In Britain, Ireland and Southern Scandinavia, the Early Neolithic is characterised by monumental constructions (e.g. causewayed enclosures, dolmens) and by specific traditions of depositional practice. Some aspects of these practices are similar in both regions, for example the shapes and use of monuments, their overall developmental sequences, and the traditions of deposition (kinds of objects and their treatment, locations chosen and so on). In spite of these similarities, however, there has been little explicit comparative work, largely also because of research paradigms that tended to stress local and regional peculiarities over wide-spread similarities. Given the increasing evidence for group and personal mobility in recent years, this begs the question of whether such similarities are the result of accidental convergence on the basis of a broadly shared ?Neolithic? lifeway, or rather the result of contacts, whether direct or as part of a large-scale, but loose network of interaction. The papers in this volume provide initial case studies to address this issue. Regional case studies of Britain, Ireland, southern Scandinavia, northern France and northern Germany form the basis for reflecting on the similarities and differences of sites and materials to those from adjacent areas, and on the forms and rhythms any potential contact might have taken. Authors draw on both archaeological studies of specific material categories or site patterns, as well as on aDNA evidence or modelling of 14C dates. Papers also offer theoretical reflections on the modalities of contacts and connections at this time, defining more directed questions and priorities to further develop this line of research in the future. AUTHORS: Daniela Hofmann is Professor of Archaeology at Bergen University, where she teaches and researches mainly on the Neolithic of Europe. Her current interests include migration, kinship, ritual, social inequality and resistance to it, as well as social contacts and change (see the forthcoming co-authored volume Negotiating migrations. The archaeology and politics of mobility, 2024, and the co-edited outreach publication Migration narratives in archaeology, 2023). In her projects, she tries to combine theoretical considerations with a variety of methods, including bioarchaeological information, in an effort to write narratives that take into account different perspectives. She hopes that knowing about diversity in the past could help us create a fairer society today, but has doubts on whether this is actually working. Vicki Cummings is Professor of Neolithic Archaeology at Cardiff University. Her research has focused on the start and spread of the Neolithic in Britain, Ireland and north-west Europe. She has a particular research interest in Early Neolithic monumentality, especially chambered tombs, and has excavated sites in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. More recently her work has focused on the Early Neolithic of Orkney as well as Early Neolithic kinship. She is the author of The Neolithic of Britain and Ireland and Monuments in the making: raising the great dolmens in early Neolithic northern Europe (with Colin Richards). Mathias Bjørnevad-Ahlqvist is a researcher specialising in ritualised practices of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. He has particularly focused on interdisciplinary and biographical approaches to hoarding. Furthermore, he has published on heritage-related issues with Native American and First Nation objects in Danish museums, and he has worked as Research Assistant on the DFF-funded Deep Histories of Migration project, which assessed the connectivity across Northern Europe in the Early Neolithic based on the statistical analyses of ritual practices. Rune Iversen is Associate Professor of Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen. His research focuses on the European Neolithic, including migrations, cultural interactions, art and iconography. He is currently PI of two research projects, one of them (Deep histories of migration: the early Neolithic around the North Sea) financed by the Independent Research Fund Denmark (IRFD, Grant 0132-00022B) and co-led with Daniela Hofmann and Vicki Cummings. He is also principal editor of the Danish Journal of Archaeology.
