bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Excavation of the Willerby Wold Long Barrow, East Riding of Yorkshire
Authors: Manby T. G. 
Published: February 2015

The long barrow on Willerby Wold, 7 miles south of Scarborough, was dug into about the middle of the 19th century by the Rev. Canon William Greenwell. The results of this excavation are described in his book British Barrows and show the mound to be one of the crematorium long barrows peculiar to Yorkshire.In September 1958 the present excavations began with the sectioning of the south ditch in search of any evidence of occupation so frequently found in long barrow ditches. Further work in 1959 included sections of the mound and as these showed Greenwell's excavations to be of only limited extent a more extensive programme of work was undertaken during 1960 to clear the whole of the eastern end of the mound.
The Population Ecology of Man in the Early Upper Pleistocene of Southern Africa
Authors: Lee Richard B. 
Published: February 2015

The object of this essay is to study the effect of shifting Pleistocene climates on the numbers and distribution of early man. The geographical setting for the study is southern Africa. Chronologically, it is concerned with the cultures of the First Intermediate Phase—the Fauresmith and the Sangoan, which flourished in this region during the period 50,000–40,000 B.C.The main body of the work is devoted to a description of the ecological zones of southern Africa and an evaluation of these zones in terms of their suitability for hominid occupation. Three maps of ecological zones are employed: the first shows the vegetation as it exists under the present climate; the second and third plot the zones as they might appear under conditions of higher and lower rainfall respectively. The regions of southern Africa are then classified on the basis of their long-term favourability for hominid occupation.The use of this framework enables one to reinterpret the distribution of archaeological materials and to produce revised estimates concerning the numbers of men in the Pleistocene.
Irish Bronze Age Horns and their relations with Northern Europe
Authors: Coles John M. 
Published: February 2015

One of the features of the Irish Late Bronze Age is the appearance of wind instruments, commonly called ‘Trumpets’, often found in groups and only rarely in association with other material. Being conical and curved, these are therefore members of the horn family, to which the other large musical group of the Bronze Age, the north Europeanlurer, also belong.The Irish horns have attracted the attention of antiquarians for over 100 years, with the principal collection and listing of these beginning in 1860. Evans devoted a section of his 1881 book to the ‘trumpets’, and was followed by Day, Allen and Coffey. The latest treatment, which brought together most of the previous lists of horns, was by MacWhite in 1945. All of these later works were primarily concerned with the typology of the horns, and attention was paid neither to their actual production nor to their music. In the present study, all previously published horns have been examined where possible, as well as a number of unpublished finds, and an attempt will be made not only (i) to describe the typological variations and dating of the horns, but also (ii) to discuss their production as objects from Late Bronze Age workshops and (iii) to consider for the first time their musical potential.
A Late Stone Age Site in the Erongo Mountains South West Africa
Authors: Clark J. Desmond , Walton James 
Published: February 2015

The main object of this paper is to draw attention to the existence of Late Stone Age sites in South West Africa where perishable organic remains are preserved, and in particular to the ‘Big Elephant Cave’, discovered by Dr E. R. Scherz in the Erongo Mountains.These lie some 10 to 15 miles north-north-east of Usakos, at approximately 21° 40′ S., 15° 40′ E., in a region of open grass steppe with stands of thornbush, mainly Acacia, with low sclerophytic scrub supported by an annual rainfall of between 150–200 millimetres. These mountains rest on Basement Complex rocks and consist of Karroo sediments through which have been introduced granites of post-Karroo Age. The western face of the Erongo forms the edge of the plateau escarpment, and looks out to the Namib Desert and the Atlantic Ocean.The cave, to which we were conducted in May, 1959, by Dr Scherz, is situated in a commanding position on a kopje of rounded granite boulders near Ameib. It was first shown by its discoverer to the Abbé Henri Breuil when he was copying the Erongo rock paintings, but no study of the settlement was made and it was not revisited in the interim. Although the name ‘Big Elephant Cave’ has been adopted from Dr Scherz, it is, in fact, a deep rockshelter rather than a cave. It contains no paintings, but a line of male and female figures, in faded red paint, is drawn low down on a protected rock at the north side of the kopje. These have been published by the Abbé Breuil.
Excavations at Shearplace Hill, Sydling St. Nicholas Dorset, England
Authors: Rahtz Philip , ApSimon A. M. 
Published: February 2015

SummaryThis report describes the excavation of a small complex of earthworks on the Dorset chalk upland (fig. 1) associated with fields and droveways. Several banked and ditched enclosures were present, the main one of which contained two sub-circular houses. The lay-out of these houses may be ascribed largely to the Deverel-Rimbury occupation of the site, but the main earthworks of the farmstead are dated on the evidence of the pottery to the early Middle Bronze Age, if not to the Wessex Bronze Age. From the plans of similar settlements with fields and droveways, then thought to belong to the Late Bronze Age (but now assigned to the Middle Bronze Age), Curwen (1938) deduced the existence of settled cultivation with the two-oxplough. The use of some form of plough during the Bronze Age has since received confirmation from the discovery of marks of cultivation in the fossil soil beneath barrows and other monuments. The placing of the houses in hollows cut into the slope recalls the Itford Hill settlement (Hollyman and Burstow, 1958) and the enclosing ditches, the Cranborne Chase sites mapped by Mrs Piggott (1951). The round houses seem to be the universal type in the Middle Bronze Age of southern England and the farmstead with 2–3 houses is comparable with Thorny Down, Plumpton Plain, Trevisker (St. Eval) and Trewey, to quote only the better known examples. It is uncertain how far we should distinguish these from what appear to be villages with up to 20-30 houses, such as occur on Dartmoor (Radford 1951).
The Stratigraphy of the Mesolithic Sites III and V at Thatcham, Berkshire, England
Authors: Churchill D. M. 
Published: February 2015

Since 1922, when Peake and Crawford, first described a flint factory from Thatcham in Berkshire, the area has become increasingly important for comparative studies of the British Mesolithic, and more specifically the Thames Valley, Clark 1932, 1936, Rankine 1956.At Thatcham, a number of Mesolithic camping sites occur along the edge of a gravel terrace which borders a reed swamp at the junction of the Moor Brook and the Kennet river. The valley of the Kennet joins the Thames at Reading nearly fifteen miles downstream. The early excavations of Peake and Crawford and the more recent ones of Wymer (1959), were confined to the occupation site on the terrace. However from these scattered terrace hearths it was not possible to estimate the commencement of the occupation, its duration or cultural development. With the prospect of recovering a stratified sequence of artefacts, a coffer dam was therefore sunk into the swamp sediments at the foot of the terrace bluff. Inside the dam it was then possible to excavate (pl. XLIX) below the water level of the swamp (Site V).A stratified sequence of artefacts, animal and plant remains was found, and sufficient fossil pollen and wood were preserved to enable pollen zonation and radiocarbon dating of the profile. It was apparent from the C14 dates that the algal marl accumulated for a period of the order of 500 to 1000 years.
The Lower Palaeolithic Succession in the Thames Valley and the date of the Ancient Channel between Caversham and Henley, Oxon
Authors: Wymer John 
Published: February 2015

The reopening of the gravel pit at Highlands Farm, Henley (742813) in the ancient channel of the Thames between Caversham and Henley in 1955 has afforded an opportunity for studying the Palaeolithic contents of the gravel in detail. A short report was presented to the Society in 1956 after some initial observations, the most important of which was that the majority of the flint implements found were of Clactonian type (Wymer, 1956). In the five years since several hundred hand-axes and cores and many thousands of flakes have been recorded from this pit, many of them in situ, collected in the preparation of witness sections. The Clactonian has still been found to be the most abundant flint industry, but several types of hand-axes have occurred, some very highly finished and seemingly at variance with the early date assigned to the ancient channel on geological grounds.The collection of material in situ has shown conclusively that all the types of flint artifacts found at Highlands occur at all levels; nowhere is one particular type stratified in relationship to another. It is only by comparing the finds with those made at other sites in the Thames Valley that justification can be found for claiming that more than one industry is represented. The gravel filling of the ancient channel resembles the majority of Lower Palaeolithic sites in the Thames Valley, and elsewhere in Britain: several flint industries are jumbled indiscriminately together. Many tens of thousands of years may divide the individual artifacts within the gravel, but there is no stratigraphical evidence to show it.
The Excavation of a Neolithic Stone Implement Factory on Mynydd Rhiw in Caernarvonshire
Authors: Houlder C. H. 
Published: February 2015

The true character of the site described in this paper was first suggested by Mr A. H. A. Hogg, after a visit paid in the course of fieldwork for the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments in Wales. Examination of photographic prints of the national air cover had revealed a line of three approximately circular hollows on a gently sloping hillside: these were at first thought to be the remains of round huts whose ruined walls were hidden by the vigorous growth of dwarf gorse covering almost the whole of this part of Mynydd Rhiw. Mr Hogg's visit happened to coincide with a periodical burning off of the gorse which made the banks of the ‘huts’ plainly visible (pl. VII, a). The banks were seen to be of earth and small stones; and the latter were observed to be, not the coarse-grained igneous variety represented on the surrounding hillside in general, but a fine-grained flinty rock bearing abundant signs of artificial working. Closer examination showed that this represented the debris of stone axe manufacture.The source of the axe material was not immediately apparent. Search of the whole hilltop for outcrops met with no success, but other occurrences of this, or similar, stone were noted as small boulders or fragments. It was at first concluded that some erratic boulders of fine-grained rocks had been brought from Snowdonia, or farther away, by glaciation, and that a particularly large one had been completely broken up and worked out on or near the site of these huts.
The People of Mount Carmel
Authors: Brothwell D. R. 
Published: February 2015

In a study of the faunal changes in the Mediterranean area, Higgs (1961) has suggested that the remains from the cave of Mugharet es-Skhūl may be as much as 10,000 years later than those from the levels yielding human remains in the cave of Mugharet et-Tabūn. If this indeed proves to be the case, then a previously controversial problem will to a great extent be eradicated. It is common knowledge that the skulls from these two caves display a remarkable degree of variability ranging from a typical ‘Classic’ Neanderthal type (Tabūn I) to a specimen (Skhūl V) morphologically very similar to certain Upper Palaeolithic skeletons (McCown and Keith, 1939). Three quite different explanations have been given for this, two of which take the Mount Carmel people as approximately contemporaneous:(1) The Mount Carmel people represent a single taxonomic group with a high degree of variability (McCown and Keith, 1939; Howell, 1951; Le Gros Clark, 1958).(2) They are hybrids resulting from the intermixture of H. neandertalensis and H. sapiens (Hooton, 1947; Thoma, 1958; Skerlj, 1960; Weckler, 1954).(3) A final possibility, least considered of all, is that the et-Tabūn and es-Skhūl individuals may correspond to different populations, not necessarily contemporaneous, and which may have lived hundreds or thousands of years apart (Stewart, 1951).
The ‘Carlingford Culture’, the Long Barrow and the Neolithic of Great Britain and Ireland
Authors: de Valéra Ruaidhrí 
Published: February 2015

There are at the moment several indications that a re-assessment of the problems of the neolithic in Britain and Ireland is required. Since the virtual discovery of the primary neolithic some thirty years ago, so vast has the field become that it is no longer possible for an individual to be familiar with all the material and it is inevitable that each will tend to see the whole from the viewpoint of his own special interest and region. In these circumstances, during the course of any re-assessment, workers on various aspects are especially liable to find themselves at cross-purposes. Moreover, in the developments which followed the brilliant pioneer syntheses many ideas have become traditional and tend to be accepted as axiomatic. The alteration or abandonment of such ideas may prove difficult and more difficult still may be the emendation or rejection of conclusions based on them.Ireland lies to the west of Britain. To review the whole scene in any detail from a standpoint in Ireland would involve discussing at second-hand too much of the material on which current views are based and such is not the intention. These notes are designed merely to comment on some general issues which have been and may well in the future be sources of difficulty and misunderstanding, and in particular to deal with the Irish court cairns which have been the subject of recent discussion. It is scarcely to be hoped that they will obviate controversy, but they may help a little towards the mutual understanding of differences.
The Carlingford Culture
Authors: Corcoran John X. W. P. 
Published: February 2015

This paper is devoted to a study of the horned-cairns of the North-east of Ireland and their associated artifacts. The term ‘horned-cairn’ is used to describe those segmented gallery-graves set in a long cairn and entered from a semi-circular forecourt delimited by an orthostatic facade. It is realized that this term is not altogether satisfactory, but it has the virtue of brevity and its usage is now well established. Some contemporary Irish prehistorians, notably Professor Ruaidhrí de Valéra, have suggested the term ‘court-cairn’ for all the manifestations in Ireland of the segmented gallery-grave having elaborate structural forecourts. This would include cairns in the West of Ireland with completely enclosed courts (described as court-cairns in this paper) as well as horned-cairns proper. The confusion which might arise from the use of such terms as ‘full court-cairn’, ‘half court-cairn’, ‘forecourt-cairn’ and the like have decided the present writer to retain in this paper the simple terms ‘horned-cairn’ and ‘court-cairn’.This study is divided into two main sections. The first is descriptive, being concerned with horned-cairns and associated artifacts and the second attempts to place the Carlingford Culture as a whole in its context in prehistory. In view of the paucity of detailed information about court-cairns, particularly the almost complete lack of excavation, no detailed study is made of these. At the time of going to press it is understood that a paper by Professor de Valéra on the court-cairns of the west is about to be published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.
The Origins and Development of the Penannular Brooch in Europe
Authors: Fowler Elizabeth 
Published: February 2015

This paper is in a sense a by-product of a detailed study of ‘Dark Age’ metalwork and grew out of the realization that any interpretation of post-Roman history depends on an understanding of the archaeology of Roman and Iron Age Britain. For too long, the post-Roman world has been regarded as separate from the preceding periods, and has been seen mainly through aesthetic spectacles. Recent studies of the pottery of the period have to some extent corrected the perspective hitherto largely based on subjective and even nationalistic examinations of the better known art and metalwork. To make a new and comparable survey of the metalwork seemed worthwhile, and in doing this attention was focused on the ordinary, and common, pieces of metalwork which have been overshadowed by the more magnificent and highly decorated pieces. It became evident that in many ways the Roman occupation was not all important but was merely a minor factor in the development of material culture, and that this was particularly true of the Military Province of Britain. The specialist nature of so much of Romano-British archaeology has tended to obscure the continuity of Iron Age culture. It was felt that the selection of one or more pieces of metalwork might illustrate this as well as providing a background for the achievements in metalwork and design in the ‘Dark Ages’.The penannular brooch was chosen as the ‘type-fossil’ for this study because it was the typical and characteristic dress ornament of the Celtic post-Roman world, was equally common in Romano-British contexts and seemed to be native to these islands. A complete run through from Iron Age to Early Christian times has thus been obtained, and it is hoped that deductions drawn from a study of the penannular brooches may be paralleled and applied to other metalwork of the period and so allow general conclusions to be drawn. A more personal reason for selecting the penannular brooch was a desire to investigate the reasons for such a bewildering variety of contradictory opinions on the origin and development of the type.
A Bronze Age Urnfield on Vinces Farm Ardleigh, Essex
Authors: Erith F. H. , Longworth I. H. 
Published: February 2015

Ardleigh lies midway between Colchester on the River Colne, and Manningtree on the estuary of the Stour, the distance from each place being about four miles. Vinces Farm covers an area roughly half a mile to a mile south of Ardleigh church on the road to Great Bromley. The farm lies on a plateau, 110 feet above sea level, and has no particular geographical feature other than its flatness. The soil is a medium loam over gravel and requires no artificial drainage. Grid Ref. TL/056284.The land has been under arable cultivation for centuries, but not until 1955 was a deep-digging plough introduced, ploughing to a depth of a foot or more. In September of that year the plough brought up sherds of Roman pottery in the Long Eleven Acres field (O.S. 716) and with these, sherds of Bronze Age ware.
Some Somerset hoards and their place in the Bronze Age of Southern Britain
Authors: Smith M. A. 
Published: February 2015

Two articles published in recent years have drawn attention to distinctive bronzes which are found concentrated in Somerset. Sir Cyril Fox showed in 1941 that sickles cast with an elongated terminal knob for hafting, or pair of conical knobs, are in England entirely confined to the county; and in 1949 Mrs C. M. Piggott discussed types of bronze ornament also commonly found in Somerset, and often in association with such sickles, though distribution of these extends to other parts of southern England as well. As these authors demonstrated, the sickles and some of the ornaments must alike derive from foreign prototypes. The interest of the Somerset hoards in which they occur lies in their combination of other, peculiarly British, bronzes with these foreign-paralleled types, which may serve to link the developments of British industry with the established chronological sequences of Continental Europe.Somerset hoards of this class are characteristically composed of several types of ornament together with a few bronze implements from a restricted number of forms. Fewer than half the ornaments seem to have been deposited in a pristine condition, and of those damaged some are in fragments. Most often, however, the associated tools are usable, and some (especially sickles) are still untrimmed from the mould.
A Sample Analysis of British Middle and Late Bronze Age Material, using Optical Spectrometry
Authors: Brown M. A. , Blin-Stoyle A. E. 
Published: February 2015

Metallurgical analysis of prehistoric material has hitherto been concentrated on examination of early artifacts, presumably made from newly-won metal, which may therefore contain trace elements to indicate the sources and trade-routes of contemporary metal supply. The present study was undertaken to discover whether bronze artifacts from the British Middle and Late Bronze Age, when an important component of the bronzes produced must have been re-used metal, show nonetheless perceptible variations in metal composition, which might correlate with changes of bronze types, or with the successive industries of the archaeological sequence.Analyses were made at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology in the University of Oxford, using an optical emission spectrometer. Samples of the bronzes studied were examined for the elements copper (Cu), tin (Sn), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), nickel (Ni), bismuth (Bi), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), silver (Ag), gold (Au) and magnesium (Mg), the only elements found in the bronzes in appreciable quantities.
Early Iron Age ‘C’ in Wessex
Authors: Brailsford John 
Published: February 2015

The Early Iron Age of Wessex has been the study of many distinguished archaeologists, and any fresh investigation is bound to be in large part either a synthesis or a development of the results of earlier workers. Among the latter must be included not only such notable scholars as General Pitt-Rivers, the Cunningtons, Professor Hawkes, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and Mr Radford, but a multitude of professional archaeologists and amateurs, whose accumulated labours help to give solidity to the picture. The present writer owes a profound debt to all of these; he would also like to acknowledge personal help especially from Mr Raymond Farrar, Mr J. Stevens Cox, Mr A. L. F. Rivet, Mr J. B. Calkin, and from the Curators of the Museums at Dorchester, Farnham (Dorset), Salisbury, Devizes and Taunton.The present paper is a study of the ‘C’ cultures, i.e. cultures of the latest phase of the Early Iron Age which are not simply survivals of ‘B’ cultures, in Wessex. For the present purpose I take Wessex to be the area covered by Sheet 11 of the Ordnance Survey ¼ inch map, excluding the area of undoubted Belgic occupation in the East (which I shall attempt to define later), and in addition a westward extension to the River Exe. In other words, it is a study, primarily (Part I) of the ‘Durotrigian’ culture of Dorset and its borders, and also (Part II) of whatever Belgic penetration can be demonstrated in the surrounding area.