This thesis centres around a form of early Neolithic architecture described as the causewayed enclosure. Though detailed research has focused on the material recovered from their ditches, much of their wider interpretation is based on, or has roots in, the territorial models produced in the 1970s. This study draws on theoretical approaches including, Affordance, Proxemics, Phenomenology, and Agency to challenge these earlier interpretations. The theoretical concepts are considered through a standardised methodology applied to 34 causewayed enclosures in four discrete areas. A Geographic Information System (GIS) is used to manage a very large dataset of early Neolithic components, ground conditions, and geospatial characteristics, and to construct ‘cost of movement’ and ‘visibility’ models. These mathematical models examine the potential, capacity, and the presence and nature of contemporary activity. The output is used to contrast and compare characteristics, and to elucidate common landscape physiognomies. The contribution of this research includes: • A new interpretation of the relationship between causewayed enclosures and long barrows. • A revised consideration of the spatiotemporal development of enclosures and the relationship between causewayed enclosures and the landscape. • New ideas on the implications of these characteristics. Particularly in terms of mobility, the development of farming practice, though also and more generally, for social relations in the early Neolithic. The research has demonstrated that these enclosures were carefully situated to extract very particular characteristics. A consistent pattern of avoidance emerges in respect of their relationship with long barrows. The research highlights the importance of river systems and challenges notions of fixed territories. The work shows that rivers facilitated both riverine and overland mobility, and had a pre-eminent role as ‘cultural assets’. Whilst regional variability emerges as a constant theme, a sufficient consistency of results has enabled new commentary on the context of this important early intervention in the landscape, and on some facets of early Neolithic society. In a wider context, the synthesis of GIS based mathematical modelling and the manipulation of large datasets, coupled with the integration of archaeological theory, offers a new intra and interregional methodology, that may be applied more broadly within archaeology.