The theme of the 2026 Neolithic Studies Group day conference is farming - from practice to ideology - drawing on new research & discoveries.

Farmers, Farming Practices and Farming Tools

Organisers: Kenny Brophy and Rosie Bishop

An in person and hybrid online Neolithic Studies Group conference.

Farming is often regarded as the key factor which defines a community as ‘being Neolithic’ and yet remains relatively under-researched and theorised as a practice and way of life in Britain and Ireland. This stands in contrast with some other parts of Europe where these aspects of Neolithic lifeways have received far more attention. It is now 10 years since the NSG last covered these issues in a conference in 2016 (Neolithic Food and Farming Systems and associated publication), and there have been several key methodological innovations, discoveries and metadata syntheses of primary evidence of farming undertaken in the last decade that have the potential to considerably change our understanding.

More broadly, we are also interested in contributions that explore the social nature of farming and the ontological status of ‘being a farmer’ or ‘becoming a farmer’, and in understanding the longer-term social and environmental consequences of the introduction of farming, both positive and negative. We are coming to realise that far from being indicative of a winner-takes-all positive development, the advent of farming was accompanied by a series of social and health problems, as well as causing detrimental environmental impacts. To what extent do we have evidence that these were a problem early on, and can we identify strategies that the first farmers used to mitigate against these? How did early farmers cope with climate change? Finally, to what extent have we resolved the conundrum explored so memorably in the 1980s and 1990s as to whether farming was about the economy, ideology …or both?

A series of speakers and posters will tackle the understudied area of farming in the British Neolithic, drawing on fresh research and scientific analyses, new excavation results, and ongoing research projects. These contributions come from academia and the developer-led sector, non-professionals, and early career researchers in the NSG tradition.

The programme will be published here soon.

Please note unfortunately this year we cannot offer tea and coffee to delegates.

If you have any questions or queries please email kenny.brophy@glasgow.ac.uk

Also see our website https://neolithic.org.uk/

Description supplied by the event organiser.