The Neolithic of Europe comprises eighteen specially commissioned papers on prehistoric archaeology, written by leading international scholars. The coverage is broad, ranging geographically from south-east Europe to Britain and Ireland and chronologically from the Neolithic to the Iron Age, but with a decided focus on the former. Several papers discuss new scientific approaches to key questions in Neolithic research, while others offer interpretive accounts of aspects of the archaeological record. Thematically, the main foci are on Neolithisation; the archaeology of Neolithic daily life, settlements and subsistence; as well as monuments and aspects of worldview. A number of contributions highlight the recent impact of techniques such as isotopic analysis and statistically modelled radiocarbon dates on our understanding of mobility, diet, lifestyles, events and historical processes. The volume is presented to celebrate the enormous impact that Alasdair Whittle has had on the study of prehistory, especially the European and British Neolithic, and his rich career in archaeology.

Table of Contents:
List of figures List of tables List of contributors Tabula gratulatoria   1.  Introduction: Alasdair Whittle and the Neolithic of Europe Joshua Pollard, Penny Bickle, Vicki Cummings and Daniela Hofmann   2.  ‘Very like the Neolithic’: the everyday and settlement in the European Neolithic Penny Bickle and Evita Kalogiropoulou   3.  The end of the tells: the Iron Age ‘Neolithic’ in the Central and Northern Aegean James Whitley   4.  Encounters in the watery realm: early to mid-Holocene geochronologies of Lower Danube human–river interactions Steve Mills, Mark Macklin and Pavel Mirea   5.  Buried in mud, buried in clay: specially arranged settlement burials from the Danubian Sárköz, Neolithic southern Hungary Eszter Bánffy, János Jakucs, Kitti Köhler, Tibor Marton, Krisztián Oross and Anett Osztás   6.  The chosen ones: unconventional burials at Polgár–Csőszhalom (north-east Hungary) from the fifth millennium cal BC Pál Raczky and Alexandra Anders   7.  A tale of two processes of Neolithisation: south-east Europe and Britain/Ireland Rick Schulting and Dušan Borić   8.  Stag do: ritual implications of antler use in prehistory László Bartosiewicz, Alice M. Choyke and Ffion Reynolds   9.  Towards an integrated bioarchaeological perspective on the central European Neolithic: understanding the pace and rhythm of social processes through comparative discussion of the western loess belt and Alpine foreland Amy Bogaard, Stefanie Jacomet and Jörg Schibler   10.  Size matters? Exploring exceptional buildings in the central European early Neolithic Daniela Hofmann and Eva Lenneis   11.  Feasts and sacrifices: fifth millennium ‘pseudo-ditch’ causewayed enclosures from the southern Upper Rhine valley Philippe Lefranc, Anthony Denaire and Rose-Marie Arbogast   12.  From Neolithic kings to the Staffordshire hoard. Hoards and aristocratic graves in the European Neolithic: the birth of  ‘Barbarian’ Europe? Christian Jeunesse   13.  Sudden time? Natural disasters as a stimulus to monument building, from Silbury Hill (Great Britain) to Antequera (Spain) Richard Bradley and Leonardo García Sanjuán   14.  Art in the making: Neolithic societies in Britain, Ireland and Iberia Andrew Meirion Jones, Andrew Cochrane and Marta Diaz-Guardamino   15.  Community building: houses and people in Neolithic Britain Alistair J. Barclay and Oliver J. T. Harris   16.  Passage graves as material technologies of wrapping Vicki Cummings and Colin Richards   17.  Rings of fire and Groove Ware settlement at West Kennet, Wiltshire Alex Bayliss, Caroline Cartwright, Gordon Cook, Seren Griffiths, Richard Madgwick, Peter Marshall and Paula Reimer   18.  Remembered and imagined belongings: Stonehenge in the age of first metals Joshua Pollard, Paul Garwood, Mike Parker Pearson, Colin Richards, Julian Thomas and Kate Welham   19.  Interdigitating pasts: the Irish and Scottish Neolithics Alison Sheridan