Where the land ends: isolation and identity on the western edge of prehistoric Europe

Abstract

This is a discussion of the prehistoric archaeology of four regions of Atlantic Europe which share similar names: Cabo Finisterre in Galicia, Finistère in Brittany, Land’s End in south-west England, and the Mull of Kintyre in the west of Scotland. They suggest that such places were cut off from their hinterland and possibly from one another. These regions shared certain features in the Medieval period, but that was equally true during prehistory. Not only did they possess common characteristics, including the importance of craft production, art styles and traditions of monuments, recent work has documented direct connections between them and particularly between Galicia and Brittany and between Brittany and Cornwall. They may have been regarded as places where the land came to an end, but any impression that they lacked wider contacts is due to the assumptions made by archaeologists who have not taken into account the social importance of seafaring.