Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland

by Kenneth Brophy

Overview

Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland is the first systematic analysis of Scotland’s cursus monuments and is written by one of the foremost scholars of the Neolithic in Scotland. Drawing on fifteen years of experience of cropmark interpretation, as well as his involvement in several excavations of cursus monuments and contemporary sites, Kenneth Brophy uncovers some of the secrets of the Neolithic landscape.

While outlining the physical characteristics of the cursus, this book also addresses the limitations of this kind of typological description when applied to monuments which varied so remarkably in terms of materiality and size. Moving beyond a morphological account, Brophy considers what can be said of this diverse group of sites, and how they were actually built and used in prehistory, in light of several decades of aerial reconnaissance and excavation in Scotland. Through a close study of the differences, as well as the similarities, between these structures, this book offers a nuanced account of cursus monuments, finally allowing this important monument type to be better understood and placed alongside others of the period.

Offering exciting new ways of thinking about these enigmatic yet important monuments, Reading Between the Lines: The Neolithic Cursus Monuments of Scotland is an essential resource for students and specialists in British prehistory, providing an introduction to the Early Neolithic archaeology of lowland Scotland as well as a meditation on broader aspects of monumentality and architecture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138913516
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/29/2015
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kenny Brophy is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Glasgow and Joint co-ordinator of the Neolithic Studies Group.

Table of Contents

PART 1: THE SITES AND THEIR CONTEXT

1. ‘The weirdest type of field monument in the country’
2. How do you solve a problem like a cursus?
3. Bust and boom
4. Ditches and banks, pits and postholes
5. Cursus world

PART 2: THE EVIDENCE REVIEWED

1. Grand designs
2. Special places
3. Remaking the land

PART 3: INTERPRETATIONS

1. Rearranging trees
2. Tracing lines across the land
3. ‘The start of a tale already concluded’

Site list

References and further reading