Emphasizing past gains in knowledge from experimental, aerial and field archaeology, Dr Fowler demonstrates how the application of archaeological approaches to agrarian history has made the subject central to our understanding of the prehistoric period. Emphasizing past gains in knowledge from experimental, aerial and field archaeology, Dr Fowler demonstrates how the application of archaeological approaches to agrarian history has made the subject central to our understanding of the prehistoric period.

Francis Pryor maintains that early farming in Britain has been misunderstood because British archaeology is essentially an urban activity, studied by people who have lost contact with the countryside. In this book, he draws on his experience.

From spit roasting pig to hanging cream cheese from the rafters, from baking roast pork under the ground in pits to cooking trout on wicker frames over an open fire, cooking techniques in prehistoric Britain are ingenious and revealing. There were no ovens and many vegetables and breeds of animal familiar to us today had not yet arrived. In reconstructing some of these techniques and recipes, the author has discovered a different world, with a completely different approach to food. This is native cuisine, cooked in a manner that persisted through the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Ages. This book first tells the story of prehistoric settlement, and moves on to explore the hunting and foraging techniques of the Mesolithic. After discussing the way in which the Britons farmed, and what they grew, the book moves into the roundhouse and the tools and utensils available. The final half of the book examines the varied techniques used, from covering fish in clay, to baking meat underground, spit roasting, brewing mead, boiling water with hot stones and so on. All the techniques have been carried out by the author.

Archaeology and science enable new and creative understandings of Europe's early farmers, answering questions that remain after more than a century of research. The challenge is to integrate multiple lines of evidence, scientific and more traditionally archaeological, while keeping in focus the principal questions that we want to ask of our data.

Describes the Stone Age settlement preserved in the sand dunes on one of Scotland's Orkney Islands, telling how it was discovered and what it reveals about life in prehistoric times.

Prehistoric Britain, now in its second edition, examines the development of human societies in Britain from earliest times to the Roman conquest of AD 43, as revealed by archaeological evidence. Special attention is given to six themes which are traced through prehistory: subsistence, technology, ritual, trade, society, and population.

This book evaluates competing models of early crop husbandry in Central Europe using available archaeobotanical evidence.