‘Patches of the endless forest’: monuments, landscape and remote perception in the Early Neolithic of southern Britain

Archaeologists have long noted that Early Neolithic long barrows tend to occupy topographic settings that afford distant views over the landscape, conversely making them conspicuous from particular areas. When Early Neolithic causewayed enclosures were eventually recognized in the 1920s, similar expectations were mapped onto them. From the 1970s, archaeologists increasingly interpreted the visual ‘orientation’ of a particular monument as an indicator of its associated territory. More recently, GIS-based viewshed analysis has facilitated demonstrations of the areas with which specific monuments were potentially intervisible. But this technical advance has impeded more sensitive thinking about the circumstances surrounding acts of vision, often by implying that views were fixed in space and time. This thesis starts from the premise that there is much more to be said about how contemporary lifeways afforded opportunities for remote perception; about the character and extent of Neolithic forest and clearings; and about how circumstances changed through time. In so doing, it offers a more nuanced, holistic and dynamic exploration of remote visual perception.

I argue that perceptions of monuments were intimately linked to short-range transhumance – the practice of distancing livestock from crops throughout the summer in forest clearings, with access to water to support dairy production. In largely forested landscapes, monuments would only become visible on the final approach, though heralded by distinctive sounds and smells. Corridors of lower vegetation along watercourses, which herders would probably follow, might afford occasional glimpses of the clearing (as distinct from the monument), represented in upland settings by a 'notch' on the skyline. Over time, grazing would increase the size of clearings, affording more distant reciprocal views. In low-lying regions, watercourses themselves provided summer grazing and boat travel might afford remote views. In short, though monuments were visually linked to specific communities, these links operated in more varied and complex ways than usually acknowledged, and changed through time.