What is it about?
Hebridean Neolithic pottery rapidly developed a distinctively insular character following its introduction alongside other Neolithic practices in the early 4th millennium BC. Thereafter, vessel forms and decorative schemes barely altered for several hundred years. It is suggested that this resulted largely from pressures to conform to normative practices during commensal events often associated with artificial islets in freshwater lochs.
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Why is it important?
Focussing on the significant and soon to be published site of Eilean Dòmhnuill, this article highlights the central role of pottery in social practice. Given the ubiquity of pottery on Neolithic sites, understanding regional ceramic traditions is vital for any explanation of change or continuity at the time – a fact of particular relevance in the light of recent work on the earliest Neolithic communities in Britain and the demise of regional traditions across the whole of Britain and Ireland from around 3000 BC with the widespread adoption of Grooved Ware.
Perspectives
Writing this article has allowed me to share the results of my PhD research with other prehistorians and to raise,—and suggest possible answers to—several questions concerning the significance of pottery in social practice. It will compliment previously published articles on Eilean Dòmhnuill and related islet settlements in the Outer Hebrides as well as contributing to broader debates about the nature of society in Britain and Ireland during the 4th millennium BC.
Michael Copper
University of Bradford
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: A Conservative Party? Pots and People in the Hebridean Neolithic, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, October 2018, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/ppr.2018.12.
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