Mining and materiality in the British neolithic

This thesis considers flint mines and their deposits within the early to late Neolithic
in southern Britain. It proposes that flint mines have been perceived as peripheral to
the wider changes that occurred during the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition, and that
their deposits have suffered in equal terms from a lack of inclusion in discourses
about the period. The theoretical argument aims to demonstrate that chalk art.
artefacts and natural substances were a material component of Neolithic life and
need to be fully integrated into our analytical categories within archaeology. This is
achieved by addressing the overriding emphasis on functionality in interpretations
of material culture, which it is argued has inhibited our acceptance of these
important classes of material as archaeological evidence. A venues are proposed to
overcome these concerns, specifically using materiality as the framing concept for
an integrated approach to substances, artefacts and monumentality.
These ideas are applied to an analysis of chalk art, the placement of chalk artefacts
and natural substances, and the nature of architecture in southern British Neolithic
flint mines. Through this, mining sites are suggested to be monumental in exhibiting
deliberately created architectural spaces which were subject to symbolic use and, at
times, modification. Typologies of chalk art and artefacts are proposed which
facilitate a greater degree of critical analyses, and new artefact categories are created
to describe natural artefacts which focus on their substance and manufacture (or
biography) as opposed to perceived function. Chalk art, artefacts and natural
substances are also situated within a broader regional analysis of the Neolithic in
Sussex and Wessex, revealing them to have been both a rare and yet recognisable
manifestation of Neolithic practice.