Active artefacts and mutable identities: The role of material things in the formation of the British Neolithic

The study of whole-genome ancient DNA has enhanced our appreciation of the extent of human mobility in the Neolithic. Unfortunately, this has sometimes come at the cost of a return to culture-historic narratives of ‘massive migrations’ and abrupt cultural change. Equally, material culture is sometimes still understood as passively reflecting changes of population. In the case of Britain, interactions between Neolithic migrants and indigenous hunter-gatherers may have been more complex and intricate than models of ‘population replacement’ allow, and artefacts and architecture may have played an active role in the establishment of new communities composed of individuals drawn from different point of origin.