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James Walker& David Clinnick

Durham University Archaeology Department

WHAT DO ARCHAEOLOGISTS DO?

• Defined by how we work: Study the past, primarily through it’s material remains.

• Defined by our objectives: To improve our understanding of humans in the past and the chronology of events.

• Increasingly diverse and interdisciplinary in our efforts to reconcile the shortcomings of our methods and data with our aspirations.

PREHISTORY:

(IT’S WHEN ALL THE BEST TIPPING POINTS HAPPENED)

WHY IS PREHISTORY DIFFERENT?

• We don’t have the benefit of historical sources.

• We deal with a vast time period.

• The “impact“ of prehistory is markedly reduced.

• Different datasets require different methodologies, and different methodologies answer different questions.

OUR LIMITATIONS SHAPE OUR PERCEPTIONS

• Because we can do something, it’s importance is elevated.

TIPPING POINTS AND REVOLUTIONS

• Many different ways of theorising about change.

• Different conceptualisations come with different jargon.

• Revolutions were a popular conceptualisation of large scale changes in prehistory.

TIPPING POINTS AND REVOLUTIONS

• Many different ways of theorising about change.

• Different conceptualisations come with different jargon.

• Revolutions were a popular conceptualisation of large scale changes in prehistory.

TIPPING POINTS AND REVOLUTIONS

• Many different ways of theorising about change.

• Different conceptualisations come with different jargon.

• Revolutions were a popular conceptualisation of large scale changes in prehistory.

Farming Societie

s

Pre-Farming Societies

TIPPING POINTS AND REVOLUTIONS

• Many different ways of theorising about change.

• Different conceptualisations come with different jargon.

• Revolutions were a popular conceptualisation of large scale changes in prehistory.

Farming Societie

s

Pre-Farming Societies

TIPPING POINTS AND REVOLUTIONS

• Many different ways of theorising about change.

• Different conceptualisations come with different jargon.

• Revolutions were a popular conceptualisation of large scale changes in prehistory.

Farming Societie

s

Pre-Farming Societies

TIPPING POINTS AND REVOLUTIONS

• Many different ways of theorising about change.

• Different conceptualisations come with different jargon.

• Revolutions were a popular conceptualisation of large scale changes in prehistory.

Farming Societie

s

Pre-Farming Societies

1) THE MESOLITHIC / NEOLITHIC TRANSITION

2) THE UPPER PALAEOLITHIC TRANSITION

• Host of other changes associated with these events.

• No longer seen as ‘revolutions’, but tipping points nevertheless.

• Significant to them…

• Significant to us.

“Hey, what can I say? Farming has been good to me.”

• 1) The transition from hunting and gathering to farming.

• 2) The transition from archaic humans to modern humans.

MESOLITHIC COMPLEXITY

• At the end of the last ice age (LGM), hunter-gatherer modes of life were vastly different – which is why we make the distinction of calling it something else.

• We characterise the increasing rate of change in Mesolithic Europe as the emergence of complex hunter-gatherer societies, often as a preface to the adoption of agriculture.

• There is a huge amount of debate as to just what we mean by complexity!

Farming Societie

s

Pre-Farming Societies

• Not all changes are:- Linear- Unprecedented- Slow

• None are inherently progressive in nature or bound to the idea of preparing for agriculture.

ModernPre-Modern

Farming Societies /

Modern

Pre-Farming Societies / Pre-Modern

• With the origins of these events set in mind as a pre-eminent tipping point in prehistory, we risk viewing developments through a back-filter.

• In viewing the Mesolithic as a period of accelerating complexity, we run the risk of assuming “pre-adaptation” as a viable explanation.

• Alternatively, with discussions of modernity, we actually negate the possibility of it existing in archaic populations.

PREHISTORY:

(IT’S WHEN WE DECIDE ALL THE BEST TIPPING POINTS HAPPENED)

FASHIONING THE PAST FROM THE PRESENT

• Understanding tipping points in the past is at the very heart of what archaeologists strive towards.

• The tipping points we identify in the past are decided upon in the present, and in this sense we are at risk of predetermining and even negating the historical trajectories and modes of adaptation that may have taken place in the past.