Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive introduction to the range of critical contemporary thinking in the study of European prehistory. - Presents essays by some of the most dynamic researchers and leading European scholars in the field today - Ranges from the Neolithic period to the early stages of the Iron Age, and from Ireland and Scandinavia to the Urals and the Iberian Peninsula "Extensive and current bibliographies and illustrations accompany the highly stimulating discussions. [This is] Clearly a volume for colleges and universities with programs in archaeology and anthropology." ( CHOICE, December 2009) "This edited volume provides a welcome break from the traditional chronological approach to European prehistory. Important disciplinary themes are addressed here in innovative ways by a group of scholars with active field projects as well as impressive publication records." Bettina Arnold, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee "An impressive compilation of papers which successfully combines novel and theoretical approaches with detailed regional studies. Jones has assembled a galaxy of leading scholars to produce an authoritative overview of key themes and subjects within European prehistory, from the Iron Gates Mesolithic to Iron Age Scandinavia." Chris Scarre, University of Durham "Massive amounts of new information exist from all periods of prehistoric Europe and older frameworks of interpretation are increasingly inadequate to the task of making sense of these. Prehistoric Europe brings together a wide range of approaches which show exciting possibilities for novel ways of understanding the past. It is a book to be debated and argued with - I am sure new insights will result." Chris Gosden, University of Oxford Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive overview of the wide-ranging contemporary debates in the study of European prehistory. Written to reflect the immense changes in the field, the volume presents essays by some of the most dynamic researchers and leading European scholars in the field today. Ranging from the Neolithic period to the early stages of the Iron Age, and from Ireland and Scandinavia to the Urals and the Iberian Peninsula, the book offers a truly contemporary approach to the ever-evolving study of European prehistory. Prehistoric Europe: Theory and Practice provides a comprehensive overview of the wide-ranging contemporary debates in the study of European prehistory. Written to reflect the immense changes in the field, the volume presents essays by some of the most dynamic researchers and leading European scholars in the field today. Ranging from the Neolithic period to the early stages of the Iron Age, and from Ireland and Scandinavia to the Urals and the Iberian Peninsula, the book offers a truly contemporary approach to the ever-evolving study of European prehistory. Andrew Jones is currently a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Southampton. He is the author of several books including Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice (2001). Prehistoric Europe Theory and Practice John Wiley & Sons Copyright © 2009 Andrew Jones All right reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4051-2597-0 Chapter One Frameworks for the Analysis of European Prehistory Introduction Key Frameworks for Prehistory In the introduction we discussed the emergence of archaeology as a scientific discipline, and its subsequent theoretical development from culture-history to New or Processual archaeology and Interpretative or Contextual archaeology. These are general frameworks for understanding past behaviour which have been generated by continuous disciplinary argument and debate. In this section we will focus upon theoretical frameworks related to specific periods of prehistory. Sometimes these frameworks appear to be so much part of common sense that they have not been questioned. This is often because they are bound up with contemporary beliefs and prejudices. For example, as Mark Pluciennik shows in Chapter 1 (a) , the belief that hunter-gatherers live in a state which is 'closer to nature' and that the act of hunting and gathering places them alongside animals is the result of the adoption of economy and technology as structuring frameworks of analysis during the emergence of Capitalism in the 17th and 18th centuries. Indeed these perceptions of hunter-gatherer populations are still in operation today as they are often used as a means of justifying the extermination of supposedly 'backward' indigenous populations by nation states. The denigration of hunter-gatherers and the promotion of agriculture over foraging are therefore bound up with the analysis and justification of capitalism, and with the territorialist and expansionist policies of nation states. These assumptions have influenced the debate concerning the transition between the Mesolithic to the Neolithic for at least a century. For later