British Prehistory: An Integrated View

Economic and cultural evidence are integrated into an overall account of change in British prehistory. Three major phases are identified in which the structures of the economic and cultural evidence differ. In the first phase, the early and middle Neolithic, a stable arable economy was the context within which expanding lineage groups could emphasise their common rights. At this stage there is little evidence of the formation of regional interest groups. The build-up of strains within this system led to a second phase (later Neolithic and Bronze Age) in which the emphasis on lineage was replaced by an emphasis on widespread links between smaller and less stable settlement units, and in which the major strains were between hierarchical levels. In the third phase, the middle and late Bronze Age and Iron Age, there is a radically different social and cultural system based on stable intensive agriculture. Regional groups, perhaps the first 'tribes' in British prehistory, emerge with a common and competitive interest in maintaining and symbolising their rights to tracts of land.