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2020
Journal article
Combined visual and biochemical analyses confirm depositor and diet for Neolithic coprolites from Skara Brae
Coprolites (fossilized faeces) can provide valuable insights into species’ diet and related habits. In archaeozoological contexts, they are a potential source of information on human-animal interactions as well as human and animal subsistence. However, despite a broad discussion on coprolites in archaeology, such finds are rarely subject to detailed examination... -
2020
Journal article
The Excavation of Neolithic Pits and a Bronze Age Burial Site at Ness Gap, Fortrose
An investigation by Headland Archaeology (UK) Ltd took place in early 2013 in advance of a housing development at Ness Gap, Fortrose, Highland. The excavation revealed domestic activity dating from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age. A cluster of Neolithic pits provided insights into the development of agriculture in...Woodley, Nuala C ; Lochrie, Julie ; Sheridan, J A ; Cowie, Trevor ; Christie, Claire
cremation, pits, metalwork , Burial, cinerary urn, cordoned urn, faience, and cist
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2010
Journal article
Gristhorpe Man: an Early Bronze Age log-coffin burial scientifically defined
A log-coffin excavated in the early nineteenth century proved to be well enough preserved in the early twenty-first century for the full armoury of modern scientific investigation to give its occupants and contents new identity, new origins and a new date. In many ways the interpretation is much the same... -
2011
Book chapter
Bone pin fragment
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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2011
Book chapter
Burnt stone pendant
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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2011
Book chapter
Pottery
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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2011
Book chapter
Old friends, new friends, a long-lost friend and false friends: tales from Project JADE
Our understanding of the production, distribution and use of Neolithic axeheads, adzeheads and chisels made of jadeitite and other rare Alpine rockshas been transformed by a major international French-led research project, Project JADE. This has systematically recorded and mapped all such objects longer than 135 mm across Europe - extending...Sheridan, J A
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2011
Book chapter
Stone battle axehead
Many years ago ‘henge monuments' were identified as a distinctive kind of prehistoric monument but their interpretation still poses problems. When were they first built and how long did they remain important? How were they used and did their roles change during the course of their history? Recent work has...Sheridan, J A
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2011
Book chapter
Eclogite or jadeitite: The two colours involved in the transfer of alpine axeheads in western Europe
During the 5th and 4th millennia BC, the Neolithic extraction of stone around Mont Viso and in the Mont Beigua massif in the north Italian Alps resulted in the production of large polished axeheads in ecologite, omphacitite, jadeitite and amphibolite - raw materials which were not only rare but which...Pétrequin, P ; Sheridan, J A ; Cassen, S ; Errera, M ; Gauthier, E …
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2007
Book chapter
The plenary session
The Scottish Wetland Archaeology Project (SWAP) was initiated in 1998 in response to John Coles’ energetic encouragement of the Scottish delegates to the Dublin WARP Conference. Over the following years, SWAP members and others have worked on wetland materials and projects, leading to the hosting of the 11th International WARP...Barber, J ; Clarke, C ; Cressey, M ; Crone, A ; Hale, A …
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2007
Book chapter
Dating the Scottish bronze age: "There is clearly much that the material can still tell us"
Results from a current National Museums of Scotland (NMS) radiocarbon dating initiative, the Dating Cremated Bones Project, are presented. The project takes advantage of a recent development in radiocarbon dating that enables reliable dates to be obtained from cremated bone. The results indicate that Collared Urns were in use in...Sheridan, J A
dating, SCOTLAND, Bronze Age, and collared urns
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2003
Journal article
An Early Bronze Age 'dagger grave' from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife
In February 2000, ploughing disturbed the capstone of a cist, located on the side of a prominent knowe at Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle in central Fife. Excavation by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Historic Scotland revealed a short cist which contained the crouched inhumation of a man aged 40-50,...Baker, L ; Sheridan, J A ; Cowie, Trevor
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2008
Journal article
Towards a fuller, more nuanced narrative of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain 2500-1500 BC
This contribution considers some of the many recent advances in our understanding of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Britain and uses these to highlight the weak points in our current state of knowledge. Focusing mainly on the period 2500–1500 BC, it concentrates on issues of chronology, human movement, the role of...Sheridan, J A
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2008
Book chapter
Battle axeheads; the types and uses of cinerary urns; Early Neolithic carinated bowl pottery
The upgrading of part of the A1 road in south-east Scotland prompted the excavation of eleven archaeological sites. These spanned a period of 5,000 years from the early fourth millenium BC to the early fifth century AD. This volume draws together the results of the excavations and presents the story...Sheridan, J A
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2010
Book chapter
The Neolithisation of Britain and Ireland: the big picture
This contribution offers a model for the Neolithization of Britain and Ireland featuring multiple strands of immigration, from different parts of France to different parts of these islands - at differing scales and for differing reasons - over the course of several centuries from the third quarter of the 5th...Sheridan, J A
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2002
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2004
Book chapter
“…beads which have given rise to so much dogmatism, controversy and rash speculation”: faience in Early Bronze Age Britain and Ireland
This volume represents the publication of a highly successful conference held in 2003 to celebrate the contribution to Neolithic and Early Bronze Age studies of one of archaeology's finest synthesisers, Professor Stuart Piggott. The title is a reference to his famous work, Ancient Europe from the beginnings of agriculture to...Sheridan, J A ; Shortland, A
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2007
Journal article
Beaker vessel
This report provides an account of the excavations of a cropmark enclosure and other prehistoric remains at Dryburn Bridge, near Innerwick in East Lothian. The excavations were directed over two seasons in 1978 and 1979 by Jon Triscott and David Pollock, and were funded by the Ancient Monuments Branch, Scottish...Sheridan, J A
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2010
Book chapter
A jet bead from Flag Fen, 2004. In: F. Pryor & M. Bamforth (eds), Flag Fen, Peterborough: Excavation and Research 1995-2007
The site at Flag Fen lies at the centre of a once-wet Fenland bay, immediately east of Peterborough. In the Bronze Age a huge alignment of posts crossed a kilometer of wetland to link the two sides of one of the most important and intensively studied prehistoric landscapes in Britain....Sheridan, J A
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2007
Journal article
The age of Stonehenge
Stonehenge is the icon of British prehistory, and continues to inspire ingenious investigations and interpretations. A current campaign of research, being waged by probably the strongest archaeological team ever assembled, is focused not just on the monument, but on its landscape, its hinterland and the monuments within it. The campaign...Parker Pearson, M ; Cleal, R ; Marshall, P ; Needham, S P ; Pollard, J …
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2012
Book chapter
Pottery [from Silgeanach, Cill Donnain]
South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled...Sheridan, J A
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2012
Book chapter
Copper alloy awl [from Silgeanach, Cill Donnain]
South Uist in the Outer Hebrides has some of the best preserved archaeological remains within Britain and even further afield. Three distinct ecological zones - grassland machair plain, peaty blackland and mountains - each bear the imprint of human occupation over many millennia. The machair strip, long uninhabited, is filled...Sharples, N ; Sheridan, J A
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2010
Book chapter
Dating Scotland's Neolithic non-megalithic round mounds: new dates, problems and potential
The purpose of this contribution is to review briefly the non-megalithic round mounds of definite and probable Neolithic date in Scotland, and to draw attention to some accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates, relating to the use of four of these monuments - Midtown of Pitgalssie, one of the cairns...Sheridan, J A
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2018
Journal article
‘Ava’: a Beaker-associated woman from a cist at Achavanich, Highland, and the story of her (re-)discovery and subsequent study
This contribution describes the discovery and subsequent investigation of a cist in a rock-cut pit at Achavanich, Highland. Discovered and excavated in 1987, the cist was found to contain the tightly contracted skeletal remains of a young woman, accompanied by a Beaker, three flint artefacts and a cattle scapula. Initial...Hoole, M ; Sheridan, J A ; Boyle, A ; Booth, T ; Brace, S …
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2018
Journal article
Jones, E, Sheridan, J A & Franklin, J 2018 'Neolithic and Bronze Age occupation at Meadowend Farm, Clackmannanshire: Pots, pits and roundhouses' Scottish Archaeological Internet Reports 77
The excavations at Meadowend Farm, Clackmannanshire produced evidence for occupation at various times between the Early Neolithic and the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Significantly, it yielded the largest and best-dated assemblage of Middle Neolithic Impressed Ware yet encountered in Scotland, comprising at least 206 vessels. Episodes of Early to...Jones, Elizabeth ; Sheridan, J A ; Franklin, J
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2016
Journal article
The end of the world, or just ‘goodbye to all that’? Contextualising the red deer heap from Links of Noltland, Westray, within late 3rd-millennium cal bc Orkney
As part of a major international research project, The Times of Their Lives, a programme of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modelling was undertaken to refine the chronology of activities in one small but important part of the extensive Late Neolithic and Bronze Age settlement in Links of Notland on the...Clarke, David V ; Sheridan, J A ; Shepherd, Alexandra N ; Sharples, N M ; Armour-Chelu, Miranda Jane …
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2017
Journal article
Cremation practices and the creation of monument complexes: the Neolithic cremation cemetery at Forteviot, Strathearn, Perth & Kinross, Scotland, and its comparanda
Around the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal bc a cremation cemetery was established at Forteviot, central Scotland. This place went on to become one of the largest monument complexes identified in Mainland Scotland, with the construction of a palisaded enclosure, timber structures, and a series of henge monuments and... -
2017
Journal article
The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe
Bell Beaker pottery spread across western and central Europe beginning around 2750 BCE before disappearing between 2200-1800 BCE. The mechanism of its expansion is a topic of long-standing debate, with support for both cultural diffusion and human migration. We present new genome-wide ancient DNA data from 170 Neolithic, Copper Age...Olalde, Iñigo ; Brace, Selina ; Allentoft, Morten E ; Armit, Ian ; Kristiansen, Kristian …
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2016
Journal article
In memoriam Alan Saville, 31 Dec 1946–19 June 2016
Sheridan, J A
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2016
Journal article
Links of Noltland, Westray, Orkney: radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling
This report contains details of all the publically available radiocarbon determinations obtained on samples dated from the Links of Noltland up to the end of 2016. The chronological modelling of these radiocarbon dates was undertaken as part of The Times of Their Lives Project (European Research Council Advanced Investigator grant...Marshall, P ; Clarke, David V ; Sheridan, J A ; Shepherd, Alexandra N ; Sharples, N …
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2002
Journal article
Investigating jet and jet-like artefacts from prehistoric Scotland: the National Museums of Scotland project
The black spacer plate necklaces and bracelets of the Early Bronze Age (Figure 1) are among the most technically accomplished prestige items of this period in Britain and Ireland. There has been much debate over the years as to whether these artefacts and other prehistoric black jewellery and dress accessories...Sheridan, J A ; Davis, M ; Clark, Iain ; Redvers-Jones, Hal
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2002
Journal article
The radiocarbon dating programmes of The National Museums of Scotland
Since 1991, the Archaeology Department of the National Museums of Scotland (NMS) has been undertaking programmes of AMS radiocarbon dating of organic items in its collections, particularly wetland finds. This work was initially stimulated by the success of Caroline Earwood’s research on dating bog butter containers and other wooden vessels...Sheridan, J A
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2016
Journal article
Rodents: food or pests in Neolithic Orkney
Rodents have important effects on contemporary human societies, sometimes providing a source of food but more often as agricultural pests, or as vectors and reservoirs of disease. Skeletal remains of rodents are commonly found in archaeological assemblages from around the world, highlighting their potential importance to ancient human populations. However,...Romaniuk, Andrzej A ; Shepherd, Alexandra N ; Clarke, David V ; Sheridan, J A ; Fraser, Sheena …
Rodentia, Microtus arvalis, human subsistence, archaeology, and animal osteology
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2016
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2009
Book chapter
The cinerary urns
This volume presents the results of fieldwork on the East Lothian coastal plain in south-east Scotland investigating the nature of later prehistoric settlement around the hillfort of Traprain Law. Following geomagnetic surveys at thirty sites, six enclosures were excavated, three extensively. All six had complex occupation histories, involving multiple acts...Sheridan, J A
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2009
Book chapter
Section 6.1 The finds: The pottery
The site of Warren Field in Scotland revealed two unusual and enigmatic features; an alignment of pits and a large, rectangular feature interpreted as a timber building. Excavations confirmed that the timber structure was an early Neolithic building and that the pits had been in use from the Mesolithic. This...Murray, H K ; Murray, J C ; Fraser, Shannon M ; Sheridan, J A
Neolithic period, Scotland, Mesolithic period, Excavations, and Prehistoric Dwellings
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2014
Journal article
An integrated approach to the taxonomic identification of prehistoric shell ornaments
Shell beads appear to have been one of the earliest examples of personal adornments. Marine shells identified far from the shore evidence long-distance transport and imply networks of exchange and negotiation. However, worked beads lose taxonomic clues to identification, and this may be compounded by taphonomic alteration. Consequently, the significance...Demarchi, Beatrice ; O'Connor, Sonia ; Ponzoni, Andre de Lima ; Ponzoni, Raquel de Almeida Rocha ; Sheridan, J A …
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2012
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2006
Journal article
The re-dating of some Scottish specimens by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU)
The purpose of this note is to alert readers to the fact that some AMS dates determined by ORAU on Scottish material between 2000 and 2002 have had to be deleted and re-determined, because of a problem in the ultrafiltration system used to pretreat bone samples during that period (see...Sheridan, J A ; Higham, Tom
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2014
Journal article
Immediate replacement of fishing with dairying by the earliest farmers of the NE Atlantic archipelagos
The appearance of farming, from its inception in the Near East around 12 000 years ago, finally reached the northwestern extremes of Europe by the fourth millennium BC or shortly thereafter. Various models have been invoked to explain the Neolithization of northern Europe; however, resolving these different scenarios has proved...Cramp, Lucy J E ; Jones, Jennifer ; Sheridan, J A ; Smyth, Jessica ; Whelton, Helen …
stable carbon isotopes, lipids, Neolithic diet, pottery, biomarkers, and archaeology