"The practice of creating an enclosure was a phenomenon that occurred at many times and in many places of the prehistoric past. This volume sets out to explore the variability of enclosures ... and aims to explore possible reasons for enclosing rather than technical aspects of creating enclosures. When one speaks of enclosures in the prehistoric past, one is usually referring to a space, a piece of ground, surrounded by some feature that forms a barrier to movement. Typically this would be a ditch, or a bank, or both, though a hedge or a line of trees might serve just as well. For it is not just a question of creating an impenetrable barrier which physically prevents movement; it is a least as much a question of defining and delimiting an area which is to be regarded as in some manner separate or different, of creating an 'inside' and an 'outside.' So even a modest physical barrier can represent a major change in attitude and function, and convention (social, religious) can suffice to prevent movement across it. Seen in this light, enclosures can take on many forms, and it is by no means merely large-scale earthworks or walls that come into consideration."--Page ix.