Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface -- List of figures -- List of contributors -- MAps -- Part I : introduction -- The Oxford handbook of Neolithic Europe : an introduction / Chris Fowler, Jan Harding and Daniela Hofman -- Part II : mobility, change, and interaction at the large scale -- Environments and landscape change / Tony Brown, Geoff Bailey, and Dave Passmore -- Movements of plants, animals, ideas, and people in South-East Europe / Johannes Müller -- The neolithization of Mediterranean Europe : mobility and interactions from the Near East to the Iberian Peninsula / Jean Guilaine -- Central and Western Europe / Wolfram Schier -- Moving animals and plants in the early Neolithic of North-Western Europe / Anne Tresset -- Language, genes, and cultural interaction / Stephen Shennan -- The Balkan Neolithic and Chalcolithic / John Chapman -- The Neolithic in Mediterranean Europe / Caroline Malone -- Early Neolithic manifestations in Central and Eastern Europe / Detlef Gronenborn and Pavel Dolukhanov -- The Atlantic Mesolithic-Neolithic transition / Nick Thorpe -- Part III : Neolithic worlds and Neolithic lifeways -- Settlements in South-East Europe / Pál Raczky -- Domestic space in the Mediterranean / Demetra Papaconstantinou -- Longhouse lifestyles in the Central European Neolithic / Jonathan Last -- Lakeside dwellings in the Circum alpine region / Francesco Menotti -- The Bandkeramik longhouses : a material, social, and mental metaphor for small-scale sedentary societies / Anick Coudart -- Houses, halls, and occupation in Britain and Ireland / Kenneth Brophy -- Places of settlement in southern Scandinavia / Mats Larsson -- Stable isotopes and Neolithic subsistence : pattern and variation / Rick Schulting -- Subsistence practices and social routine in Neolithic Southern Europe / Amy Bogaard and Paul Halstead -- Subsistence practices in Central and Eastern Europe / László Bartosiewicz and Malcolm Lille -- Subsistence practices in Western and Northern Europe / Peter Rowley-Conwy and Tony Legge -- The Neolithic year / Dimitrij Mlekuž -- Religious routine and pilgrimage in the British Isles / Roy Loveday - tInvention and European knapping traditions / Marjorie de Grooth -- Shared labour and large-scale action : European flint mining / Marta Capote and Pedro Díaz-del-Río -- Stone and flint axes in Neolithic Europe / Gabriel Cooney -- Pots and potters in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition in South-East Europe / Mihael Budja -- Linearbandkeramik pottery and society / Joachim Pechtl -- Ceramics and society in Northern Europe / Johannes Müller and Rick Peterson -- Bell beaker pottery and society / Marc Vander Linden -- A miniature world : models and figurines in South-East Europe / Stratos Nanoglou -- Spondylus gaederopus/Glycymeris exchange networks in the European Neolithic and Chalcothic / John Chapman and Bisserka Gaydarska -- Amber / Tony Axelsson, Morten Ramstad, and Anders Strinnholm -- The first metalwork and expressions of social power / Volker Heyd and Katharine Walker -- Early metallurgy in Iberia and the Western Mediterranean / Martin Bartelheim and Mark Pearce -- Early metallurgy in Western and Northern Europe / Benjamin W. Roberts and Catherine J. Frieman -- Deposition in pits / Duncan Garrow -- Animals and social relations / Arkadiusz Marciniak and Joshua Pollard -- Monuments, rock art, and cosmology -- Central European enclosures / Jörg Petrasch -- Italian enclosures / Robin Skeates -- Causewayed enclosures in Northern and Western Europe / Niels H. Andersen -- Chambered tombs and passage graves of Western and Northern Europe / Vicki Cummings, Magdalena S. Midgley, and Chris Scarre -- Neolithic rock art in Iberia / Sara Fairén-Jiménez -- The rock art tradition of Valcamonica-Valtellina during the Neolithic period / Angelo Eugenio Fossati -- Rock art and the rock surface : Neolithic rock art traditions of Britain, Ireland, and northernmost Europe / Andrew Cochrane, Andrew Meirion Jones, and Kalle Sogness -- Underground religion in the central Mediterranean Neolithic / Robin Skeates -- A place in the cosmos : celestial bodies and the passage graves of Western Europe / Michael Hoskin -- Mortuary practices, bodies, and persons in the Neolithic and early-middle Copper Age of South-East Europe / Dušan Borić -- Burial and human body representations in the Mediterranean Neolithic / John Robb -- Mortuary practices, bodies, and persons in Central Europe / Daniela Hoffman and Jörg Orschiedt -- Mortuary practices, bodies, and persons in Northern Europe / Karl-Göran Sjögren -- Mortuary practices and bodily representations in North-West Europe / Chris Fowler and Chris Scarre -- Part IV : debates in Neolithic archaeology -- Unexpected histories? : South-East and Central Europe / Alasdair Whittle -- Commentary : what do we mean by "Neolithic societies?" / Julian Thomas -- The decline of the Neolithic and the rise of Bronze Age society / Kristian Kristiansen -- Author Index -- Subject Index.

'The Oxford Handbook of Neolithic Europe' provides a comprehensive, geographically extensive, thematic overview of the European Neolithic - from Iberia to Russia and from Norway to Malta - offering both a general introduction and a clear exploration of key issues and current debates surrounding evidence and interpretation.