The early Neolithic of Northern Europe: New approaches to migration, movement and social connection

In Britain, Ireland and Southern Scandinavia, the Early Neolithic is characterised by monumental constructions (e.g. causewayed enclosures, dolmens) and by specific traditions of depositional practice.Some aspects of these practices are similar in both regions, for example the shapes and use of monuments, their overall developmental sequences, and the traditions of deposition (kinds of objects and their treatment, locations chosen and so on).In spite of these similarities, however, there has been little explicit comparative work, largely also because of research paradigms that tended to stress local and regional peculiarities over wide-spread similarities. Given the increasing evidence for group and personal mobility in recent years, this begs the question of whether such similarities are the result of accidental convergence on the basis of a broadly shared “Neolithic” lifeway, or rather the result of contacts, whether direct or as part of a large-scale, but loose network of interactio