Making a Mark: Image and Process in Neolithic Britain and Ireland [Paperback]

The visual imagery of Neolithic Britain and Ireland is spectacular. While the imagery of passage tombs, such as Knowth and Newgrange, are well known the rich imagery on decorated portable artefacts is less well understood. How does the visual imagery found on decorated portable artefacts compare with other Neolithic imagery, such as passage tomb art and rock art? How do decorated portable artefacts relate chronologically to other examples of Neolithic imagery?

Using cutting edge digital imaging techniques, the Making a Mark project examined Neolithic decorated portable artefacts of chalk, stone, bone, antler, and wood from three key regions: southern England and East Anglia; the Irish Sea region (Wales, the Isle of Man and eastern Ireland); and Northeast Scotland and Orkney. Digital analysis revealed, for the first time, the prevalence of practices of erasure and reworking amongst a host of decorated portable artefacts, changing our understanding of these enigmatic artefacts. Rather than mark making being a peripheral activity, we can now appreciate the central importance of mark making to the formation of Neolithic communities across Britain and Ireland.

The volume visually documents and discusses the contexts of the decorated portable artefacts from each region, discusses the significance and chronology of practices of erasure and reworking, and compares these practices with those found in other Neolithic contexts, such as passage tomb art, rock art and pottery decoration. A contribution from Antonia Thomas also discusses the settlement art and mortuary art of Orkney, while Ian Dawson and Louisa Minkin contribute with a discussion of the collaborative fine art practices established during the project.

"Supported by a comprehensive bibliography, excellent and detailed photography, and that all-important index, Meirion Jones and Diaz-Guardamino provide the reader with a refreshing approach to deconstructing art and how it played a fundamental part in Neolithic society. This book will be an important contribution to the study of this enigmatic subject."
George Nash
Current Archaeology (24/06/2019)

"By digging below the surface of the designs used, the tools employed and the processes surrounding the creation and deployment of decorated objects, Meirion Jones and Díaz-Guardamino have re-focused the subject with a much higher resolution, akin to that of their RTI images. The details are clearer and new subtleties are emerging. This is an important book which will surely make its own mark in the literature. "
Kate Sharpe
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (29/08/2019)

"The volume is lavishly illustrated… the study is rich in ideas and explores the practices of erasure, revision and reworking. The significance of process is brought into sharp focus in an excellent chapter by Antonia Thomas that deviates from artefacts to discuss the decoration of buildings and tombs in Orkney."
Hugo Anderson-Whymark
British Archaeology (03/05/2019)