Andrew Jones on Perceiving the Neolithic

In many areas of Neolithic Europe the chronological evidence suggests that monuments are found alongside agriculture or that monuments actually precede agriculture, so reversing the traditional causal emphasis. Rather than viewing monuments as a by-product of agriculture, we may view them as central to the process of becoming Neolithic. If we are to consider the Neolithic as a process that engendered an alteration of beliefs and social relations then monument construction appears to be a critical element in this process. Monuments evoke an altered conception of both time and place; they embody an alteration of the natural world, and their construction involves the creation of a new kind of place in the landscape which, by their very nature, they endure. This perception of the world may be allied to the perceptions required of the agricultural regime, but there is no necessary relationship. The relationship between food production and monumentality is therefore complex.

... If we are to understand the Neolithic as a series of changing relationships between people and the natural world, then we are required to take into account not only the temporal and spatial experience invested by monuments. We also need to consider the temporal and spatial experience associated with plants and animals and with the production, use and deposition of artefacts.... What interests us here is how each element was deployed in the process of constructing and living in the Neolithic.

Andrew Jones. 2001. Archaeological Theory and Scientific Practice. Cambridge Press, London. p.104-105