Chris Fowler
Biographic Data
| ID | 3584653 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Fowler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Fowler |
| SIGNATURE | FOWLER C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Newcastle University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3794-9298 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 516 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 36 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
Building tombs and entombing the dead as technologies of descent and affinity in Neolithic northern Scotland
When grounded within relevant archaeological contexts, ancient DNA analysis can provide critical insights into prehistoric human populations. This is demonstrated in this article, where the authors examine the genetic relatedness of individuals whose remains were placed in five Neolithic tombs in Caithness and Orkney, northern Scotland. The results reveal a web of biological ties that, the authors argue, suggests sustained contact between these c…
Contextualizing descent in Neolithic northern Europe
Cet article explore le rôle joué par les individus inhumés à proximité dans les nécropoles néolithiques, connectés par un lien patrilinéaire, au sein des systèmes plus larges de relations de parenté néolithiques. Il se fonde pour cela sur trois cas d’étude : une nécropole à Gurgy 'les Noisats' (France), une chambre funéraire en dolmen à Hazleton North (Angleterre) et une tombe à couloir à Frälsegården (Suède). L’article propose que la filiation d…
Communication invitée du thèmePratiques mortuaires et inférences socialesThe work of kinship
Materialising Descent
This paper builds on the recent aDNA results from Hazleton North chambered tomb to explore how people might have repeatedly negotiated kinship, descent, and affinity in Early Neolithic southern Britain. Hazleton North was constructed around 3700 cal bc , was in use for less than a century, and – unlike many other Cotswold-Severn tombs – was never modified to alter the arrangement of chambers. The aDNA analysis from 35 individuals whose remains we…
Social arrangements. Kinship, descent and affinity in the mortuary architecture of Early Neolithic Britain and Ireland
This article reassesses the social significance of Early Neolithic chambered tombs. It critically evaluates inferences about social organization drawn from tomb architecture and interpretations of kinship based on aDNA analyses of human remains from tombs. Adopting the perspective that kinship is a multifaceted and ongoing field of practice, it argues that the arrangement of tomb chambers was related to the negotiation of Early Neolithic kinship.…
Proximity to sources of airborne lead is associated with reductions in Children's executive function in the first four years of life
Keep Asking Questions
Change and Diversity in Neolithic Mortuary Practices on the Isle of Man
While the Early Neolithic chambered tombs of the Isle of Man are well known and the Late Neolithic has been clearly defined with reference to a distinctive suite of artefacts, little is known about the Middle Neolithic. This article reports on 17 new Neolithic radiocarbon dates from cremated human remains from the Isle of Man. These identify five burials in cists as Middle Neolithic and indicate new sequences of activity at cemeteries starting in…
Ontology in Neolithic Britain and Ireland
A combination of new animism and new materialism has influenced recent interpretations of the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, including decorative and figurative productions often referred to as 'art'. This article queries the appeal to animism in some of this work and considers four alternative ways to react to the use of the term. First it considers contextualizing animism by discussing Descola's identification of four kinds of on…
Penny Bickle & Emilie Sibbesson. 2018. Neolithic bodies (Neolithic Studies Group Seminar Papers 15). Oxford
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Thinking outside the cist
Recent analysis of Early Bronze Age human remains from Staarvey Farm on the Isle of Man has revealed a rare bone knife pommel and 20 other bone objects, offering insight into the importance of bone ornaments and artefact fittings at this time. This article adopts a relational typological approach to analyse the Staarvey burial and comparable assemblages, identifying patterns in the deposition of knife pommels in central and southern Britain. In e…
The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe
Scale, Context, Network
Relational Typologies, Assemblage Theory and Early Bronze Age Burials
This article argues that artefact types and typologies are kinds of assemblages, presenting an explicitly relational interpretation of typology grounded in a more-than-representational assemblage theory. In the process it evaluates recent approaches to typology, and the interpretations these typologies have supported, and compares these with approaches which emphasize materiality and experience. It then illustrates the benefit of drawing these tw…
Relational Personhood Revisited
This article revisits one of the key heuristic devices archaeologists have used to appreciate personhood over the last 15 years-the idea that there is a tension between individual and dividual aspects of personhood. I argue that personhood is always relational, but in varied ways, and propose a revised heuristic approach to assist with appreciating diversity in the multi-dimensional and multi-modal character of personhood
The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
The Decline of the Neolithic and the Rise of Bronze Age Society
The Neolithic in Mediterranean Europe
The Mediterranean region represented a significant zone for the transmission of the Neolithic and its farming economy.This essay reviews the different mechanisms and geographic constraints that influenced the movement of farming and cultural trends, and assesses the current interpretative models as well as traditional approaches in the context of recent archaeological discoveries and publication.Neolithic evidence across southern Europe, from the…
The Neolithization of Mediterranean Europe
Stable Isotopes and Neolithic Subsistence
Subsistence Practices in Western and Northern Europe
Early agriculture in north-west Europe was highly diverse. Sometimes it spread rapidly, at other times it scarcely advanced at all, and in southern Scandinavia it retreated after its initial advance. Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farmers occupied small clearings on loess soils, concentrating on cattle and cereals and hardly exploiting the surrounding forest at all. After more than a millennium agriculture spread into southern Scandinavia; after an init…
Mortuary Practices, Bodies, and Persons in Northern Europe
Virtual reality and learning
The aim of this paper was to build upon D algarno and L ee's model or framework of learning in three‐dimensional (3‐ D ) virtual learning environments ( VLEs ) and to extend their road map for further research in this area. The enhanced model shares the common goal with D algarno and L ee of identifying the learning benefits from using 3‐ D VLE s. The approach adopted here is to attempt a more pedagogical description using the concept of pedagogi…
The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
This chapter explores early metallurgy and metalwork in Iberia and the western Mediterranean, focusing on the metal-using phase known as ‘Chalcolithic’. After providing a background on the Iberian peninsula and its potential importance for early metallurgy, the discussion turns to the earliest treatment of copper ores in the region and the socioeconomic context of early metallurgy. It then looks at the earliest use of copper artefacts in Italy an…
The Archaeology of Personhood
Bringing together a wealth of research in social and cultural anthropology, philosophy and related fields, this is the first book to address the contribution that an understanding of personhood can make to our interpretations of the past Applying an anthropological approach to detailed case studies from European prehistoric archaeology, the book explores the connection between people, animals, objects, their societies and environments and investi…
The Archaeology of Personhood
Bringing together a wealth of research in social and cultural anthropology, philosophy and related fields, this is the first book to address the contribution that an understanding of personhood can make to our interpretations of the past Applying an anthropological approach to detailed case studies from European prehistoric archaeology, the book explores the connection between people, animals, objects, their societies and environments and investi…
Enduring relations
In this article, the authors examine tensions between understandings of material things as either bundles of relations or as things-in-themselves. Rather than take either of these positions, they instead set out an argument for approaches that allow them to modulate between these understandings whilst treating both as relational. Taking such a position allows them to consider how things endure through time without returning to any notion of essen…
The Archaeology of Plural and Changing Identities
"Questions of identity have plagued the field of archaeology since its earliest antiquarian origins. The ability to discover, recover, or uncover a past culture required the assumption of a direct relationship between its material remains and social identity. Artifacts and architectural features alike have been conceptualized as "signatures" or "representations" of specific cultures – from the "Beaker People" of the European Neolithic to the "Geo…
Relational Personhood Revisited
This article revisits one of the key heuristic devices archaeologists have used to appreciate personhood over the last 15 years-the idea that there is a tension between individual and dividual aspects of personhood. I argue that personhood is always relational, but in varied ways, and propose a revised heuristic approach to assist with appreciating diversity in the multi-dimensional and multi-modal character of personhood
Personhood and Social Relations in the British Neolithic with a Study from the Isle of Man
Studies of collective or corporate burial in the British Neolithic have focused largely on ancestors, clans and lineages, or the production of a microcosm of reality. Social relations are often described as egalitarian, or egalitarianism is taken to be the ideological impetus for corporate burial, belying inequalities in life. Studies of individual burial focus more on concepts of individual power, autonomous agency, status and possession. In thi…
Relational Typologies, Assemblage Theory and Early Bronze Age Burials
This article argues that artefact types and typologies are kinds of assemblages, presenting an explicitly relational interpretation of typology grounded in a more-than-representational assemblage theory. In the process it evaluates recent approaches to typology, and the interpretations these typologies have supported, and compares these with approaches which emphasize materiality and experience. It then illustrates the benefit of drawing these tw…
From Identity and Material Culture to Personhood and Materiality
The term ‘personhood’ refers to the state or condition of being a person. Studies of personhood investigate how persons emerge from specific ways of being in the world, and consider personhood and concepts of the person to be socially and culturally varied. This article explores the development of studies of personhood mainly in anthropology and archaeology in the context of previous and ongoing studies of identity and material culture. In so doi…
Places Of Transformation
Using the Irish Sea area as a case-study, we argue that both sites and landscapes can be understood as containing a series of components procured from the landscape and from human, animal, and object bodies. These components were organized in a way that commented on and related to specific cultural relationships between these different locations and through the substances found within them. This idea is explored by examining Neolithic monuments, …
Social arrangements. Kinship, descent and affinity in the mortuary architecture of Early Neolithic Britain and Ireland
This article reassesses the social significance of Early Neolithic chambered tombs. It critically evaluates inferences about social organization drawn from tomb architecture and interpretations of kinship based on aDNA analyses of human remains from tombs. Adopting the perspective that kinship is a multifaceted and ongoing field of practice, it argues that the arrangement of tomb chambers was related to the negotiation of Early Neolithic kinship.…
Ontology in Neolithic Britain and Ireland
A combination of new animism and new materialism has influenced recent interpretations of the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, including decorative and figurative productions often referred to as 'art'. This article queries the appeal to animism in some of this work and considers four alternative ways to react to the use of the term. First it considers contextualizing animism by discussing Descola's identification of four kinds of on…
Materialising Descent
This paper builds on the recent aDNA results from Hazleton North chambered tomb to explore how people might have repeatedly negotiated kinship, descent, and affinity in Early Neolithic southern Britain. Hazleton North was constructed around 3700 cal bc , was in use for less than a century, and – unlike many other Cotswold-Severn tombs – was never modified to alter the arrangement of chambers. The aDNA analysis from 35 individuals whose remains we…
Proximity to sources of airborne lead is associated with reductions in Children's executive function in the first four years of life
Thinking outside the cist
Recent analysis of Early Bronze Age human remains from Staarvey Farm on the Isle of Man has revealed a rare bone knife pommel and 20 other bone objects, offering insight into the importance of bone ornaments and artefact fittings at this time. This article adopts a relational typological approach to analyse the Staarvey burial and comparable assemblages, identifying patterns in the deposition of knife pommels in central and southern Britain. In e…
Personhood and Social Relations in the British Neolithic with a Study from the Isle of Man
Studies of collective or corporate burial in the British Neolithic have focused largely on ancestors, clans and lineages, or the production of a microcosm of reality. Social relations are often described as egalitarian, or egalitarianism is taken to be the ideological impetus for corporate burial, belying inequalities in life. Studies of individual burial focus more on concepts of individual power, autonomous agency, status and possession. In thi…
Places Of Transformation
Using the Irish Sea area as a case-study, we argue that both sites and landscapes can be understood as containing a series of components procured from the landscape and from human, animal, and object bodies. These components were organized in a way that commented on and related to specific cultural relationships between these different locations and through the substances found within them. This idea is explored by examining Neolithic monuments, …
The Archaeology of Personhood
Bringing together a wealth of research in social and cultural anthropology, philosophy and related fields, this is the first book to address the contribution that an understanding of personhood can make to our interpretations of the past Applying an anthropological approach to detailed case studies from European prehistoric archaeology, the book explores the connection between people, animals, objects, their societies and environments and investi…
Identity Politics
Beyond Identification
The Archaeology of Plural and Changing Identities
"Questions of identity have plagued the field of archaeology since its earliest antiquarian origins. The ability to discover, recover, or uncover a past culture required the assumption of a direct relationship between its material remains and social identity. Artifacts and architectural features alike have been conceptualized as "signatures" or "representations" of specific cultures – from the "Beaker People" of the European Neolithic to the "Geo…
Inside the Neolithic mind
Pattern and diversity in the Early Neolithic mortuary practices of Britain and Ireland
This article presents the first synthesis of the evidence for a diverse range of mortuary practices across the British Isles, and an interpretation of what they suggest about understandings of the body, relatedness, personhood and ancestry in Early Neolithic Britain and Ireland. By exploring the ways that mortuary practices were interwoven with the development of the places where they were carried out, we can build up a more detailed – and more v…
From Identity and Material Culture to Personhood and Materiality
The term ‘personhood’ refers to the state or condition of being a person. Studies of personhood investigate how persons emerge from specific ways of being in the world, and consider personhood and concepts of the person to be socially and culturally varied. This article explores the development of studies of personhood mainly in anthropology and archaeology in the context of previous and ongoing studies of identity and material culture. In so doi…
The Emergent Past
This book approaches archaeological research as an engagement within an assemblage - a particular configuration of materials, things, places, humans, animals, plants, techniques, technologies, forces, and ideas. Fowler develops a new interpretative method for that engagement, exploring how archaeological research can, and does, reconfigure each assemblage. Recognising the successive relationships that give rise to and reshaped assemblages over ti…
Mortuary Practices and Bodily Representations in North-west Europe
This chapter explores patterns and variations in how Neolithic bodies were presented and represented in Britain, Ireland and northern France, and how these changed through time. The evidence for mortuary practices and figurative art are reviewed, with special attention to the concept of bodily integrity. A wide range of bodily transformations following death are discussed including cremation, single and collective burial, practices that left the …
The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
The Decline of the Neolithic and the Rise of Bronze Age Society
The Neolithic in Mediterranean Europe
The Mediterranean region represented a significant zone for the transmission of the Neolithic and its farming economy.This essay reviews the different mechanisms and geographic constraints that influenced the movement of farming and cultural trends, and assesses the current interpretative models as well as traditional approaches in the context of recent archaeological discoveries and publication.Neolithic evidence across southern Europe, from the…
The Neolithization of Mediterranean Europe
Stable Isotopes and Neolithic Subsistence
Subsistence Practices in Western and Northern Europe
Early agriculture in north-west Europe was highly diverse. Sometimes it spread rapidly, at other times it scarcely advanced at all, and in southern Scandinavia it retreated after its initial advance. Linearbandkeramik (LBK) farmers occupied small clearings on loess soils, concentrating on cattle and cereals and hardly exploiting the surrounding forest at all. After more than a millennium agriculture spread into southern Scandinavia; after an init…
Mortuary Practices, Bodies, and Persons in Northern Europe
Virtual reality and learning
The aim of this paper was to build upon D algarno and L ee's model or framework of learning in three‐dimensional (3‐ D ) virtual learning environments ( VLEs ) and to extend their road map for further research in this area. The enhanced model shares the common goal with D algarno and L ee of identifying the learning benefits from using 3‐ D VLE s. The approach adopted here is to attempt a more pedagogical description using the concept of pedagogi…
The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe
This chapter explores early metallurgy and metalwork in Iberia and the western Mediterranean, focusing on the metal-using phase known as ‘Chalcolithic’. After providing a background on the Iberian peninsula and its potential importance for early metallurgy, the discussion turns to the earliest treatment of copper ores in the region and the socioeconomic context of early metallurgy. It then looks at the earliest use of copper artefacts in Italy an…
The Neolithic of the Irish Sea
This collection of 24 papers aims to reconsider the nature and significance of the Irish Sea as an area of cultural interaction during the Neolithic period. The traditional character of work across this region has emphasised the existence of prehistoric contact, with sea routes criss-crossing between Ireland, the Isle of Man, Anglesey and the British mainland. A parallel course of investigation, however, has demonstrated that the British and Iris…
Gristhorpe Man
Recovered during an excavation in 1834, the remains of ‘Gristhorpe Man’ were found wrapped in the hide of a cow or bull and encased in a split and hollowed-out log coffin along with selected artefa
Enduring relations
In this article, the authors examine tensions between understandings of material things as either bundles of relations or as things-in-themselves. Rather than take either of these positions, they instead set out an argument for approaches that allow them to modulate between these understandings whilst treating both as relational. Taking such a position allows them to consider how things endure through time without returning to any notion of essen…
Relational Personhood Revisited
This article revisits one of the key heuristic devices archaeologists have used to appreciate personhood over the last 15 years-the idea that there is a tension between individual and dividual aspects of personhood. I argue that personhood is always relational, but in varied ways, and propose a revised heuristic approach to assist with appreciating diversity in the multi-dimensional and multi-modal character of personhood
Relational Typologies, Assemblage Theory and Early Bronze Age Burials
This article argues that artefact types and typologies are kinds of assemblages, presenting an explicitly relational interpretation of typology grounded in a more-than-representational assemblage theory. In the process it evaluates recent approaches to typology, and the interpretations these typologies have supported, and compares these with approaches which emphasize materiality and experience. It then illustrates the benefit of drawing these tw…
History (26 works) · Archaeology (24 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (22 works) · Geography (21 works) · Sociology (16 works) · Philosophy (15 works) · Anthropology (13 works) · Ancient history (11 works) · History (11 works) · Epistemology (10 works)