Interpretation through emergence: reconstituting the lost complexity of the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age cosmovision by multi-disciplinary method

This PhD by publication and production represents some of the published outputs of a research project in interpreting some monuments of late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (EBA) in NW Europe. In the course of this project it became clear that it is necessary to integrate a number of methodologies that presently are mainly conducted in isolation – behavioural ecology, social and cultural anthropology, archaeology and archaeoastronomy. This integrated methodology required not just a new way of conducting field work, but also a new interpretive method that requires analytically reconstructing the prehistoric monument building cultures. This interpretive method is based upon a return to ‘system theory’ through and taking with it many of the assumptions of post-constructionist thinking. I call this method - ‘re-emergence’, and its rationale and application are justified and explained in the Critical Review and in the published papers. Over the course of the past decade during which I have developed and applied these methods, I have simultaneously developed and tested a theory of ‘lunar-solar conflation’. This theory locates the monument building cultures of late Neolithic/EBA NW Europe as both a continuation and reversal of their Palaeolithic/Mesolithic forager forebears. At Stonehenge this is exhibited by cattle pastoralists confiscating Palaeolithic ritual entrainment upon monthly dark moons by substituting dark moon rituals which coincide with the solstices twice every nineteen years of the draconic cycle. The published papers of this PhD constitute the evidence and tests for this new theory. Early in this research programme, and quite coincidently, a film production company approached me to make a film on Stonehenge commissioned by National Geographic based upon my research. As I became the main participant, consultant and script writer for this film it is included as the ‘production’ part of my PhD