Paper short abstract:

This paper seeks to consider how experimental archaeology, specifically the archaeology of sound within its prehistoric context can embody novelty & reflexivity through reconstructive techniques in the present day.

Paper long abstract:

When considering recent interpretive developments in the Archaeology of the Neolithic, it is apparent that visual cues in disseminating the archaeological 'record' are dominant over the primary sensory experiences we as human beings rely upon every day. In constructing a view of our prehistory we are confronted with fragments of a culture seemingly alien to our own and are left to erect biographies based upon inference. In considering the importance of radical experimental archaeology as emergent novelty we are able to include the notion of 'approximation' as a valid path to understanding our ancestral prehistory.

This paper will consider research in sound archaeology and its implications for how we view the British Neolithic through the controversial paradigm of emergent novelty. Through the implementation of a pilot project combining Neolithic archaeoacoustics and reconstructive organology (sounding devices from animal remains), we are able to gain an understanding of social dynamics and complexity where transformation plays a central role, thus addressing in new ways our problematic dependency upon traditional culture/nature dichotomies.

The work in this instance considers the relationships of early Neolithic societies in Britain through reconstructing devices used in sound production. The case study relates to how cattle may have played an increasingly important role in the construction of personal and group identity, the social contracts of communities and the display of conspicuous wealth, not only through the physical acts of feasting, exchange and visual dominance but through the transformative powers of instruments, sounding devices and architecture in recognising an inclusive Neolithic cosmology.