ABSTRACT

This chapter discusses the various aspects of how people lived in the early Neolithic of Britain and Ireland, with a particular emphasis on material culture, subsistence and settlement. It includes a consideration of the new types of material culture introduced into Britain and Ireland at the start of the Neolithic, such as polished stone axes and pottery, alongside new plants and animals, including domesticated cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and cereals. The chapter considers the evidence for settlement and houses from the early Neolithic. One of the most common finds on any early Neolithic site is stone tools and stone tool production waste. Another characteristic form of early Neolithic material culture is the axe. Many stone axes in Britain and Ireland were quarried from stone sources high in the mountains. Pottery is found in a variety of early Neolithic contexts, and again there seem to be important regional variations.