Full Description
The Mendip Hills in Somerset, south-west England, have an archaeological sequence that stretches back half a million years with many sites of national and international significance. This comprehensive and up-to-date book is based upon the proceedings of a two-day conference held at the Bishops Palace in Wells, Somerset. The twenty contributors present the results of new research and new ideas about the archaeology and history of the wider Mendip landscape. This volume includes details of newly discovered sites and reinterpretations of those already known, summaries of periods, accounts of artefacts, reflections on the relationship between sites and the implications for landscape use, meaning and organisation. The contributors to this volume have variously employed and combined archaeological, historical and scientific approaches to research the history of humans in these hills. The papers are broadly organised chronologically, ranging from the Palaeolithic to the twentieth century, but there are many themes and ideas that are shared between the papers. The physical landscape, the backdrop to all the human activities discussed in this volume, is also considered with contributions that cover geological studies and the environmental history of the Mendip landscape. Lavishly illustrated, this is the first publication of its kind to be devoted to the archaeology of the Mendip Hills and reveals the incredible richness and diversity of this important region.Dr Jodie Lewis has been involved in researching the archaeology of the Mendip Hills for the past fifteen years and completed a PhD on the subject at the University of Bristol in 2001. She is a specialist in the prehistory of the region, and has excavated many Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. Dr Lewis has published extensively on aspects of the archaeology of Mendip and is active in disseminating the results of her work to local groups and societies. Since 2002, she has been a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Worcestor.
Contents
1. The Mapping and Making of the Mendip Landscape (Jim Hanwell)2. Assessing the Environmental History of Mendip: a Palaeoecological Perspective (Paul Davies)3. The Late Pleistocene Mammalian Palaeontology and Archaeology of Mendip (Roger Jacobi and Andrew Currant)4. On Top of the World: The Mesolithic and Neolithic use of the Mendip Plateau (Jodie Lewis)5. Barrows and Bronzes: The Bronze Age on Mendip (David Mullin)6. East Mendip, Cropmarks, Field Survey and the Iron Age (Ian Powlesland)7. Iron Age Cave Use on Mendip: a Revaluation (Abigail Bryant)8. Roman Mining of Galena at Charterhouse on Mendip in the 1st century AD (Malcolm Todd)9. Romans on the Fosse Way (Peter Leach)10. Praedium on Mendip? (Albert Thompson)11. Early Settlement Around the Mendips; Place-Names and Local History (Michael Costen)12. Chew and Chewton: a Pre-Conquest River Estate North of Mendip (Nick Corcos)13. The Acquisition and Exploitation of Monastic Holdings in the Mendip Region (James Bond)14. The Post-Medieval Landscape of Mendip (Penny Stokes)15. Mendip Starfish (Don Brown)16. Beyond the Hillfort: Unfamiliar Aspects of Prehistoric and Later Times on Worlebury (Chris Richards)17. Archaeology for the People. Mendip, CHERT and Other Stories (Vince Russett)18. The Aggregate Landscape of Somerset: Predicting the Archaeological Resource (Hannah Firth and Krystyna Truscoe)19. A View from Below: the Wetland Setting of the Mendips (Richard Brunning)
