The Ronaldsway Culture was the way of life of a

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with ...

people on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = " O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europ ...

. Sometimes referred to as Manx Ronaldsway, it dates from the later

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

and from the third millennium BC, but more precise dating is a matter of debate. The culture, known only from the Isle of Man, is named after the archaeological remains of a settlement excavated at Ronaldsway Airport (now the

Isle of Man Airport Isle of Man Airport ( Manx: ''Purt Aer Vannin'', also known as Ronaldsway Airport) is the main civilian airport on the Isle of Man. It is located in the south of the island at Ronaldsway near Castletown, southwest of Douglas, the island's c ...

) in 1939 during a

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

expansion, where a large quantity of material was found.Timothy Darvill
''Ronaldsway Culture''
in ''Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology'', (Oxford University Press, 2002) These remains were later dated to between 2,200 and 1,900 BC. The culture is characterized by deep jars called Ronaldsway-style pots, stone axes with butts which have been roughened, and unusual flint tools; where it meets other cultures there have been finds of shared monuments, including

stone circle A stone circle is a ring of standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially in Britain, Ireland, and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being built from 3000 BC. The ...

passage Passage, The Passage or Le Passage may refer to: Arts and entertainment Films * ''Passage'' (2008 film), a documentary about Arctic explorers * ''Passage'' (2009 film), a short movie about three sisters * ''The Passage'' (1979 film), starring ...

and entrance graves, and

henge There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ...

s. It also has structures entirely of its own. The culture's typical polished axe has been met with nowhere else and shows an especially marked insularity. It has been suggested that the distinctive characteristics of the Ronaldsway culture mean that during at least part of the late Neolithic age the people of the Isle of Man developed independently from those in Britain and Ireland.P. J. Davey, J. B. Innes, 'Innovation, continuity and insular development in the Isle of Man', in W. H. Waldren and J. A. Ensenyat (eds.) ''World Islands in Prehistory: International Insular Investigations'' (V Deia International Conference of Prehistory, BAR, International Series) (Oxford: Archaeopress) pp. 52-54

Notes

External links

Ronaldsway culture
at archaetis.com Neolithic cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures of Western Europe Archaeological cultures in England History of the Isle of Man

See also

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