bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Mesolithic Structure at Deepcar, Yorkshire, England, and the Affinities of its associated Flint Industries
Authors: Radley J. , Mellars P.
Published: February 2015

Microlithic industries have been known from the Pennines for several generations, and their stratigraphical position at the base of the peat was established by Dr H. Colley March in the Marsden area as long ago as 1883. Although many collections have been made, however, it must be confessed that much less scientific information has been gained from detailed observation than might have been. An outstanding exception to the general rule was the work of Francis Buckley of Greenfield on upland sites, mainly between 1250–1500 feet above sea level on the high ground west of Marsden, during the years immediately following the first world war. Of special relevance to the subject of the present paper was his recognition of concentrations of microlithic material in conjunction with remains of fire-places and his distinction of a basic typological division between ‘Broad-Blade’ and ‘Narrow-Blade’ microlithic industries in the Pennines. The first part of the present paper is concerned with the excavation of a settlement structure and with the description of the flint industry associated with it and the second deals specifically with the affinities of the Broad-Blade industry.
The Excavation of a Stone Alignment and Circle at Cholwichtown, Lee Moor, Devonshire, England
Authors: Eogan George , Simmons I. G.
Published: February 2015

The site (National Grid Reference 3X584622) stands on a westward spur of the Penn Beacon ridge near the southern edge of Dartmoor. As is common throughout the moor the underlying rock is granite and in the neighbourhood of Cholwichtown this has altered to ‘china’ clay. There are a number of outcrops, but in most places the granite has a light covering of soil on which a thin layer of black raw humus, peat-like in appearance, has formed. This now produces coarse grass. From the evidence provided by the small dumps of upcast at socket no. 72 it appears that only a very thin layer of humus, about an inch in thickness, covered the soil at that point when the monument was constructed.

Excavation has shown that the structure consisted of an alignment 235 yards long and having originally at least ninety-one uprights and a circle 16 feet in diameter that originally had eight orthostats. Dr Simmons has shown (Appendix) that the monument was built in a clearing, then either grassland or heathland, among the woodland and scrub, but as he points out the pollen analysis does not give any indication of date: it is not known if these clearances were made by the people who constructed the alignment and circle or if the structure was built on land cleared at an earlier date.

The monument is not situated in a conspicuous position but, nevertheless, commands a reasonably extensive view, especially towards the south and south-west.
The Cumbrian type of Polished Stone Axe and its distribution in Britain
Authors: Fell Clare I.
Published: February 2015

In May 1955 Professor Grahame Clark noticed a stone axe from Langwood Fen in the collection of Mr F. Walker of Manea. Its exotic character stood out among well known Fenland flint types and he asked me to arrange a petrological examination and to describe the implement.

The axe (fig. 1) is dark brown in colour with much of the polished surfaces roughened through oxidization, probably from underlying peat. The blue-grey, fine-grained nature of the stone shows through in fresh scars on both surfaces, which suggest its recent use as a whetstone, and in a modern chip at the butt. It is 10⅞ inches long, with a maximum width of 3 inches. The convex cutting edge is slightly asymetrical and 3⅛ inches wide, while the maximum thickness is 1¾ inches. There is a distinct waisting, or constriction, toward the butt which is rather square and 1¾ inches wide. Both edges have been ground into lateral facets ⅜ inch wide about the middle of the implement, tapering toward the butt and cutting edge. In its present state the axe weighs 3½ lbs.
Tripolyan Notes
Authors: Sulimirski T.
Published: February 2015

In my article published in the Proceedings for 1950, I mentioned the settlement at Nowosiółka Kostiukowa in West Podolia belonging to the final period of the Tripolye culture. Recently, during my visit to Poland, I was able to recover some of my pre-war notes which escaped destruction, thanks to Professor R. Jamka, Cracow; among these was also a short report on investigation of the settlement above and a sketch plan.

A field known as ‘Petrynskie’ lay c. 3 kilometres east of the village of Nowosiółka Kostiukowa, over 4 kilometres from the river Seret, a tributary of the Dniester, in the valley of a small stream which ultimately joins the river. On the southern slopes of this valley, north of a narrow lane cut deep in the loess and on the surface of the field lay a large mass of potsherds, lumps of fired clay plaster (of ‘ploščadka’ huts), stones, flints, etc. This was mostly Tripolyan painted ware of Koszyłowce type, belonging to T. S. Passek's period C-1, although wrongly considered to be of period C-2. However, many black, highly polished potsherds were also found, of what is known as the ‘Thracian Hallstatt’ ware, mainly in the lower part of the field. All these remains formed small concentrations marking the sites of ancient huts situated at a small distance from each other.
Sardinian Beakers
Authors: Bray Warwick
Published: February 2015

No Sardinian domestic site has yet produced Beaker remains, but complete or fragmentary vessels have been found in eleven funerary deposits (fig. 1). Of these, San Bartolomeo in the extreme south of the island is a burial cave, and Nuraxinieddu is a trench grave. The remaining nine sites are all rock-cut tombs (domus de janas) and are grouped together in the zone of sedimentary rocks in the north-west of the island.
A Late Bronze Age Find from Pyotdykes, Angus, Scotland, with associated Gold, Cloth, Leather and Wood Remains
Authors: Coles John M. , Coutts Herbert , Ryder M. L.
Published: February 2015

On the 29th October, 1963, a group of bronze objects was ploughed up in the ‘Old Road Field’, Pyotdykes farm, near Dundee, Angus (Nat. Grid Ref. NO 345348). The objects recovered were a bronze spearhead and two bronze swords (fig. 1). After news of the find had been communicated to the Museum and Art Gallery, Dundee, the area around the original find-spot was excavated by museum staff, and this yielded three additional pieces of bronze wire rivets from sword (2), but no other objects. Before the bronzes were revealed by ploughing, they must have been lying about 30 centimetres below the surface, just above a hard-pan layer which forms the subsoil in that part of the field.

Cleaning and treatment of the bronzes was carried out at the museum, when a plug of material was extracted from inside the spearhead socket (see App. I). This was sent to Dr M. L. Ryder for examination along with two pieces of wood and leather which the farmer had found adhering to sword (2) (see Part III). Subsequently the wooden fragments were examined in the Sub-department of Quaternary Research, University of Cambridge (see App. II).
The Later Bronze Age in Ireland in the light of recent research
Authors: Eogan George
Published: February 2015

The term ‘Later Bronze Age’ is being used in this paper to cover that period of the Bronze Age in Ireland that started around 1200 B.C. and continued on until supplanted by iron-using cultures during the second half of the first millennium B.C. This term provides a means of escaping from the nomenclature that is applied to the period covering the last two centuries of the second millennium B.C. and the beginning of the first millennium B.C., a phase considered by some as a late Middle Bronze Age and by others as an early Late Bronze Age. Here both terms are being avoided and the period is called the ‘Bishopsland Phase’. This is followed by the ‘Roscommon Phase’ of roughly the 9th and a large part of the 8th centuries B.C. Finally comes the ‘Dowris Phase’. It is hoped that this new terminology will allow the Irish material to be more readily incorporated in any future overall scheme for the Bronze Age in Great Britain and Ireland. The Middle Bronze Age in Ireland is here restricted to cover approximately the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.
New Neolithic Sites in Dorset and Bedfordshire, with a Note on the Distribution of Neolithic Storage-Pits in Britain
Authors: Field N. H. , Matthews C. L. , Smith I. F. , Ewbank Jane M.
Published: February 2015

This discovery was made as a result of rescue excavation in advance of road improvements by the Dorset County Council in the autumn of 1962. The site (NGR SY/99789918) now lies in the north verge of the A31 trunk road, 500 feet towards Wimborne Minster from the new Lake junction to Corfe Mullen, but in 1962 it was still included in field No. 7924, belonging to Lake Farm. Here the land, which forms part of the flood-plain of the Stour, is crossed by a spur of slightly more elevated ground extending north from Willetts Lane. There is a gentle slope westwards from the site towards the Chillwater Stream, which flows north to the Stour after descending from higher ground. The lowlying terrain to the west of this low spur used to be marshland until its reclamation, accounting for the name ‘lake’ given to the locality. The subsoil of the valley-bottom is composed variously of gravel, shingly stones and brown alluvial loam. The original vegetational cover would have been woodland of deciduous type, extending from the floor of the valley up the slope to the south and thinning out to scrub and heath on the gravel plateau 150 feet above the Stour. Today, pasture dominates the scene, with oak prominent only in hedgerow or isolated clumps.

The pit to be described below lay just over half a mile to the north-east of the site of one similar in shape and contents that was discovered in a quarry in Corfe Mullen parish some twenty-five years ago.
Preliminary Report on Stone Age Reconnaissance in north-eastern Iran
Authors: McBurney C. B. M.
Published: February 2015

The following is a preliminary report on the results achieved during approximately six weeks' archaeological fieldwork in north-eastern Iran in July and August 1963. The primary objective was to explore the area for traces of the local Upper Pleistocene cultural sequence, and in particular to establish if possible the date and character of the local Upper Palaeolithic. In the event no traces of Upper Palaeolithic were obtained. However, a start was made towards defining the problem by the discovery of two well-stratified deposits, the one yielding a Middle Palaeolithic (Mousterian) industry with distinctive regional affinities, and the other an early Post-glacial Mesolithic industry. Reliable samples were obtained for defining the statistical properties of both, together with carbon samples, traces of vertebrate fauna, and some other climatic data.

Representative collections were lodged with the Musée Iran Bastan at Teheran; and the expedition's share is to be offered in part to the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge and in part to the British Museum. The expedition was financed mainly by a grant from the British Academy, supplemented by further grants from the Crowther-Beynon Fund and the British Museum.
A Decorated Iron Age Bridle-bit in the London Museum: its place in Art and Archaeology
Authors: Barber James , Megaw J. V. S.
Published: February 2015

That the London Museum possesses one fine Iron Age bridle-bit has been known since the publication in the 1939 Proceedings of that from Walthamstow, Essex. It is the purpose of this paper to draw attention to another in the same collection.

The second bit was found in 1897 in the Thames at Old Windsor, Berkshire, and was acquired by Mr William H. Lloyd, Jnr., of St. Margaret's. In 1908, with the rest of his collection, it passed to Richmond Public Library, and in 1949 the Lloyd Collection was transferred by Richmond Borough Council on permanent loan to the London Museum.

The bit (pl. XXIV, 1), cast in bronze throughout, consists of a central figure-of-eight link with a pronounced central moulding, flanked by two side-links and two side-rings. The side-rings are cast solid in one piece with the link-heads. Each side-ring has two emplacements for ornamental studs, now missing, one on either side of the link-head: each stud was originally secured by small bronze pins, one of which (pl. XXIV, 2) remains. The holes for the pins perforate the thickness of the left-hand ring (pl. XXV, 2): in the right-hand ring, however, the holes stop halfway through. Each link-head also has a stud-emplacement, now empty. On the right-hand link, the stud was fixed by a pin, now lost, similar to those used in the side-rings: the left-hand one was attached by a square-headed bronze pin, still present. The right-hand link-head is further enriched with a curvilinear motif executed partly in cast relief, partly incised, while the other has incised enrichment only.

The bit is 10.6 inches (270 millimetres) long, the distance between the rings being 4.8 inches (122 millimetres). The side-links are 2.6 inches (68 millimetres) long, and 0.9 inch (24 millimetres) in greatest width. The centre-link is 2.4 inches (62 millimetres) long, the diameter of its central moulding 0.8 inch (21 millimetres). The side-rings are not true circles, their greatest and least diameters being 3.1 inches (80 millimetres) and 2.9 inches (73 millimetres) respectively: the rings measure 0.3 inch (8 millimetres) in section.
Traditions of Metal-Working in the Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age of Britain: Part I
Authors: Britton Dennis
Published: February 2015

This paper is concerned with the earliest use in Britain of copper and bronze, from the first artifacts of copper in the later Neolithic until the transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age, as marked by palstaves and haft-flanged axes. It does not attempt to deal with all the material, but instead certain classes of evidence have been chosen to illustrate some of the main styles of workmanship. These groups have been considered both from the point of view of their archaeology, and of the technology they imply.

Such an approach requires on the one hand that the artifacts are sorted into types, their associations in graves and hoards studied, their distributions plotted, and finally a consideration of the evidence for their affinities and chronology. On the other hand there are questions also of interest that need a different standpoint. Of what metals or alloys are the objects made? Can their sources be located? How did the smiths set about their work? Over what regions was production carried out? If we are to understand as much as we might of the life of prehistoric times, then surely we should look at material culture from as many view-points as possible—in this case, the manner and setting of its production as well as its classification.
The Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Industries of the English East Midlands
Authors: Posnansky Merrick
Published: February 2015

The first palaeoliths to be described from this country were found in the south of England, particularly from the Thames Valley and East Anglia. In 1880 Boyd Dawkins wrote that tools of Drift Man were ‘conspicuous by their absence from the gravels north-west of a line passing through the Midland counties from Bristol to the Wash’. In 1897 John Evans (Evans 1897, 580), in the light of the Saltley find from the Birmingham district, questioned the view then current that their absence was due to glacial conditions prevailing north of the Severn—Wash ‘imaginary’ line, and held out hope for future finds in that northern area.

Though hand axes had earlier been described from Chester (Stone 1908, 25) and Bridlington (Evans 1897, 572) it was not until the 1920's that Sir John Evans's hopes began to be realized. Randall Davies brought attention to a hand axe found in railway ballast gravel from Skellingthorpe in Lincolnshire in 1920.

In the West Midlands numerous isolated finds were described from 1920 onwards by Burkitt (1920), Jack, Smith, Shotton and Clifford, the last two authors having in recent years (Shotton 1934 and 1953, Clifford 1954) provided a fairly comprehensive account and bibliography of the Lower and Middle palaeolithic finds from the West Midlands. In the East Midlands the story of discovery has been slower and very little of the material found has been published. In 1922 R. A. Smith published two flake implements from Leicestershire, though these cannot now be accepted (Posnansky 1955, 31).
Report on the Excavation of a Bell Barrow in the Parish of Edmondsham, Dorset, England, 1959
Authors: Proudfoot Edwina V. W.
Published: February 2015

The barrow, the excavation of which is described below, is one of the two situated close to the Cranborne-Wimborne road, some 150 yards north of the Avenue Lodge entrance to St Giles' Park, in the parish of Edmondsham, Dorset.—Nat. Grid. Ref. SU 04611155 and SU 04631160, and map (fig. 1, no. 3).

The attention of the Ministry of Works was drawn early in 1959 to the denudation by ploughing of Barrow 2. Permission to excavate was given by Lord Shaftesbury, the owner, and by Mr Lawes, the tenant farmer. Excavation on behalf of the Ministry of Works was planned and carried out by the writer, with the assistance of two workmen and some volunteers, during July and August 1959.

The Edmondsham barrows are situated at the foot of the long, gentle slope down from St Giles' Crossroads, at the edge of the Park, on a slight rise in the chalk. The land in this area is fairly heavily wooded, and is not typical downland, although the sub-soil is chalk. The junction of the chalk and the clay-with-flints lies only half a mile to the east of the barrow under discussion, at the village of Edmondsham.
A Note upon Native Copper: its Occurrence and Properties
Authors: Coghlan H. H. , Willows R.
Published: February 2015

Since the publication in 1951 of an article upon native copper considerable progress has been made concerning the occurrence and use of the metal in prehistoric Europe. In 1955 an important paper appeared by Professor Nestor dealing with the prehistory of the metal in Roumania and in 1957 Professor Pittioni published an outstanding survey and technical discussion upon the subject.

As archaeological research continues we may expect to learn more about the extent to which native copper was used by early man. It is generally agreed that some utilization of the native metal goes back even to Neolithic times, and that the first phase was that of cold hammered native copper, very shortly to be followed by its more extensive working in an annealed condition. The question of what quantity of native copper would have been available to prehistoric man, and was in fact used by him in different countries has hardly been touched upon as yet. No doubt in certain regions the quantity of native metal was very appreciable. For instance, Professor Nestor considers that in Roumania, and certain neighbouring countries, important deposits of copper minerals and notable quantities of native copper existed, and still exist. From Professor Nestor's discussion it appears that there was quite an intensive utilization of the local deposits of native copper in Roumania, not only as a ‘forged’ native copper phase, but leading on to the melting and casting of the metal culminating with the remarkable shaft-hole axe hammers and axe adzes so well known to archaeologists.
Spectral Analysis of Metal Articles from Archaeological Monuments of the Caucasus
Authors: Selimkhanov I. R.
Published: February 2015

For a long time the study of the history of ancient metallurgy and mining in the Caucasus could not be conducted satisfactorily in the USSR due to the lack of adequate scientific analysis of metallic complexes from archaeological sites.

In his work devoted to the history of metallurgy in the Caucasus a well-known archaeologist A. A. Yessen justly remarks that for solving a number of problems connected with those questions the then existing data on chemical analysis was insufficient, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Because of this indeed it later became apparent that a number of questions investigated by A. A. Yessen were not always correctly elucidated. Even so, it should be certainly mentioned here that his monograph provided a rich historical material and already indicated the direction to be followed by further investigation of the history of ancient metallurgy and mining in the Caucasus, always assuming that sufficient chemical investigation was carried out.

Systematic investigation of metallic objects from the monuments in the Caucasus began in 1933. It was at this time that work on chemical analysis began to develop at Leningrad in the Institute of Historic Technology at the then existing Academy of Material Culture named after N. J. Marr. The purpose of this research, carried out under the guidance of A. A. Yessen and V. V. Danilevsky, was to find out the history of the use of tin.
The Origin and Development of British Middle Bronze Age Rapiers
Authors: Trump Bridget A. V.
Published: February 2015

This is a subject to which scarcely any detailed attention has hitherto been paid. Parker Brewis pronounced the accepted theory when he said that the rapier ‘evolved by lengthening the dagger little by little, keeping step with the ever-growing command of metal and ability to make longer castings’. This general explanation has been accepted, since it conforms with the canon of technical evolution and is supported by the available evidence of associations. It is not, however, sufficient to explain the form taken by British rapiers, since comparison of the daggers of the Wessex and Food-vessel cultures with the daggers and dirks of the early part of the Middle Bronze Age reveals so great a difference between them that the latter cannot be considered simply to have evolved from the former. The Early Bronze Age daggers are much smaller and broader, they have three or more rivets, and ornamental hilts with separate pommels. Middle Bronze Age dirks are longer, stronger and almost invariably have two rivets in a simple hilt. Also, the distribution of weapons in the two periods differs: in the Early Bronze Age the chief concentration is in Wessex, but this area has produced hardly any rapiers.
The Palaeolithic Industry of Kota Tampan, Perak, Malaya
Authors: Walker D. , Sieveking Ann de G.
Published: February 2015

The Perak River rises on the Siamese border and flows southward to meet the sea near Teluk Anson in Perak. At Chenderoh, 70 miles north of the estuary, the valley has been dammed since 1930 and a large lake formed upstream. The Kota Tampan estate lies in the main valley about 4 miles north of the northern end of Chenderoh Lake (fig. 4 inset).

At Kota Tampan (fig. 1) the Perak River is incised in the bottom of a valley between two and three miles wide, the floor of which lies between the 200- and 250-foot contours. The surfaces of the narrow modern flood terraces lie just below the 200-foot contour. Small hills of granite, rising to about 330 feet m.s.l., project above the general level of the valley floor which is also cut by steep-sided ravines running out into the modern river. These ravines are usually dry, or slightly swampy, except at the mouths where the artificial raising of the water-level by the Chenderoh dam has flooded them. The residual parts of the valley floor form long, almost flat-topped, ridges between the ravines and the hills, covered by a skin of soil washed from the neighbouring higher land.
Origin and Development of Series II Culture of India
Authors: Khatri A. P.
Published: February 2015

The origin and the development of the Series II tools is one of those problems of Indian prehistoric archaeology which has evaded solution so far. This culture is comprised of scrapers of all sorts—side, hollow, endpoints, borers and burins (very rare) generally made on jasper, agate, chert and sometimes chalcedony also. The position of this culture in relation to other prehistoric cultures remains confused since its stratigraphical position has still to be worked out. And it awaits dating like other lithic industries because one has yet to find out the tools in association with fossils in situ in the horizons which are likely to yield them.

In the following pages, is presented the data, collected from the Narmada and its tributary valleys, which tends to throw light on this culture and an attempt is made to ‘fix’ this culture in the stratigraphy and to date it with the help of fossils, which were found along with it in plenty in this area. These observations were made by the writer when he was conducting the fieldwork in the Hoshangabad-Narsinghpur region of the Narmada river in Central India, in search of Fossil Man, under the auspices of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Govt. of India. This Narmada data, apart from ‘fixing’ it in its proper context, illustrates also its relationship with the Handaxe-cleaver complex on one hand and the Microlithic industry on the other.
The Stone Age of Australia
Authors: Mulvaney D. J.
Published: February 2015

Fieldwork in Australian prehistory began in the opening year of Australia's history; the first excavation was directed by the Colonial Governor. In an official despatch dated 15 May 1788, less than five months after the landing at Sydney Cove, Governor Arthur Phillip recorded the results of his excavation.

‘The ground having been raised in several places, as is common in England, where poor people are buried, I had one of these graves opened, and from the ashes had no doubt but that they burn their dead. From the appearance of the ashes, the body must be laid at length only a few inches below the surface, and is, with the wood ashes made by burning the body, covered lightly over with mould, fern and a few stones.’

Elsewhere, he remarked, that

‘… we frequently saw the figures of men, shields, and fish roughly cut on the rocks ….’

Phillip's early despatches were ‘compiled’ for publication by J. Stockdale. The influence of 18th-century English Antiquarianism is evident in the ‘rude’ remains in Stockdale's revised version, and his comment that ‘Phillip caused some of these barrows to be opened.’

Despite this auspicious excursion into aboriginal prehistory, Australia remains the dark continent of prehistory even after the passage of 170 years: it will be many years before the publication of a Pelican Archaeology of Australia becomes a practicable possibility. This contribution is intended as a preliminary sketch of present problems and a résumé of existing evidence. If it were restricted to a study of archaeological stratigraphy, it would be little more than a brief note; as its scope is broader, limitations of time and space impose a selective approach to the literature.
Some Pleistocene Faunas of the Mediterranean Coastal Areas
Authors: Higgs E. S.
Published: February 2015

The object of this paper is to compare the fauna from sites on the Mediterranean coast having a similar physiography at the present day and which may have responded to climatic change in a similar way during the Pleistocene.

Carbon 14 dating has shown a relatively short time span for the Late Pleistocene, and it is no longer possible to think of the correlation of cave deposits on a geological time scale. A thousand years or less is of some importance. It is possible and indeed probable that faunas and cave sediments may have been at the same point of time quite different in caves on the shore of the Mediterranean from, say, inland caves at 1,000 or 2,000 feet above sea level, such as those of the Judean Desert.
The Origins and Development of the Primary Series in the Collared Urn Tradition in England and Wales
Authors: Longworth I. H.
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the development of the Collared vessel from the Peterborough ceramic tradition and assess the contributions made by other non-Peterborough traditions; to define a series of vessels within the Collared Urn tradition which carry demonstrably early traits of only limited duration; and to suggest the limiting conditions within which this controlled typological analysis may be expected to apply. Since divergence of opinion exists in the literature as to terminology, the terms used in this paper can be briefly summarized.

For the sake of clarity it seems important to distinguish between descriptive terms, defining pottery traditions and functional, defining the uses to which vessels were put. In the past, the vessels which will be discussed below have been described variously as ‘Collared’, ‘Overhanging-rim’ and ‘Crowned’. In the following text the term ‘Collared’ has been retained for the whole tradition, and no distinction has been made between ‘Collared’ and ‘Overhanging-rim’.
Daggers of the Early Iron Age in Britain
Authors: Jope E. M.
Published: February 2015

The daggers of the Early Iron Age in Britain are remarkable technical achievements, among them some of the earliest iron implements to be made in Britain. They deserve detailed study particularly for the light they throw on the prehistory of its earliest phase, the Iron Age ‘A’. The earlier daggers may be classified quite straightforwardly according to their analogies among the continental daggers, six with the Hallstatt-D and eighteen with the La Tène I, thus giving a dating scheme, from the 6th century to the later 4th century B.C. All these come from southern England, and form a compact group mostly from the Thames in its reaches for about 8 miles west of London.
Observations on the Technique of Production of Szeletian Flint Implements
Authors: Vértes L.
Published: February 2015

It is widely accepted by specialists in the Old Stone Age that the Szeletian culture in Hungary developed directly from the local Mousterian. Apart from the chronological evidence, this theory is based on a few bifacially worked Mousterian implements. It is not without interest to investigate this supposed process of evolution also from the point of view of the technique of implement-making. The problem is to decide whether the retouch of the Early Szeletian implements found in the Bükk Mountains in Hungary could have evolved from the Mousterian retouch, which comes down to the question of their mutual relationship considered from the point of view of process of manufacture. We approached this problem along two lines: (1) we conducted laboratory experiments to clear up certain technological problems of stone implement flaking; and (2) we measured the angle between the retouch and the flat bulbar face of the implements from finds of various Palaeolithic cultures in Hungary.

In the course of our experiments we constructed a device that precisely measured the force and the direction of the blow applied in flaking. This proved that a blow striking a tabular flint with parallel faces or a thick glass plate vertically, produces a conic crack with included angle of about 100° to 110°. With flint-like materials, used in the making of Old Stone Age implements, this cone can be considered as more or less constant. Our experiments confirmed Leakey's observation according to which the cone produced when striking the edge of a piece of flint is incomplete, i.e., part of it may be supposed to continue beyond the flake. We set ourselves the task of establishing the relationship between the angle of the fracture of the real cone resulting from the blow administered and the angle of the direction of the blow.
Bronze Age Chariots from Europe
Authors: Anati Emmanuel
Published: February 2015

The Oriental origin of the wheeled vehicle has long been recognized. It seems to have originated in Sumer, in the Uruk period, in the first half of the fourth millennium B.C.

A rich collection of material, including isolated wheels and other remains of wheeled vehicles, models and pictures representing vehicles, show that wagons and carts had spread to Italy, Eastern and Central Europe, and the south Scandinavian countries by the middle of the second millennium B.C. Although the presence of wheeled vehicles has been claimed in Spain as early as the ‘copper age’ the first datable evidence for them is given there by the Solana de Cabanas stele and other west Spanish stelae that probably belong to the end of the second and the first millennium B.C.
Crig-a-mennis: a Bronze Age Barrow at Liskey, Perranzabuloe, Cornwall
Authors: Christie Patricia M.
Published: February 2015

The mound traditionally known as ‘Crig-a-mennis’ was excavated in September and October, 1957 on behalf of the Ministry of Works. Although a scheduled site, it was threatened with destruction owing to the clearing of mine dumps from the field where it was situated.

The site lies just off the main Perranporth-Truro road (fig. 1, map 3) on the south-east slope of Liskey Hill, about one mile south-east of the modern resort of Perranporth in the parish of Perranzabuloe (O.S. National Grid: 757528) and was originally one of a group of barrows in the area, few traces of which now remain.

In the course of four weeks of excavation the mound was stripped and nothing of it now remains. The finds were placed, after restoration by the writer, in the Museum of the Royal Institution of Cornwall in Truro by kind permission of Lord Vyvyan on whose land the barrow stood.

The site revealed a composite bell-barrow surrounded by an irregular causewayed ditch. A central stone-heap covering a fire and an oval pit was overlain by a turf and soil mound, stone reveted on the north and west, with a narrow berm between revetment and ditch. A trench-ramp cut into the natural rock on the east led into the ditch from outside and up towards the central area. Two finely decorated Ribbon-handled Urns were found inverted on the periphery of the turf stack and contemporary with it, one containing charcoal, the other burnt flints, biconical terracotta beads of Wessex type and a small terracotta cone. A miniature cup, five flint flakes and a flint core, and the possible remains of a wooden tool were also found, while a number of pits and charcoal patches suggest an elaborate ritual. Only one main phase of barrow construction was discernible—though this was capable of some sub-division—and the finds date the whole to c. 1400 B.C. or slightly later. Subsequent activity on the site, probably during the Iron Age, is attested by quern fragments, a slate ‘comb’ and an iron object.
Further Excavations at a Mesolithic Site at Oakhanger, Selborne, Hants
Authors: Rankine W. F. , Rankine W. M. , Dimbleby G. W.
Published: February 2015

The author has already published a full account of the investigation of a mesolithic chipping-floor (Warren V) on the Lower Greensand of East Hampshire in the parish of Oakhanger, near Selborne (fig. 1). The present report is concerned with another (Warren VII), discovered early in 1957 only a few yards to the north-west (fig. 2) and excavated later that year and in 1958.

The interest of the new site is partly that it supplements and enlarges certain details of the material equipment recovered from Site V, but mainly in the evidence it has provided on chronology through the application of pollen-analysis and radio-carbon analysis.

To begin with excavation was carried out in transects 3 feet by 1 foot, but when it became apparent that artifacts were occurring at three levels (fig. 3) the size of the transect was increased to 3 feet by 3 feet. The earliest level (Phase I) occurred at a depth of c. 24 inches; Phase II, which corresponded with the lined surface noted by Dr Dimbleby in his pollen enquiry (see p. 256) at c. 8 to 10 inches; and Phase III in the top 3 inches of humus.
Report on the Investigation of a Round Barrow on Arreton Down, Isle of Wight
Authors: Alexander John , P. C.  , Ozanne A.
Published: February 2015

On the open downland, at the crest of the central chalk ridge of the Isle of Wight, and overlooking the village of Arreton, there are to-day two round barrows, the larger, some 9 feet high, known locally as Michael Morey's Hump, and the smaller, nameless and less than half as high, the subject of the present report. The barrow lies 20 feet to the south-west on the bank of the artificial cliff created by the Down End Chalk Quarry (see fig. 1). The barrow, endangered by the quarry, was examined in August and September 1956 on behalf of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, the Ministry of Works. The working party was composed of undergraduates from Cambridge and Durham Universities and volunteers from London and the Isle of Wight. Through the generosity of the landowner, Mr A. Brown, the objects found have been placed in Carisbrooke Castle Museum.
The Excavation of Stone Circles near Penmaenmawr North Wales
Authors: Griffiths W. E.
Published: February 2015

The moorland south of Penmaenmawr in Caernarvonshire, extending from the great outcrop of Penmaenmawr-Graig Lwyd rock, well-known for its group of stone-axe factories, as far south as Foel Lwyd and Tal-y-fan, and averaging 1,200–1,400 feet in height above O.D., bears a rich concentration of prehistoric monuments. The best known of these is probably the stone circle known as the Druids' Circle, but nearby are many other circles and cairns (fig. 1) which will be referred to in this text by the serial numbers used in the Caernarvonshire Inventory of the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales and Monmouthshire. In the present paper an account will be given of the excavation of the Druids' Circle (no. 277) and also of a tiny ring of five large stones (no. 275) to the north-east and of a small embanked circle (no. 278) to the south-west. Apart from other circles (nos. 271a and 279) and cairns (nos. 271b and c, 273 and 274) there is a large mound of stones with an encircling ditch and bank (no. 425), approximating in form to the Wessex bell-barrows. To the south of these, on the summit of Moelfre, is another small cairn (no. 419), and in the featureless moor-land south of Moelfre, known as Bryniau Bugeilydd, is a large cairn cemetery including at least two examples (nos. 418 and 429a) of flat barrows with stone kerbs and central cists, suggesting a Highland Zone version of the Wessex disc-barrow.
Regional Groups in the Michelsberg Culture: A Study in the Middle Neolithic of West Central Europe
Authors: Scollar Irwin
Published: February 2015

In order to discuss the origin of the Michelsberg culture, a question which has been the subject of much debate during the last five years, a closer definition of the culture is first necessary. This paper begins by reviewing the theories as to origins which have been offered during the last half century, a detailed description of the elements making up the various subdivisions of the culture is then attempted, together with some observations on the internal chronology of the material; and in conclusion a return is made to the question of origin.

We owe to Schumacher the first identification of the culture by name, though it was Reinecke's contribution two years later which proposed its attachment to a ‘western’ neolithic family in an article written, as usual, with an insight years ahead of its time. Schumacher had thought that the culture was a late phase of Bandkeramik (Danubian I) influenced by Schnurkeramik (Corded Ware).

Later, Reinecke modified his views somewhat and noted the close connection between the material of the Swiss lake dwelling cultures and the mesolithic of Scandinavia and, in two short papers, laid the basis for the second of the principal theories as to origins. It is interesting that the same man was responsible for two major trends in archaeological thought on the question.
New Petrological Groups based on Axes from the West Midlands: Second Report of the West Midland Group of the Council for British Archaeology, on the Petrological Investigation of Stone Axes
Authors: Shotton F. W.
Published: February 2015

Unavoidable delay in preparing a comprehensive report on the nature and distribution of stone implements in the West Midlands has coincided with rapid progress in the examination of axes in some of the more northern counties. As a result, certain new petrological groups which it has been convenient to establish in the West Midland survey, are becoming increasingly relevant to the other areas under investigation, though no published definition of these groups is available. This paper is intended simply to remedy this omission without attempting to discuss questions of typology and distribution. The numbers assigned to the groups is by arrangement with Dr F. S. Wallis and Professor Grimes so as to prevent duplication with work in other areas.
An Upper Palaeolithic Open-site at Hengistbury Head, Christchurch, Hants
Authors: Mace Angela
Published: February 2015

Traces of Upper Palaeolithic settlement in Britain have up to the present been confined very largely to the limestone caves of the highland zone. Recent work in Holland, north Germany and Denmark during the last twenty or thirty years by Rust, Mathiassen, Schwabedissen, Bohmers and others suggests that indications of open settlement ought to occur in lowland England. Until the present investigations these were confined to surface industries from East Anglia and north Kent and to the recovery in association with remains of three horses of a small shouldered backed blade and of another without retouch from a deposit of Allerød age at Flixton (site 2) in East Yorkshire.
The Chronology of the French Collective Tombs
Authors: Daniel Glyn
Published: February 2015

The surveys of the megalithic tombs of France made by Bertrand (1864; 1875), the Sous-Commission des Monuments mégalithiques, Adrien de Mortillet (1901), and Joseph Déchelette enabled maps to be made which showed the essential features of the distribution in space of the thousands of prehistoric collective tombs in France. Déchelette listed a total of 4457 dolmens and allées couvertes: fresh regional surveys and fieldwork in the fifty years that have elapsed since the publication of the first volume of his Manuel d'archéologie préhistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine in 1908 have increased this figure to between five and a half and six thousand tombs. This quantitative increase, however, has in no way altered the qualitative picture of the distribution in space of the megalithic tombs in France, implicit in Bertrand's original essay, and explicit in the analyses of Déchelette and Adrien de Mortillet.

Bertrand had emphasized that the ‘dolmens’ of France occurred mainly west of a line from Marseilles to Brussels; Adrien de Mortillet's map stressed the main axis of distribution, namely from Brittany to the Gulf of Lions, and the very large numbers of megalithic tombs that exist in the six departments of the Ardèche, Lozère, Aveyron, Gard, Hérault and Lot.
Blade and Trapeze Industries of the European Stone Age
Authors: Clark J. G. D.
Published: February 2015

It is the purpose of this article to analyze and discuss the flint industries characterized by the production of trapezes from blades that as a rule were broad and regular, industries which appeared in many parts of the continent during the closing phase of the local mesolithic. After a word on classification (fig. 1) the evidence for the occurrence of these industries will be summarized on a geographical basis (fig. 2). Finally, some discussion will be offered as to their significance, above all in relation to the spread of neolithic culture.
Belgic Coins as Illustrations of Life in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age of Britain
Authors: Allen Derek
Published: February 2015

Before the end of the 1st century B.C. the Celtic coinages in south-east Britain had begun to employ representational types in place of or in addition to traditional and barely intelligible patterns. By the time the coins ceased nearly a century later, a great many of these representational types had been issued. The purpose of this paper is to try to show from enlarged reproductions to what extent these coins provide a visual illustration of life and customs in this country immediately before the Roman Conquest.

In a period of intense archaeological effort, such as the present, it is odd that this has not already been attempted. The reason lies partly in the intractability of coin material, but perhaps more in the fear of reading false meanings into coin types with such an obvious debt to Greece and Rome. This caution is reasonable, but can be carried too far. There are remarkably few British coins which are unchanged copies of Roman originals. The Celtic engravers rapidly and to a surprising degree absorbed the ideas and art forms of the classical world, but used them more often than not to depict Celtic or partly Celtic themes. Opinions may vary on where the dividing line comes, but it may be said with confidence that in a great majority of these coins, side by side with strong Greco-Roman influences, there remains an element of representation which is indubitably Celtic. Our task is to identify it.
The Natural Fracture of Pebbles from the Batoka Gorge, Northern Rhodesia, and its bearing on the Kafuan Industries of Africa
Authors: Clark J. Desmond
Published: February 2015

At the Third Pan-African Congress on Prehistory, held in Livingstone in 1955, there was a symposium on the early Pebble Cultures of Africa. It became apparent from the discussion that followed that there was considerable divergence of opinion among prehistorians as to the criteria that distinguished artificial from natural fracture. Specimens that were acceptable as artifacts to some were not acceptable to others and it became clear that considerably more research was necessary into the way in which nature can fracture stone by percussion and in particular into the natural fracture of pebbles. It is especially important to know whether nature can simulate Kafuan- and Oldowan-type pebble tools. This is because the great majority of Kafuan tools from the type areas are abraded, often considerably, although Lowe mentions that Kafuan tools occur unrolled in the 175-foot terrace in the Kafu river as also in the 270-foot terrace in the Kagera Valley.
Armorican Coin Hoards in the Channel Islands
Authors: de Beaulieu J.-B. Colbert
Published: February 2015

‘He lifted a large boulder and discovered five hundred Armorican coins. For countless years a large boulder had lain undisturbed in the corner of a field belonging to Miss Amy. … Time and again it had been scraped and chipped by ploughs, but nobody had ever thought of moving it. But on Tuesday morning it fouled the plough once too often and seventeen-year old Peter Langlois decided that it was time to remove it’. This passage, quoted from the Evening Post of 25th January last, records one of the most important discoveries ever made in the island; it was made on 22nd January 1957, at Le Catillon de Haut, in the parish of Grouville.

Jersey has the distinction of being the home of a very active learned society with a Museum that forms a true centre of archaeological research; it is well known to its citizens and has a reputation reaching far beyond its borders. My friends Father Burdo, Major Rybot, the learned numismatist, and Mr Emile Guiton, the Curator, were so kind as to invite me to examine this latest discovery, of which I made a preliminary inventory in February. Its interest is very great.… But before proceeding to an examination of the hoard I should like to place it in its proper perspective and to give a short summary of earlier discoveries, in so far as these are known. Mrs Jacquetta Hawkes has already listed these finds in her Archaeology of the Channel Islands. Here I shall confine myself to the numismatic details that characterize them.
Neolithic and Bronze Age Pottery from Risby Warren and other Occupation Sites in North Lincolnshire
Authors: Riley D. N.
Published: February 2015

Large areas of blown sand are among the characteristic natural features of North-west Lincolnshire, and for many years it has been known that these sandy warrens were prolific in remains of early occupation, particularly flint implements, which begin with a rich Mesolithic series. At certain sites, among which Risby Warren is pre-eminent, wind erosion of the surface has also revealed the Neolithic and Bronze Age pottery which is the subject of the present paper.