bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Mesolithic in the South of France: a critical analysis
Authors: Smith M. A. 
Published: February 2015

At the time when the type-sites of the Dordogne were being explored French archaeologists were equally active further south in their country. From caves and surface sites in the Mediterranean provinces local landowners, doctors and clergy were collecting material which not only matched most of the palaeolithic tool forms being distinguished in the south-west of France, but was later to provide Déchelette with many of his illustrations for the neolithic and metal ages. It was not uncommon for flints, pottery and metal all to come from the same cave.These old collections, or such of them as can be traced, are the basis of what is known about the prehistory of the south of France. Unfortunately, much of the material has come down to us with very little information, apart from provenance, and although some details of excavation were carefully recorded it seems generally to have been considered that plans of caves were more informative than sections through them.Topographically the south of France consists largely of a narrow alluvial plain, stretching right round the Gulf of Lions between the Italian and Spanish frontiers and broadening out in the delta of the Rhône. Today the region is distinguished from the rest of France by its Mediterranean climate. East of the Rhône, in Provence, this coastal climate is soon modified to the north by the high mountains, but in the old province of Languedoc between the Rhône and the Pyrenees the typical Mediterranean vegetation is carried up onto the rocky limestone plateau, or Garrigue, until it reaches the barren Causses of the Massif Central. In France, the western limit of this climatic zone falls between Carcassonne and Toulouse, but eastward and to the south the Mediterranean conditions continue, so that the south French plain forms a climatic unit with the coastlands of Italy and Spain.This plain, shut in to the north by high land, is most easily accessible from the sea or coastwise from adjacent Mediterranean countries. Easy communication with the rest of France is confined to the great river valleys of the Rhône and Aude which cut through the mountains to the north and west.
Third 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

Fourteen years have elapsed since the appointment of the sub-committee in 1936 to consider the petrological identification of stone implements with special reference to the area covered by the South-Western Group of Museums and Art Galleries; and two reports have been published in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, VII (1941), 50 and XIII (1947), 47, outlining briefly the results of its work. Considerable progress has been made since the appearance of the Second Report and it has therefore been deemed advisable to issue a more comprehensive Third Report summarizing as far as possible all results and thus making available in compact form many of the facts accumulated.In the Second Report, we drew attention to the fact that in 1945 the value of the work to archaeology was appreciated sufficiently for the Council for British Archaeology to raise what was virtually a regional monopoly on to a national basis, and to appoint, as Honorary Secretary, Mr W. F. Grimes, M.A., F.S.A., Director of the London Museum, to coordinate the work of the existing museum federations. A generous grant towards the cost of the work was made in 1949 by the Lever hulme Trust, since it seemed unlikely that extension of studies would be possible from museum resources alone.
The Geological Age of the Cromer Forest Bed
Authors: Azzaroli Augusto 
Published: February 2015

The present writer has had recently the opportunity to carry out a revision of the deer of the Cromer Forest Bed series of East Anglia. The entire work is to be published in the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). The stratigraphical conclusions will be summarized here.The occurrence of relatively archaic species together with more modern species in the Forest Bed fauna has puzzled many palaeontologists. Whereas the older authors concluded that it was wholly Pliocene (Reid, 1890, with bibliography) or partially or totally derived (Dubois, 1905), more recently a tendency has become prevalent to attribute the whole fauna to the early Pleistocene, and to explain the more archaic species as relics (Osborn, 1922; Zeuner, 1945). It may be shown that all these interpretations are untenable.A Pliocene age is ruled out by the presence of species which immigrated into Europe after the close of the Villafranchian. On the other hand, the older representatives, once attributed to the Pliocene but actually of Upper Villafranchian age, do not constitute isolated relics: an entire faunal assemblage characteristic of that epoch is present. Moreover, primitive species occur in the Forest Bed fauna together with their more advanced descendants, and the fauna is richer in species than in any other locality.
Excavations at Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar
Authors: Waechter J. d'A. 
Published: February 2015

Gorham's Cave is one of a group of seven which lie at the base of the cliffs on the east side of Gibraltar, below Europa Advance Road, which is about two hundred feet above them. There is now a beach in front of the five southern caves but this has only been in existence for a few years, and arose from the depositing of tunnel spoil over the cliff edge. Four of the caves are named, starting from the south end of the beach, Bennett's, Gorham's, Vanguard and Boathoist; the remaining three have local names which change from time to time. The beach, which is now called Anderson Beach, will probably disappear in a few years and the sea will again reach the base of the cliffs.The cave is named after Major A. Gorham who explored a fissure at the back of the main cave in 1907, and for convenience both have been called by his name. The finding of an archaeological deposit was due originally to two members of R.E.M.E., when temporary access had been made to the beach from the cliffs above, and excavations were carried out in the upper level by Captain G. B. Alexander, R.E., and Lieut. Monke, R.E.In 1948 the Governor of Gibraltar asked that full scale excavations should be carried out and two seasons' work have now been devoted to the cave under his patronage and with the help of funds supplied by the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund.
Palaeoliths from the Fen District
Authors: Baden-Powell D. F. W. 
Published: February 2015

New discoveries during recent years of Palaeolithic implements near March and other places in the Fen District are important, because little is known of the cultural stages which can be correlated with the marine March Gravel. As far as I know, the only palaeoliths which have been reported so far from the Fenland area are:—(1). A flake of Levalloisian type from Griffin's pit, one mile south-east of Wimblington; and a flake of Clactonian type from Bedlam Farm, 1 mile north-east of Manea (Baden-Powell, 1934, figs. 4–5, p. 217).(2). An ‘almond-shaped’ implement reported from March by the Geological Survey (Skertchly, in Whitaker, 1893, p. 113). Apparently this specimen has not yet been fully described or figured.(3). Five Acheulian implements and various flakes from Tottenhill south of King's Lynn; also flakes from South Wootton north of King's Lynn. Most of these implements were found by Dr C. B. Plowright, and were mentioned by H. J. Hillen (Hillen 1911, p. 118) and by J. E. Marr (Marr, 1920, pp. 186–7 and 1926, p. 120). These specimens were presented to the King's Lynn Museum, where there is also an Acheulian implement from East Winch, near the Nar Valley.(4). A number of implements from various gravels in and around the south-eastern Fens, mentioned by J. G. D. Clark (1938, pp. 253–4). One from Burnt Fen was identified as Levallois v.
The Problem of the Survival of the Tripolye Culture
Authors: Sulimirski T. 
Published: February 2015

The archaeology of the Pontic lands conceals several unsolved problems, and the puzzle of the sudden breakdown and disappearance of the Tripolye culture ranks as one among the most striking of these. Several scholars who have dealt with Tripolye culture have expressed views, but none of them has proposed a really satisfactory solution.In the twenties of this century the commonest view was that the Tripolye population simply left their native country at the end of the late Stone Age. E. v. Stern was of the opinion that the fact that the Tripolye culture disappeared suddenly at the summit of its development, and that another culture very akin to it appeared simultaneously on the Aegean territory, is clear proof of a great movement which brought the Tripolye population from the Pontic steppes down to their new homeland in the Aegean.
Battle-axes in the Aegean
Authors: Hutchinson R. W. 
Published: February 2015

Tracking the elusive Indo-European has been a favourite sport of archaeologists and philologists ever since the days of the brothers Grimm, and surely some share of their power of telling fascinating fairy stories must have descended on their philological and archaeological successors.Some authorities have tried to associate the spread of Indo-European languages with that of cremation burials or with the diffusion of a particular physical type. The German school of Penka and Kossinna regarded these languages as the product of the Nordic race, and connected this diffusion with a group of cultures characterized by double axes or hammer-axes of stone, by axe-adzes of copper, and by certain varieties of pottery such as corded ware, globular amphorae, etc.I am not here concerned with the origin of these weapons. The axe-hammers may indeed ultimately be derived from stag-horn types of the mesolithic age. The copper axe-adzes are more restricted in their chronological and geographical setting. Still more restricted in their distribution and more definitely associated with Indo-European speaking peoples are two groups of metal battle-axes found especially in Persia and associated by M. Godard with the Kassites, the halberd-axe and the spiked-butt battle-axe. The first group, derived apparently from the ‘axe with double perforation’ does not really concern us since it seems almost to be confined to Persia, though its parent the ‘Hache à double évident’ occurs first in a double form in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, becomes acclimatized in Syria, and is found so far afield as Vapheio near Sparta, and Mycenae.
Mesolithic Sites in the Neighbourhood of Flixton, North-east Yorkshire
Authors: Moore John W. 
Published: February 2015

The setting of the discoveries (1947–9) described in this paper is the relatively flat and low-lying basin of the easterly and coastal end of the Vale of Pickering in north-east Yorkshire. Abounding hereabouts are many ditches nearly all of which serve as field boundaries draining what is mostly quagmire of varying depth. These empty their waters into the Hertford river or Muston Drain, a canalised version of an ancient stream which rises near the coast and flows directly inland. Sections revealed in these drains, supplemented by borings, show the area around Flixton to possess a stratified series of Late Glacial and Early Post-glacial deposits distinct from anything yet known in the greater part of the Vale to the west. Although the Pleistocene geology of the Vale of Pickering is not yet adequately understood, the presence of these deposits makes the Flixton area of far more than local interest.During the early part of the summer of 1947, I examined some gravels forming an exposure in the face of a ditch. Nothing of archaeological interest was seen at the time, but one week later I made a second, somewhat casual, scrutiny of the same section and upon this occasion I found and extracted the flint blade which presaged a closer scrutiny of the section and eventual excavation within the area (Site 1). It was not until the excavation of Site 1 had been nearly completed (Nov. 1948) that other sites were located.
A Preliminary Report on Excavations at Star Carr, Seamer, Scarborough, Yorkshire, 1949
Authors: Clark J. G. D. , Godwin H. , Fraser F. C. , King J. E. 
Published: February 2015

The object of the excavations described in this preliminary report was to recover evidence of:(a) the more perishable elements in the material culture of a Maglemosian community,(b) the fauna on which this community largely subsisted and(c) the vegetation which formed the ecological setting of man and beast alike.The best way of appreciating the need for such an investigation and of judging the measure of success attained in this first season is to consider how knowledge of the Maglemosian culture in Britain grew up between the two world wars. There appear to have been two main clues, namely single finds of barbed bone points, commonly, though probably wrongly, referred to in the early literature as ‘harpoons,’ and flint industries of a type associated with analogous points on Maglemosian sites in the Baltic area.
Prehistoric Discoveries in Siam, 1943–44
Authors: van Heekeren H. R. 
Published: February 2015

It is probably well known that the Japanese compelled Allied prisoners of war to work on the Bangkok-Moulmein railway, which was constructed during the war through the jungles of Siam and Burma. The author, who was captured in Java, arrived at the base camp of Nom-Pladuk on the 9th of February, 1943, and was sent at once to Taroewa, a village situated some 8 miles up-country. Being a member of the so-called ‘nail-shift,’ I started from this camp whenever opportunities presented themselves to study the entire region of the railway and the immediate surroundings as far north as the ‘Three Pagodas Pass’ on the Siam-Burma frontier, where the connection with the Burma section of the railway was accomplished. The total distance involved is somewhat over 140 miles, and the course of the river, the Mei Fingnoi, or Meklong, was always followed. Since all my discoveries were made along the first 75 miles of the railway, the remaining part need hardly be mentioned.From the outset, I was constantly on the alert for prehistoric remains, this being possible since much ground was removed during the construction of the railway, but methodical investigations were naturally out of the question, while much of the material collected was subsequently lost again. All my scientific notes were taken from me by the Japanese.
The Neolithic Cultures of South-East Italy
Authors: Stevenson Robert B. K. 
Published: February 2015

South-east Italy, from the spur to the heel of Italy's boot, forms a natural geographic and cultural unit, separated from the Balkans by the Adriatic yet joined to them by the same sea. It is an area of plain and plateau bounded to the west and north by the Apennines, which come down to the sea at the Gulf of Taranto and again north of the Gargano peninsula.Considerably more material for the study of the neolithic cultures in this area has been found since T. E. Peet drew attention to their interest nearly forty years ago (II). Yet while the main kinds of pottery are recognised, positive evidence for their succession is still scarce. This is chiefly due to the lack of fully stratigraphic digging, as well as to a tendency to regard the objects found on any single site as ipso facto contemporary with one another or at least as due to a continuous occupation. Some confusion is probably also caused by the number of separate stations all usually called ‘Matera.’ Even so the main phases are now distinguishable, and the chief differences of opinion are regarding the extent to which the characteristic range of pottery of each of these, with all that that implies, continued alongside of the innovations.The following account based on war-time reading, and brief visits to Matera museum and a number of sites, will stress the view that there was fairly complete replacement: in this and the resulting division into three distinct periods, tentatively indicated by Rellini in 1929 (14c), it goes beyond the views of most Italian archaeologists, as well as previous English resumes. In particular Laviosa-Zambotti in her recent important study of Italian cultures and their relations with Central Europe and the Balkans (8b), while admitting that the various wares are due to a series of influences from outside, concludes that they are truly associated and therefore largely synchronous. This may be due in part to her leaning toward ‘short’ chronologies elsewhere. However, particularly in view of J. S. P. Bradford's remarkable crop-site discoveries (2), it seems worthwhile to set out the existing evidence for a more elaborate scheme, to be tested by future excavations.
A Neolithic Site at Ronaldsway, Isle of Man
Authors: Bruce J. R. , Megaw E. M. , Megaw B. R. S. 
Published: February 2015

When, in 1935, Dr Grahame Clark rediscovered the unpublished finds from a site at Glencrutchery, near Douglas in the Isle of Man, he at once realised that he had come upon the relics of a culture that was new to British archaeology. Its age and affinities were quite unknown, and in his most useful pioneer study (Clark, 1935, pp. 85–91) of the material, Dr Clark suggested that it should be assigned to a period which he called the ‘Ultimate Bronze Age’ of the Island, perhaps contemporary with the Iron Age in Britain.Investigation of material from other Manx sites subsequently made a much earlier dating seem likely, and this impression was confirmed in 1943 by the discovery of a richly-furnished dwelling site at Ronaldsway. Thanks to this chance discovery it is now apparent that we have to deal with a new facet of Neolithic civilisation in these Islands. So far it is known to us only in the Isle of Man.
Les plages anciennes portugaises entre les Caps d'Espichel et Carvoeiro et leurs industries paléolithiques
Authors: Breuil Par L'Abbé H. , Vaultier Maxime , Zbyszewski Georges 
Published: February 2015

Depuis 8 mois, nous avons, entre autres terrains riches en Paléolithique ancien, exploré la plupart des plages anciennes au Nord et au Sud de Lisbonne, du cap d'Espichel au Sud, à la presqu'île de Peniche au Nord, soit environ 120 km. de côtes, dont auparavant (grotte de Furninha excepté) on ne savait rien du point de vue préhistorique. Les sîtes les plus importants qui nous ont livré du matériel, parfois en très grande quantité, sont du Sud au Nord:(a) Entre Sado et Tage: les plages anciennes du Fort de Barralha (Espichel), de Lagosteiros et de Foz da Fonte, au Nord du cap.(b) Entre Tage et Serra de Sintra: plages de S. Juliao da Barra et du Guincho.(c) Au Nord de la Serra de Sintra, les plages de Magoito, Açafora, Ericeira, Beiramar.(d) Autour de Peniche, les plages de Consolaçao, Porto de Lôbos, phare de Peniche et grotte de Furninha, dans sa falaise.Nous avons recueilli de nombreuses observations géologiques et archéologiques, et récolté, sur ces anciennes plages, un matériel lithique considérable, principalement en quartzite, parfois en basalte ou en silex, voire en calcaire dur. De sorte qu'en attendant une description plus détaillée qui ne tardera pas trop à paraître, nous sommes en mesure de tirer dès maintenant quelques conclusions d'ensemble sur ce littoral et ses industries paléolithiques marines.
The Socketed Bronze Sickles of the British Isles; with special reference to an unpublished specimen from Norwich
Authors: Fox Cyril 
Published: February 2015

In 1934 a schoolboy found ‘under a rubbish heap, but practically on the surface’ within the boundaries of the city of Norwich a socketed sickle (fig. 1, and pl. xxv, 14). The type is familiar to students of the Bronze Age since Wilde published an Irish example in his Catalogue of Antiquities in the National Museum at Dublin.The present handsome and perfect specimen, which I publish by courtesy of the Corporation of Norwich, and of the Curator of the Norwich Museum, Miss G. V. Barnard, measures 5.9 inches in greatest length, and 3.0 inches in height. The blade is double-edged: its bold curved outline is emphasized by raised beads defining a central rounded rib which expands towards the socket. On the socket, above a moulded necking from which the lower edge of the blade springs, is a decorative pattern in the form of an M, the upper angles of which extend to form outward-curving scrolls on which the headings of the blade are aligned more or less tangentially. The outer scroll, which is more complete than the inner, forms a moulded rim to a large circular hole. The hole was probably a loop for a thong; the sickle then may have dangled from the owner's waist.
Excavations at Woodbury, near Salisbury, Wiltshire (1938)
Authors: Bersu Gerhard 
Published: February 2015

The existence of two prehistoric sites close on the south-west side of Salisbury was first demonstrated by Mr O. G. S. Crawford, F.S.A., from a chance air-photograph taken by Pilot-Officer Jonas, R.A.F. (Antiquity, III, 452). They are now called Woodbury I and II from a field name. The smaller of the two sites, Woodbury II, was selected for excavation by the Prehistoric Society because its size (diameter 150 m.) made its complete examination financially feasible and its clear markings promised good results. The site lies in the parish of Britford on high ground overlooking the Avon valley from the south-west, one mile west-south-west of Britford parish church. The ground is flat about 280 feet above sea level, and the site is set well back from the edge of the descent into the water meadows of the valley.It was tested in March 1938 by Mr C. W. Phillips, F.S.A., who proved that the dark band of the enclosure revealed by the air-photograph (pl. LVII) was a ditch of V-shaped section. His discovery of Iron Age ‘A’ pottery in the silting suggested that the site belonged to this culture.The aim of the Prehistoric Society in undertaking the investigation of this site has been to excavate it in its entirety. Such a work might be expected to fulfil two objects:(a) by excavating the site completely many problems raised by the numerous partial excavations of analogous sites might be solved. In particular, profiting by previous experience in Germany, it was hoped to reveal something of the nature of such settlements and of the social organisation which they imply.(b) the investigation might be expected to throw some fresh light on the interpretation of markings on air-photographs.The restricted area of the site and the shallowness of the surface soil revealed by Mr Phillips's test made it particularly favourable for this kind of work, while the strong probability of building development in the near future lent urgency to the task.
The Early Development of Agriculture in Britain
Authors: Curwen E. Cecil 
Published: February 2015

The discovery of agriculture marks the greatest advance in the history of mankind— comparable only to that which has followed the discovery of electricity and the invention of steam and internal combustion engines. It is now well recognised that without agriculture man was a food-gatherer, dependent on nature's supplies in hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants, whereas with agriculture he has become a food -producer, able to augment nature's fitful supply in both animal and vegetable kingdoms.In modern speech the term ‘agriculture’ is often used to cover stock-raising as well as corn-growing; in the present paper, however, it will be used in its literal sense of the tilling of fields, and more particularly the cultivation of corn. This art appears to have been developed before that of stock-raising, and though both the cultivation of corn and the domestication of certain animals are among the elements that led to the first rise of civilization in the Near East, yet there may have existed at first a certain antipathy between the nomad herdsman and the settled farmer. This line of cleavage is well exemplified in the story of Cain and Abel, and the continuation of the story shows very well how it was the settled farmers, represented by Cain's descendants, who built the first cities and developed the working of metal and the arts of music, while the herdsman remained nomadic.