bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Experimental Clactonian Technique
Authors: Baden-Powell D. F. W. 
Published: February 2015

The exact way in which ancient man made stone implements has occupied the interest of many prehistorians. One way of helping to solve this problem is by trying to make implements oneself. Although several investigators have done isolated and rather sporadic work along these lines, there seem to be few accounts of any systematic series of experiments. The most complete descriptions known to me are those by J. Reid Moir (hand-axes and Levallois flakes) and Sir Francis Knowles (Neolithic arrow-heads). Although M. Coutier's experiments have been filmed, no written account of them seems to be available.As I have been experimenting for some years with the making of various types of stone implements, some of my results can now be described; only one short reference to this work has been published so far. My objects in making these investigations have been to find out as much as possible about the way in which Palaeoliths were made, and about the conditions under which the work was done. Information about conditions was obtained by doing the flaking ‘in the field’ rather than in a laboratory or workshop, that is to say, the stone was usually worked at the place where it was found in quarries or natural exposures. The main conclusion derived from this aspect of the investigation was that until early man learned to mine for flint, for instance, he would find very little suitable raw material in country covered by grass, trees or bushes, and my work proved that if artificial gravel pits and chalk quarries were not used, the best sources of stone were in river beds or on the shores of lakes or the sea.
Excavations at Esh Shaheinab, Sudan (1949)
Authors: Arkell A. J. 
Published: February 2015

A full report of the excavations at Khartoum undertaken by the Sudan Government Antiquities Service in 1944–5 has recently been published. The present paper summarises the results of a subsequent excavation made by the same service at the early occupation site at Esh Shaheinab on the west bank of the Nile 30 miles north of Omdurman.Esh Shaheinab was chosen after study of numerous eroded occupation sites in Khartoum Province, because it appeared to be a one-period site, having a characteristic brown burnished and incised pottery with stone implements including gouges typical of Miss Caton-Thompson's Fayum Neolithic, and to have been less disturbed than other sites attributable to the same culture. Besides amply confirming the connection with the Fayum Neolithic, the new excavation made clear that the pottery characteristic of the site, which at first sight appeared to have nothing in common with the pottery of early Khartoum, except its brown colour and the fact that it is decorated with an incised pattern, is derived from that pottery. Other connections with the early Khartoum culture are recorded below, as well as four important novel features, viz:—bone axe-heads, shell fish-hooks, zeolite? lip-plugs and granite maceheads with flat tops.
An Early Bronze Age Burial in a Boat-shaped Wooden Coffin from North-east Yorkshire
Authors: Elgee H. W. , Elgee F. 
Published: February 2015

In 1937 the writers, with the help of members of the technical staff of I.C.I., Billingham, and of a W.E.A. Class on local prehistory, excavated Loose Howe, a large round barrow which, as shown on the Map (Fig. 1), stands above the head of Rosedale almost at the centre of the Eastern Moorlands of Yorkshire.Permission to excavate was kindly granted by the landowners, Milburn Estates Ltd., Newcastle-on-Tyne, with the proviso that we began after the close of the grouse-shooting season. We were therefore obliged to carry out the work in October and November, and then only at week-ends when our helpers were free. The weather was often bad, and this considerably increased the difficulties of what proved to be an arduous excavation.The Howe is situated in Lat. 54° 23′ 53″ N. and Long. 0° 55′ 04″ w. where Danby High Moor to the north adjoins Glaisdale Moor to the east on the central watershed of the Eastern Moorlands. It stands on rising ground a few yards north of the road from Ralph Cross to Rosedale Abbey and is a conspicuous landmark for miles around. Its elevation, 1400 feet, makes it one of the highest in the whole of Eastern Yorkshire. In this respect it is only exceeded by Drake Howe (1427 feet) on the Cleveland hill, Cranimoor, and by four small barrows at 1480 feet on Urra Moor where, above Ingleby Greenhow, the moorlands reach their greatest elevation of 1489 feet.
Some Grooved Ware Pottery from the Woodhenge area
Authors: Stone J. F. S. 
Published: February 2015

In a recent article a description was given of the contents of two pits found by Mr A. St. J. Booth in his garden at Woodlands, Countess Road, Amesbury within 300 yards of the centre of Woodhenge. These pits produced a remarkable assemblage of objects of neolithic B Grooved Ware type, and the apparent care which had been expended upon their deliberate burial induced the suggestion that they represented the sacred or hallowed relics of feasts held in connexion with rites at Woodhenge itself.Deliberately buried deposits of this type in the vicinity of the monument suggested further that many other pits might exist in the neighbourhood of this and other comparable sites. No surprise was therefore felt when Mr Booth reported the discovery of two more pits of similar character within a few feet of the first two. These were examined during June 1948.
The Atlantic Bronze Age in South-west Europe
Authors: Savory H. N. 
Published: February 2015

It may well seem presumptuous to attempt a fresh analysis of the Late Bronze Age in the Iberian peninsula, after the numerous contributions which the subject has received in recent years from Spanish archaeologists, and in view of the fact that the Civil War prevented the writer, when Maclver student in Iberian Archaeology, from visiting Spain at all. In fact he would not have dared to make such an analysis, if the recent output of well illustrated books and articles by Spanish archaeologists had not made study from a distance somewhat less hazardous. But the itinerary which political conditions in 1936–8 imposed on him—Portugal first, then south-western France and finally the Rhône basin—at least showed him an aspect of the Late Bronze Age in south-western Europe which is perhaps less obvious to archaeologists who look from Madrid and Barcelona with eyes trained in Central Europe.Long ago Louis Siret was impressed by the typological lacuna between the copper and bronze implements of early forms in the Iberian peninsula and those which appeared to represent the second and last phase of the local bronze industry. He drew what most archaeologists now recognize to be the right conclusion, namely, that the Early Bronze Age industry of El Argar stagnated and was replaced at a relatively late date by an industry, which had passed through the earlier stages of its development elsewhere, but soon took on a strongly local character. In his recently enunciated Esquema Paletnológico de la Peninsula Iberica Professor Santa Olalla has taken account of this new conception.
The Distribution and Date of the Passage-Graves of the British Isles
Authors: Daniel G. E. , Powell T. G. E. 
Published: February 2015

It is the object of this paper to examine the evidence for the relative and absolute chronology of the Passage-Graves of the British Isles. The title of the paper as well as this bald statement of purpose begs the immediate question of what exactly the authors mean by Passage-Graves.We define a Passage-Grave as a prehistoric chamber tomb consisting of a passage leading to a round, polygonal, or square chamber, in which the collective burials were normally made. This type of monument may be walled with orthostats and roofed trabeate-wise by capstones, or it may be dry-walled with small stones laid horizontally and roofed by a false or corbelled vault, or again there may be present a combination of these techniques. On the other hand this type of monument may be wholly or partly cut in the rock or again there may be a combination of surface and rock-cut features in its construction. In almost all cases the surface forms of Passage-Grave are incorporated in a barrow or cairn of earth or stones. The constructional variety of the tomb does not affect its classification in a morphological category; the rock-cut tombs of Alcaide and Palmella are as much Passage-Graves as the corbel-vaulted tombs of He Longue and Alcalá, or the capstoneroofed tombs of Kercado and Bryn Celli Ddu.
On the Ancient Channel between Caversham and Henley, Oxfordshire, and its contained Flint Implements
Authors: Treacher M. S. , Arkell W. J. , Oakley K. P. 
Published: February 2015

The wide depression which cuts across the loop of the Thames from Caversham to Henley and marks the course of a trench partly filled with gravel was constantly under observation by Mr Llewellyn Treacher for a number of years. Together with certain fragments of its possible continuation as far east as Winter Hill, north of Cookham Rise, it forms the subject of the present paper.This ancient channel leaves the Thames Valley at Mapledurham, the middle of its path being marked by Chazey Wood, and passing eastwards between Binfield Heath and Peppard, joins the Thames again at Henley. The Geological Survey maps do not differentiate the deposits which fill it from the plateau gravel generally known as fluvioglacial gravel or Northern Drift. One object of this paper is to show that the channel is not filled with Northern Drift but with a gravel so different that it must have been laid down at a different time and under quite other conditions. A number of years ago Mr Osborne White recognized that an exposure near Blagrave Farm towards the western end of the channel was Thames gravel and in later years suggested that the deposits seen south-west of Henley were contemporaneous with the Silchester stage, that is the highest terrace of the Kennet, which he had so named in 1902 (White, 1895; 1902; 1908, p. 88).
Second Report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries on the Petrological Identification of Stone Axes
Authors: Stone J. F. S. , Wallis F. S. 
Published: February 2015

The first report of the Sub-Committee of the South-Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries on the petrological identification of stone axes was published in the Proceedings for 1941, vol. VII, 50–72. Appreciative comments concerning it were published in Museums Journal, vol. 42, 34, and Nature, 1942, 149, 275.Membership of the Sub-Committee remains unchanged apart from the withdrawal of Dr R. Churchill Blackie and the addition of Mrs D. P. Dobson, LITT.D., M.A., F.S.A. (1945), Messrs C. K. Croft Andrew, F.S.A. and A. G. Madan, and Dr J. F. S. Stone (Honorary Secretary from 1946).The activities of the Sub-Committee were naturally greatly restricted during the war, but a few axes were submitted and, although procedure was protracted, eventually examined.Recently the Council for British Archaeology has received a report concerning cooperation of petrologists and archaeologists urging that the identification of stone axes should be raised from the regional to national level. The existing museum federations seemed admirably suited for implementing this policy and their co-operation has accordingly been secured. In future, therefore, the petrological activities of the South-Western Group will be strictly regional instead of embracing the whole of Britain.The moment for this change seemed an appropriate one for the Sub-Committee to publish a second report briefly summarizing their work and also bringing to a close the first decade of its labours.Once again thanks are extended to those private owners and trustees of public institutions who have willingly allowed the material in their possession or charge to be sectioned and so made these results possible. The Committee is again deepjy indebted to Mr E. D. Evens whose enthusiasm for, and interest in, the work has never waned and to whose meticulous examination of each thin section they owe much.
Seal-Hunting in the Stone Age of North-Western Europe: A Study in Economic Prehistory
Authors: Clark J. G. D. 
Published: February 2015

Although it has been widely recognised that the bones of seals occur on Stone Age sites in various parts of north-western Europe, no comprehensive attempt to clarify the history and estimate the role of seal-hunting in the economy of Stone Age Europe has yet been made. The research, on which the present paper is based, is part of a programme to further knowledge of prehistoric times by the study of social activities. Seal-hunting is here considered, not because it gave rise to objects which need classifying and dating, but simply because it was an activity of vital interest to certain coast-dwelling communities in north-western Europe during the Stone Age. If the physiological approach is stressed, this is not to depreciate the morphological: in point of fact the more we discover about any human activity the more fitted we become to interpret correctly the material objects or structures associated with it.Archaeology is rarely sufficient to recover the way of life of early man. The problem of seal-hunting in antiquity, which is after all basically biological, is one of those which can only be resolved by several convergent disciplines. The foundations of the present study have been laid by zoologists, men who, like Winge, Holmquist, Pira, Degerböl and others, have given us precise information about the seals hunted by early man, through patient identification of bones and teeth from archaeological deposits, or who, by their observation of the life habits and distribution of the various species in the field, have, like Collett, Nordqvist, Nansen and Fraser Darling, enabled us to visualise the opportunities open to the old hunters.
Prehistoric Investigations in British Somaliland
Authors: Burkitt Miles , Glover P. E. 
Published: February 2015

The average person knows very little about British Somaliland, hardly indeed where it is situated; yet archaeologically speaking it seems likely that it will prove of considerable importance. Although up to the present no systematic investigations have been undertaken, enough material in the way of stone implements has been unearthed by amateur collectors to show that there are great possibilities of important finds being made in the country; and, now, a very interesting rock shelter art has been discovered. Clearly the archaeological importance of the country merits investigation by a competent archaeologist, and it seems possible that such an expedition may eventuate at a not too distant date. The article that follows, therefore, is primarily intended to bring these discoveries and the possibilities of the subject in general to the notice of the public in a preliminary way.Some little time ago Major Glover, Chief Pasture Officer in the country, sent me some, implements that he had collected, together with an intimation that he had been studying some rock shelter paintings. Frankly, the implements, though interesting, yielded little more information as to the cultures present than was already known from the work of previous investigators, and which had been in part epitomised by Burkitt and Barrington Brown in an article in Man for 1934, No. 164.
Iron Age Pottery from Wisley, Surrey
Authors: Lowther A. W. G. 
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this paper is to present an adequate record of the Iron Age pottery found in 1922–23 at a site on the left bank of the river Wey, at a point east of Wisley Church, of which only a small, and not fully representative selection has yet been published. The pieces hitherto recorded were selected from material presented to the British Museum, but a larger quantity has been kindly made available by Dr Eric Gardner, F.S.A., and is here published, together with pottery from the same site, now in Weybridge Museum. Account has also been taken of the sherds in the British Museum.The pottery is stated to have been found in a series of pits, among which were some containing neolithic B rim sherds proving earlier occupation of the site, but no plans or sections or other adequate information about the site was published, though the report states that ‘four large kilns were uncovered and one small one, made expressly for firing the largest urn.’ It is also recorded that ‘a few loom-weights were found and wattle-and-daub was abundant.’
Prehistory in Denmark: 1939–1945
Authors: Mathiassen Therkel 
Published: February 2015

The period of the war has in Denmark, as in most other European countries, been one of difficulty and anxiety. Would it be possible to carry on the fieldwork, and, still more important, to preserve the valuable collections and carry them safe through this life- and death-battle of all the great world powers? The danger was especially obvious after the German occupation of Denmark in 1940. In the National Museum at Copenhagen we have one of the best prehistoric collections in Europe, and it was with great anxiety that we saw Copenhagen changed into an important German base. Air raids and invasion by the Allied forces were both expected, and, still worse, the enemy threatened to bomb the museum as vengeance for the sabotage done by the Danish Resistance Movement. A good proportion of the collections was dismantled, some of it evacuated to safe places, and some of it deposited in the cellars of the museum. Fortunately the National Museum—and also all the prehistoric museums in the small towns—came through the war without damage.The museum authorities tried to save the prehistoric remains in the country—protected by law—from violation through the German fortification works. We got a promise from the German military authorities that nothing would be destroyed without very important military reasons; but a good many barrows from the Stone Age and the Bronze Age had to be removed at the large new flying bases, especially in Jutland. Although we got a chance to excavate most of the barrows before destruction, many others—more than 200—were destroyed or damaged by the various fortifications, mostly in western Jutland. It will, however, be possible to restore a good many of them.
Five Late Bronze Age Enclosures in North Wiltshire
Authors: Piggott C. M. 
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this paper is briefly to draw attention to a new group of Deverel–Rimbury enclosures in Wessex. These were found in the course of field work by the writer and Mr Owen Meyrick during the year preceding the outbreak of war, and all five are within two miles of one another on open downland north of the Marlborough–Wootton-Bassett road (fig. 1).1. Preshute Down. (See fig. 2 and pl. VII). Squarish enclosure covered with L.B.A. pottery and flints. Slight excavations were made here with the help of Mr W. E. V. Young from Avebury. The field system around the enclosure was shown to be later.2. Ogbourne Down. (See fig. 4, and pl. VIII). Three enclosures close together, east of the Four-Mile Clump and at the bottom of a valley. Much L.B.A. pottery scattered over the whole area. Many ancient fields all round are visible from the crest of Smeathes' Ridge, but their relationship with the earthworks was not discovered before the war made more excavation impossible. Thanks to many boys from the Marlborough College Archaeological Society, excavation was made at a number of points.3. Ogbourne Maizey Down. (See fig. 3). An interesting sub-rectangular earthwork of the same type. No excavations made. Only a few potsherds were found, but all proved to be L.B.A. This enclosure had been constructed by digging the ditch into the soft lynchet soil of a pre-existing field system.
A Trepanned Skull of the Beaker Period from Dorset and the Practice of Trepanning in Prehistoric Europe
Authors: Piggott Stuart 
Published: February 2015

The circumstances of the discovery of the trepanned skull described in this paper may be briefly summarised here: the full report of the excavations during which it was discovered will appear in a forthcoming volume of Archaeologia. In the summer of 1938 I carried out excavations on behalf of H.M. Office of Works on a group of round barrows on Crichel Down, Dorset, some 5 miles north of the town of Blandford. One of these barrows (no. 14 of the forthcoming report), a very low and inconspicuous mound about 20 feet in diameter, was found to cover a grave cut in the chalk containing a crouched human burial. The skeleton lay on its left side with the head bent slightly forward, the legs flexed so that the heels were nearly touching the pelvis, the left arm extended and the right arm flexed so that the hand rested on the shoulder. At the foot of the grave lay a beaker of Type B1 on its side, the base resting against the right tibia of the skeleton. (Fig. 1).The whole burial was entirely typical of Beaker Period inhumations, and it was not until the skull was removed from the grave that it was found that it bore a large opening in the left parietal, and that into that opening the piece of bone which had been removed (by a careful process of grooving and ultimate excision) had been replaced before the individual had been laid in the grave. We were clearly in the presence of an exceedingly fine example of trepanning, and two points were immediately apparent, namely that the individual had not survived the operation, there being no evidence of healing on the edge of the opening, and that the replaced roundel of bone must have been strapped or bandaged into place before burial. As the skull was lifted, the roundel remained behind on the floor of the grave, and in the original deposition of the body something must have been done to secure it in position.
The Rodmarton and Avening Portholes
Authors: Clifford E. M. , Daniel G. E. 
Published: February 2015

The studies of Leon Coutil and Marcel Baudouin on the gallery grave of Vaux-Louvets at Vaudancourt and Kendrick's general survey in his Axe Age, first drew the attention of modern archaeologists to the problems associated with the nature and origin of portholes in megalithic tombs in Europe. Recently interest has again been stimulated in this subject. In Britain, Hemp has excavated Bryn yr Hen Bobl in Anglesey with its curious pair of holes in the southern transverse orthostat of the chamber, Fleure has begun to excavate the Bridestones in Cheshire, and the newly discovered chamber in the north flank of the Lanhill long barrow in Wiltshire was described as having a porthole entrance; and abroad Dr Leisner has given us an excellent study of the Iberian portholes. It has therefore been thought worth while to survey afresh the problem of the European portholes, and more especially to bring together the information known about the British portholes and to relate this to the general problem of the origin and spread of portholes in Europe.From the published accounts it was clear that the most perfect examples of portholes in the British Isles were those in the Rodmarton and Avening long barrows in Gloucestershire (fig. 1), but none of these portholes had actually been seen in their entirety by present day archaeologists. Rodmarton was excavated in 1863 by the Rev. S. Lysons, but the excavations were partially filled in and by the present day nothing of the two portholes was visible and we had only the inadequate drawings in the published accounts to rely on.