ABSTRACT
The Neolithic monuments of western Europe, in their use of natural materials such as earth, stone and timber, appear consciously to have explored and exploited the interplay between human constructions and features of the landscape. Large stones were typically left unshaped, to resemble rock outcrops. Timber uprights may have stood for trees or, grouped in clusters, for the edges of forest clearings in which the monuments were located. At the same time, other aspects of landscape were evoked as much by the placement and setting of these sites. Among the most dramatic locations of all were coasts and islands, where the boundary between land and sea – or land, sea and sky, when looking towards the distant horizon – will have had especial relevance. Recorded ethnographies of the peoples of the north-west coast of North America, and of the Saami of northern Europe, emphasise the significance attached to the land–sea boundary in traditional cosmological understandings (Suttles 1990; Bradley 2000; Scarre 2001).
