This volume summarizes 30 years of fieldwork in Denmark, some of the evidence for the spread of agriculture and the Neolithic into Scandinavia and some opinions about the origins of agriculture. It is intended to be both academic and personal and to describe the actual process of research, because most projects involve elements of both. There is an introduction to each chapter that relates some of the more personal aspects of the research and the bulk of each chapter will be a more technical scientific report on our investigations. Each chapter will deal with one of the components of the project - survey, testing and excavations. We excavated eight sites from the Late Mesolithic and Early Neolithic that are discussed in this volume. The concluding chapter summarizes our research in the area and proffers opinions on a variety of archaeological subjects, with visits to climate change, seasonality and sedentism, hunter-gatherer complexity, aDNA, inequality and the origins and spread of agriculture.

A personal account chronicling over 30 years of excavation and survey projects investigating the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in Denmark and demonstrating the process of research.

This collection of papers, articles and essays explores the ongoing debate on the neolithisation of Denmark from various disciplines, including archaeology, physical anthropology, botany, zoology, sociology, environmental studies, history and the hard sciences.

The Origins of Agriculture in Europe takes a look at current ideas in the light of a considerable mass of literature and archaeological evidence; examining the transition to agriculture through the comparison of social and economic developments across Europe. In this volume, I.J.Thorpe manages to evaluate various alternative explanations in detailed examples, whilst also succeeding in addressing the broader theoretical questions which form the nucleus of contemporary debates. This clearly written and accessible text is an extremely valuable resource for students of European prehistory.