Julian Thomas

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Julian Stewart Thomas FSA (born 1959) is a British archaeologist, publishing on the Neolithic and Bronze Age prehistory of Britain and north-west Europe. Thomas has been vice president of the Royal Anthropological Institute since 2007. He has been Professor of Archaeology at the University of Manchester since 2000, and is former secretary of the World Archaeological Congress. Thomas is perhaps best known as the author of the academic publication Understanding the Neolithic in particular, and for his work with the Stonehenge Riverside Project. [1]

Contents

Education

Born in Epsom, Surrey, Thomas studied archaeology at the University of Bradford, where he acquired a Bachelor of Technology (BTech) degree in archaeological science in 1981. He then transferred to the University of Sheffield and graduated with a Master of Arts (MA) degree in 1982, and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1986 for his research on the "social and economic change in the Neolithic of Wessex and the Upper Thames valley". [2]

Career

Stonehenge
A UNESCO World Heritage Site
and part of the Stonehenge Riverside Project Stonehenge back wide.jpg

Between 1987 and 2000 Thomas was a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Wales, Lampeter (19871993) and at Southampton University (19942000). Thomas worked with Historic Scotland between 1994 and 2002, excavating prehistoric sites in Dumfries and Galloway as "Director of archaeological excavations of Neolithic and later prehistoric sites" the record of which was published as Place and Memory: Excavations at the Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm Farm in 2007. [1] [2]

Originally published as Rethinking the Neolithic in 1991, Thomas revised his work, which was republished as Understanding the Neolithic in 1999. The book challenged the conventionally held view that human lifestyles transformed in Great Britain, from Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to Neolithic farmers a process known as the "Neolithic Revolution" through interpretive analysis of "social theory, anthropology and critical hermeneutics". [3]

Between 1994 and 1999 Thomas was secretary of the World Archaeological Congress and became academic series editor (a pro bono (unpaid) position held jointly with Martin Hall) of the Routledge series Themes in Archaeology which moved to Left Coast Press as the One World Archaeology Series in 2008. Ten books in the series were published during their tenure between 2000 and 2005. [2] [4]

Thomas took up the Chair of Archaeology at Manchester University in April 2000, a position he still holds.

Thomas is co-director of the Stonehenge Riverside Project a collaborative archaeological study begun in 2003 as a consortium of university teams, funded by the AHRC and the National Geographic Society. During excavations of sites surrounding Stonehenge including Stonehenge Cursus, the Avenue and Woodhenge Thomas found evidence of a large settlement of Neolithic houses, at Durrington Walls, nearby and discovered the prehistoric henge and stone circle, known as "Bluestonehenge", on the west bank of the Avon. [5] [6] [7] Thomas speculates that the 25 bluestones at Stonehenge originating in the Preseli Hills, 250 kilometres (160 mi) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire, Wales stood in a circle, surrounded by a henge, at Bluestonehenge for around 500 years before being dismantled and moved to their current location around 2500 BCE. [8]

Thomas has been Vice President of the Royal Anthropological Institute since his election in 2007 and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London (also since 2007). [1] [2] [9]

Thomas is married to Catherine, and has two daughters Morag and Rowan and two step-daughters Lucie and Anna. [10]

Publications

Sole author

  1. Rethinking the Neolithic (1991), revised and republished as Understanding the Neolithic (1999)
  2. Time, Culture and Identity: An Interpretive Archaeology (1998)
  3. Archaeology and Modernity (2004)

Coauthor

  1. Writing the past in the present (1990) by Frederick Baker, Julian Thomas
  2. Anglesey archaeological landscape project: second interim report 1991 (1992) by Mark Edmonds, Julian Thomas, Matthew Johnson, St. David's University College, (Lampeter, Wales), Department of Archaeology
  3. Place and Memory: Excavations at the Pict's Knowe, Holywood and Holm Farm by Julian Thomas, Matt Leivers, Julia Roberts, Rick Peterson
  4. Overcoming the modern invention of material culture: proceedings of the TAG session, Exeter 2006 (2007) by Vítor Oliveira Jorge, Julian Thomas, Theoretical Archaeology Group (England). Conference

Editor or coeditor

  1. Interpretive archaeology: a reader (2000), edited by Julian Thomas
  2. Destruction and conservation of cultural property (2001), edited by Robert Layton, Julian Thomas, Peter G. Stone
  3. Neolithic enclosures in Atlantic northwest Europe (2001), edited by Timothy Darvill, Julian Thomas
  4. Handbook of landscape archaeology (2008) edited by Bruno David, Julian Thomas

Chapters in books

  1. 'Some Problems with the Notion of External Symbolic Storage, and the case of Neolithic Material Culture in Britain', Cognition and Culture: The Archaeology of External Symbolic Storage (1998)
  2. 'The identity of place in Neolithic Britain: examples from south-west Scotland', Neolithic Orkney in its European Context (2000)
  3. 'Reconfiguring the social, reconfiguring the material', Social Theory in Archaeology (2000)
  4. 'Intersecting landscapes', Contested Landscapes: Movement, Exile and Place (2001)
  5. 'Archaeologies of Place and Landscape', Archaeological Theory Today (2001)
  6. 'Taking power seriously', The Dynamics of Power (2002)
  7. 'Archaeology's humanism and the materiality of the body', Thinking Through the Body (2002)
  8. 'In the Kinship of Cows: the Social Centrality of Cattle in the Earlier Neolithic of Southern Britain', Food, Culture and Identity in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (2003)
  9. 'The ritual universe', Scotland in Ancient Europe (2004)
  10. 'The later Neolithic architectural repertoire: the case of the Dunragit complex', Monuments and Material Culture: Papers on Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain in Honour of Isobel Smith (2004)
  11. 'The great dark book: archaeology, experience and interpretation', A Companion to Archaeology (2004)
  12. 'Notions of the person', Archaeology: The Key Concepts (2004)
  13. 'Materiality, authenticity, and skilled engagement: a commentary', Archaeology and Performance (2004)
  14. 'Materiality and traditions of practice in Neolithic south-west Scotland', The Neolithic of the Irish Sea: Materiality and Traditions of Practice (2004)
  15. 'Identity, power and material culture in Neolithic Britain', Cultural Diversity and the Archaeology of the 21st Century (2004)
  16. 'Archaeology, modernity and society', Cultural Diversity and the Archaeology of the 21st Century (2004)
  17. 'Materiality and the social', Global Archaeological Theory: Contextual Voices and Contemporary Thoughts (2005)
  18. 'Ceremonies of the horsemen? From megalithic tombs to Beaker burials in prehistoric Europe', Bell Beakers in the Iberian Peninsula and Their European Context (2005)
  19. 'Phenomenology and material culture', Handbook of Material Culture (2006)
  20. 'The Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain', Prehistoric Britain (2008)
  21. 'Archaeology, landscape and dwelling', Handbook of Landscape Archaeology (2008)
  22. 'Sigmund Freud's Archaeological Metaphor and Archaeology's Self-understanding', Contemporary Archaeologies: Excavating Now (2009)

Journal articles

  1. "Silent running: the ills of environmental archaeology", Scottish Archaeological Review (1990)
  2. "The socio-semiotics of material culture", Journal of Material Culture (1998)
  3. "Death, identity and the body in Neolithic Britain", Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2000)
  4. "Thoughts on the 'repacked? Neolithic revolution' ", Antiquity (2003)
  5. "Recent debates on the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Britain and Ireland", Documenta Praehistorica (2004)
  6. "Archaeology's place in modernity", Modernism/Modernity (2004)
  7. "Between 'material qualities' and 'materiality' " Archaeometry (2005)
  8. "Ambiguous symbols: why there were no figurines in Neolithic Britain", Documenta Prehistorica (2005)
  9. "On the origins and development of cursus monuments in Britain", Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (2006)
  10. "Gene-flows and social processes: the potential of genetics and archaeology", Documenta Prehistorica (2006)
  11. "From dwelling to building", Journal of Iberian Archaeology (2006)
  12. "A reply to Christopher Witmore, Håkon Glørstad, Søren Kjørup and Ola W. Jensen", Norwegian Archaeological Review (2006)
  13. "The trouble with material culture", Journal of Iberian Archaeology (2007)
  14. "Mesolithic-Neolithic transitions in Britain: from essence to inhabitation", Proceedings of the British Academy (2007)
  15. "Comments on ‘Past Practices: Rethinking Individuals and Agents in Archaeology’ by A. B. Knapp and P. van Dommelen", Cambridge Archaeological Journal (2008)

Other

  1. Proposals for a tunnel at Stonehenge: an assessment of the alternatives (1999), report to the World Archaeological Congress Executive by Robert Layton and Julian Thomas. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mesolithic</span> Prehistoric period, second part of the Stone Age

The Mesolithic or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymously, especially for outside northern Europe, and for the corresponding period in the Levant and Caucasus. The Mesolithic has different time spans in different parts of Eurasia. It refers to the final period of hunter-gatherer cultures in Europe and the Middle East, between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the Neolithic Revolution. In Europe it spans roughly 15,000 to 5,000 BP; in the Middle East roughly 20,000 to 10,000 BP. The term is less used of areas farther east, and not at all beyond Eurasia and North Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonehenge</span> Ancient monument in England

Stonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones, held in place with mortise and tenon joints, a feature unique among contemporary monuments. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henge</span> Type of Neolithic earthwork

A henge loosely describes one of three related types of Neolithic earthwork. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ditches would have served defensive purposes poorly, henges are not considered to have been defensive constructions. The three henge types are as follows, with the figure in brackets being the approximate diameter of the central flat area:

  1. Henge. The word henge refers to a particular type of earthwork of the Neolithic period, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch surrounding a central flat area of more than 20 m (66 ft) in diameter. There is typically little if any evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles and coves. Henge monument is sometimes used as a synonym for henge. Henges sometimes, but by no means always, featured stone or timber circles, and circle henge is sometimes used to describe these structures. The three largest stone circles in Britain are each within a henge. Examples of henges without significant internal monuments are the three henges of Thornborough Henges. Although having given its name to the word henge, Stonehenge is atypical in that the ditch is outside the main earthwork bank.
  2. Hengiform monument. Like an ordinary henge, except the central flat area is between 5 and 20 m (16–66 ft) in diameter, they comprise a modest earthwork with a fairly wide outer bank. The terms mini-henge or Dorchester henge are sometimes used as synonyms for hengiform monument. An example is the Neolithic site at Wormy Hillock Henge.
  3. Henge enclosure. A Neolithic ring earthwork with the ditch inside the bank, with the central flat area having abundant evidence of occupation and usually being more than 300 m (980 ft) in diameter. Some true henges are as large as this, but lack evidence of domestic occupation. Super-henge or superhenge is sometimes used as a synonym for a henge enclosure. However, sometimes the term is used to indicate size alone rather than use, e.g. "Marden henge ... is the least understood of the four British 'superhenges' ".
<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avebury</span> Neolithic henge monument in Wiltshire, England

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury in Wiltshire, in south-west England. One of the best-known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Durrington Walls</span> Late Neolithic palisaded enclosure

Durrington Walls is the site of a large Neolithic settlement and later henge enclosure located in the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in England. It lies 2 miles (3.2 km) north-east of Stonehenge in the parish of Durrington, just north of Amesbury in Wiltshire. The henge is the second-largest Late Neolithic palisaded enclosure known in the United Kingdom, after Hindwell in Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medway Megaliths</span> Group of long barrows in Kent, England

The Medway Megaliths, sometimes termed the Kentish Megaliths, are a group of Early Neolithic chambered long barrows and other megalithic monuments located in the lower valley of the River Medway in Kent, South-East England. Constructed from local sarsen stone and soil between the 4th and 3rd millennia BCE, they represent the only known prehistoric megalithic group in eastern England and the most south-easterly group in Britain.

Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) in Wiltshire, England. The WHS covers two large areas of land separated by about 24 kilometres (15 mi), rather than a specific monument or building. The sites were inscribed as co-listings in 1986. Some large and well known monuments within the WHS are listed below, but the area also has an exceptionally high density of small-scale archaeological sites, particularly from the prehistoric period. More than 700 individual archaeological features have been identified. There are 160 separate scheduled monuments, covering 415 items or features.

The Stonehenge Riverside Project was a major Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded archaeological research study of the development of the Stonehenge landscape in Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain. In particular, the project examined the relationship between the stones and surrounding monuments and features, including the River Avon, Durrington Walls, the Cursus, the Avenue, Woodhenge, burial mounds, and nearby standing stones. The project involved a substantial amount of fieldwork and ran from 2003 to 2009. It found that Stonehenge was built 500 years earlier than previously thought. The monument is believed to have been built to unify the peoples of Britain. It also found a previously unknown stone circle, Bluestonehenge.

Steven Mithen, is an archaeologist. He is noted for his work on the evolution of language, music and intelligence, prehistoric hunter-gatherers, and the origins of farming. He is professor of early prehistory at the University of Reading.

C. Joshua Pollard is a British archaeologist who is a professor of archaeology at the University of Southampton. He gained his BA and PhD in archaeology from the Cardiff University, and is a specialist in the archaeology of the Neolithic period in the UK and north-west Europe, especially in relation to the study of depositional practices, monumentality, and landscape. He is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of prehistoric Scotland</span>

This timeline of prehistoric Scotland is a chronologically ordered list of important archaeological sites in Scotland and of major events affecting Scotland's human inhabitants and culture during the prehistoric period. The period of prehistory prior to occupation by the genus Homo is part of the geology of Scotland. Prehistory in Scotland ends with the arrival of the Romans in southern Scotland in the 1st century AD and the beginning of written records. The archaeological sites and events listed are the earliest examples or among the most notable of their type.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vespasian's Camp</span> Iron Age hillfort in Wiltshire, England

Vespasian's Camp is an Iron Age hillfort just west of the town of Amesbury, Wiltshire, England. The hillfort is less than 3 kilometres (2 mi) from the Neolithic and Bronze Age site of Stonehenge, and was built on a hill next to the Stonehenge Avenue; it has the River Avon on its southern side and the A303 road on its northern edge. The site is a scheduled monument and lies within the boundaries of the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistory</span> Span of time before recorded history

Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins c. 3.3 million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use of symbols, marks, and images appears very early among humans, but the earliest known writing systems appeared c. 5,200 years ago. It took thousands of years for writing systems to be widely adopted, with writing having spread to almost all cultures by the 19th century. The end of prehistory therefore came at different times in different places, and the term is less often used in discussing societies where prehistory ended relatively recently.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bluestonehenge</span> Prehistoric monument in Wiltshire, England

Bluestonehenge or Bluehenge is a prehistoric henge and stone circle monument that was discovered by the Stonehenge Riverside Project about 1 mile (1.6 km) south-east of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England. All that remains of the site is the ditch of the henge and a series of stone settings, none of which is visible above ground.

In archaeology, phenomenology is the application of sensory experiences to view and interpret an archaeological site or cultural landscape in the past. It views space as socially produced and is concerned with the ways people experience and understand spaces, places, and landscapes. Phenomenology became a part of the Post-processual archaeology movement in the early 1990s and was a reaction to Processual archaeology's proposed 'scientific' treatment of space as an abstract and empty locus for action. In contrast, phenomenology proposes a 'humanized' space which is embedded with meaning and is created through praxis. Phenomenology therefore treats the landscape as a network of places, each of which bears meaning and is connected through movements and narratives.

Timothy Darvill OBE is an English archaeologist and author, best known for his publications on prehistoric Britain and his excavations in England, Wales, and the Isle of Man. He is Professor of Archaeology in the Faculty of Science and Technology Bournemouth University in England. In April 2008 he co-directed excavations within Stonehenge, together with Professor Geoffrey Wainwright and Dr Miles Russell, to examine the early stone structures on the site. The work featured heavily in a BBC Timewatch programme which examined the theory that Stonehenge was a prehistoric centre of healing. He was appointed OBE in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neolithic British Isles</span> British, Irish and Manx history c. 4100–2500 BC

The Neolithic period in the British Isles lasted from c. 4100 to c. 2,500 BC. Constituting the final stage of the Stone Age in the region, it was preceded by the Mesolithic and followed by the Bronze Age.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike Pitts (archaeologist)</span> English freelance journalist and archaeologist

Michael W. Pitts,, is an English freelance journalist and archaeologist who specialises in the study of British prehistory. He is the author of several books on the subject, and is the editor of British Archaeology, the publication of the Council for British Archaeology.

Barbara Bender is an anthropologist and archaeologist. She is currently Emeritus Professor of Heritage Anthropology at University College London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prehistoric religion</span> Religion before written records

Prehistoric religion is the religious practice of prehistoric cultures. Prehistory, the period before written records, makes up the bulk of human experience; over 99% of human experience occurred during the Paleolithic period alone. Prehistoric cultures spanned the globe and existed for over two and a half million years; their religious practices were many and varied, and the study of them is difficult due to the lack of written records describing the details of their faiths.

References

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  2. 1 2 3 4 "Professor Julian Thomas, research profile - personal details (The University of". The University of Manchester website. University of Manchester. 27 September 2009. Retrieved 27 September 2009.
  3. "Understanding the Neolithic - Preview". Routledge website. Routledgeyear=2007. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
  4. "One World Archaeology". World Archaeological Congress website. World Archaeological Congress. 21 June 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2009.
  5. "stonehenge (The University of Manchester)". The Stonehenge Riverside Project report. University of Manchester. 29 May 2008. Archived from the original on 9 October 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  6. Henderson, Mark (30 January 2007). "Timber shrine reveals Stonehenge secret - TimesOnline". TimesOnline website. London: The Times. Archived from the original on 20 February 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  7. Sturcke, James (23 October 2009). "'Second Stonehenge' discovered near original". guardian.co.uk website. London: The Guardian . Retrieved 23 October 2009.
  8. "Mini-Stonehenge Found: Crematorium on Stonehenge Road?". National Geographic News website. National Geographic Society. 5 October 2009. Archived from the original on 8 October 2009. Retrieved 31 October 2009.
  9. "Council". Royal Anthropological Institute website. Royal Anthropological Institute. 2009. Retrieved 22 October 2009.
  10. Thomas, Julian (1999). Understanding the Neolithic - Google Books. Routledge. pp. Preface. ISBN   0-415-20767-3 . Retrieved 15 October 2009.
  11. "Proposals for a tunnel at Stonehenge: an assessment of the alternatives". World Archaeological Congress website. World Archaeological Congress. 18 January 1999. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 24 October 2009.