Neolithic science and technology

Abstract

For northern and western Europe, including Britain, the relevant evidence is much inferior to that available for the ancient East. In the absence of tomb-paintings, relief sculptures and documents, technological processes can be inferred only partially from their end-products, and there is no direct evidence of any general theory derived from observation of natural phenomena. Within these limits, however, it is clear that neolithic communities possessed great skill in ‘civil engineering’ and an adequate empirical knowledge of soil mechanics. Moreover, the corrected radiocarbon chronology implies the independent invention in the West of the techniques of mining and megalithic construction, and even perhaps of the wheel. In this context an interest in mensuration and in the properties of geometrical figures is not out of place, though no evidence survives for any system of numerical notation.