The Archaeology of Mendip: 500,000 Years of Change and Continuity

The Mendip Hills in Somerset, south-west England, have an archaeological sequence that stretches back half a million years with many sites of national and international significance. In this comprehensive and up-to-date book twenty contributors present the results of new research and new ideas about the archaeology and history of the wider Mendip landscape.

The Archaeology of Mendip details both newly discovered sites and reinterpretations of those already known, summarises periods through history, gives accounts of artefacts and reflects on the relationship between sites and the implications for landscape use, meaning and organisation. The contributors to this volume have variously employed and combined archaeological, historical and scientific approaches to research the history of humans in these hills.

The papers are broadly organised chronologically, ranging from the Palaeolithic to the twentieth century, but there are many common themes and ideas. The physical landscape, the backdrop to all the human activities discussed in this volume, is also considered with contributions that cover geological studies and the environmental history of the Mendip landscape.

Lavishly illustrated, this is the first publication of its kind to be devoted to the archaeology of the Mendip Hills and reveals the incredible richness and diversity of this important region.

Jodie Lewis has been involved in researching the archaeology of the Mendip Hills for the past fifteen years and completed a PhD on the subject at the University of Bristol in 2001. She is a specialist in the prehistory of the region, and has excavated many Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age sites. She has published extensively on aspects of the archaeology of Mendip and is active in disseminating the results of her work to local groups and societies. Since 2002, she has been a Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Worcester.