2019 Autumn Meeting

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After ‘Gathering Time’: new perspectives on enclosures of the earlier 4th millennium BC

4th November 2019
British Museum, London

It seems fair to say that we know more about causewayed enclosures than any other type of Neolithic site. This is particularly down to the research by Alasdair Whittle, Alex Bayliss and Frances Healy published as Gathering Time (2011), which built on a rich corpus of previous work to develop detailed chronological models for these sites and in effect to write a history of the Early Neolithic.

But of course this does not mean we should go away and do something else. There remains much we still want to know. Having a high-quality framework for understanding opens up different, more detailed questions about these sites, especially as new enclosures continue to be discovered across southern Britain.

So what do we want to know about enclosures after Gathering Time? How much do the new discoveries add to the picture of their distribution, currency, purpose and use?

We are especially keen to receive contributions that deal with the following contextual questions:

• how do enclosures fit into Neolithic landscapes of settlement, movement, clearance and herding?
• what is happening in the parts of Britain where such monuments are not found?
• and what do we know of the broader European milieu from which enclosures emerged?

We already have a good range of speakers discussing causewayed enclosures themselves, but offers of papers, shorter presentations or posters that address the wider context are still very welcome. Please contact jonathan.last@historicengland.org.uk by 19th July 2019.