bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Third Supplement of the Catalogue of Jade Axes from Sites in the British Isles
Authors: Jones V. , Bishop A. C. , Woolley A. R.
Published: February 2015

When Dr Campbell Smith published and compiled his first account and catalogue of British jade implements he did not think, he tells us, that many more would be found. For this reason he adopted a numbering system based on counties, as is done for all other stone implements, but with numbers running consecutively through the English, Scottish and Irish counties. When new finds came to light it was difficult to assign to them numbers in the county system and the problem was resolved by numbering them 17b, 32a etc. New discoveries of jade implements are being made at an accelerating rate. In Campbell Smith's Second Supplement (1972) he records nine new finds during the previous six years, but since 1972 we have become aware of a further 24 implements. Partly because of this, and partly as a result of typological and mineralogical studies we have been making, it seemed to us that it would be useful to bring the catalogue up to date, whilst at the same time taking the opportunity of simplifying the numbering system. Although still taking a very positive interest Dr Campbell Smith is no longer actively engaged in work on jade implements. However, for the sake of continuity it was deemed useful to call this report the ‘Third Supplement’ even though the present authors were not involved with Dr Campbell Smith's original Catalogue and Supplements.
Engraved and Plain Bone Tools from Jiita (Lebanon) and their Early Kebaran Context
Authors: Copeland L. , Hours F.
Published: February 2015

The rockshelter of Jiita II, known locally as Dahr al-Mghara, overlooks the wooded ravine of the Nahr el-Kelb (Dog River) about 8 km upstream from the present sea-shore and 15 km north-east of the centre of Beirut. The site is listed as ‘Jaita II’ in the inventory of Copeland and Wescombe (1965). The shelter faces south and opens onto a platform which interrupts the precipitous north bank of the ravine; about 180 m below the platform's edge, the subterranean branch of the Nahr el-Kelb emerges from a series of large caverns. The platform measures c. 175 sq. m, and was inhabited by a succession of Late Upper Palaeolithic hunters whose flint industries were mainly microlithic. Excavations have been conducted here since 1964 by one of us (F.H.) with emphasis on careful recording of finds dug in fine stratigraphic units by use of dental tools (Hours 1966; Hours and Chavaillon 1970; Hours 1973 and in prep.).
Iron Age burial in southern Britain
Authors: Whimster Rowan
Published: February 2015

Over 45 years have now elapsed since attention was first drawn to an apparent paucity of pre-Roman Iron Age funerary sites in southern Britain (Hawkes and Dunning 1930). This remarkable lacuna, contrasting with a wealth of Bronze Age burial forms, received little further attention until Hodson defined an absence of burials as a ‘negative type-fossil’ of his insular and otherwise prolific Woodbury Culture and emphasized the cultural implications of this uncomfortable gap in the archaeological record (Hodson 1964). With the exception of supposedly intrusive continental disposal forms in restricted areas of Yorkshire and south-eastern England and a third rather hazy rite from the extreme south-west, the British Iron Age was characterized by an embarrassingly invisible method of disposal that could neither be compared nor contrasted with contemporary continental traditions. Although efforts have been made to explain this absence in terms of hypothetical practices that would leave no archaeologically recognizable traces, there have been few attempts to consider in detail the scattered references to human remains that have slowly accumulated in the literature. A reconsideration of this evidence in the light of more recently excavated material suggests that the dearth of funerary remains is to an extent illusory and that further distinctive disposal rituals can now be added to those already recognized. It is also apparent that certain shared characteristics may force a general reconsideration of the origins of these different rites.
Earlier Neolithic Enclosures in North-West Europe
Authors: Whittle Alasdair
Published: February 2015

Enclosures with ditches and banks were a feature of Neolithic cultures in western Europe from the end of the Linear Pottery culture onwards, and seem to have served a wide variety of purposes within the settlement patterns and economic strategies based on mixed farming such as prevailed in the fourth and third millennia be (on the uncorrected radiocarbon chronology, used throughout). The aim of this paper is twofold: first, to draw attention to the earliest known examples in western Europe, belonging to the late Linear Pottery culture and to its immediate successors in what may be called the Linear Pottery culture tradition, to outline the variety of possible functions which these may have had, and to suggest that they are ancestral to subsequent enclosures in other parts of western Europe and particularly in southern England; second, to show that the enclosures of the earlier Neolithic of southern England may also, like their continental predecessors, have had varied roles, such that the hypothesis of ritual function is inadequate and even the label ‘causewayed camp’, like ‘henge’ or ‘hillfort’, cannot denote more than common constructional techniques.
On the problems of studying prehistoric climate and crop agriculture
Authors: Dennell R. W.
Published: February 2015

Few would doubt that prehistorians have come to regard the formulating of models and the testing of hypotheses as among their most important concerns in recent years. This trend towards explaining, rather than merely accumulating data can be regarded partially as reflecting a desire to maintain some degree of command over a rapidly expanding body of information, but also the feeling that prehistoric archaeology has tended to lag behind related behavioural disciplines such as ecology or geography. What has become a highly conspicuous feature of these developments is that prehistorians have tended to undertake two radically different kinds of studies, particularly on prehistoric subsistence. The first relies upon published archaeological data, often accumulated over several years, from regions as large as countries or even continents; the second type, however, tends to be more modest in scope, and based upon a small body of evidence that has been specifically collected from either a small number of sites, or at most, a small region such as a single valley system. Recent studies by Murray (1970) on European neolithic animal husbandry, or by Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza (1971) on European neolithic dispersal rates are convenient examples of the first type of study: both may be contrasted with the more detailed, localised types of studies on the same topics by Payne (1972) and Barker (1975). Whilst these two approaches may be complementary, it is nevertheless noticeable that they often reach strikingly different conclusions that frequently result from fundamental divergences of opinion about the quality of the data itself, and the most appropriate way to examine it.
The Inception of the Iron Age in Temperate Europe
Authors: Powell T. G. E.
Published: February 2015

The first appearance of iron in Europe north of the Alps involves more than one story, and much, often ambiguous, evidence. It will be necessary to draw on Greece and Italy more than once in due course, but attention in the present state of enquiry should first be given to the region of the lower Danube, and territory stretching south along the Black Sea to the Bosphorus. This is not because of any abstract deductions that Thrace should form a necessary spring-board from Asia Minor into the depths of Europe, but because material is now coming to light that calls for special consideration on its own merits. A major step forward has resulted from excavations at stratified sites in the Dobrogea, in particular at Babadag (Morintz 1964), and at Cernatu (Székely 1966), and from the latter especially there is substantial evidence for iron smelting as well as forged products: iron strips as ready metal, but also shaft-hole and lugged axes, and blades for sickles, and other heavy duty tools. The chronological position of this iron industry remains open to discussion, and is bound up with evaluations of the pottery sequence especially as worked out at Babadag. The iron industry occurred in a level with pottery of the Middle Babadag style at both sites mentioned. Middle Babadag pottery continues shapes and motifs of the Early style, but decoration is executed with twisted and impressed cord, apparently a regional development.
Britain Inside and Outside Mesolithic Europe
Authors: Jacobi R. M.
Published: February 2015

It is now some twenty years since Clark wrote his paper ‘A Microlithic Industry from the Cambridgeshire Fenland and other industries of Sauveterrian affinities from Britain’ (Clark 1955), and almost as long since he considered the cultural and chronological implications of flint industries with Trapezes—bitruncated blades—in North Western Europe (Clark 1958). Since then some 150 to 200 radiocarbon determinations have become available for the Mesolithic of this area—most particularly from Denmark, the Netherlands and Britain, with rather fewer from France. It is, quite deliberately, not the intention of this paper to attempt a detailed consideration, or presentation of all these new dates—not even for Britain where some sixty recent determinations and their associations will be the subject of a separate larger paper (Switsur and Jacobi, in preparation). More worrying, however, than this mass of new datings is a proliferation of new and mainly regional terms for stone industries, which, while believed to show sufficient diversity to demand such an extended nomenclature, are nevertheless obviously closely linked at the techno-complex level. It is then at this techno-complex level at which it is intended to work, and it is towards a simplified, or at least manageable, terminology that it is proposed to aim. The Key to the article will remain Britain in relation to the European mainland.
Some Hampshire and Dorset handaxes and the question of ‘Early Acheulian’ in Britain
Authors: Roe Derek
Published: February 2015

A Lower Palaeolithic handaxe found a few years ago at St Catherine's Hill, Christ church, is described. Various aspects of its technology and morphology appear archaic, and although it was found in a secondary context, with no clear geological evidence for its true age, relatively old Pleistocene gravels do occur at the summit of the hill. At the Ballast Hole, Corfe Mullen, a few miles west, J. B. Calkin and J. F. N. Green recorded some 25 years ago a number of handaxes very similar to this one, in a hill-wash deposit below bluff gravels; they suggested that the implements had originally been dropped on the surface of the Sleight (170 ft) terrace while the 130 ft terrace was forming nearby. These implements were demonstrably older than the well-made later Acheulian ovate handaxes from the same pit. They were called Middle Acheulian by Calkin and Green, but it is suggested that Earlier Acheulian would be a better description. Their likely context in the British sequence is briefly discussed. Early Acheulian occurrences in situ in early deposits are rare in Britain and Europe.
The Use of Copper in the Cucuteni-Tripolye Culture of South-East Europe
Authors: Greeves T. A. P.
Published: February 2015

The aim of this paper is to present a summary of material relating to the earliest use of copper in an area of south-east Europe which is today partly within Romanian territory and partly within the USSR.

For more than ten years, Russian scholars, notably E. N. Chernykh and N. V. Ryndina, have been publishing work on Tripolye metal, but much of this is not readily available to archaeologists who do not read Russian, and it is hoped that this paper will in some measure redress this situation. In addition, considerable use has been made of Romanian material.

Probably at least a millennium is covered by this study, ranging from approximately 4000–3000 ± 500 years bc. Approximately 750 objects of copper can, with some degree of certainty, be attributed to all but the last phase of the Cucuteni-Tripolye Culture. There are also numerous chance finds, especially of axe-adzes and related objects, but these are not being considered here (see Căpitanu 1971; Monah 1969; Mataşa 1964; Nestor 1935–6; Szekely 1967; Vulpe, A. 1964; 1973; Zbenovich 1969; etc.).
The Polden Hill Hoard, Somerset
Authors: Brailsford J. W.
Published: February 2015

The Polden Hill hoard, first noted in 1803, has never been fully published. The hoard consist of many elements of horse gear and trappings of the first century A.D.
The Excavation of Three ‘Narrow Blade’ Mesolithic Sites in the Southern Pennines, England
Authors: Radley Jeffrey , Tallis J. H. , Switsur V. R.
Published: February 2015

Editor's note: Throughout the 1960's Jeffrey Radley was engaged in research on the Mesolithic sites of the southern Pennine area. A report on his excavations at Deepcar was published in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1964 (Radley and Mellars 1964) and accounts of further fieldwork undertaken in collaboration with F. Hepworth and G. Marshall appeared in various issues of theYorkshire Archaeological Journaland theDerbyshire Archaeological Journal(Radley and Marshall 1963, 1965; Radley 1967, 1968). Shortly before his death in 1970 he was preparing a general article summarizing the present state of knowledge concerning the ‘Narrow Blade’ microlithic industries of the Pennines, and incorporating reports on the excavation of three previously unrecorded sites which fall clearly into this Narrow Blade group. One of the chief aims of this article was to draw attention to the typological diversity which can be observed within the later Mesolithic industries of northern Britain, and to contrast these assemblages with the ‘Broad Blade’ industries as represented at the sites of Deepcar and elsewhere.
Terracotta Models as Evidence for Vehicles with Tilts in the Ancient Near East
Authors: Littauer M. A. , Crouwel J. H.
Published: February 2015

In his important study of early wheeled vehicles from the Caucasus region, S. Piggott briefly considered two terracotta models of wagons with arched tilts from the Near East (Piggott 1968, 273). Following Speiser (1934), he argued that the actual wagons represented by these models had been introduced into the Near East from the Caucasus by the later 3rd millennium B.C. The present article aims at a more comprehensive review of the Near-Eastern evidence. It will be almost exclusively concerned with terracotta models of both four-wheeled wagons and two-wheeled carts, because these constitute practically all the documentation we have of vehicles with tilts. This material undoubtedly will be incomplete, since there must be more examples among the many models that have not been published, or published only inadequately. A full description will be possible only in the one case where we have personally examined the model (wagon A1).
Ground Slates in the Scandinavian Younger Stone Age with Reference to Circumpolar Maritime Adaptations
Authors: Fitzhugh William
Published: February 2015

Circumpolar culture theory has been a persistent unifying theme in northern anthropology, playing a formative role in the development of general anthropological theory and stimulating numerous archaeological and ethnological studies of high latitude regions. One of the most important contributions to this field was Gutorm Gjessing'sCircumpolar Stone Age(1944). Today this work is known as a timely synthesis in which ethnological and archaeological data were marshalled in support of an hypothesis of northern diffusion through the Arctic and Taiga zones from Scandinavia to northeastern North America. The principal elements in this proposed diffusion chain included toggling harpoons, large skin boats, oil lamps, ulu-type knives, ground slate tools, the curved-back adze or gouge, and cord-marked pottery. Later additions to this circumpolar adaptive complex included parallels in social structure, religion, and mythology (Gjessing 1953; Nordland 1968).
A Morphological Analysis of Late Prehistoric and Romano-British Settlements in North West Wales
Authors: Smith Christopher A.
Published: February 2015

The morphology of a group of settlement sites in North West Wales is used to demonstrate an application of Numerical Taxonomy. Using average link cluster analysis 83 out of a total of 285 known sites are grouped into seven morphological classes which provide a basis for further analysis and interpretation.
The Experimental Earthwork on Morden Bog, Wareham, Dorset, England: 1963 to 1972: Report of the Experimental Earthworks Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science
Authors: Evans J. G. , Limbrey Susan
Published: February 2015

After the successful construction of the Overton Down Experimental Earthwork (Jewell 1963), the Experimental Earthworks Committee of the British Association for the Advancement of Science went ahead with plans to build a second earthwork. It was agreed to site this on acidic sands in lowland Britain, thus providing a contrast to the alkaline environment of Overton Down. The site chosen was the Morden Bog National Nature Reserve, Wareham, Dorset. This report is an account of the construction of the earthwork and of the results of the first four sections.
Excavation of the Clactonian Industry at the Golf Course, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex
Authors: Singer Ronald , Wymer John , Gladfelter Bruce G. , Wolff Ronald G.
Published: February 2015

Clacton-on-Sea is a coastal town in the County of Essex, England. It is 75 km northeast of London, 18 km southeast of Colchester (fig. 1). The archaeological site which is the subject of this report comes within Clacton Urban District (civil parish of Great Clacton) although associated earlier discoveries extend to Jaywick Sands, and in the opposite direction, northward, to Holland-on-Sea, both in the same Urban District. The National Grid Reference for the site is TM 157134.

The Pleistocene deposits at Clacton have attracted attention since the first half of the nineteenth century when John Brown of Stanway collected mammalian remains from the foreshore (Brown 1838, 1840). Flint artifacts first appear to have been recognized at the end of the century (Kenworthy 1898). Hazzledine Warren watched exposures between Clacton Pier and Lion Point from about 1910 to 1950, and collected the large quantity of artifacts and faunal remains now in the British Museum. His many papers give much of the history and details of the site and surrounding area (especially Warren 1922, 1923, 1924, 1951, 1955). The only previous controlled archaeological examination in the Clacton area was conducted by Dr K. Oakley and Mrs M. Leakey in 1934 on behalf of the British Association, and their report was published in volume 3 of these Proceedings (Oakley and Leakey 1937). More recently, pollen data relating to these excavated deposits have been obtained from boreholes behind the cliff on West Marine Parade and the foreshore (Pike and Godwin 1953; Turner and Kerney 1971).
Recent Excavations at Nahal Oren, Israel
Authors: Noy Tamar , Legge A. J. , Higgs E. S. , Dennell R. W.
Published: February 2015

The site of Nahal Oren is 10 km south of Haifa in the Wadi Fellah at its junction with the old Tel Aviv-Haifa road, Israel.

The first excavations at Nahal Oren were made by Professor Stekelis in 1941, when the cave was emptied; a Natufian industry was found (Stekelis 1942). In 1954–9 there were further excavations in front of the cave (Stekelis and Yisraeli 1963). Numerous fine artefacts indicated the presence of two phases of the Kebaran, Natufian and ‘pre Pottery Neolithic A and B’ industries. The well known complex of house foundations on artificial platforms or terraces was exposed during this work.

The industrial succession indicated that the site was suitable for the study of late Palaeolithic cultures and their associated economies. The recent excavations, supported by the British Museum and carried out by Cambridge University and the Israel Museum, had the following objectives: to attempt the total collection of artefacts from restricted areas, to establish the relevant stratigraphy, and to collect a broad spectrum of organic remains, by methods developed by the British Academy's Major Research Project, the History of Early Agriculture.
Mesolithic Lake Cultures in the Ganga Valley, India
Authors: Sharma G. R.
Published: February 2015

The explorations conducted by the Institute of Archaeology, Allahabad University, in the last few years in the alluvial plain of the Central Ganga Valley, bounded by the Ganga on the south and the Sarju on the north, have brought to light extensive traces of Stone Age occupation in an area completely devoid of rocks. The work has also revealed the connection between this appearance of early man and the morphological features brought about by the changing course of the Ganga in the Pleistocene. The Gangetic alluvial is clearly divided into two distinct formations, the older known as Bhagar, and the younger as Khadar. The terminal of the Bhagar constituted the bank of the Ganga when it was actually forming this area and gradually receding southwards to form the deposit of the Khadar. Over a very wide area the exposed sections of the Bhagar (fig. 1) consist of four layers having a thickness of 8 to 10·5 m. On the top there is a sandy soil (30 cm to 1·50 m) overlying a plastic clay deposit (90 cm to 2 m in thickness). The third layer is constituted by blackish soil (1·50 m to 3 m) full of small kankar nodules. The bottommost exposed layer or the fourth (2 m to 4 m) from the top, containing kankars, is yellowish in colour. There is no doubt that the sandy deposit capping the old formation marks the end of an epoch in the life of the Ganga, and it was deposited by the river with a flood-plane higher by at least 10 metres than its highest flood-plane subsequently recorded.
Petrological identification of stone implements from Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland
Authors: Cummins W. A. , Moore C. N.
Published: February 2015

Plans for the petrological examination of stone axes from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire (C.B.A. Group 14) were initiated in 1946, when Mr F. T. Baker, now Director of the City of Lincoln Libraries, Museum and Art Gallery, agreed to become local secretary to the survey. Professor W. D. Evans (now Lord Energlyn), Head of the Geology Department at Nottingham University, undertook the petrological side of the work, and the thin sections were cut by Mr R. D. Hendry, Chief Technician to the Department. By 1962 about 120 sections had been cut and these were sent to Dr F. S. Wallis and Mr E. D. Evens, who found that a large proportion of them could be assigned to already established groups. During the next few years, the number of axes sectioned rose to 180. In 1968 Dr W. A. Cummins took over the petrological work and in 1970 Mr C. N. Moore became the local secretary. Since 1969, the sections have been cut by Mr J. Blount at Imperial College, London.

The present report is based on 422 stone axes from Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. This total includes nearly all the axes in local museums within the area, as well as the relevant axes from the British Museum and a considerable number from private collections. The only local museum collections not included are those at Louth, Stamford and the Spalding Gentlemen's Society. In view of this, it is considered that the report gives a fairly representative coverage of the axes found in the area. A breakdown of this coverage is given in Table 1.
The Excavation of a Neolithic Settlement on Broome Heath, Ditchingham, Norfolk, England
Authors: Wainwright G. J. , Dimbleby G. W. , Evans A. , Evans J. G.
Published: February 2015

The excavation of the earthwork and part of the interior of a C-shaped enclosure in south Norfolk produced evidence of a Neolithic occupation from the mid fourth to the late third millennium B.C. The earthwork was constructed at the end of the third millennium B.C. and palaeobotanical analyses of the fossil soil beneath it produced information concerning the environment of the time. Quantities of pot-sherds and stone tools were recorded from the earthwork and from clusters of pits, and a study of grain impressions on the pottery has given some indication of the crops cultivated in the third millennium B.C. in East Anglia. The report is concluded with a discussion of a system of fossil ice-wedge casts uncovered during the excavation and their relevance to archaeological investigations.
The Technique of the Decoration on a Disc-Butted Axe from Romania
Authors: Lowery P. R. , Savage R. D. A. , Wilkins R. L.
Published: February 2015

Among the objects from Romanian collections exhibited at the British Museum from January to March 1971 was a disc-butted axe from Someseni, near Cluj, Romania, the condition of whose surface is so good that a detailed study of the technique of its decoration is possible. A silicone rubber mould of it was made for this purpose (Pl. XV). The results of examination of the mould are interesting enough to justify summary publication even though no directly comparable material has been published in this way.

For illustrations of the axe, and discussions of its provenance and date see Nestor (1938); Mozsolics (1967), 33 f., 163, and Taf. 13, 3, a–d; Hänsel (1968), 61 f. and 189; see also p. 26 of the catalogue, Treasures from Romania, of the exhibition, in which it is No. 18. We use here the terminology and methods outlined by us in Lowery, Savage, Wilkins (1971).
On the origins of British faience beads and some aspects of the Wessex–Mycenae relationship
Authors: McKerrell Hugh
Published: February 2015

Interest concerning the origins of the faience beads found in Britain has led to much discussion and speculation. Occurring as they do primarily in Scottish EBA contexts and Wessex cremation burials, these beads link together British cultural extremes of the second millennium BC. By their occurrence also in Europe and more profusely in the Near East, they suggest trade connections which require the most searching examination of the evidence before definite conclusions as to their source can be reached. The classic studies on faience beads were completed by Beck and Stone (1936) and Stone and Thomas (1956). Their carefully considered opinions indicated positively an Eastern origin for the British beads, but this view has been challenged recently by Newton and Renfrew (1970) using as a basis for their thesis the spectrographic analyses reported by Stone and Thomas who had ruefully regarded them as non-indicative of provenance. It must be stated from the outset that the work to be described here does not indicate the exact source of the British beads but it can be claimed to resolve adequately the problem of the local as opposed to Eastern origins.
The Excavation of Bronze Age and Iron Age Settlements at Trevisker, St. Eval, Cornwall
Authors: ApSimon A. M. , Greenfield E. , Biek L. , Boon G. C. , Hartley B. R. , Levy J. F. , Wallis F. S.
Published: February 2015

The site was first occupied in the Bronze Age by a small agricultural settlement, consisting of two circular timber houses with ancillary structures and ditches. One house was eventually replaced by a stone structure. A single radiocarbon determination suggests that the settlement is to be dated within the period 1700–1300 B.C. The Iron Age settlement of Trevisker Round was probably established in the second century B.C., if not earlier. An original inner enclosure, half an acre in area, housing a single defended farmstead, was later superseded by a larger defended enclosure, 3 acres in area, also with circular timber houses and occupation areas. This occupation was followed at the end of the first century A.D., by a Romano-British phase of occupation, which lasted until the middle of the second century.
Some biases in the recovery of archaeological faunal remains
Authors: Casteel Richard W.
Published: February 2015

Non-hominid faunal remains associated with cultural deposits have long been of interest to archaeologists. Recent archaeological work (Coutts and Higham, 1971; Daly, 1969; Drew et al., 1971; Flannery, 1966; Higham and Leach, 1971; Shawcross, 1967; Ucko and Dimbleby, 1969) is showing an increased utilization of these associated faunal remains for detailed analysis of prehistoric man's environment, hunting techniques, dietary habits, the effects of domestication upon animals, changes in these over time, and seasonal dating.

As analysis becomes more detailed and the need to extract increased amounts of relevant and sophisticated data from faunal remains grows more demanding, the representative quality of our samples of faunal remains becomes more critical. Many of the demands made upon our samples require that increased attention be paid to the recovery and analysis of some of the less obvious constituents of these faunal assemblages.
A striking maritime distribution-pattern
Authors: Cowen John D.
Published: February 2015

The great family of Carp's-Tongue Swords clearly embraces a number of varieties. The anatomization of this considerable mass of material has not yet received the attention it deserves; but the subject is a slippery one, and it is not easy to isolate a starting-point for analysis.

One assemblage, however, of mutually related, idiosyncratic, and uncommon forms can readily be identified, and their position examined. The material consists of two interlocking groups together comprising fourteen swords (or hilts) from ten finds; and a third, closely akin to the second group, represented by three daggers, distinguished alike by a highly specialized form and an uncommonly scattered distribution.

All but one of the swords come from hoards, but I cannot detect that this material significantly differs from the general run of hoards in which Carp's-Tongue swords are commonly found all over Atlantic Europe. In broad terms they may on current views be assigned to Late Bronze 2 or 3; for the strikingly devolved forms found at Monte Sa Idda need be no more than provincialisms. So far as is known all the daggers are unassociated finds.
Prehistory from Antipodean Perspectives
Authors: Mulvaney D. J.
Published: February 2015

My initial Australian fieldwork was still a year ahead when, surprisingly, I featured anonymously on a verbal distribution map confidently sketched by the Disney Professor. I was the ‘Australia’ reference of his Inaugural lecture, thereby illustrating his proposition (Clark, 1954, 33), that ‘the geographical field of Cambridge prehistorians has been … the whole world’. My Cambridge contemporaries, Sieveking and Golson, respectively represented ‘Malaya’ and ‘New Zealand’.

We were indeed the forerunners of a sizeable band of hunter-diggers which ventured into the Pacific world and which numbers Cambridge amongst its totemic centres. Such incipient, though benevolent imperialism, has not gone unchallenged. A participant in an Australian archaeological congress recently deplored what he judged to be the errors and dogmatism of the ‘Cambridge school’. He erred in affixing this label, because there is no such implicit cohesion within the ranks; diversity is already a healthy characteristic of Pacific research.

What was relevant about Cambridge training, but no more so than of any sound methodological discipline, was that it encouraged respect for, and critical evaluation of, evidence. What was intellectually satisfying to the student were the concepts of universality and interdependence in past human affairs. Such is the message from Miles Burkitt's Prehistory to Grahame Clark's World Prehistory.
Further Information Concerning the Environment of Palaeolithic Man in Epirus
Authors: Higgs E. S. , Webley D.
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this article is to bring together further information from Epirus which is relevant to the consideration of man's environment in Palaeolithic times in Greece. Some aspects of this study have already been published elsewhere (Dakaris et al., 1964; Higgs and Vita-Finzi, 1966; Higgs et al., 1968) and it is sufficient here to give only a brief summary of earlier conclusions.

It has been thought that there are good grounds for believing that during the Last Glaciation mobile human groups occupied annual territories which ranged from the western coast of Greece to the central Pindhos mountain range (Higgs et al., 1968). Within these annual territories there were two groups of sites. One group, represented by Kastritsa, was at the base of the Pindhos and was occupied in summer, and another group of sites such as Asprochaliko was occupied in winter in warmer regions nearer to the coast. Together these groups exploited seasonally complementary resources which were so distributed that such a pattern was necessary.

The question arises, however, was Asprochaliko in fact a more suitable site for occupation during the winter than Kastritsa? An attempt was therefore made to assess the living environment of the two caves themselves. While such an attempt was immediately relevant to the problem with which we are concerned, it has wider implications with regard to the choice of cave sites for human habitation (Legge, 1972).
Excavation of a Stone Circle at Croft Moraig, Perthshire, Scotland
Authors: Piggott Stuart , Simpson D. D. A.
Published: February 2015

The concentration of prehistoric monuments, broadly of the later third and early second millennium B.C., in the upper Tay valley, has been noted by more than one archaeologist in recent years (Stewart, 1958–9; Coles, J. M. and Simpson, 1965). The multiple stone circle to be described lies no more than 2 miles (3·2 km) from the north-eastern end of Loch Tay at Kenmore, and 4 miles (6·2 km) west of Aberfeldy, at Nat. Grid Ref. NN/797472 (fig. 1). It stands some 400 feet (122 m) above sea level, near and to the south of the main Aberfeldy–Kenmore road near the farm of Croft Moraig or Morag, and has long been known as a prehistoric monument: ‘Yon's the Druid Stones!’ shouted the coach drivers to their passengers sixty years ago, and only ‘the begoggled motorist’ of the day was thought likely to miss it (Coles, F.R., 1909–10, 139). Probably the earliest record of the site is that made by Robert Burns on his Highland journey in 1787 (quoted in Gillies, 1938, 14):

‘Druid's Temple, three circles of stones. The outermost sunk, the second has thirteen stones remaining; the innermost eight, two large detached ones like a gate to the south-east—say prayers in it’.
The Distribution of later Bronze Age Metalwork from Lincolnshire
Authors: Davey P. J.
Published: February 2015

A number of distinctive physiographic regions fall wholely or partly within the county of Lincolnshire: the limestone and chalk uplands of the Lincoln Edge and the Wolds, the valleys of the Trent, Ancholme and Witham, and the low lying areas of the Isle of Axholme, the Fens and the Marsh (fig. 1). The scatter of finds of Later Bronze Age metalwork shows considerable local variation (fig. 2).

These differences in distribution can be analysed statistically using the Chi Squared test (Gregory, 1963, 151–66). A comparison is made between the observed distribution of objects (o), and the pattern expected if the distribution was the product of random factors alone (e). A null hypothesis is tested by applying the formula:

.

The probability that the null hypothesis is true can then be shown graphically (Lindley and Miller, 1953). A high reading (e.g., more than 95 per cent) would indicate that the observed distribution was consonant with a random scatter, while a low reading (e.g. less than 5 per cent) would suggest that some factor other than chance governed the distribution.
Excavations in Zone VII Peat at Storrs Moss, Lancashire, England, 1965–67
Authors: Powell T. G. E. , Oldfield Frank , Corcoran J. X. W. P.
Published: February 2015

Within recent years pollen-analytical studies carried out in lake sediments and raised bog peats around the head of Morecambe Bay, Lancashire, have disclosed extensive evidence for anthropogenic change at the British Pollen Zone VIIa–VIIb (Atlantic–Sub-Boreal) boundary, including characteristic ‘Ulmus Decline’, and Landnam phenomena (summarized by Oldfield, 1963). The question immediately arose as to the archaeological identity of the prehistoric communities responsible. The beginnings of Neolithic settlement in north-western England were quite obscure, and have largely so remained. The principal archaeological evidence for any Neolithic penetration of the region derives from the accidental discovery, nearly a century ago, of a bog-site at Ehenside Tarn, close to the west Cumberland coast (Piggott, 1954, 295–9; Walker, 1966), and to the presence of numerous stone axes occurring as stray finds throughout the region. More recently, the discovery of ‘stone axe factories’ on the high screes of Great Langdale and Scafell, and the wide distribution of Group VI axes therefrom, have emphasized the potentialities for further investigation (Fell, 1966, and refs. therein).
Scriber, Graver, Scorper, Tracer: notes on Experiments in Bronzeworking Technique
Authors: Lowery P. R. , Savage R. D. A. , Wilkins R. L.
Published: February 2015

In descriptions in the archaeological literature of the marks of workmanship characteristic of certain bronze objects of the insular Iron Age, confusion exists concerning terminology and possibly (though the imprecision of wording makes it difficult to be sure without re-examination of individual pieces) concerning technology also. Macrophotographs are seldom provided to illustrate discussion of Iron Age bronzework, even when marks of workmanship or supposed techniques of manufacture are cited as chronological or cultural symptoms, so that the confusion has been able to multiply and is now endemic in work in English in the field; individual publications need not be listed in this connection. In the present paper we illustrate, describe and as far as possible distinguish one series of tool marks experimentally produced, with notes on the methods used to produce it, in the hope of making clear the need for further experimental studies and an agreed descriptive terminology. We have chosen as the subject of the study a set of marks which illustrate some ideas associated with the so-called ‘rocked graver’ technique which have been specially liable to confusion. Since our intention is not to offer any new analysis of Iron Age bronzework, but to point out in a few details criteria which may be found useful and to offer a terminology of them, the notes are mostly concerned with the experimentally produced type series; few ancient objects are cited (as examples only, not necessarily insular, and with no implication that other ancient examples of the use of the same technique do not exist) and only two are illustrated, though references to accessible illustrations of others are given.
The Autonomy of the South-East European Copper Age
Authors: Renfrew Colin
Published: February 2015

Ten years have now elapsed since the death of V. Gordon Childe, whose great achievement it was to relate the many disparate elements of European prehistory into a single coherent whole. These ten years have seen not only the sustained application of radiocarbon dating to the south-east European Neolithic (Quitta, 1967; Kohl and Quitta, 1966), but the publication of important stratigraphic sequences, especially that of the great tell at Karanovo in Bulgaria (Georgiev, 1961). Both these advances put in question one of the essential elements in Childe's structure for the chronology of Europe: the chronological equation between Troy I and the Vinča culture of Jugoslavia (Childe, 1929, 32; 1927; 1939).

This is the cornerstone for the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of much of Europe, and to remove it would cause widespread changes both in chronology and culture history.

The crucial importance of this point has been well expressed by Professor Clark (1938): ‘Thanks to the synchronisms established between Troy and Iberia and the western Mediterranean on the one hand, and central and northern Europe on the other, any important alterations in the absolute dating of the successive “cities” is bound to affect the dating of every culture in Europe of the period, much in the same way as fluctuations in the price of certain key commodities are felt in the exchanges of the whole world’. Today, of course, it is not so much the absolute dating of Troy which is in question, but the synchronisms with Europe: the effect, however, is the same.
The Prehistoric Sequence at Nakapapula Rockshelter, Zambia
Authors: Phillipson D. W.
Published: February 2015

Considerable attention has recently been paid to the start of the Iron Age in East and Central Africa. One of the most interesting problems concerning this period is that of the relationship of the Early Iron Age farming people to the hunter-gatherers of the Late Stone Age whom they eventually displaced. Very few archaeological sites are known, and none have yet been published, which illustrate the Late Stone Age/Iron Age transition in Central Africa, and discussions of this and related problems have so far been largely based on conjecture. Evidence concerning this important transition was recently unearthed at Nakapapula rockshelter in the Serenje District of central Zambia. Here a long and relatively homogeneous Late Stone Age sequence of Nachikufan type was seen to continue into the 2nd millennium A.D., that is, well after the first appearance of Early Iron Age pottery at this site and elsewhere in Zambia. Nakapapula has also yielded the first archaeological evidence for the date of schematic rock art in Central Africa and confirmed its contemporaneity with the Early Iron Age.
A Continental Palstave from the Ancient Field System on Horridge Common, Dartmoor, England
Authors: Fox Aileen , Britton Dennis
Published: February 2015

The ancient field system on Horridge Common, Ilsington, on the southern slopes of Dartmoor (fig. 1) has been known to scholars since 1954 but has never been studied in detail. In 1964 the owner of the adjoining Bagtor wood felled some timber and in order to remove it, had a broad track bulldozed from the Rippon Tor rifle range north-eastwards along the hill-side and across the field system, despite the fact that this was a scheduled ancient monument. In September 1965 Mr W. J. Hopkins, a ‘small-scale reviser’ of the Ordnance Survey, plotted the new track and noticed the palstave in the loose soil which had been churned up recently. The implement was eventually sent to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum at Exeter, where I saw it; in May 1966, Mr Hopkins kindly visited the site with me and marked the exact position of the discovery (fig. 2). It was obvious that the palstave was not the usual south-western type and that its discovery within a Dartmoor field system was of particular interest; accordingly Mr Dennis Britton was asked to describe it and with the assistance of Mr D. Walling a survey was undertaken of the relevant group of huts and fields adjoining (fig. 2).
Preliminary Report on a Petrological Study of Ground-Edge Artefacts from North-Eastern New South Wales, Australia
Authors: Binns R. A. , McBryde I.
Published: February 2015

Petrological and chemical analyses of stone, bronze and iron implements are playing an increasingly important role in the study of prehistoric economies. Their contributions, long familiar to students of European prehistory, were recently discussed in a paper which also reviewed the evidence from Polynesia, Melanesia and Australia (Clark, 1965). Apart from some studies limited to stone artefacts from individual archaeological sites, these techniques have not previously been applied to material from Australian prehistory (Gutsche in McBryde, 1966; Branagan and Megaw, 1969). In this brief communication we present some of the results of a petrological analysis of ground-edge artefacts from north-eastern New South Wales.

The widespread dispersal of stone for axe-making based on organized exploitation of definite quarry sites is well documented in the historical and anthropological literature for eastern Australia at the time of European settlement. Unfortunately few of these historical records are sufficiently detailed, so even for the recent past as well as for prehistory, techniques of petrological analysis may make vital contributions to our knowledge both of quarry sites in eastern Australia and of the distribution of their products. Our preliminary discussion here is based on an investigation of some 200 axes mainly taken from the archaeological collections in the History Department of the University of New England and various local museum and private collections, but also including axes from northern New South Wales in the Australian collections of the British Museum, the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Anthropological Museum of Aberdeen University.
The Neolithic Pottery Sequence in Southern Italy
Authors: Whitehouse Ruth
Published: February 2015

The currently accepted divisions of the south Italian Neolithic are based on typological studies of ceramic styles, interpreted with the aid of stratigraphical information derived from a few key excavations. On the basis of this material a number of authorities have divided the Neolithic into a series of chronological phases. It is my belief that the evidence for constructing this neat relative chronological framework does not in fact exist and that the scheme generally favoured today is oversimplified and in parts inaccurate. In this paper I shall first summarize three important typological studies of south Italian Neolithic pottery: R. B. K. Stevenson's pioneer study of museum material, mainly from the Materano, published in 1947 (Stevenson, 1947); L. Bernabò Brea's scheme, based primarily on the stratigraphical sequence obtained from his excavations on the island of Lipari, published in various forms and admirably summarized in a paper presented to the Primo Convegno di Studi sulla Magna Grecia in 1961 (Bernabò Brea, 1962) and, finally, R. Peroni's recent study of the Apulian material (Peroni, 1967). The second part of my paper will consist of a critical examination of these three studies and the final section will be devoted to a description of the known Neolithic wares, with an assessment of their relationships and relative chronological positions.
An Iron Age Hill-Fort at Grimthorpe, Yorkshire, England
Authors: Stead I. M. , Jarman M. , Fagg Angela , Higgs E. S. , Denston C. B.
Published: February 2015

The Iron Age hill-fort at Grimthorpe (Grid reference SE.816535) in the parish of Millington, East Riding of Yorkshire, is on the western edge of the Yorkshire Wolds, with a commanding position over the Vale of York. There is an uninterrupted view to the White Horse on the Hambleton Hills, 25 miles to the north-west; beyond York, 13 miles to the west, to the Pennines; and to the south 25 miles to the chimneys of Keadby and Scunthorpe. To the west and south the land slopes away to the Vale of York, and to the north and east there is a sharper fall to Given Dale and Whitekeld Dale. The hill-fort defences follow the 520 feet contour, and enclose an approximately circular area of eight acres (fig. 1).

A traditional reference may be preserved in the field-name—Bruffs—perhaps a variation of ‘Brough’, which ‘refers in all cases to ancient camps, usually Roman ones’. But all surface indications have now been obliterated by ploughing, and even a century ago there was little more to be seen. John Phillips in 1853 noticed ‘unmistakable traces of ancient but unascertainable occupation’, and in 1871 an excavation by J. R. Mortimer located ‘the filled up inner ditch of a supposed camp’. But Mortimer was not concerned with the settlement; his interest had been aroused by the discovery, in 1868, of a burial with rich grave-goods, including metalwork with La Tène ornament, in a chalk-pit within the south-west sector of the hill-fort.