

List of Contributors

L ARA B ACELAR A LVES

R ICHARD B RADLEY

Department of Archaeology

University of Reading

Whiteknights

Reading, RG6 6AH

N ICK C ARD

Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology

Orkney College (UHI)

Kirkwall, KW15 1LX

J OHN C HAPMAN

Durham University

Department of Archaeology

Durham, DH1 3LE

A NDREW C OCHRANE

Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures

64 The Close

Norwich, NR1 4DW

T REVOR C OWIE

Department of Archaeology

National Museums Scotland

Chambers Street

Edinburgh, EH1 1JF

B ISSERKA G AYDARSKA

Durham University

Department of Archaeology

Durham, DH1 3LE

R OBERT H ENSEY

Contact via: Dept. of Archaeology

School of Geography and Archaeology

NUI Galway, Co. Galway

http://independent.academia.edu/RobertHensey

D ANIELA H OFMANN

Cardiff University Centre for Lifelong Learning

Senghennydd Road

Cardiff, CF24 4AG

L ILIANA J ANIK

Department of Archaeology

University of Cambridge

Downing Street

Cambridge, CB2 3DZ

A NDREW M ERION J ONES

Archaeology

Faculty of Humanities

University of Southampton

Highfield

Southampton, SO17 1BF

A NTTI L AHELMA

Department of Archaeology

University of Helsinki

Unioninkatu 38F

P.O Box 59

00014 Helsingin yliopisto

Finland

G UILLAUME R OBIN

Universit degli Studi di Sassari

Facolt di Lettere e Filosofia

Piazza Conte di Moriana, 8

07100 Sassari