Over the past decade, event-based narratives have become a norm in discussions of the British Neolithic. Statistical analyses of radiocarbon dates, combined with a detailed approach to individual contexts, have produced chronological resolutions that have enabled a greater understanding of the construction and use of some monuments. While these have been informative, they sometimes manifest exclusionary nomenclature, with terms such as ‘outliers' and ‘residuality' applied to data that does not agree with other data. In addition, theoretical approaches have seen a similar turn to examine individual contexts and artefacts with which to describe Neolithic life. This paper argues that the current dominance of event-based narratives, extrapolated from small-scale action, is inadvertently ignoring evidence of wider cultural understandings. In particular, evidence of the deliberate inclusion of already old bone in Neolithic deposits has been identified. It is argued that this bone represents a particular past focus on already old material that may have had social currency in British Neolithic symbolic practices.

中文翻译：

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揭示史前的过去：在英国新石器时代故意构建历史叙事的证据

在过去的十年中，基于事件的叙述已成为讨论英国新石器时代的一种规范。放射性碳数据的统计分析，结合针对具体情况的详细方法，产生了按时间顺序排列的分辨率，从而使人们对一些纪念碑的构造和使用有了更深入的了解。尽管这些内容提供了信息，但它们有时表现为排他性的术语，诸如“离群值”和“残差”之类的术语适用于与其他数据不一致的数据。此外，理论方法也经历了类似的转折，以检验用来描述新石器时代生活的个体环境和人工制品。本文认为，从小规模行动推断出的当前基于事件的叙事的主导地位无意间忽略了更广泛的文化理解的证据。特别是，已经发现有证据表明新石器时代的矿床中故意包含了已经老了的骨头。有人认为，这只骨头代表了过去对已经很古老的材料的特殊关注，这些材料在英国新石器时代的象征实践中可能已经具有社会通用性。