ABSTRACT
Hunting and gathering ceased to be a full-time occupation for the majority of the population of the British Isles over forty centuries ago and attempts to reconstruct such an alien way of life from the meagre traces it has left are fraught with difficulty. The reconstruction of life among early farmers is rather easier. Not only did they generally leave more evidence for the archaeologist to study, but their experiences have more in common with our own and those of the recent past. For all but a few of us, the contemporary experience of hunting and gathering is limited to the annual collection of blackberries!
