Katharine Walker

Stone Tools and Identity: investigating the roles that the movement and exchange of stone and flint objects played in identity formation during the British Neolithic

Supervisor: Dr. Joshua Pollard

Abstract: 

Using ‘identity’ as a category of analysis, and stone as durable, meaningful evidence, connections which underpinned the British Neolithic are considered. This research is structured in three sections. The first focuses on jadeitite axe-heads and their place in British Neolithic beginnings; the second addresses the origins and authenticity of ‘Funnel Beaker’ axe-heads as British Neolithic imports; and the final section reinterprets unusual later Neolithic flint work and its influences. It investigates the possibility of a different Neolithic identity along the east coast of Britain, with the North Sea at its heart. The main body of this talk will discuss dating, contexts and distribution of jadeitite axe-heads in Britain, the first of these three sections, as a presentation of work so far.

email: ksw1f10@soton.ac.uk