Supply and demand in prehistory? 

Economics of Neolithic mining in NW Europe

This project, funded by a Leverhulme Trust Research Project Grant, will analyse evidence for Neolithic quarrying and mining in Britain and North-west Europe to address the question: what economic factors, if any, influenced them? Targeted new radiocarbon dates and radiocarbon calibration models of these and existing dates will establish the periods of production activity at excavated quarry and mining sites. Using a quantitative approach, these will be related to independent evidence for population fluctuations, forest clearance, quarry/mine product distribution, social inequality and the introduction of metal production, to evaluate their impact on hard stone and flint production in terms of supply and demand at regional and inter-regional scales.