Presenting Counterpoints to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory

Koch, John and Fauvelle, Mikael and Ling, Johan and Cunliffe, Barry and Horn, Christian and Burlot, Aurelien and Bengtsson, Boel and Lindhe, Cecilia and Stos-Gale, Zofia and Hunt-Ortiz, Mark and Diaz-Guardamino, Marta and Patterson, Nick (2025) Presenting Counterpoints to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory. Maritime Encounters, 1 . Oxbow Books, Oxford. ISBN 979-8-88857-184-2

Text Maritime Encounters 1.pdf - Published Version Available under License CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution. Download (48MB)

Abstract

The first in the multi-author series Maritime Encounters, outputs of the major six-year (2022–2028) international research initiative, funded by Sweden’s central bank. Our programme is based on a maritime perspective, a counterpoint to prevailing land-based vantages on Europe’s prehistory. In the Maritime Encounters project a highly international cross-disciplinary team has embarked on a diverse range of research goals to provide a more detailed and nuanced story of how prehistoric societies realised major and minor sea crossings, organised long-distance exchange, and adapted to ways of life by the sea in prehistory. Recent advances with ancient DNA have brought migration back into archaeological explanation, but little attention has been paid to maritime aspects of these movements or the maritime legacies inherited from indigenous cultures. The formation of the populations, cultures and languages of Europe are now seen largely as consequences of three great prehistoric migrations: hunter-gatherers repopulating the post-glacial landscape, followed by farmers spreading from Anatolia, and then Indo-European-speaking pastoralists from the steppe. There is a significant gap in this current model that we sense most acutely in Scandinavia and the British Isles. Unanswered questions include: How these groups reached the islands and peninsulas of Atlantic Europe? What types of boats were used? How many people and animals could they carry? To what extent did indigenous coastal peoples contribute traditions and knowledge of boats, boat building, seaways, navigation, and subsistence in coastal environments. How was the long-distance trade in metals organised during the European Bronze Age? And what was the impact of this seacrossing network on the cultures, languages, and populations of the producers and consumers of bronze?

Item Type:	Book
Subjects:	C Auxiliary Sciences of History > CC Archaeology D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain D History General and Old World > DL Northern Europe. Scandinavia D History General and Old World > DP Spain G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GC Oceanography G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics P Language and Literature > PD Germanic languages
Divisions:	Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
Related URLs:	Organisation
Depositing User:	John Koch
Date Deposited:	20 Nov 2025 13:14
Last Modified:	20 Nov 2025 13:14
URI:	https://repository.uwtsd.ac.uk/id/eprint/3996

Administrator Actions (login required)

Edit Item - Repository Staff Only