Neolithic Britain
The Transformation of Social Worlds
Keith Ray and Julian Thomas
Reviews and Awards
"an excellent, highly informative and readable text for anyone new to the subject of the Neolithic or seeking a reference on recent developments of how complicated Neolithic chronologies fit together within Britain. It is a beautifully produced, highly readable, detailed, engaging and thought-provoking, informative book, and is highly recommended." -- Ingrid O'Donnell, Journal of Skyscape Archaeology
"[A] marvellously readable and intelligent book. . . . The entire book is dense with evidence (I learned about many sites for the first time) and is richly illustrated with photographs, many taken by the authors and most in color. It is a luxuriant presentation both visually and intellectually. . . . It offers valuable insights and analogies as well as a concise understanding of the current state of knowledge. The fact that it is pleasant to read is an added bonus, and the authors and Oxford University Press are to be commended for producing a model presentation of archaeological narrative and interpretation." -- Peter Bogucki, Journal of Anthropological Research
"This is a really attractive, wellpaced, current book (an increasingly difficult task this last half decade) ... it is a jolly good, novel read, full of welldated, timeless data." -- Rob Ixer, Fortean Times
"This is a book rich in detail and ideas [that] connects up places and offers an engaging and immersive prehistoric journey." -- Jonathan Last, Archaeological Journal
"[T]his is a book rich in detail and ideas ... Ray and Thomas have produced a narrative that, rather like the cursus monuments they describe, connects up places and offers an engaging and immersive prehistoric journey." -- Jonathan Last, Archaeological Journal
"This is a very readable and persuasive book, full of interesting observations and ideas that draw together and make sense of apparently disparate and puzzling archaeological phenomena." -- Chris Catling, Current Archaeology
"The authors...provide the reader with a comprehensive discussion of individual sites that have recently received intense investigation [...] The contents of the book, organised into six themed chapters, provide the reader with an up-to-date overview of the Neolithic, and, in particular, its communities and the way in which they would have embraced death, burial, and the afterlife. The authors keenly promote the esoteric mechanisms that shape and manipulate the material culture." -- George Nash, Current Archaeology
"[R]ichly informative and well structured. It weaves elegantly the local detail into grand narratives and is well argued [...] Original and innovative in style, the book sets out to be both academically stimulating and accessible. It achieves both of these successfully and does so with archaeological rigour [...] a timely and important contribution to understanding the Neolithic [...] It provides more than a regular book in that it delivers an experience" -- The Prehistoric Society
"[an] immensely valuable and stimulating book [...] This is...a book of ideas. Specialist will be familiar with many of them, but Ray & Thomas have done more than round up their greatest hits (good and bad), instead creating a substantial new narrative that will be appreciated by colleagues, students, and interested public alike." -- British Archaeology
"Neolithic Britain is extensively and excellently illustrated by photos, drawings, paintings, and engravings ... Recommended." --CHOICE