bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Further Excavations at a Mesolithic Site at Oakhanger, Selborne, Hants
Authors: Rankine W. F. , Rankine W. M. , Dimbleby G. W. 
Published: February 2015

The author has already published a full account of the investigation of a mesolithic chipping-floor (Warren V) on the Lower Greensand of East Hampshire in the parish of Oakhanger, near Selborne (fig. 1). The present report is concerned with another (Warren VII), discovered early in 1957 only a few yards to the north-west (fig. 2) and excavated later that year and in 1958.The interest of the new site is partly that it supplements and enlarges certain details of the material equipment recovered from Site V, but mainly in the evidence it has provided on chronology through the application of pollen-analysis and radio-carbon analysis.To begin with excavation was carried out in transects 3 feet by 1 foot, but when it became apparent that artifacts were occurring at three levels (fig. 3) the size of the transect was increased to 3 feet by 3 feet. The earliest level (Phase I) occurred at a depth of c. 24 inches; Phase II, which corresponded with the lined surface noted by Dr Dimbleby in his pollen enquiry (see p. 256) at c. 8 to 10 inches; and Phase III in the top 3 inches of humus.
Regional Groups in the Michelsberg Culture: A Study in the Middle Neolithic of West Central Europe
Authors: Scollar Irwin 
Published: February 2015

In order to discuss the origin of the Michelsberg culture, a question which has been the subject of much debate during the last five years, a closer definition of the culture is first necessary. This paper begins by reviewing the theories as to origins which have been offered during the last half century, a detailed description of the elements making up the various subdivisions of the culture is then attempted, together with some observations on the internal chronology of the material; and in conclusion a return is made to the question of origin.We owe to Schumacher the first identification of the culture by name, though it was Reinecke's contribution two years later which proposed its attachment to a ‘western’ neolithic family in an article written, as usual, with an insight years ahead of its time. Schumacher had thought that the culture was a late phase of Bandkeramik (Danubian I) influenced by Schnurkeramik (Corded Ware).Later, Reinecke modified his views somewhat and noted the close connection between the material of the Swiss lake dwelling cultures and the mesolithic of Scandinavia and, in two short papers, laid the basis for the second of the principal theories as to origins. It is interesting that the same man was responsible for two major trends in archaeological thought on the question.
The Chronology of the French Collective Tombs
Authors: Daniel Glyn 
Published: February 2015

The surveys of the megalithic tombs of France made by Bertrand (1864; 1875), the Sous-Commission des Monuments mégalithiques, Adrien de Mortillet (1901), and Joseph Déchelette enabled maps to be made which showed the essential features of the distribution in space of the thousands of prehistoric collective tombs in France. Déchelette listed a total of 4457 dolmens and allées couvertes: fresh regional surveys and fieldwork in the fifty years that have elapsed since the publication of the first volume of his Manuel d'archéologie préhistorique, celtique et gallo-romaine in 1908 have increased this figure to between five and a half and six thousand tombs. This quantitative increase, however, has in no way altered the qualitative picture of the distribution in space of the megalithic tombs in France, implicit in Bertrand's original essay, and explicit in the analyses of Déchelette and Adrien de Mortillet.Bertrand had emphasized that the ‘dolmens’ of France occurred mainly west of a line from Marseilles to Brussels; Adrien de Mortillet's map stressed the main axis of distribution, namely from Brittany to the Gulf of Lions, and the very large numbers of megalithic tombs that exist in the six departments of the Ardèche, Lozère, Aveyron, Gard, Hérault and Lot.
Belgic Coins as Illustrations of Life in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age of Britain
Authors: Allen Derek 
Published: February 2015

Before the end of the 1st century B.C. the Celtic coinages in south-east Britain had begun to employ representational types in place of or in addition to traditional and barely intelligible patterns. By the time the coins ceased nearly a century later, a great many of these representational types had been issued. The purpose of this paper is to try to show from enlarged reproductions to what extent these coins provide a visual illustration of life and customs in this country immediately before the Roman Conquest.In a period of intense archaeological effort, such as the present, it is odd that this has not already been attempted. The reason lies partly in the intractability of coin material, but perhaps more in the fear of reading false meanings into coin types with such an obvious debt to Greece and Rome. This caution is reasonable, but can be carried too far. There are remarkably few British coins which are unchanged copies of Roman originals. The Celtic engravers rapidly and to a surprising degree absorbed the ideas and art forms of the classical world, but used them more often than not to depict Celtic or partly Celtic themes. Opinions may vary on where the dividing line comes, but it may be said with confidence that in a great majority of these coins, side by side with strong Greco-Roman influences, there remains an element of representation which is indubitably Celtic. Our task is to identify it.
Armorican Coin Hoards in the Channel Islands
Authors: de Beaulieu J.-B. Colbert 
Published: February 2015

‘He lifted a large boulder and discovered five hundred Armorican coins. For countless years a large boulder had lain undisturbed in the corner of a field belonging to Miss Amy. … Time and again it had been scraped and chipped by ploughs, but nobody had ever thought of moving it. But on Tuesday morning it fouled the plough once too often and seventeen-year old Peter Langlois decided that it was time to remove it’. This passage, quoted from the Evening Post of 25th January last, records one of the most important discoveries ever made in the island; it was made on 22nd January 1957, at Le Catillon de Haut, in the parish of Grouville.Jersey has the distinction of being the home of a very active learned society with a Museum that forms a true centre of archaeological research; it is well known to its citizens and has a reputation reaching far beyond its borders. My friends Father Burdo, Major Rybot, the learned numismatist, and Mr Emile Guiton, the Curator, were so kind as to invite me to examine this latest discovery, of which I made a preliminary inventory in February. Its interest is very great.… But before proceeding to an examination of the hoard I should like to place it in its proper perspective and to give a short summary of earlier discoveries, in so far as these are known. Mrs Jacquetta Hawkes has already listed these finds in her Archaeology of the Channel Islands. Here I shall confine myself to the numismatic details that characterize them.
The Typology & Origins of Beakers in Wales
Authors: Griffiths W. E. 
Published: February 2015

The recent publication by Dr H. N. Savory of a corpus of beakers found in Wales enables us, for the first time as far as that part of Britain is concerned, to draw conclusions about the beaker cultures based on a considerable body of evidence from an area forming a geographical unit within the Highland Zone. In his discussion of this, Savory has raised general questions of considerable interest with regard to the origins and development of the British beaker cultures, and in particular to the derivation and spread of the A-beaker culture. The purpose of the present paper is to re-examine this evidence and to supplement it with the evidence from beaker graves in Wales (tabulated in Appendix I), including burials of beaker type not actually accompanied by pottery (Appendix II). The conclusions reached differ in some respects from those of Savory.The belief formerly held that Wales is poor in beakers is no longer tenable. The precise number is of course uncertain since the sherds from sandhill sites cannot be allocated to an exact number of vessels, but it seems clear that at least 64 separate beakers must be represented, and perhaps fragments of an additional number whose total is unknown. Not all of these survive in their entirety: only about half have been preserved either intact or sufficiently complete for their shapes and the main outlines of their decoration to be ascertained and all these are illustrated in figs. 1–7; but even the unrestorable fragments preserve elements of decoration and can tell us much about the vessels to which they originally belonged.
Early Metallurgy of Copper In Ireland and Britain
Authors: Coghlan H. H. , Case Humphrey 
Published: February 2015

This paper arises from the work of the Ancient Mining and Metallurgy Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute, of which Committee the authors are Chairman and Deputy-Chairman respectively.The method of research has been to obtain drillings from the uncorroded metal of typical Early Bronze Age implements, for analysis in research laboratories. Ninety-eight analyses are published below in Tables I–III (pp. 106–21). They are of 51 halberds (fig. 1), 39 axes of various types and 7 knives or daggers of Beaker Culture type. The halberds are classified according to Ó Ríordáin; and certain of the axes according to Raftery; broad and thick-butted (fig. 2, 41–2) referred to below as ‘thick-butted’; narrow and thin-butted (fig. 2, 23) referred to below as ‘thin-butted’; other types of axe are bevelled (fig. 2, 25), similar to the thin-butted, but generally squatter, with edges bevelled; and flanged (fig. 2, 95), the thin-butted type with flanged edges. Certain thin-butted or flanged axes are decorated and these are classified I (fig. 2, 85) or III according to the system of Megaw and Hardy; some axes cannot be classified, being unfinished; a few are anomalous wafer-like forms.
Late Bronze Age Settlement on Itford Hill, Sussex
Authors: Burstow G. P. , Holleyman G. A. , Helbaek Hans 
Published: February 2015

In the years between the two World Wars considerable research was done by Sussex archaeologists on the Late Bronze Age settlements of the South Downs (figs, 1 and 30). Several habitation sites were partly excavated, notably Park Brow near Worthing by Mr Garnet R. Wolseley in 1924, New Barn Down, Harrow Hill near Worthing by Dr E. Cecil Curwen in 1933, and Plumpton Plain, near Brighton, by Dr E. Cecil Curwen and Mr G. A. Holleyman in 1934, and an analysis of the pottery from these sites by Professor C. Hawkes has provided a typological and chronological basis for subsequent research.After World War II the authors, inspired by the work of Dr J. F. S. Stone on the Deverel-Rimbury Settlement on Thorny Down and of Dr G. Bersu at Little Woodbury, decided to strip completely a small group of earthworks of probable Late Bronze Age date on Itford Hill near Lewes. In the spring of 1949 the site, together with the adjacent linear earthwork and group of lynchets, was surveyed by Mr E. W. Holden and Mr G. A. Holleyman. Excavations were carried out for each of five seasons (1949–1953) by means of volunteers and with the financial backing of the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society.
Notes on some distinctive types of bronzes from Populonia, Etruria
Authors: Maxwell-Hyslop K. R. 
Published: February 2015

The weapons from Populonia and Vetulonia have been the subject of an admirable study by Signora Tallochini and I am most grateful for her help when I was working in the Archæological Museum at Florence, where I was afforded every facility for studying the bronzes from these sites.Tomb 7 at Piano delle Granate, Populonia, an inhumation ‘fossa’ grave contained the bronze dagger (fig. 1, no. 1), a fibula with slightly thickened round bow, a bronze ring, fragments of bronze nails and bronze hooks, and fragmentary remains of the bows and pins of fibulas. There was no pottery. The description and contents of the tomb are published in Notizie degli Scavi, 1917, p.76 and also in A. Minto, Populonia: la Necropoli arcaica, Florence, 1922, p. 64. This tomb was one of a group of ‘fossa graves’ excavated in 1915 and situated close to the seashore on the flat area known as Piano delle Granate. When I visited Populonia in 1953 it was still possible to locate the tholos tombs and the fossa graves, which, with many cremation burials, were found all over this area, in spite of the thickness of the ‘macchia’ often entirely covering the tombs. An examination of the relative position of the chamber tombs and fossa graves certainly confirmed Minto's conclusion based on a study of the contents of the three different kinds of burials, that the cremation, fossa and some of the earliest type of chamber tombs must all have been used contemporaneously. This group of tombs when excavated also yielded the series of stilted fibulas and the fibula ‘a serpegiante’ (fig. 2).
Borodino, Seima and their Contemporaries: Key Sites for the Bronze Age Chronology of Eastern Europe
Authors: Gimbutas Marija 
Published: February 2015

The hoard from Borodino, north-west of the Black Sea, and the cemetery of Seima in central Russia are the best known names in the literature dealing with the Bronze Age of eastern Europe. On the alleged dates of Borodino and Seima the whole structure of the Bronze Age chronology of Russia and even Siberia is built.Tallgren in his Pontide Préscythique (1926) and in his earlier publications dated the Borodino and Seima finds to the period from 1300–1100 B.C. This date was used by many other archæologists. Tallgren based his views on analogies between Borodino and Koban axes (Tallgren 1926, 140) which actually do not exist. Koban axes are different; they belong to the Koban culture of the early Iron Age in the central Caucasus around the end of the second millennium B.C. The Borodino hoard is definitely earlier than the Koban culture. Another indication of a more or less absolute date of the Borodino hoard is the similarity of the ornamental motifs executed on the Borodino pin with those on the gold buttons from Shaft-Graves Nos. IV and V of Mycenæ. This relationship was already indicated by Spitsyn (1916).
A Microlithic Industry from the Cambridgeshire Fenland and other Industries of Sauveterrian Affinities from Britain
Authors: Clark J. G. D. 
Published: February 2015

One of Professor Childe's leading characteristics as a prehistorian has been the range and depth of his interests and sympathies. In the present contribution it is desired to acknowledge the interest he has shown in the mesolithic background to the neolithic colonization of Europe and his uncommon awareness of the relevance of Quaternary Research to the problems of prehistory.The opportunity will be taken to reconsider, in the light of a more abundant material and of recent advances in knowledge, the microlithic industry of Late Boreal age, first brought to light in the Cambridgeshire fens during the excavations carried out on behalf of the Fenland Research Committee during 1932 and 1934 at Plantation and Peacock's Farms, Shippea Hill. The object of these excavations was primarily stratigraphical and only a comparatively small quantity of mesolithic material was obtained at the time. Since then the opportunity has been taken at favourable seasons to collect on the surface of the sand ridges, and that on Peacock's Farm has yielded a sufficient quantity to give a reliable indication of the cultural affinities of the industry. Further, the researches of our French colleagues have thrown fresh light on the whole question of Post-Azilian microlithic industries and the new discoveries have led to changes of nomenclature directly relevant to the classification of the Peacock's Farm industry. Again, the zoning of British Postglacial deposits by means of pollen-analysis undertaken by Dr Godwin and his colleagues has made it possible to fix the chronological context of the Peacock's Farm assemblage and this in turn has made feasible a new approach to the history of the microlithic industries of Britain. Thanks to Dr Godwin's kind co-operation, it is now possible to publish a re-drawn pollen-diagram, illustrating the stratigraphy of the Lower Peat bed at Peacock's Farm and showing the relationship of the mesolithic occupation both to the forest-history zones and to the neolithic occupation of the sand-ridge on which prehistoric man settled from time to time.
Fire as Palaeolithic Tool and Weapon
Authors: Oakley Kenneth 
Published: February 2015

A number of recent discoveries have focused attention on questions relating to when and for what primary purposes fire was first used.The claim made in 1947 by Professor Raymond Dart (1952) that Australopithecus was a fire-user has been re-examined, but without confirmation. Briefly the relevant evidence is as follows.In 1925 Professor Dart received pieces of bone breccia which had been collected by Mr W. I. Eitzman at limeworks in the Makapansgat Valley near Potgietersrust in the Central Transvaal. As some of the fragments of bone had a charred appearance Professor Dart suspected that the breccia was a cave deposit containing hearths of early man. He submitted some of the blackened fragments for analysis to Dr J. Moir of the Government Chemical Laboratory, and to Dr F. W. Fox of the South African Institute for Medical Research. They found that when the material was dissolved in acid there was a residue of black particles which could be transformed into carbon dioxide. This was proof that the blackness of the bone fragments was due to free carbon, and in the circumstances it was naturally held to indicate that the bones were charred (Dart, 1925).
The Micro-burin in the Spanish Levant
Authors: Pericot Luis 
Published: February 2015

Since the studies of Vignard brought the micro-burin, the presence of which Siret had already noted at El Garcel, into fashion as an Upper Palaeolithic tool of unknown purpose, there has been much discussion of this tiny and enigmatic object.I confess that I paid little attention to it when I visited the collection of M. Vignard in Paris 25 years ago. He showed me his micro-burins from the Sebilian and, after hearing my account of the finds at Parpalló, predicted that I should find examples among the flints from that site, which I was then in process of classifying. And, in fact, a few months later I found the first example, a very fine and characteristic one, in the third Magdalenian level. Other examples followed from similar levels, and later, when we were classifying the flint from the Solutrean levels, we discovered to our surprise that they were also present there. Since then they have continued to appear on other sites, so that it seems worth while to summarize here the data which we now possess about them.Let us look at the situation in the deposits which I have studied.In the cave of Parpalló they are found in appreciable numbers at two points in the typological evolution. From a depth of 5.25 m. upwards, that is during the phases which I have named Upper Solutrean and final Solutreo-gravettian, they are relatively abundant (about 50 examples).
Coarse Beakers with ‘Short-Wave Moulding’
Authors: Becker C. J. 
Published: February 2015

Coarse ‘dwelling-place’ pottery is usually of little interest in the study of Neolithic cultures, for which reason it rarely receives the same attention as forms of ware that is of better workmanship, technically and artistically. Still, within the category ‘coarse pottery’ there may be details of no little significance to comparative archaeology. As an example, I propose in the following to discuss briefly a single type of vessel within European Corded-Ware or Battle-Axe cultures, starting out from some finds in Denmark where the type has not previously attracted attention.A few years ago an examination was made of a Stone Age settlement at Selbjerg, on the islet of Øland in the Limfiord, Northern Jutland; traces were observed of several Neolithic settlements in conjunction with a regular culture deposit and shell mound. One important discovery was pottery of the South Scandinavian Pitted-Ware Culture. Higher up in the deposit were fragments of pottery which were determinable as of Late Single Grave Culture. At least eight vessels were represented, including a beaker of flower-pot type and one or two large, coarse vessels. It has been possible to reconstruct the form of the best preserved specimen (fig. 1). It had measured about 35 cm. in height and presumably had a flat base (some bottom sherds may perhaps be parts of this vessel, but they have been omitted from the drawing). As the sole form of decoration it has an applied clay moulding just below the rim. Both rim and moulding are formed into waves by finger pressure.In better condition is a vessel (pl. III, a) recently excavated at Ravnholt, in the parish of Gesten, South Jutland. The upper part could be pieced together completely and the bottom was in such a state of preservation that it could be reconstructed; only a few sherds of the intermediate wall could not be fitted in. In all probability the vessel was about 40 cm. in height with a diameter of 35 cm. across the rim. It is relatively thin walled, the material is coarse and gravelly; both inside and out the surface presents a curious striation, as if the wet clay prior to kilning had been smoothed off with a whisk of straw or something else that was rough. On its outer side the edge of the rim is drawn out into small waves (pl. III, c), and about 2 cm. below it is a wavy moulding formed by finger pressure from one side. Otherwise the vessel is quite plain.