Fields of movement in the ancient woodlands of north America

The discipline of archaeology aims to study long-term change, yet archaeologists adopt a very simplified model for understanding temporal change. This chapter considers this problem in relation to one of the more dramatic changes in European prehistory, the transition to agriculture. Our focus will be on the debate around this transition in Britain, and specifically the suite of new scientific analytical techniques applied to this problem. The chapter’s argument centers on the topics of epistemology and ontology. The chapter considers the epistemological and ontological nature of scientific enquiry related to the problem of the Mesolithic Neolithic transition. Thomas offers a more sophisticated theoretical approach in which indigenous Mesolithic hunter-gatherers act on or manipulate inert materials according to cultural attitudes; here again an ontological distinction is assumed to be at play between the inanimate world and animate subjects. Archaeologists therefore enact a multiplicity when they discuss the Mesolithic Neolithic transition for Britain. The chapter argues for less mono-causal explanations and greater complexity when considering the transition.