Paul Richard Preston
Paul is a dedicated and professional lithicist, archaeologist, and historian with a passion for teaching people, impacting their lives, and helping those who may not believe they have the potential to achieve. He has had a successful career in the education, heritage, and financial sectors. His mission is to positively apply his knowledge, teaching, leadership, and organisation skills for the betterment of the community.
Paul is a ‘feral’ dyslexic thinker, a ‘superpower’ he discovered during his doctoral research. Although he did not know it until then, his dyslexic thinking was a causal sensitivity to simultaneously seeing both overarching and minuscule patterning. These co-occurring multiscale and multidimensional viewpoints invariably compelled him to seek novel technological solutions. However, while the accompanying linguistic challenges of this thinking remained tempering, he unflinchingly faced the crucible (amongst other challenges) of learning to communicate and write again. Today, these steel into his research.
His research is on understanding human behaviour within changing mountain environments. This is achieved through analysing material culture and environmental evidence from fieldwork, together with the historiographical analyses of previous scholars’ works. In turn, this significantly informs his teaching and commercial practice.
He has vast experience covering most prehistoric periods in Britain and the Near East, especially The Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic, and Neolithic. He is an exceptional researcher and teacher with an eye for detail and a proven track record of original creative ideas. He has an increasingly prominent profile, having published in several peer-reviewed journals and books, and presented papers at numerous international conferences. He is also a strong leader and has organised several fieldwork projects, conferences, seminars, academic courses, and training. Paul currently directs several lab and field-based projects and is editing three books.
CURRENT POSITION
• Director, Lithoscapes Archaeological Research.
PREVIOUS POSITIONS
• Associate Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
• Archaeology Tutor, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK.
• Junior Librarian, Hertford College, Oxford, UK.
• Various excavations/survey positions, and roles in the financial sector.
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) Archaeology, University of Oxford.
• Thesis: Lithics to landscapes: lithic technology, tool use, resource exploitation, & mobility during the Mesolithic of the Central Pennines.
Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) World Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
• Thesis: The influence of raw material on chipped stone tool morphology at the Mesolithic site Star Carr.
Bachelor of Science (BSc (Hons)). Archaeology, University of Liverpool.
• Thesis: The chipped stone industries of the Konya Plain, Anatolia.
DISTINCTIONS:
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
• Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
• Member (by invite/peer-review only) of the Implement Petrology Group.
• Peer-reviewed academic papers for several journals.
MAIN RESEARCH INTERESTS:
• Palaeolithic & Mesolithic lithic technology.
• The palaeoecology of human habitation response to environmental change in the landscape.
• The history and philosophy of archaeology and science.
• First World War history and archaeology.
• History and archaeology of mountaineering.
• Human evolution.
• Archaeology, history, and geography education.
Address: Lugavallum, UK
Paul is a ‘feral’ dyslexic thinker, a ‘superpower’ he discovered during his doctoral research. Although he did not know it until then, his dyslexic thinking was a causal sensitivity to simultaneously seeing both overarching and minuscule patterning. These co-occurring multiscale and multidimensional viewpoints invariably compelled him to seek novel technological solutions. However, while the accompanying linguistic challenges of this thinking remained tempering, he unflinchingly faced the crucible (amongst other challenges) of learning to communicate and write again. Today, these steel into his research.
His research is on understanding human behaviour within changing mountain environments. This is achieved through analysing material culture and environmental evidence from fieldwork, together with the historiographical analyses of previous scholars’ works. In turn, this significantly informs his teaching and commercial practice.
He has vast experience covering most prehistoric periods in Britain and the Near East, especially The Palaeolithic, Epipalaeolithic/Mesolithic, and Neolithic. He is an exceptional researcher and teacher with an eye for detail and a proven track record of original creative ideas. He has an increasingly prominent profile, having published in several peer-reviewed journals and books, and presented papers at numerous international conferences. He is also a strong leader and has organised several fieldwork projects, conferences, seminars, academic courses, and training. Paul currently directs several lab and field-based projects and is editing three books.
CURRENT POSITION
• Director, Lithoscapes Archaeological Research.
PREVIOUS POSITIONS
• Associate Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK.
• Archaeology Tutor, School of Archaeology, University of Oxford, UK.
• Junior Librarian, Hertford College, Oxford, UK.
• Various excavations/survey positions, and roles in the financial sector.
EDUCATION
Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) Archaeology, University of Oxford.
• Thesis: Lithics to landscapes: lithic technology, tool use, resource exploitation, & mobility during the Mesolithic of the Central Pennines.
Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) World Archaeology, University of Cambridge.
• Thesis: The influence of raw material on chipped stone tool morphology at the Mesolithic site Star Carr.
Bachelor of Science (BSc (Hons)). Archaeology, University of Liverpool.
• Thesis: The chipped stone industries of the Konya Plain, Anatolia.
DISTINCTIONS:
• Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
• Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
• Member (by invite/peer-review only) of the Implement Petrology Group.
• Peer-reviewed academic papers for several journals.
MAIN RESEARCH INTERESTS:
• Palaeolithic & Mesolithic lithic technology.
• The palaeoecology of human habitation response to environmental change in the landscape.
• The history and philosophy of archaeology and science.
• First World War history and archaeology.
• History and archaeology of mountaineering.
• Human evolution.
• Archaeology, history, and geography education.
Address: Lugavallum, UK
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Peer Reviewed Papers by Paul Richard Preston
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Peer Reviewed Books by Paul Richard Preston
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Theses by Paul Richard Preston
Author: Paul R Preston
Donald Baden Powell Quaternary Research Centre
Institute of Archaeology
University of Oxford
Supervisor: Professor Nick Barton.
Donald Baden Powell Quaternary Research Centre
Institute of Archaeology
University of Oxford
THESIS INFORMATION
Three volumes, Submitted 2012. ETHOS URL: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.568068
Thesis Access: The full thesis will be made public shortly, but currently, the Access is restricted. However, it may be shared under certain conditions before the thesis is fully published. For early Access, enquiries should be made through the message system on this platform or by email (here: https://lithoscapes.co.uk/contact/).
ABSTRACT
This study examines how Mesolithic lithic technology provides direct, yet often neglected, information about the Mesolithic hunter-gatherer mobility strategies in the Central Pennines (CP [also known as the South Pennines]) of northwest England. It provides a narrative which intimately links Mesolithic mobility strategies, settlement patterns, lithic raw material consumption, and tool use in the Central Pennine upland landscape and adjacent areas. The research area provides an ideal case study upon which to test current models of Mesolithic in an area with virtually no naturally occurring lithic resources (thereby implying that the Mesolithic people had to import all lithic raw materials).
A new referential framework is used to enable the research on the links between Mesolithic lithic technology and mobility. Known as the Lithoscapes Referential Framework Model (LRFM), it has two main components. A methodological foundation for the documenting of lithic and landscape data based on: 1) an explicitly defined lithic methodology, Period and sub-period/sub-phase definitions with a radiocarbon chronology, and historiographic research. 2) An interpretive structure that defines the conceptual links between the lithic evidence, hunter-gatherer mobility, and the landscape. This includes the concepts of persistent places, risk, taskscapes, the chaîne opératoire model, knapping trajectories and positive feedback loops, and flexible tool use (including the equipotential hypothesis).
The study places the LRFM at the core of this study. It enables the use of lithic evidence to document and investigate both Mesolithic chaîne opératoires on and between CP sites, as well as related aspects of Mesolithic mobility and the landscape. Thus, using the lithic and landscape data generated by the LRFM, this study reappraises the mobility models that have been widely employed by archaeologists to explain Mesolithic settlement patterns. It concludes that the CP Mesolithic sites were persistent places that were repeatedly visited to exploit local plant and animal resources, had significant levels of site investment, and were situated on Trans-Pennine pathways that linked to paths following rivers (argued to have been the main navigable transit routes) and near to culturally significant 'handrail' landmarks.
It also concludes that the lithics found on these persistent places were imported from a hinterland covering Northern England. This hinterland compares well with population density reconstructions and contains similar lithic styles (during the Early and Late Mesolithic). Consequently, this hinterland implies that mobility was from throughout Northern England, with the Pennines being a key node or the Nexus of increasingly logistical resource and mobility networks. It also posits that the hinterland may represent a band or a socio-ethnic/linguistic territory. This, therefore, challenges traditional east-west mobility models, and the suggestions of smaller separate interior and coastal social territories.
Moreover, the associated long-distance transport of raw materials from within this hinterland impacted upon chaîne opératoires reflected in the lithic assemblages at these persistent places. That is, the long-distance transport of materials resulted in distinctly different lithic exploitation strategies compared to those seen in the more traditionally researched lowland assemblages from karstic areas (which are closer to many of the stone sources). It, therefore, concludes that the impacts of the long distances included: the virtual lack of on-site knapping, high levels of blade/let or tool importation, and increased occurrence of flexible strategies (such as risk avoidance, caching, equipotentiality, and retooling). The study also posits that changes in the transit routes used (i.e. as part of changes in the larger mobility cycle over time) resulted in changes in the raw material preferences reflected in the lithic assemblages.
Also, the evidence shows there were distinct technological traditions and cultural and technological preferences in the Mesolithic of northern England. It demonstrates that the Mesolithic knappers were incredibly resourceful and able to adapt formal trajectories in response to the necessity to import raw materials to the CP and the consequent distance-related stress (i.e. risk avoidance strategies), together with the mitigation of unfavourable raw material properties. Deviation from the formal trajectories was due to the use of flexible technological strategies such as equipotentiality (also known as co-option), retooling, and caching. These flexible strategies, in turn, caused positive feedback loops on the chaîne opératoires.
Edited for online publication on this platform: 05/05/2020
Book Reviews by Paul Richard Preston
and fracture mechanics from the premise that
these are essential to lithic research. That is,
understanding the formation, meaning and
analytical potential of fracture markings — known to lithicists as attributes is fundamental to a complete comprehension of
lithic chaîne opératoire.
Reports by Paul Richard Preston
Conference Presentations by Paul Richard Preston