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Lithic Distributions in the Upper Meon Valley: Behavioural Response and Human Adaptation on the Hampshire Chalklands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

A. J. Schofield
A. J. Schofield
Affiliation:
6 Shamrock Villas, Adelaide Road, St Denys, Southampton SO2 1TY
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Abstract

The results of an area-intensive surface collection survey are described and evidence for a coarse-grained response to the distribution of resources is presented. Surface collection surveys have occurred over many areas of southern England with attention focused especially on the neolithic landscape of the monument zone. The results of such surveys provide an indication of the social landscape within which monument building occurred. However, to fully appreciate human behaviour in an active and emergent landscape, the results of similar investigations from what appear passive landscapes must be available as well as evidence for human exploitation in earlier and later periods. The upper Meon valley survey represents one of only few attempts to redress that imbalance and to assess objectively the nature of occupation away from the monument zone throughout the prehistoric period. The results demonstrate an intensity of occupation equal to that in other parts of Wessex but confined, predominantly, to the mesolithic and earlier neolithic periods. The survey also provides a case-study in interpretation. The emphasis is less on places than on the space in which they occurred.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , 1991 , pp. 159 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1991

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