bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Genes, Fossils, and Culture. An Overview of the Evidence for Neandertal–Modern Human Interaction and Admixture
Authors: Zilhão João
Published: February 2015

This paper re-examines current arguments concerning the evidence for Neandertal-modern human interaction and admixture. While most researchers now agree that the ancestry of all present day humans can be traced back to African late Middle Pleistocene populations, at a time when the remainder of Eurasia was inhabited by ‘archaic humans’, most notably the Neandertals, issues that remain to be resolved are the tempo and mode of early modern human dispersal and interaction with archaic humans.

This paper focuses on what happened at the time of contact in Europe, and assesses the level of admixture that may have occurred, as well as the extent to which such level may have varied in both time and space. It explains how the available mtDNA evidence does not preclude admixture at the time of contact, and is in fact consistent, depending on a number of parameters, with a possibly substantial Neandertal contribution to the initial modern human population of Europe. It is argued that the absence of Neandertal mtDNA lineages among present Europeans is likely, on dating evidence, to be simply a particular case of generalised loss of Pleistocene mtDNA lineages. Although the full range of interaction types (mutual avoidance, hostile confrontation, full integration) is conceivable, there is plenty of archaeological evidence to suggest that admixture must have been the general rule, and that the paleontological evidence for the generalised presence of archaic traits among Europe's earliest moderns implies the transmission of genes, and indicates that mixed groups should have been reproductively viable. In this context, it would seem that the most parsimonious explanation for the disappearance of the Neandertal mtDNA lineage is genetic swamping.
New AMS Dates for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Camp Sites and Single Finds in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (Germany)
Authors: M.Grünberg Judith
Published: February 2015

A summary is given of 23 direct AMS radiocarbon dates for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic camp sites and single finds in Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia (Germany). These new radiocarbon dates not only complement earlier results on the Upper Palaeolithic settlement in Central Germany, but they also provide new data for Palaeolithic and Mesolithic hunting and fishing gear in northern Europe. In addition, the age of the first Mesolithic cremation burial in Germany has now been confirmed and that of a child's lower jaw from the llsenhohle at Ranis had to be corrected.
On the Origins and Development of Cursus Monuments in Britain
Authors: Thomas Julian
Published: February 2015

The problem of dating cursus monuments has troubled British archaeology for some decades. A series of recent radiocarbon determinations from sites in lowland Scotland suggests that cursus monuments defined by posts and pits are generally earlier than the more familiar bank and ditch structures, and may have been constructed very early within the British Neolithic sequence. The implications of such a sequence are discussed in relation to the affinities of these structures, and landscape change between 4000 and 3600 calBC.
Excavations at the Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, UK
Authors: Ashton Nick , Lewis Simon , Parfitt Simon , Candy Ian , Keen David , Kemp Rob , Penkman Kirsty , Thomas Gill , Whittaker John , White Mark
Published: February 2015

The Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, was the subject of new excavations from 1995–1999. Excavations around the edge and in the centre of the former clay-pit revealed sediments infilling a lake basin that had formed in Lowestoft till, overlying Chalk, the till being attributed to the Anglian glaciation (MIS 12). The lake sediments contain pollen that can be assigned to pollen zones HoI and HoIIa of the early Hoxnian (MIS 11). Overlying grey clays contain ostracods, molluscs, vertebrates, and carbonate concretions. Together they are indicative of a fluvial environment in a temperate climate. AAR ratios (amino acid racemisation) on the molluscs also suggest correlation with MIS 11. Further indications of a fluvial context are indicated by thin spreads of lag gravel along opposite sides of the clay-pit, marking the edges of a channel. The gravel forms the raw material for the human industries which consist of handaxes, flake tools, flakes, and cores. Further artefacts are found in the overlying black clay, which is interpreted as a palaeosol that formed with the silting-up of the channel. The basin was further infilled with colluvial ‘brickearths’, which also contain artefacts that are probably derived from the underlying gravel. Further evidence of soil formation was identified in the ‘brickearth’. Coversands with periglacial involutions overlie the ‘brickearth’ at the top of the sequence. These probably formed in the last cold stage, the Devensian (MIS 5d-2).
Beaker Settlement and Environment on the Chalk Downs of Southern England
Authors: Allen Michael J.
Published: February 2015

This paper is dedicated to John Evans, environmental archaeologist extraordinaire, who died 14 June 2005, while this paper was in press. He continually reminded us that environmental data should address questions of people and landscape and be relevant to the understanding of Prehistory by our archaeological colleagues.

The Beaker period in north-west Europe is abound with objects, burials, and monuments, but evidence of settlement and domestic life is often absent or less easily found, and England is no exception. Despite the thousands of barrows with rich artefacts assemblages (eg, Amesbury Archer) and the numerous pits with non-domestic assemblages of placed items, evidence for houses and settlement are sparse despite the indication of increased agriculture and sedentism. This paper explores this problem on the chalklands of southern England that are rich in Beaker finds, and which are generally recognised as one of the best studied and well understood landscapes in Europe. From this study it is suggested that Beaker domestic sites are present, but are often in low lying positions on the chalk downs and have subsequently been buried by variable depths of hillwash, making them invisible to normal archaeological survey and reconnaissance.
Landscape, Memory and Material Culture: Interpreting Diversity in the Iron Age
Authors: Loney Helen L. , Hoaen Andrew W.
Published: February 2015

Landscape studies offer the archaeologist a way to move towards the holistic integration of disparate aspects of research, such as excavation, survey, and specialist analysis. Because landscape perception is socially constructed, like other forms of material culture, it is possible to approach social behaviour in a way which previously was only argued for portable artefacts. Memory studies have allowed historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists to link observable human behaviour with long-term human thought. Memory is also being used as a way of linking the otherwise invisible mind with the material by-products of society, such as monumental architecture. This paper will investigate how two contemporaneous settlements of Late Iron Age peoples, situated on the northern shores of Lake Ullswater, in the Lake District, Cumbria, manipulated their material landscapes as part of the process of transmitting cultural memories. Further, this information will be used in order to find a way of approaching the similarities of their cultural practices with each other and with the wider Iron Age community of Britain.
Petroglyphs of Kahikinui, Maui, Hawaiian Islands: Rock Images within a Polynesian Settlement Landscape
Authors: Millerstrom S. , Kirch P. V.
Published: February 2015

We report on the recording and analysis of 17 petroglyph or pictograph sites, containing a total of 168 glyphic units, carried out as part of a large scale survey of the ancient district (moku) of Kahikinui, on south-eastern Maui Island, Hawaiian Islands. In contrast with previous studies which have tended to view Hawaiian petroglyphs as divorced from their larger archaeological context, we analyse and interpret this corpus in terms of a landscape-level settlement analysis. The Kahikinui petroglyphs exhibit a regular and limited range of motifs, with certain styles of anthropomorphs and zoomorphs (especially dogs) dominating; petroglyphs dating to the early post-European contact period are characterised by Roman lettering reflecting early missionary efforts at literacy. Petroglyphs are strongly associated either with an early historic-period trail, or with rockshelters and cliff faces where there is evidence for freshwater springs or seeps. In the arid environment of Kahikinui, freshwater was a precious resource, and the petroglyphs may have served as territorial markers, or signs of individual ownership or rights of access. Excavations at three rockshelter sites with petroglyphs provide indirect evidence for dating these petroglyphs to the late prehistoric era (16th to 18th centuries AD). Comparisons with petroglyph sites on other islands in the Hawaiian archipelago indicate the existence of distinct regional variations.
Reading Early Agriculture at Kuk Swamp, Wahgi Valley, Papua New Guinea: the Archaeological Features (Phases 1–3)
Authors: Denham T. P. , Golson J. , Hughes P. J.
Published: February 2015

Multi-disciplinary field investigations were undertaken in 1972–7 and 1998–9 at Kuk Swamp in the upper Wahgi Valley in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. Multi-period finds dating from the early Holocene to the recent past and interpreted to represent human manipulation of a wetland margin for plant exploitation were documented. The archaeological remains dating from the early to mid-Holocene have partially grounded contested claims for the emergence of early and independent agricultural practices on the island of New Guinea. In this paper, the early to mid- Holocene archaeological remains at the site (ie, those allocated to Phases 1, 2, and 3) are reported in detail. The authors of this paper all agree that plant exploitation began at Kuk at c. 10,000 cal BP, however they hold different interpretations of the archaeological evidence from the swamp, which have in turn led to diverse claims for the antiquity of agriculture in New Guinea by at least c. 10,000 cal BP (Golson and Hughes), or by at least 6950–6440 cal BP (Denham). Divergent readings of the archaeological remains are presented at length in order to clarify the evidential bases for the varying claims and to promote future discussion.
Beyond Star Carr: The Vale of Pickering in the 10th Millennium BP
Authors: Conneller Chantal , Schadla-Hall Tim
Published: February 2015

For the last 50 years the site of Star Carr has retained a role of considerable importance within Mesolithic studies. Recent archaeological and palaeoenvironmental survey of the Vale of Pickering (Schadla-Hall 1987; 1988; 1989; Lane & Schadla-Hall forthcoming) permits an understanding of the regional context of Star Carr and indicates the site itself now needs to be re-evaluated. This paper will focus on the lithic evidence recovered during the recent excavations and field survey in order to explore the nature of peoples' engagement with the landscape of the Vale of Pickering during the Early Mesolithic.
Archaeological and Palaeo-environmental Investigations of the Upper Allen Valley, Cranborne Chase, Dorset (1998–2000): a New Model of Earlier Holocene Landscape Development
Authors: French Charles , Lewis Helen , Allen Michael J. , Scaife Robert G. , Green Martin , Gardiner Julie , Gdaniec Kasia
Published: February 2015

A combination of on- and off-site palaeo-environmental and archaeological investigations of the upper Allen valley of Dorset conducted in 1998–2000 has begun to reveal a different model of landscape development than those previously put forward. A combination of off-site geoarchaeological and aerial photographic survey and palynological analyses of two relict palaeochannel systems, and sample investigations of four Bronze Age round barrows and a Neolithic enclosure, have been combined with inter-regional summaries of the archaeological and molluscan records to re-examine the prehistoric landscape dynamics in the study area. Preliminary results suggest that woodland development in the earlier Holocene appears to have been more patchy than the presumed model of full climax deciduous woodland. With open areas still present in the Mesolithic, the area witnessed its first exploitation of the chalk downs, thus slowing and altering soil development of the downlands. Consequently, many areas perhaps never developed thick, well structured, clay-enriched soils (or argillic brown earths), but rather thin brown earths. By the later Neolithic these under-developed soils had become thin rendzinas, largely as a consequence of human exploitation. The presence of thinner and less well-developed soils over large areas of downland removes the necessity for envisaging extensive soil erosion and thick aggraded deposits in the valley bottom in later prehistory. The investigations have suggested that, if there were major changes in vegetation and soil complexes, these had already occurred by the Neolithic rather than in the Bronze Age as suggested by previous researchers, and the area has remained relatively stable since.
Making the Most of it: Late Prehistoric Pastoralism in the Avon Levels, Severn Estuary
Authors: Gardiner Julie , Allen Michael J. , Hamilton-Dyer Sheila , Laidlaw Moira , Scaife Robert G.
Published: February 2015

A combination of archaeological and palaeo-environmental field work in the Avon Levels, western England, has enabled a much better understanding to be reached of the complex Holocene sedimentation in this part of the Severn Estuary, and of the close relationship between the upper part of that sequence and opportunities for exploitation of this wetland region during the later prehistoric and Romano-British periods. This paper explores that relationship, focusing in particular on two Iron Age to Romano-British sites. Both sites, at Hallen and Northwick, appear to have been short-lived and only seasonally occupied in order to exploit rich grazing but this occupation took place at different times and within rather different patterns of land-use. The paper concludes with an outline model for the human use of the Avon Levels from the Neolithic to Romano-British periods.
Between Mountains and Sea: a Reconsideration of the Neolithic Monuments of South-west Scotland
Authors: Cummings Vicki
Published: February 2015

For many years the chambered tombs of south-west Scotland were considered important in understanding the origins of monumentality in Britain. In particular scholars focused on the classification of these monuments in order to understand how ideas about the Neolithic may have spread along and across the Irish Sea. However, the classification of these monuments may be rather more problematic than was once imagined. Among other things, the excavation of a number of them has revealed complex and diverse construction sequences. This paper presents the results of an examination of the landscape settings of the chambered tombs in south-west Scotland. It suggests that a landscape approach can assist in our understanding of the classification and use of these monuments. In addition, the setting of sites within the landscape can also inform us about the nature of the Neolithic in this region of Scotland.
The Social Origins of Cooking and Dining in Early Villages of Western Asia
Authors: Wright Katherine I.
Published: February 2015

This paper explores social customs of cooking and dining as farming emerged in the earliest villages of Palestine and Jordan (12,650–6850 cal BC). The approach is a spatial analysis of in situ hearths, pits, bins, benches, platforms, activity areas, caches, and ground stone artefacts. Mortars, pestles, and bowls first appear in significant numbers in base camps of semi-sedentary Natufian hunter-gatherers. Elaborate and decorated, these artefacts imply a newly formal social etiquette of food-sharing. They were used within houses, near hearths, and in outdoor areas. The earliest farmers of the Khiamian and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A used simple, mostly undecorated, ground stone tools. One-room houses were often fitted with a hearth and a small mortar in the centre, features that also occur in outdoor areas. In the Early and Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, firepits, milling stations, and storage features were placed on porches and outdoor areas near house doors. These areas formed a transition zone between house and community, where food preparation provided opportunities for social contacts. The most private rooms in houses were supplied with benches, platforms, and decorated hearths, and probably sheltered household meals. In the Late PPNB, when some villages grew to unprecedented sizes, storage, and cooking facilities were placed in constricted, private spaces comparatively hidden from community view. Numerous milling tools and multiple milling stations in individual houses suggest intensification of production of prepared foods. It is argued that adult women bore the brunt of the increased labour and that these activities placed them under new restrictions of daily activity and visibility in relation to village communities.
The Excavation of a Neolithic Cairn at Street House, Loftus, Cleveland.
Authors: Vyner B. E.
Published: February 2015

In 1979 Cleveland County Archaeology Section completed fieldwork for a survey of Bronze Age burial mounds in the county. The survey isolated a number of themes for further investigation, including the examination of several of the few remaining barrows near the coast, all of which are threatened with destruction from continued ploughing. One of these mounds was a shallow earthwork surviving in a hedgebank at Street House Farm, Loftus. Excavation in the autumn of 1979 and in the summers of 1980 and 1981 revealed a multiphase neolithic cairn which incorporated a burnt timber façade and mortuary structure. The cairn had been badly damaged by ploughing, but the evidence for the construction and use of the monument survived to a considerable extent. The neolithic monument had been overlain by a Bronze Age round barrow, of which only a part had survived.
The Shaugh Moor Project: Fourth Report — Environment, Context and Conclusion
Authors: Balaam N. D. , Smith K. , Wainwright G.J. , Fordham S. , Girling M. , Keeley H. C. M. , Macphail R. , Morgan R. , Mould Q. , Orme B. , Otlet R. , Porter H. , Tomalin D. , Walker A.J.
Published: February 2015

For five years from 1976 to 1980 the archaeology and environment of a block of landscape centred around Shaugh Moor on south-west Dartmoor were analysed prior to the destruction of some of the evidence by china clay working. The investigations began in 1976 with a survey of the field monuments and the initiation of soil, vegetation, small mammal and phosphate studies in addition to the search for peat deposits of sufficient antiquity. From 1977 the programme was determined by the encroachment of the quarries and other works, so that early in that year a group of cairns were excavated (site 10) and subsequently the first of two seasons work on a walled enclosure (site 15) was initiated. The excavation of the enclosure was completed in 1978 and in that year it was also necessary to undertake a small investigation near the northern edge of the project area on the Trowlesworthy cross-dyke (site 202) and near its southern edge on Wotter Playground (site 201). Settlements and field systems were surveyed and excavated on Wotter Common in 1979 and these investigations were completed in 1980 when the Saddlesborough Reave, which crosses the centre of the project area from east to west was also surveyed in detail and sampled by excavation.

More field work could have been undertaken on threatened areas and indeed a limited operation was undertaken in 1981 on the Saddlesborough Reave to confirm some points of detail. Instead, it was thought best to conclude the project after five years, to complete the publication of the results and to allow mature consideration of these so as to generate a new set of questions.

At an early stage the decision was taken to publish the work as a series of annual reports in theseProceedingsrather than as a single monograph. The first report (Wainwrightet al.1979) set out the simple research design for the project and contained accounts of the 1976 survey and of the excavation of the cairn group.
Smelting Copper Ore from Rudna Glava, Yugoslavia
Authors: Tylecote R. F. , Craddock P. T.
Published: February 2015

Jovanovič has recently drawn attention to the early copper mine at Rudna Glava in the copper mining area of Maidanpek-Bor in Eastern Serbia (Jovanovič 1979, 103). This copper deposit has iron associated with it. In some respects this occurrence of iron and copper together compares with the deposit at Phalabora in South Africa where copper and other minerals are mined today. Rudna Glava has been a copper mine in the Chalcolithic period and an iron mine in the Turkish period. Today it is worked out, but the working of the iron ore has left exposed some of the shafts and galleries used by Chalcolithic and Bronze Age copper miners. It has been possible to obtain a sample of the copper ores used in the early periods and integrate them into a smelting programme (Tylecote et al. 1977, 305), the main purpose of which has been to determine the partitioning of the three elements between the ore, the slag and the metal. The object of this exercise was to try and relate the artefacts, the slag, and metal to the ore source. So far, ores from the British Isles, Spain, and Africa have been examined and reported (Tylecote 1977). The sample from Yugoslavia came rather too late for the first report but the work is continuing.

The smelting work described in this report was carried out by Ali Ghaznavi and the analyses were kindly made by R. Hetherington formerly of Newcastle University and Dr P. T. Craddock of the British Museum Research Laboratory. I have to thank Dr B. Jovanovič of the Archaeological Institute, Belgrade, for supplying the material and inspiring the work.
A Model of Regional Archaeological Structure
Authors: Foley Robert
Published: February 2015

The recognition by archaeologists over the last fifteen years or so that even a discipline as down to earth as prehistory requires a theoretical basis has led to a diversity of research objectives. Essentially this has been a move away from the delineation of chronology and culture narrative towards an understanding of the behaviour of prehistoric man, requiring the development of theories relating to his ecological adaptation, his social organization, and his cognitive behaviour. The reassessment of archaeology has largely been at an explanatory or interpretative level. To some extent this has of course been paralleled by the increasingly sophisticated scientific and analytical techniques that are now available to aid in the interpretation of archaeological data. However, whilst archaeologists are more rigorous than ever before, and have developed a whole range of concepts for tackling the problems of prehistory, the actual data base employed by archaeologists has remained remarkably static. Field theory and methodology is essentially that of the earliest archaeologists. As Clarke (1973, 10) has commented, ‘harnessing powerful new methodological horses to rickety old conceptual carts has proved to be a powerful but drastic way of improving archaeological constructs by elimination’. Equally, though, the gleaming, streamlined conceptual chariots of the 1980s will go no further nor faster unless some attempt is made to update the roads over which they are expected to travel. What is necessary is a reassessment of what archaeological field data represent, i.e. how is the archaeological record formed?
Foreign Elements in Etruscan Arms and Armour: 8th to 3rd centuries B.C.
Authors: Stary P. F.
Published: February 2015

In January 1974 I started my doctoral thesis supervised by Prof. O.-H. Frey (Marburg an der Lahn) at the University of Hamburg, on the subject: ‘Arms, armour and warfare in Central Italy during the Iron Age, ninth to sixth century B.C.’. During the work on this subject, it soon became evident that a detailed treatment would not be possible if the work were restricted to the geographical region of Italy. Many questions and problems appeared, the answers to which could not be found in Italy only, but in other geographical areas, surrounding more or less the whole Mediterranean and the foothills of the Alps. These connections and influences in Etruria determined to a great extent the historical development of the Central Italian military systems. Of course these military influences came at different times and from different sources, with Etruria taking a key position because of its extraordinarily favourable geographical, topographical and other natural conditions. Therefore Etruria had a special importance in the taking up and passing on of foreign elements of warfare from the Iron Age onwards, which influenced and even determined the military history of this region during the whole first millennium B.C. On the other hand the new military technology, which mostly reached Etruria first, was passed on after a delay from Etruria to Latium in the south and to Umbria in the east, then to the Adriatic Coast and to northern Italy and finally in a modified and selected form also beyond the Alps, to the under-developed peoples of Central Europe.
The Plain of Western Macedonia and the Neolithic Site of Nea Nikomedeia
Authors: Bintliff John
Published: February 2015

The Plain of Macedon, North Greece, has seen remarkable changes in its physical geography during the Holocene. The significance of these changes for prehistoric and historic settlement is evaluated, with particular reference to the Neolithic site of Nea Nikomedeia. This reinterpretation contrasts dramatically with previous studies of the Plain's development and with the prehistoric environment postulated by the excavators of Nikomedeia.
The Excavation of Tell Abu Hureyra in Syria: A preliminary report
Authors: Moore A. M. T. , Hillman G. C. , Legge A. J.
Published: February 2015

In the last decade the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic has undertaken a number of projects to develop the economy of the country. The most important of these has been the construction of a dam on the Euphrates at Tabqa (fig. 1), 40 km upstream from Raqqa. This project will bring great economic benefits to Syria but, as the valley behind the dam fills with water, many ancient sites will be drowned. Because very little was known about the archaeology of this stretch of the Euphrates the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums in Syria organised an international programme of surveys and excavations to recover as much information as possible about past human settlement in the valley before the dam was completed. This programme has yielded excellent results; important sites in almost every period from the prehistoric to the Islamic have been discovered and excavated. The work has been carried out by the Syrian authorities themselves and fifteen other teams. We were asked to excavate a prehistoric site as our contribution to the programme and so in 1971 we made a brief survey of the valley to look for a site.

Pioneer surveys and excavations by de Contenson and others had established an outline of the later prehistory of Syria. Neolithic settlements (fig. 2) had been excavated at Ras Shamra (Schaeffer 1962, 153 ff.) and Tabbat el-Hammam (Braidwood 1940, 196 ff.) on the coast, Tell Ramad (de Contenson 1971, 279 ff.) and other smaller sites near Damascus, and Buqras (de Contenson and van Liere 1966, 182 ff.) in the Euphrates valley. From these excavations the later Neolithic of the sixth millennium bc and after was relatively well-known. This was the period when ‘dark-faced burnished ware’, the earliest pottery found in Syria, was first made. The archaeological sequence could be taken further back as seventh millennium aceramic Neolithic levels had been found at Ras Shamra, Ramad and Buqras. Then there was a gap in the sequence, representing the earlier seventh and the later eighth millennia bc. Only one earlier site was known; this was Mureybat which had been discovered when the first surveys of the Tabqa dam area were made (Rihaoui 1965, 106; van Loon 1967, 15). The first campaign of excavations here, directed by van Loon, had revealed tantalising remains of a settlement dating from 8000 bc (van Loon 1968, Table 1), the very beginning of the Neolithic in Syria.
The Ipswich Torcs
Authors: Brailsford John , Stapley J. E.
Published: February 2015

The hoard of gold torcs from Ipswich comprises five found in 1968, to which must be added a sixth found on 18 October 1970. The five found in 1968 were in immediate association with each other and are here numbered 1 to 5. The 1970 find, my number 6, may be accepted as from the same hoard but separated from the others during the course of earth-moving in the area concerned.

All the torcs are outstanding examples of early Celtic craftsmanship, and the group is of exceptional technical interest and great sociological and economic significance.
A Re-Examination of the Evidence for Agricultural Origins in the Nile Valley
Authors: Clark J. Desmond
Published: February 2015

Current belief ascribes the origins of agriculture in the Nile to diffusion in the fifth millennium B.C. from southwest Asia of plants and animals the domestication of which had first begun there in the eighth millennium or earlier. A growing body of evidence is now becoming available which shows the cultural pattern in the Nile Valley at the termination of the Pleistocene to have been appreciably more complex than was previously thought and necessitates a re-examination of the evidence on which the belief for the late appearance of domestication in Egypt is based. This pre-agricultural complexity, when examined in the light of the abundant historical and ethnographic evidence for distinctive man/animal, if not also man/plant relationships in north and northeast Africa, suggests that a process of pre-adaption using the local animal and plant resources is most likely to have preceded the introduction of the Asian domesticates. Many of the indigenous practices relating to local animals and plants persisted as late as Middle Kingdom times (2052–1786 B.C.). The appearance of the Asian food plants and animals in the fifth millennium may reflect, therefore, not the beginnings of domestication in Egypt, but the replacement of genetically less suitable local species by more satisfactory, exotic forms, a situation made possible by the beginnings of regular communication between the Nile and the Levant from that time onwards.
The Analysis of Certain Major Classes of Upper Palaeolithic Tools: Aurignacian Scrapers
Authors: Movius Hallam L. , Brooks Alison S.
Published: February 2015

The attributes to be defined in this paper have been designed to characterize the main areas of variation of those scrapers which have been termed ‘Aurignacian’ (de Sonneville-Bordes, 1960, 29), owing to their numerical pre-eminence in Aurignacian assemblages. These attributes were worked out primarily on the Aurignacian assemblages (Levels 6–14) from the Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies (Dordogne), although to test the general applicability of the method, samples from the Grand Abri de la Ferrassie and from the Abri Castanet (Musée des Eyzies) were also considered.

As a group, Aurignacian scrapers may be distinguished from end-of-blade scrapers in that the majority of Aurignacian scrapers are manufactured on blanks produced by a non-blade technology. The term ‘Aurignacian scraper’ includes: (1) carinate scrapers (fig. 1), (2) nose-ended scrapers, (3) some shouldered scrapers (see p. 260) and (4) miscellaneous steep scrapers on flakes (fig. 2).
The Chronology of Mousterian Industries in the Périgord Region of South-West France
Authors: Mellars P. A.
Published: February 2015

Evidence relating to the ‘Mousterian’ period in the Périgord and adjacent areas of south-west France has increased strikingly—both in quantity and quality—during the past two decades (note 1, p. 166). New sites have been excavated (and old sites re-excavated) with the aid of much more refined techniques for separating the different strata and recording the finds than those employed hitherto; faunal remains have been subjected to closer and more systematic examination (Bouchud, 1966; Bordes and Prat, 1965); and the application of detailed palynological and sedimentological analyses has provided a relatively clear and firmly-established picture of the climatic and ecological conditions under which the Mousterian communities lived (Bordes et al., 1966; Bonifay, 1964; Laville, 1964a, etc.).

Perhaps the most impressive advances, however, have been made in studies of the Mousterian industries themselves. Extensive application of the quantitative techniques of analyses devised by Professor F. Bordes and M. Bourgon (1951b) has permitted for the first time an objective appraisal of the full range of typological and technical variability which the Mousterian assemblages of this region embrace. On the basis of these analyses it has been possible to divide the industries into a number of relatively well-defined taxonomic groups (Bordes, 1953, 1957b, 1961a, 1968, 98–105 etc.). Although based initially on a very small body of data (Bordes and Bourgon, 1951b; Bordes, 1953), subsequent analysis of a much larger number of industries has provided strong support for at least the major features of this taxonomic scheme (Mellars, 1967, 97–145).
Blade and Burin Industries near Renigunta on the South-East Coast of India
Authors: Murty M. L. K.
Published: February 2015

During the first quarter of this century, not much was known about the Indian Stone Ages and only two phases, Palaeolithic and Neolithic (including microliths), were recognized. Some of the earlier discoveries recorded by Robert Bruce Foote, Coggin Brown, Cammiade, Miles Burkitt, De Terra, Paterson and others gave an impetus for the later researchers and the Stone Age cultural sequence began to take a clear shape. The most significant among the later discoveries is the identification of a distinct culture by H. D. Sankalia, which is now designated as the Middle Stone Age, and the extent of its distribution is now well established. Prehistorians who launched a systematic survey unearthed the remnants of the stone using populations from different parts of the country, viz., the Panjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Mysore, Andhra Pradesh and Madras recognizing three phases, The Early Stone Age, the Middle Stone Age and the Late Stone Age, occupying the time span of Pleistocene and Early Holocene times.

The material culture that represents the Stone Age Communities in various parts of the country displays a homogeneous pattern of development. The Early Stone Age is followed by the Middle Stone Age which in most of the regions gave way to the Late Stone Age; however, a blade and burin industry with a discontinuous horizontal distribution is known in a few regions between the Middle and Late Stone Ages.
Further Analysis of Near Eastern Obsidians
Authors: Renfrew Colin , Dixon J. E. , Cann J. R.
Published: February 2015

The very early development and extent of the obsidian trade in the Near East is being increasingly documented by the discovery and excavation of Early Neolithic sites throughout the area. Since the publication of our last paper (Renfrew, Cann and Dixon, 1966), obsidians from five aceramic Neolithic sites have been analysed, and the natural source of the material determined in each case. All the results fall into the framework of groups already established. In addition, one new obsidian source has been discovered.

This confirmation of the characterizations hitherto achieved is satisfactory, but perhaps more important is the new evidence for the reconstruction of the pattern of the trade or traffic in obsidian in Early Neolithic times. Regularities in this pattern are becoming apparent, which allow a greater insight into the trading mechanisms involved.

In this paper, written by Colin Renfrew on the basis of analyses and group divisions by J. E. Dixon and J. R. Cann, new information concerning the Anatolian sources is first considered, and new results for the Early Neolithic and later obsidians discussed. In the last section, an attempt is made at the more precise definition of the obsidian trading pattern in the 7th and 6th millennia B.C. on the basis of a more detailed analysis of the prehistoric trade statistics.
A Mycenaean IIIB Dagger from the Palaeolithic Site of Kastritsa in Epirus, Greece
Authors: Dakaris S. I.
Published: February 2015

When a team of the Archaeological and Anthropological Department of the Cambridge University, working under Mr. Eric Higgs, recently discovered a Mycenaean dagger at the foot of the Kastritsa Mountain (altitude 757 metres), a few metres west of the mouth of the paleolithic cave, it came as no great surprise: for, in the last 15 years, about 10 bronze swords and daggers of Mycenaean provenance have been found in Epirus.

On the other hand, the discovery of the paleolithic cave itself at the western foot of the Kastritsa Mountain, and the finds yielded by its excavation, were as unexpected as they were important. It is hoped that continued excavations of the cave with its deep deposits and clear stratification will throw light on some of the problems connected with Homo Sapiens: his origins, the time of his appearance in Europe, his relation to other groups in Epirus and outside it, the civilization he evolved, and the ecological conditions in which he lived in the last phase of the last Ice Age (Würm III).

A fresh and more extensive excavation of the prehistoric settlement north of the village of Kastritsa, at the eastern foot of the mountain, would not be devoid of interest either, for it would complete the cycle of prehistoric research and probably throw light on the mesolithic occupation of which little is yet known in Greece.
The Battle-Axe Series in Britain
Authors: Roe F. E. S.
Published: February 2015

The literature of the past seventy years relating to battle-axes and axehammers is limited, and relates mainly to the separate publication of individual finds. Sir John Evans, in his classic work, Ancient Stone Implements listed eighty-seven battle-axes from England, Scotland and Wales. R. A. Smith, in 1925, carried out a more detailed survey with emphasis on the associated finds, but drew conclusions about evolution and dating which are untenable according to present archaeological thinking. In 1960, Ashbee briefly delineated five types, making a distinction between ‘axe-hammers’, his Woodhenge and Parcelly Hay groups, and ‘battle-axes’, comprising more evolved implements with connections with the Wessex Culture. In this present survey it is hoped to make good the neglect this subject has suffered, by presenting a corpus of finds which is as complete as possible, together with some considerations on typology, associations, petrology—where details are available—distribution, origins and dating.
Wooden Implements from Late Stone Age Sites at Gwisho Hot-springs, Lochinvar, Zambia
Authors: Fagan Brian M. , van Noten Francis L. , Vynckier J. R.
Published: February 2015

Discoveries of organic remains are rare on Late Stone Age sites in southern Africa. However, it is known from numerous historical records that in the case of the Wilton people the perishable elements of the material culture were in many cases the most important aspects of the tool-kit of Late Stone Age man.

The prehistoric settlements at Gwisho hot-springs, Lochinvar, Zambia, assume particular importance, for excellent circumstances of preservation have enabled us to make an exceptionally complete reconstruction of Late Stone Age economy and material culture in a savannah woodland and riverside environment. The object of this paper, in advance of a comprehensive study, is to describe some of the wooden implements found at the sites during recent excavations.
Archaeological and Geomorphological Investigations on Mt. Moffatt Station, Queensland, Australia
Authors: Mulvaney D. J. , Joyce E. B.
Published: February 2015

History came late to Lethbridge Pocket, on Mt. Moffatt's northern boundary, just over the crest of the Great Dividing Range, source of the extensive Maranoa, Warrego and Fitzroy river systems. Explorer Major Thomas Mitchell skirted the area to the westward in 1846, observing (Mitchell, 1848, 208) that the prospect towards the dominating, massive table-lands ‘was very grand’; the name of Dean Buckland, geologist and antiquarian, was bestowed upon the loftiest table-land, at the foot of which Lethbridge Pocket lay concealed. Ludwig Leichhardt had passed to the north-east, a year previously, but he too preferred to avoid the rugged mountains, now termed the Carnarvon and Chesterton Ranges. Both the journals of Mitchell and Leichhardt testify, on many pages, to the abundant material traces of a populous aboriginal community in the region. Leichhardt commented (1847, 45) that ‘appearances indicated that the commencement of the (Carnarvon) ranges was a favourite resort of the “blackfellows”. The remains of recent repasts of mussels were strewed about the larger water-holes’.

The mountainous region, which became Mt. Moffatt cattle station, was traversed first in the late 1870's, when the route across the ridge was located (Cameron, 1964, 372). The rugged Pocket was probably entered at the same time, perhaps by a member of the Lethbridge family, pioneers on Forest Vale station, 80 miles to the south.
Excavations at the Maglemosian Sites at Thatcham, Berkshire, England
Authors: Wymer John , King Judith E.
Published: February 2015

The area examined is in the parish of Newbury, Berkshire, nearly a mile from the village of Thatcham, South of Lower Way on the Sewage Outfall Works of Newbury Corporation. The Mesolithic settlement extended along the bluff of the 8-foot gravel terrace, immediately North of the Moor Brook and the railway (SU 502668 to SU 504667).

Thatcham is only one of several sites known in the Kennet Valley to have produced a Maglemosian flint industry.
Irish Neolithic Pottery: Distribution and Sequence
Authors: Case Humphrey
Published: February 2015

A recent stimulating paper on radiocarbon dating has drawn attention to the variety and richness of Irish Neolithic material-culture and to the great span of years it appears to cover, and thus to the possibility of arranging it in a convincing sequence. In order to achieve this by archaeological method, the material must be classified and the classes regionally determined; but compared with the care which has been given to classifying megalithic monuments and seeking their distributions, little detailed attention has so far been given to the pottery which they are generally found to contain.
Prehistoric wooden trackways of the Somerset Levels: their construction, age and relation to climatic change
Authors: Godwin H.
Published: February 2015

The Somerset Levels are a submerged landscape. The valleys between the Mendip and the Polden Hills extend to 90 feet (27 metres) below Ordnance Datum, and they are filled to approximately the height of present sea-level by a soft blue-grey clay deposited in brackish water. Radiocarbon dating of material from Burnham-on-Sea shows that the marine transgression had been almost completed by 4300 B.C. (Q 134), and a date from Tealham Moor places the final transition to fresh-water conditions about 3500 B.C. (Q 120) (Godwin and Willis, 1959). As fresh water accumulated upon the almost level surface of the recent clay, reed-swamp dominated by Phragmites communis and Cladium mariscus occupied the whole region, building up coarse, loose-textured peat to a thickness of 1 or 2 metres. In the normal course of hydrarch succession (possibly enhanced by a climatic turn towards dryness), the reed swamps were invaded by fen-woods of alder and birch. These were extremely widespread at a time given by the first tentative radiocarbon dates as within the third millennium B.C.

About 2000 B.C. there now began to develop within these fen woodlands an entirely different vegetation type, primarily composed of Sphagnum moss, cottongrass (Eriophorum spp.), ling (Calluna vulgaris), associated ericoid plants, and deer-grass (Trichophorum caespitosum). These communities quickly built up a complex of large raised bogs such as are now familiar around the Solway and the Central Irish plain, and of which Flander's Moss is a good Scottish example. These are gently domed structures rising a few metres above the level of the immediately surrounding land and relying almost entirely upon precipitation for their water supply.
Three Microlithic Industries from South-west England and their Affinities
Authors: Wainwright G. J.
Published: February 2015

The main object of this article is to describe the material from three microlithic sites in south-west England, and to interpret them in the light of present information. Two of the sites are in Somerset, at Shapwick and Middlezoy on the Burtle Beds in the vicinity of Bridgwater, and the third is in Cornwall at Dozmare Pool on Bodmin Moor (fig. 1). Thanks are due to the authorities of the following museums for their kind cooperation: The County Museum, Taunton; The Torquay Natural History Museum; The Plymouth Museum; The Exeter Museum; The County Museum, Truro; and the British Museum.
Excavations at the Neolithic Site at Hurst Fen, Mildenhall, Suffolk (1954, 1957 and 1958)
Authors: Clark J. G. D. , Higgs E. S. , Longworth I. H.
Published: February 2015

The site at Hurst Fen in the parish of Mildenhall, Suffolk, was first brought within the cognizance of prehistorians by Lady Grace Briscoe, F.S.A., whose investigations, published in 1954, were sufficient to make it a type site of the East Anglian group of the British primary Neolithic settlement. Thanks are due to Lady Briscoe for most generously encouraging more extensive excavations and to the Crowther-Benyon Fund administered by the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge for providing the necessary funds. The assistance is also gratefully acknowledged of undergraduate and other members of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge and of a number of friends without whose combined labours the fine and repeated scraping of some 20,000 square feet of sub-soil could hardly have been accomplished. Mr E. S. Higgs, Assistant in Research in the Department, undertook much of the supervisory work during the last two seasons, as well as contributing an arduous metrical analysis of the flints and most notably of the scrapers from this and other sites. Mr I. H. Longworth has contributed the description of the pottery and in so doing has devised means for demonstrating its character quantitatively as well as qualitatively, a task too infrequently attempted in this field. To the Curator of the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and his assistant staff a deep debt is owed for a number of essential services, both in connection with the field-work, but principally in the treatment of the finds, notably in the reconstruction and photography of the pottery. Finally, thanks are returned to all those who offered advice about the archaeological material or who contributed the expert identifications incorporated in the following report.
A Site at Stump Cross, near Grassington, Yorkshire, and the Age of the Pennine Microlithic Industry
Authors: Walker D.
Published: February 2015

The site described in this paper lies on the Yorkshire Pennines, slightly over 1,200 feet O.D., half a mile north-west of Stump Cross Cavern and five miles east of Grassington (Nat. Grid 082640). The solid rock there is an eastward extension of the Great Scar Limestone, pitted by numerous swallow holes and clothed by a thin and intermittent mantle of clayey glacial drift. Only a hundred yards to the north and half a mile to the south-east of the site the Millstone Grit replaces the limestone at the surface. In the vicinity of the site the vegetation is dominated by Calluna vulgaris and Eriophorum vaginatum growing over a podsol or a shallow, highly humified, peat.