The Prehistory of Britain and Ireland

This book presents a new interpretation of the prehistory of Britain and Ireland and is the first in many years to consider both regions together. Richard Bradley begins the account when Britain became separated from the Continent and he ends with the integration of the two islands into a wider European network shortly before the Roman Conquest. Using both textual and material documentation, he also distils the results of recent fieldwork, much of it funded by commercial developers, which has greatly expanded the quantity and variety of excavated evidence. Bradley also compares the archaeology of both islands and discusses the varied ways in which their inhabitants lived their lives. Intended as an interpretation rather than a manual this book is primarily concerned with settlements, landscapes, monuments, and the evidence for regional variation. All of these topics are discussed in relation to contemporary approaches to prehistory. Treating Britain and Ireland on equal terms, Bradley also aims to avoid the emphasis on a few well-researched areas, an approach that characterized previous accounts of this subject. Book jacket.

Richard Bradley is professor of archaeology at Reading University