British Archaeology, no 28, October 1997: Reviews

LANDSCAPE ARCHAEOLOGY IN TYNEDALE
Christopher Tolan-Smith
Newcastle University, £14.95
ISBN 0-7017-0073-4 pb

Landscape is the complex product of many generations of human endeavour, and its study has become increasingly popular in recent years. In this volume, Christopher Tolan-Smith, a Lecturer at Newcastle University, presents six interesting case-studies relating to the Tyne Valley near Newcastle. The chronological coverage is broad, ranging from the 19th century through to early prehistory, though there is a marked emphasis upon the medieval.

This volume is definitely about landscape archaeology in Tynedale, rather than a landscape archaeology of Tynedale. It comprises a series of detailed pieces of archaeological and documentary research often covering areas the size of a parish or smaller. Only an interesting geoarchaeological study of the floodplain evolution takes a more regional view, and overall the detailed individual studies could do with a little more discussion as to how they advance our understanding of landscape development in the North East of England as whole.

However, the book has a number of interesting aspects. It contains studies not simply of agricultural landscapes (notably the evolution of villages and their open fields), but also of woodland and industrial landscapes. Its method is to start with the present landscape and gradually peel off the recent additions in order to reconstruct increasingly earlier landscapes. Nothing new here, but there are a number of wellillustrated examples, including Myra Tolan-Smith's paper on the deconstruction of the post-medieval landscape in an area straddled by Hadrians Wall.

Another major theme is the need for multi-disciplinary research, though in a number of papers a rather traditional approach is taken with separate sections on the documentary and archaeological data. Overall, this volume presents an interesting collection of local studies, and illustrates the value of multi-disciplinary research into landscape change.

Dr Stephen Rippon is a Lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Exeter

FAIRWEATHER EDEN
Michael Pitts and Mark Roberts
Century, £17.99
ISBN 0-7126-7686-4 hb

On 'Friday 13 November 1993' we are informed, an archaeologist called Roger Pederson discovered a human limb-bone that 6 months later was to make Boxgrove almost a household name. Although the authors - one the project director, the other an ex-archaeologist, writer and restaurateur - open with this undoubtedly significant discovery, they quite rightly devote the major part of the book to the unparalleled 500,000-yearold landscape of undisturbed flint and bone that had already stunned the archaeological community over the previous ten years.

The book is furnished with detail, not just of flint scatters and butchery remains, but also of such topics as the evolution of rhinos and rodents, and the genesis and destruction of ice sheets, all interlaced with the history of Palaeolithic research. These are mostly dealt with well, although explanations are at times patronising or obscure. The authors conclude, controversially, that the Boxgrove people were hunters rather than scavengers, had developed language and had an ability to plan ahead beyond breakfast.

The themes are interspersed and developed throughout the book, but too often in irritatingly short chapters that leap on, seemingly without connection, to the next. The main plot, which does keep the reader's attention, is the story of the project, portrayed as a voyage of discovery. Any story needs characters, and of these there are many - Mark Roberts, portrayed as the undervalued, underpaid, precocious student who single-mindedly drove the project from rural obscurity to international fame, surviving, we are told, shadowy subplots to relieve him of the reins. Or Simon Parfitt, the introverted, obsessive, and destined-to-become-brilliant mammal specialist, who first pieced together the limb bone. Both are complemented by a far from dull supporting cast.

If you think this seems a little over the top, you would be right, the voyage occasionally becoming a ripping yarn. This is reinforced by the style of writing - mainly informative, sometimes poetic, and at worst melodramatic. Although it generally makes for an enjoyable read, it leaves one with some doubts as to where fact has occasionally merged with fiction. As for Friday the 13th, well, I think you will find it was a Saturday.

Nick Ashton is a Palaeolithic specialist at the British Museum