bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Relative and absolute dating of four late Neolithic enclosures: an exercise in the interpretation of radiocarbon determinations
Authors: Burleigh R. , Longworth I. H. , Wainwright G. J.
Published: February 2015

If the fine structure of the carbon-14 deviation curve published by Professor H. E. Suess (in Proceedings of the 12th Nobel Symposium, I. U. Olsson (ed.), 1970) is correct, then the period from c. 2200 bc to c. 1700 bc in radiocarbon years falls within one of the insensitive regions in which carbon-14 determinations could have a number of alternative chronological values and hence could not be used to order archaeological evidence. Without disputing the now well established general trend of radiocarbon variation, it is the purpose of this paper to suggest, from recurrent evidence drawn from four recently studied Late Neolithic enclosures, that the detailed structure of Suess' curve is not necessarily valid. Uncalibrated radiocarbon dates based on the conventional 5570 year half-life of carbon-14 are used throughout this paper.
The Introduction of Horse-Riding to Temperate Europe: A Contributory Note
Authors: Powell T. G. E.
Published: February 2015

In his great study of practical ways and means of daily life in prehistoric Europe, our former Hon. Editor, and President, wrote of the archaeology of horse driving and riding as being ‘slight and difficult to interpret’ (Clark, 1952, 301), and these words have remained very true twenty years on. The study of horse drawn vehicles, and of items of bridling and harness, has, nevertheless, received a good deal of attention, and the leading references have been usefully brought together by Piggott (1968, 313–18), and by Littauer (1969, 300). Much more difficult is the matter of the ridden horse in temperate Europe not only for the scarcity of direct skeletal material, and the usually deplorable circumstances of its excavation, but on account of confusion in the application of terminology, zoological and veterinary, no less than in the existence of many traditional assumptions about the identity and characteristics of the earliest horse domesticators, not to speak of the animal itself. From an archaeological point of view, it has been too easy to forget the animal for the trappings, and to appear to assume that any horse could be decked out regardless of shape or size to perform specialized tasks.

In this short contribution, most gladly dedicated to Grahame Clark, an attempt is made to bring together material for an interim statement, and to consider what guide lines in interpretation can be followed in the light of information on horsemanship in adjacent regions of the Ancient World that are considerably better documented.
Beaker Bows: A Suggestion
Authors: Piggott Stuart
Published: February 2015

Eight years ago Grahame Clark published in these Proceedings a fundamental study of the earlier prehistory of archery in north-western Europe (Clark, 1963), and last year Roger Mercer developed the theme in a discussion of the evidence provided by metal arrow-heads from Reinecke Bronze B to Hallstatt D (Mercer, 1970). Between these two papers there may be thought to be little opportunity for useful additional comment, but within the ambit of the Beaker cultures of Europe (discussed only incidentally by Clark, and antecedent to Mercer's survey) some evidence seems worth critical examination, and such an examination is offered here as a footnote to Clark's wide-ranging paper. The primary suggestion to be made is that certain distinctive forms of arc-shaped or bow-shaped pendants from a restricted group of Beaker graves are in fact miniature representations, in some detail, of actual archers' bows of uniform type.
Neolithic Knossos; the Growth of a Settlement
Authors: Evans John D.
Published: February 2015

The investigation of settlements as functional units is one of the cornerstones of the approach to prehistory that Grahame Clark has done so much to foster over the years. I hope therefore that the following account of the earliest phases in the development of one which played a role of major importance in the prehistory of Crete, and so of Europe, may be an appropriate contribution to the present collection of essays in his honour.

The beginnings and subsequent expansion of the Neolithic community of Knossos has become fully intelligible for the first time as a result of the two seasons of excavation carried out in 1969 and 1970. The early soundings of Evans and Mackenzie, though they indicated that the Neolithic deposit had covered a large area, threw little or no light on the growth of the settlement, and, apart from the Late Neolithic houses in the Central Court, which were cleared in 1923–4 (Evans, 1928, 1–21), none at all on its nature.
Late Palaeolithic Finds from Denmark
Authors: Becker C. J.
Published: February 2015

During the last fifty years, research in the Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods in Denmark (to use the now generally accepted terms) was decisively influenced from outside. The interesting paper by Gustav Schwantes (1928) was unfortunately published when there was little activity in Denmark regarding ‘Early Stone Age’ problems. When J. G. D. Clark a few years later wrote his classic work The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe (1936), the situation was different, and the book came just in time to stimulate one of the real active periods in the study of Danish Mesolithic. Since then many new finds and excavations have been known from this country but without altering the main lines and the general picture of the hunters and fishers during the Boreal and Atlantic phases.

It would not be quite correct to say that our idea of Clark's first period in question has remained unchanged. The following lines are meant as a short survey of the time of the Northern reindeer-hunters or, according to later suggestions (e.g. by J. G. D. Clark (1950, 91)) the Late Palaeolithic. In 1936 it was only possible to register stray finds of implements here (mainly from reindeer-antler), and following Schwantes most of them were ascribed the still rather theoretical Lyngby culture (Schwantes, 1923; Ekholm, 1926). During the late thirties Alfred Rust began his revolutionary excavations in Holstein (1937; 1943), and they were, of course, followed with keen interest also by Danish archaeologists.
From Worsaae to Childe: The Models of Prehistory
Authors: Daniel Glyn
Published: February 2015

In the first of his three chapters forming Aspects of Prehistory (1970), Grahame Clark discussed one important aspect of prehistoric archaeology about which he has not hitherto written much, namely the historical development of that branch of historical science which, by his own researches in the last forty-five years, he has done so much to further. This chapter, the first of three lectures he delivered at Berkeley in the spring of 1970, is entitled ‘The Relevance of World Prehistory’, and is mainly concerned with listing the story of the discovery of archaeological facts. The interpretation of archaeological facts is of equal importance and in this paper I am concerned briefly with some aspects of the history of archaeological theory and interpretation, and more particularly with the changing models of thought used by prehistorians.

Here, we need not go further back than the three-age technological model of C. J. Thomsen. Before that we note the mythological models of the medieval and later antiquaries who floated Trojans and Phoenicians and the sons of Noah across their invented prehistory, and the literary and theological models of the later antiquaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries who, eschewing invention, sought prehistorical information in the Bible and in Classical writers, and made over our prehistoric monuments to the Druids, and our gravels to an Universal Deluge.
The Cambridge excavations at La Cotte de St Brelade, Jersey—a preliminary report
Authors: McBurney C. B. M. , Callow P.
Published: February 2015

The following is a preliminary report on excavations undertaken at this site under the aegis of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge. The work was carried out during a number of seasons over the past ten years, partly as a research project and partly as field training for third year and research students under the direction of C.B.M.McB. To P.C. fell the eventual task of collating and summarizing the extensive stratigraphical observations made by us and by previous excavators, and doing the same for the pollen samples and palaeontological data. Responsibility for the report as a whole is shared, but many others too numerous to thank separately at this stage have contributed basically to the collection and analysis of field and laboratory data. It is hoped that the full results after further field work will provide the material for a detailed monograph. The work would of course have been impossible but for the kind permission of the Société Jersiaise and the active assistance of many of its members on numerous occasions.

The site, the largest and most productive cave or rock-shelter site in the British Isles, was originally made famous by the discovery of a rich Mousterian industry, fauna, and eventually fossil traces of Neanderthal man at the turn of the century.
The Impact of Radiocarbon Dating on the Establishment of the Prehistoric Chronology of Brittany
Authors: Giot P. R.
Published: February 2015

From their onset, the first radiocarbon dates gave a range of the absolute chronology to come, but in their detail, they opened more problems than they settled, chiefly because of the possible or unsuspected questions in relation to the reliability of the samples themselves (Delibrias and Giot, 1970). It is only with the experience of great numbers of dates, and the possibility of considering them so to speak statistically, that one can evaluate the real implications of the time scales provided by the method.

In Brittany, beginning with a few dates provided by the Groningen Laboratory under H. de Vries, we have been afterwards nearly totally supplied by the Centre des Faibles Radioactivités at Gif-sur-Yvette (Giot, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971; Coursaget and Le Run, 1968; Delibrias, Guillier and Labeyrie, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970; Coppens, Durand and Guillet, 1968; Vogel and Waterbolk, 1963).

We now benefit with more than 200 radiocarbon dates for Brittany alone. We shall consider here about 140 of them, disregarding some duplicates, dates pertaining to periods older than the Neolithic cultures or on the contrary later than the Iron Age, and dates only concerning geological natural sites, though these can be full of interest by their information about the botanical scenery and the effects of cultivation or pasture.
Die keltische Viereckschanze bei Tomerdingen, Kreis Ulm (Württemberg)
Authors: Zürn Hartwig
Published: February 2015

Zu den eindrucksvollsten Geländedenkmälern der keltischen Zeit zählen nebst den grossen Stadtanlagen (oppida) die sog. Viereckschanzen. Ihre Hauptverbreitung (fig. 1) liegt im süddeutschen Raum, zwischen Main im Norden, dem Alpenrand im Süden, dem östlichen Schwarzwaldrand im Westen und dem Inn im Osten (Schwarz, 1959). Einige Schanzen finden sich auch in Frankreich (Schwarz, 1962, 74). Die Geschichte der Erforschung dieser Denkmälergruppe geht bis in das Jahr 1885 zurück und die im Laufe der folgenden Jahrzehnte ausgesprochenen Deutungen bewegen sich zwischen Befestigung, Gutshof, Viehpferch und Kultplatz (Schwarz, 1960, 7 ff., vgl. auch Berger, 1962, 26 ff.).

Eine dieser Schanzen konnte in den Jahren 1958 und 1959, dank der Unterstützung durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, zu einem grossen Teil untersucht werden. Sie liegt im östlichen Teil der Schwäbischen Alb bei dem Ort Tomerdingen (fig. 1), nordwestlich von Ulm an der Donau. Die bis jetzt noch nicht publizierten Ergebnisse sollen hier in einem Vorbericht bekannt gegeben werden. Sie gewinnen insofern an Bedeutung, als sie die aufsehenerregenden Grabungen von K. Schwarz (1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, [1968]) in der Schanze von Holzhausen südlich von München zu bestätigen vermögen und aufzeigen, dass die Situation in solchen Schanzen, auch wenn sie weit voneinander liegen (von Holzhausen bis Tomerdingen sind es rund 140 km) etwa dieselbe ist.
The Larnian Culture: A Minimal View
Authors: Mitchell G. F.
Published: February 2015

‘There thus appears to be good reason at least to believe that the Larnian is best known in its para-Neolithic tradition associated with the coastal phenomena of the Raised Beaches and their middens, and perhaps even to question the Mesolithic status of the whole industry’ (Herity, 1970).
The Early Settlement of Scotland: Excavations at Morton, Fife
Authors: Coles John M. , Allo J. , Candow R. D. M. , Clegg T. M. , Cowles G. S. , Hibbert F. A. , Higgs E. S. , Jarman M. R. , Laing D. , Mcmanus J. , Pettit M. , Switsur R. , Taylor C. B. , Wheeler A. , Whyte F. , Wilson G.
Published: February 2015

The Mesolithic settlement at Morton lies some six miles north-north-west of St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland (fig. 1). The area around the site, north-eastern Fife, is surrounded on three sides by water, and projects as a blunt peninsula into the North Sea. The river Eden and the Firth of Tay serve as southern and northern boundaries of this peninsula, which consists today principally of the wind-deposited sands of Tentsmuir. The area of Tentsmuir, now afforested, is one of the relatively few regions in Britain where land is building up into the North Sea, and this process has been in action for many centuries (Sissons, 1967).

The Tentsmuir Sands are a prolific source of later prehistoric and early historic finds, the earliest yet known being of the late third millennium B.C. In February 1957, while searching for such material on Tentsmuir, Mr R. Candow of Tayport collected some flints from molehills and other exposures on the high ground of the ‘Old Quarry’ field at Morton Farm (National Grid Reference NO 467257). Surface collections continued to be made until 1963 when excavations of the site were undertaken by Mr Candow in collaboration with Dundee Museum and Art Gallery (Candow, 1966). A total of 41 trenches were excavated between May 1963 and April 1967, and these are shown on the plan of site A (fig. 4, no. 1–41). In November 1967, site B in the same field was discovered and partially excavated (fig. 29, no. 51), before work was suspended and the writer was invited to continue the investigations.
Archaeological prospections on the Islands of Buvuma and Bugaia, Lake Victoria Nyanza (Uganda)
Authors: Nenquin Jacques
Published: February 2015

This preliminary report is the result of an archaeological expedition to Uganda, which took place from February to April 1968, and was sponsored by the Musée royal de l'Afrique centrale at Tervuren (Belgium) and the Comité des Fouilles beiges en Afrique. The expedition staff consisted of Dr F. Van Noten and Mr E. Vertriest of the department of Prehistory at the Tervuren Museum, and the author. The voluntary help of Miss J. Renard during the excavations is gratefully acknowledged here, as well as the advice of Professor M. Posnansky and the administrative assistance of Mr P. Bulenzi of the Uganda Ministry of Culture and Community Development. Much useful information was given by Mrs M. McFarlane of the Uganda Geological Survey, who has elsewhere pointed out the archaeological importance of the Buvuma Island group (McFarlane, 1968). Mrs McFarlane also deposited a series of Sangoan implements in the Uganda Museum. All drawings in this paper are by Miss N. Nypels.

The islands of Buvuma and Bugaia form part of the archipelago situated near the northern shore of Lake Victoria southeast of Jinja and about halfway between Entebbe and the Kavirondo Gulf. Both islands lie immediately to the North of the Equator, approx. between 0°00′–0°15′ North and 33°15′–33°20′ East, Bugaia being to the southwest of Buvuma (see the 1: 50.000 Dept. of Lands and Surveys map, Magyo, series Y 732, sheet 72/4, edition I-U.S.D.).

As will be apparent from this report, several interesting sites were encountered on both islands, two of which were excavated, one on Buvuma and one on Bugaia.
Fortifications and Economy in Prehistoric New Zealand
Authors: Bellwood Peter
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the prehistoric fortifications (pa) of New Zealand, firstly by describing the cultural background as it is reconstructed by ethnographers for the period immediately preceding European contact, and then by presenting new information from two excavations which have yielded valuable results on the form and function of these sites.

The New Zealand fortifications, which are mainly of the earthwork type with timber superstructures, have long been on record, and were first described by James Cook for the year 1769 (the initial discovery of New Zealand, by Tasman in 1642, was not accompanied by a landing). Recent surveys indicate that there are about 4,000 pa in New Zealand, most distributed in coastal situations in the North Island and northern South Island, and this distribution correlates with that of prehistoric populations living by simple horticulture and the exploitation of marine and forest resources. In the southerly parts of the South Island, where climate was not favourable for horticulture and where population density was slight, there appear to be no fully prehistoric fortifications. From 1769 onwards increasing European contact introduced pigs, the white potato, muskets, metals and other items which, in combination, gave rise to radically different technological and economic patterns. This paper is concerned solely with prehistoric Maori culture.

Morphologically, New Zealand pa resemble the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age earthwork hillforts of north-western Europe, and many, by their size and strength, show clear evidence of engineering skill and the ability to organize large labour forces.
Wooden and StoneChevaux-de-Frisein Central and Western Europe
Authors: Harbison Peter
Published: February 2015

Chevaux-de-friseis a term used to describe the (normally stone) stakes placed upright in the ground outside the walls of early fortifications with the intention of making access more difficult for an approaching enemy, be he on foot or on horse back. The existence of this defensive technique outside prehistoric forts in Britain or Ireland was first mentioned in 1684 when Roderick O'Flaherty described the Aran Island fort of Dun Aenghus in hisOgygia(O'Flaherty, 1684, 175), and it has often been discussed since, among others by Christison (1898), Westropp (1901, 661), Hogg (1957) and most recently and judiciously by Simpson (1969a, 26). Some writers, for instance Raftery (1951, 214) and Hogg (1957, 33) have suggested that the origins ofchevaux-de-frisein Britain and Ireland should be sought in the Iberian Peninsula, where they occur in greater numbers (Hogg, 1957 and Harbison, 1968, a), andchevaux-de-friseare often taken as one of the most important pieces of evidence of close ties between Spain–Portugal and Britain–Ireland during the Early Iron Age. The purpose of this paper is to put forward a hypothesis that the Spanish–Portuguese examples on the one hand, and the Scottish–Welsh–Irish–Manx ones on the other, are not so closely related to one another as has hitherto been thought, but that both are merely distant cousins in so far as both are descended from a common ancestral wooden prototype which originated probably in Central or Eastern Europe.
The Mousterian of European Russia
Authors: Klein Richard G.
Published: February 2015

Prehistorians concerned with the Pleistocene have traditionally defined their cultural units (‘industries’) mainly by the types of stone artefacts they contain. One of the best known of these units is the Mousterian, authoritatively defined by Francois Bordes (1953, 458) as ‘… an industry of flakes, comprising a variable proportion of side-scrapers, points, denticulate tools, and also bifaces. Technically, the flakes may or may not be of Levallois débitage and may or may not have faceted butts, Levallois débitage and butt-faceting having no necessary relation to one another’. The Mousterian is generally assumed to have its roots in an earlier group of industries known as the Acheulean. It is difficult to determine when the Mousterian emerged as a distinct entity both because differentiation from the Acheulean occurred only gradually and because our geochronological controls are imperfect. Certainly, however, the Mousterian was in existence by the beginning of the Last ( = ‘Würm’) Glacial Period, that is, no later than 65,000–70,000 years ago (Table I). In the earlier part of this Glacial, it was distributed from the Iberian Peninsula on the west to Uzbekistan (and perhaps beyond) on the east, and from the British Isles on the north to the Mediterranean littoral of Africa on the south. Sometime between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago (the exact time perhaps depending upon the place), the Mousterian was rather abruptly replaced over most, if not all of this range. The demise of the Mousterian is of especial interest because there is considerable evidence to suggest that it was intimately connected with the disappearance of Neandertal Man (Homo sapiens neanderthalensis) and the subsequent spread of modern man (Homo sapiens sapiens).
A Review of Henge Monuments in the Light of Recent Research
Authors: Wainwright G. J.
Published: February 2015

At the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. there became established in Britain the tradition of constructing ceremonial circles of earth, stone or timber. However, circular enclosures were being built much earlier in the 3rd millennium, which on account of their interrupted ditches have been called causewayed camps. These enclosures are unlikely to have been fortified village sites or cattle pounds as was originally suggested, but the pottery evidence from Windmill Hill and Robin Hood's Ball, to mention only two sites (Smith, 1965; Thomas, 1964), points to visits by groups of people coming from other regions. It has been suggested, therefore, that these camps may have served as centres or rally points for a fairly wide area where tribal ceremonies could be performed (Smith, 1965, 17–21). At Windmill Hill in particular, the abundance of pottery, grain-rubbers and querns and the remains of slaughtered animals testify to the consumption of food on a large scale and therefore possibly to communal feasts.

If this interpretation be correct then one could suggest that the ceremonial circle tradition of the 2nd millennium derived ultimately from these earthworks. Both are essentially a British phenomenon, although the causewayed camps can be compared with causewayed ditched enclosures in the Michelsberg culture, and appear to represent indigenous traditions with no external influences. However, although the quantity of animal bones and domestic refuse from Durrington Walls and Gorsey Bigbury in the Mendips confirms the practice of feasting in connection with ceremonial circles, these sites are virtually unique in the quantity of human debris they have produced.
Environment and Early Man on Dartmoor, Devon, England
Authors: Simmons I. G. , Proudfoot V. B.
Published: February 2015

A part from its successes in the Somerset Levels, environmental archaeology has made little headway in studies of the South-west of England. On the uplands this is partially due to the lack of preservation of bone and most other organic remains in the acid soils now present. Again, in the region generally there has been little deposition in basins of the muds, marls and peats accumulated during the Post-glacial that are so valuable for reconstructing the botanical environment and the effects of early man on soils and vegetation; this is largely a consequence of the peninsula's escape from Pleistocene glaciation. Further, the published material on archaeology has until lately been so scattered that it has been difficult to compile a coherent outline of the settlement and economy of the region in pre-Roman times, a situation only recently remedied by the publication of Lady Aileen Fox's book South West England, providing a personal synthesis of the prehistory of that area.
Stone Axes and Flake Tools: Evaluations from Two New Guinea Highlands Societies
Authors: Strathern Marilyn
Published: February 2015

When Europeans entered the New Guinea Highlands in the 1930s, they discovered peoples using two main kinds of stone implements—polished axes and simple flake tools. The prominence of the axe has been well documented (S. Buhner, 1964; R. and S. Bulmer, 1964; Salisbury, 1962; Tischner, 1939; Vial, 1940 et al.). Crucial to subsistence, it was also used widely in exchanges and payments of all kinds and had a value as a ceremonial object. This seems to have been the case throughout the Highlands. Nevertheless, there were probably variations in the precise range of uses to which the axe was put, and consequently in its ‘value’. This comment is prompted by a consideration of two societies—Hagen in the Western Highlands and Wiru in the Southern Highlands Districts—whose traditional evaluations of the stone axe seem to have had differing emphases. In the past the axe was probably less important as a ceremonial object to the Wiru than it was to the Hageners, and its use as a tool more limited. The situation seems to have been correspondingly reversed in the case of the flake tool, however, which had generally more importance in Wiru.
The Excavation of a Durotrigian Farmstead near Tollard Royal in Cranbourne Chase, Southern England
Authors: Wainwright G. J. , Harrison R. J. , Evans A. M. , Bowman A. , Bird P. F.
Published: February 2015

The site whose excavation is here recorded is a small kite-shaped enclosure all but obliterated by ploughing. It is situated (ST (179) 942197; 6-inch sheet ST 91 NW) at the southern tip of a spur known as Berwick Down 1 mile north of the village of Tollard Royal on the borders of Wiltshire and Dorset. It is surrounded on its south or downhill side by a semi-circular bank and ditch. The locality has been recently described briefly by H. C. Bowen and P. Fowler whose plan (1966, 46–8, fig. 2) is here reproduced (fig. 2). The other two sites occupying the 16 acres of the spur comprise:

(1) An Iron Age settlement to the north consisting of a concentration of unenclosed pits, a large round house demarcated by a pennanular palisade groove and two cross-dykes.

(2) A circular enclosure 2½ acres in extent containing Romano-British hut platforms and crossed in its southern sector by a modern fence. To the north of this fence the earthworks have never been ploughed and are in a state of preservation, only too rarely found in southern England. To the south of the fence the downland has been heavily ploughed over a number of years.

The earthworks of the kite-shaped enclosure had become so degraded that in 1962 the Ministry of Public Building and Works initiated a trial excavation under the direction of Mr E. Greenfield. With the assistance of Miss V. Russell, Mr Greenfield covered the area with a 10 foot grid of test-holes which were expanded into trenches when required. In 1965 the site was put down to grass and the earthworks planned in the spring by members of the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, by which time the bank and ditch of the kite-shaped enclosure were virtually invisible. In August and September of that year the interior of the enclosure was completely stripped by the author on behalf of the Ministry of Public Building and Works.
Excavations at Eldon's Seat, Encombe, Dorset
Authors: Cunliffe Barry , Phillipson D. W.
Published: February 2015

The site at Eldon's Seat (fig. 1) lies on the side of a shallow valley cut into the Kimmeridge clay bedrock. Occupation began probably in the 7th century B.C. or earlier, at a time when the ceramic assemblage was based upon Late Bronze Age traditions, and continued with interruptions until the 2nd century A.D. Three major periods have been isolated: during period I (Late Bronze Age style pottery) and period II (haematite-coated ware) a series of circular huts were built against the downhill side of a sporadically growing lynchet. The huts were occupied by farming communities who were also engaged in making armlets from the local Kimmeridge shale. Period III buildings have not been identified in the excavated area, but Durotrigan and Roman pottery, which typifies this phase, has been recovered from the uppermost layers of the lynchet.

The finds from the excavations will be deposited in the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, Dorset.
Prehistoric Roads and Tracks in Somerset, England: I. Neolithic
Authors: Coles John M. , Hibbert F. Alan
Published: February 2015

The peat deposits in the Somerset Levels have yielded many finds of prehistoric and early historic age, ranging from flint and metal artefacts to roadways and other structures. These finds have been a source of interest to archaeologists for many years, and the work here described represents only one aspect of the early occupation of the region. The Levels themselves lie between the major uplands of the Quantock Hills and the Mendip Hills (fig. 1), but within the Levels are extensive ridges of limestone (including the Polden Hills and the Wedmore Ridge), smaller and lower areas of limestone (such as Westhay and Meare), and patches of sands (Burtle Beds) all of which provided dry ground for occupation or other activities. We are concerned in this paper with the earliest wooden roads and tracks of Neolithic age which were built to allow communication between the Westhay ridge and the largest Burtle Bed north of the Polden Hills (pl. XIV).
Early Bronze Age Gold Neck-Rings in Western Europe
Authors: Taylor Joan J.
Published: February 2015

Some objects defy archaeologists to understand their function. Two gold rod-like fragments from the Kerivoa hoard, Côtes-du-Nord, and one from Plouarzel, Finistère (Briard, 1965, fig. 21, 2), are the only gold objects on the Continent with broadened terminals similar to the ‘neck-ring’ from Arlon, Belgium. Three similar rings in copper exist in Britain. These six objects, their function, and their relationship to other prehistoric objects, form the nucleus of this article.

The two Kerivoa fragments (pl. XVI, B), with rod-like body and broadened ends, fit together to form a complete object like that from Arlon. They were a part of the Kerivoa hoard which also contained three gold lunulae with a fragment of sheet gold broken into four pieces. These were found near Bourbriac, Côte-du-Nord, France, in 1932, surrounded by a dark mass, which has been interpreted as a disintegrated wooden box. The fragments with broadened terminals and their association with lunulae are critical to this paper.
The Cave of Ali Tappeh and the Epi-Palaeolithic in N.E. Iran
Authors: McBurney C. B. M. , Payne Rosemary
Published: February 2015

In the 1964 Proceedings a preliminary report was published of an initial sounding at this site, discovered and named (after a nearby village) in 1962. The main excavation, in the summer of 1964, was undertaken with the kind permission and co-operation of the Iranian Government and authorities, and with the financial assistance of grants from the British Academy and the Crowther Beynon Fund of the University of Cambridge. Subsequent laboratory analysis has been carried out mainly in the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology of the University of Cambridge.

Since the geographical situation of the site forms an essential factor in its interpretation, the main features may be repeated here for convenience. The cave is eroded in the base of an escarpment which follows the foot of the Elburz range where it bounds the coastal plain along the southern shores of the present Caspian. The mountains rise abruptly in an impressive series of ridges to over 10,000 ft; the plain extends to the north to the modern sea-shore now some 8 miles away from the site and rapidly retreating. It is known however that in the recent geological past this situation has varied greatly. At times the sea lapped the base of the hills leaving traces in the form of escarpments and raised beaches, while at others it retreated scores of miles to the north and may even have disappeared altogether.
Recent Field Research on Problems of Archaeology and Pleistocene Chronology in Peninsular India
Authors: Wainwright G. J. , Malik S. C.
Published: February 2015

Over a century ago Theobald (1860) described the Pleistocene deposits of the middle reaches of the Narmada river and noted the presence of Pleistocene fauna and man-made tools of stone. Eighty years later the Yale-Cambridge expedition in 1935 carried out the first systematic work under the leadership of De Terra and Paterson (1939) whose major concern was with deposits of the glacial and peri-glacial zones. But their brief survey of the Pleistocene deposits of central and southern India was very valuable, even though their extension of glacial chronology to the sub-tropical zone was mainly based on lithic-tool typology. Since 1947 considerable prehistoric research has been carried out in Peninsular India but without much success in establishing Pleistocene chronology on firm grounds. During the last decade a number of observations and researches have been carried out by several workers in the Narmada valley (Joshi, 1958, Subbarao, 1958, Malik, 1959a, Sen, 1961, Khatri, 1961, 1962, and Sankalia, 1963).

The present project carried out jointly by the authors was primarily concerned, not with collecting stone tools, but with understanding the stratigraphy and chronology of Peninsular India.
Rainsborough, Northants, England: Excavations 1961–5
Authors: Avery Michael , Sutton J. E. G. , Banks J. W. , Tite M. S. , Evans J. G. , Aitken M. J. , Hawley H. N. , Cain A. J.
Published: February 2015

Rainsborough is 1 mile South of Charlton village, in the parish of Newbottle, S. Northants, 20 miles North of Oxford, (SP 526348). The camp lies atc. 480′ OD, and the area enclosed isc. 6·25 acres.

It lies on the edge of a plateau: the approaches to it are flat on the north-east, east, south and south-west, but a gentle slope to the north, north-west and west gives it a wide view across the Cherwell valley, towards Madmarston and Tadmarton (see map, fig. 1 and also pl. XXV). The defences are bivallate: the inner bank stands to 10 feet above the interior, and there is a drop of about 15 feet from the crest into the inner ditch; the second bank is very much lowered by ploughing, but still reaches a height of about 4 feet on the south side, where a hedge line has protected it; the outer ditch is nowhere visible on the surface, except on the west, when it carries a higher growth of weeds. The defences are covered with turf: the inner bank has also trees, bushes and the stumps of large beeches felledc. 1950. The bank is riddled with tree roots, and the sandy character of the core has attracted rabbits: recent attempts to dig and smoke out the warrens have slightly damaged the profile of the bank. A small dry stone wall is visible part way up the outer slope of the inner bank in several places.
Iron Currency Bars in Britain
Authors: Allen Derek
Published: February 2015

This study of iron currency bars began as a note, prepared at the request of the late Professor Sir Ian Richmond, for inclusion in his publication of the British Museum excavations at Hod Hill. It was intended to accompany a similar account of the Celtic coins found at Hod Hill, for which he had previously asked. Hod Hill is the only site where coins and bars have been found in comparable numbers. However, as one thing led to another, the original note grew out of scale for a contribution to an excavation report; hence this separate paper. A summary will be included in Mr J. W. Brailsford's volume on Hod Hill.

The term ‘iron currency bar’ has long been in use to describe certain elongated iron objects found in late iron age sites in Britain. The earliest records are of a hoard found at Meon Hill, Warwickshire, in 1824. Bars became well known after the discovery of an important hoard at Salmonsbury, Gloucestershire, in 1860. The first serious study was made by Charles Roach Smith, when in 1864 he published an earlier hoard of bars from Hod Hill. The classical account of them was given by Reginald Smith in 1905 and developed in a number of subsequent articles, which have been the basis of nearly all that has been written since. It is the theories of Reginald Smith which require reconsideration today.

Between 1,100 and 1,500 iron bars relevant to this study have been found at more than 20 sites in Britain. Whether they are all iron currency bars depends on the definition of currency bar adopted. The first task was to trace as many bars as possible; I have found examples in more than 30 collections and there are, no doubt, more which I have failed to find. What has come to light, however, summarized in the Appendix, has been enough to show that the surviving material needs to be analyzed on fresh lines.
A Barrow-Cemetery of the Second Millennium B.C. in Wiltshire, England
Authors: Christie Patricia M. , Powers Rosemary , Brothwell D. R. , Newell R. F. , Cornwall I. W. , Kerney M. P.
Published: February 2015

The fine round barrow described below was the second of two excavated on behalf of the Ministry of Public Building and Works during the summer of 1961. The site, which is on Upper Chalk with Flint, is the eastern outlier of a linear barrow cemetery on Earl's Farm Down, and lies at 400 feet on the western slope of Beacon Hill (fig. 1) south of the main Amesbury-Andover road (O.S. National Grid: SU/184419, Sheet 167).
The Climate, Environment and Industries of Stone Age Greece: Part II
Authors: Higgs E. S. , Vita-Finzi C.
Published: February 2015

In 1965 the investigations described in the first paper of the series were resumed in Epirus. The excavation of the rock shelter of Asprochaliko was continued, and further geological observations made it possible to establish a continental sequence extending from the Last Interglacial to the present day.

The geological succession and its associated artifacts was worked out in the Louros valley (fig. 1) and confirmed in other parts of Epirus. It consists of the following three main formations:

3. Valley-floor Alluvium (pl. 1, upper). 2. Red Beds. 1. Tufa.

There are also extensive sheets of unconsolidated scree on the valley sides, as Hey has noted. These overlie the Red Beds, but as their relationship to the Valley-floor Alluvium is not known, and as the extent of contemporary scree formation (if any) is not yet clear, they cannot at this stage be placed in the succession.
Obsidian and Early Cultural Contact in the Near East
Authors: Renfrew Colin , Dixon J. E. , Cann J. R.
Published: February 2015

Obsidian was not necessarily the earliest object of trade, but it certainly seems to be the first for which material evidence remains. It has been reported from nearly every Early Neolithic settlement in the Near East, although many of these sites are distant from the natural sources.

In our first paper (Cann and Renfrew 1964), we outlined a method for the characterization, by trace-element analysis, of obsidian artifacts from archaeological contexts. This allowed the determination of the natural sources from which the material derived. In that paper, however, only the west Mediterranean region was considered in sufficient detail to give definitive results. The obsidian trade in the Aegean has subsequently been studied in detail also (Renfrew, Cann and Dixon 1965).

In the present paper, the obsidian trade in the Near East is examined. This topic is particularly important since obsidian seems to be the most promising approach towards understanding the extent to which the different Early Neolithic cultural and ecological regions were in contact. It should help to suggest how the early spread in the knowledge and use of animal and plant domesticates took place in the Near East.
Ritual Monuments at Rudston, E. Yorkshire, England
Authors: Dymond D. P.
Published: February 2015

An unusual ⊏-shaped earthwork has been known for several generations (Nat. Grid. Ref. TA 099658) just over one mile to the south of the Wold village of Rudston, in the Western angle of two roads. It has often been interpreted as three contiguous long-barrows. Canon Greenwell described the site in 1877 as ‘two long mounds, almost parallel, their northern end gradually losing themselves in the surface-level, but connected together at the southern end by another long mound’. In 1958 when Messrs C. and E. Grantham of Driffield excavated a section across the western ditch, they appreciated that the western and eastern banks continued for a much greater distance than Greenwell had implied, travelling at least ½-mile downhill towards the village.

Aerial reconnaissance in 1961 by Dr J. K. St. Joseph established the existence of two long parallel ditches, extending intermittently for 1½ miles beyond the earthwork. The feature as a whole was recognizable therefore as a cursus, the earthwork being the squared southern end.
Stone Axe Factories in the Highlands of East New Guinea
Authors: Chappell J. , Strathern Marilyn
Published: February 2015

The writer spent three months, during late 1963 and early 1964, journeying through the New Guinea Highlands in an attempt to trace sites where stone axes have been made in the recent past. In the Simbai (Tsembaga) and Kaironk areas steel has effectively replaced stone only within the last ten years, though some steel had been traded in a decade or so earlier (Rappaport, n.d.; Bulmer, personal communication). In the other Highlands area discussed in this paper, stone working axes had probably dropped out of use by the early 1940's. Of the ten quarry sites then examined, three had been visited before by earlier workers, two were reported to the writer by an anthropologist, C. Criper, working in the Upper Chimbu, and the others were found by walking about the country pursuing local information.
The Distribution of Jade Axes in Europe with a supplement to the catalogue of those from the British Isles
Authors: Smith W. Campbell
Published: February 2015

In the course of my work on Jade Axes from sites in the British Isles (PPS, XXIX, p. 133) I had occasion to consult descriptions of jade axes from Europe and to make notes on all those in publications available to me. I have now plotted on an outline map of Europe (fig. 1) the sites of recorded jade axes and have added also the locations of the few jade axes from France in the British Museum, Ashmolean Museum, and in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, which I have examined.

This map is far less complete than that showing the distribution of jade axes in the British Isles, op. cit., fig. 4, which shows the location of every jade axe known in museums or in private hands as well as a few mentioned in the literature but not traced.

The new records of British axes, recorded at the end of this paper, have been shown on the outline of the British Isles, included on the present map which reveals a large increase in the concentration in East Anglia.

As regards Europe, apart from the few jade axes from France mentioned above, the records plotted are confined to those known to me from publications and I have had to rely on the authors' identifications of the materials used. These are confirmed by density determinations for a great many of the axes from Germany and for a few of those from Italy.
The Excavation of a Neolithic Round Barrow at Pitnacree, Perthshire, Scotland
Authors: Coles John M. , Simpson D. D. A. , Denston C. B.
Published: February 2015

In the thirty-mile stretch of the valley of the Tay, between its exit from Loch Tay and its entry into the more low-lying regions near Dunkeld, is a remarkable concentration of prehistoric monuments (fig. 1) which can be matched in Scotland only in the Crinan district of Argyll. The majority of sites lie on the flood plain and alluvial gravels of the valley floor, and comprise a series of standing stones, stone circles and round barrows. Until recently, little field work or excavation had been carried out on these sites, although all appeared to be characteristic of monuments of the second millennium B.C. The barrows in particular were of interest in that they appear superficially to be of earthen construction and form a distinctive group of monuments largely confined to this area. Although several had been disturbed, none had been excavated. The majority of them are tree-covered, or had originally supported trees, and many are of very great size, up to 130 feet in diameter and 30 feet in height. In an attempt to ascertain the date and cultural affinities of this group, it was decided to excavate one of these sites in 1964. The site selected was at Pitnacree, five miles east of Aberfeldy (Nat. Grid Reference NN928533). Although the barrow was covered by trees, their arrangement made it possible to excavate a considerable portion of the site, and the comparatively small size of the mound allowed a fairly full excavation. During the six-week season of excavation, a survey of analogous barrows, standing stones and stone circles in Strathtay was carried out. Details of these sites will be found in Appendix I.
The Origin and Development of the Broch and Wheelhouse Building Cultures of the Scottish Iron Age
Authors: MacKie Euan W.
Published: February 2015

The first account of the Scottish Iron Age which attempted to set its monuments and material cultures in their British and North European context was that published by V. G. Childe in 1935. Childe suggested that the brochs, which had hitherto been at best discussed in a purely local context, might be understood better if regarded as only one aspect of the more widespread phenomenon of the hundreds of tiny stone fortlets, or duns, of the highlands and islands, termed by him the Castle Complex to distinguish them from the larger forts of the lowlands. He also suggested that parallels between the bone weaving equipment found on broch sites and in the Glastonbury lake village provided a clue to the origins of their immigrant builders.

Eighteen years ago Sir Lindsay Scott, following Childe's lead, published in theseProceedingstwo long papers on the brochs and wheelhouses of the Scottish Atlantic Iron Age and the fact that subsequent discoveries have disproved some of his ideas does not detract from the great service that he rendered with them to British archaeology. He was the first to undertake a comprehensive and detailed survey of the available evidence—both excavated and from surface fieldwork—about two classes of drystone structures which had previously all too frequently been treated as a peculiarly Scottish phenomenon having few clear relationships with Iron Age cultures further south.
The Aylesford-Swarling Culture: The Problem of the Belgae reconsidered
Authors: Birchall Ann
Published: February 2015

Until the discovery of the Aylesford urnfield seventy-five years ago, the Belgae were still no more than dramatis personae in Caesar's Gallic War. It was Sir Arthur Evans who first identified the users of the Aylesford cemetery with the invaders ex Belgio referred to by Caesar. Reginald Smith's publication of the Welwyn grave-groups (1912) and then Bushe-Fox's excavation of the Swarling urnfield (1925) were followed, in 1930, by Hawkes' and Dunning's account of the history of the British and Continental Belgic tribes, which has remained the standard work on the subject ever since.

Thus, it has been accepted that the archaeological material of Aylesford-Swarling type represents the introduction of Belgic culture into Britain. Its continental origins were traced to northern Gaul, the area occupied by the historical Belgae, where a similar series of cremation burials of Late La Tène date is known. This continental series, thought to mark a change from what seemed to be the universal practice of inhumation as mode of burial to cremation, was interpreted as representative of a fusion of inhuming Galli with cremating Germani from across the Rhine. This fusion, leading to the formation of the Belgae, who, as Caesar records, boasted of their ‘Germanic’ origin, was thought to have taken place in the latter half of the 2nd century B.C. The date for the first Belgic invasion of Britain was put at about 75 B.C.