bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Pit Alignments in the Milfield Basin, and the Excavation of Ewart 1
Authors: Miket Roger 
Published: February 2015

The pit alignment at Milfield North, discussed in the preceding paper, is one of six alignments revealed in the Milfield Basin within the last decade. All discoveries have so far been confined to the sands and gravels of the former delta surface, and whereas additional examples, as well as their extension onto the heavier loams overlying the sandstone series, remain to be found, so crisp has been the definition by means of intensive aerial survey in this valley, that only a limited enlargement of the present distribution pattern by this means is anticipated. The characteristics of the individual alignments are as follows:1. Ewart 1. NT95343209 to NT96103162An irregular line of closely spaced pits that for most of its observable course follows the crest of a gentle but marked elevation in the sand and gravel-terrace. Two interruptions are visible towards its eastern end before it angles southwards to disappear into a wood. Observed over 1100 m.Source: Cambridge University Collection. BDE35, BDE36, BKC40.Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne. A1656–1662.2. Ewart 2. NT95353165 to NT95803159Lying to the south of Ewart 1 and running broadly parallel to it. The pit sizes and spacing is similar to Ewart 1 although their inter-relationship is obscured at their eastern end by a plantation. Ewart 2 fades away at its western extremity. Observed over 300 m.Source: Cambridge University Collection. BDE35, BDE36.
The Shaugh Moor Project: Third Report—Settlement and Environmental Investigations
Authors: Smith K. , Coppen J. , Wainwright G. J. , Beckett S. , Balaam N. , Berridge G. , Browse R. , Keeley H. , Macphail R. , Wilkinson T. 
Published: February 2015

The third phase of the Shaugh Moor Project comprised survey and excavation work on the Saddlesborough Main reave and Wotter Common (fig. 1). Following the decision of the china clay companies not to develop the area immediately around Saddlesborough (Area Y), Watts, Blake and Bearne & Co Ltd and English China Clays Ltd embarked upon a joint tipping programme which will eventually destroy the terminal reave east of Saddlesborough and most of the monuments on Wotter Common (fig. 2).The area to the north of Saddlesborough was surveyed in 1976 and limited excavation was undertaken early in 1977 (Site 10, Wainwright et al 1979). An enclosure, 1 km to the north-east of Site 10, was totally excavated in 1977 and 1978 (Site 15, Wainwright and Smith 1980). In 1979 and 1980 the area threatened by the quarry extensions was surveyed and a programme of limited excavation was undertaken on the Saddlesborough Main reave and Wotter Common (Site 208).
Fire Ecology, Animal Populations and Man: a Study of some Ecological Relationships in Prehistory
Authors: Mellars Paul 
Published: February 2015

SummaryThe occurrence of fires in many types of woodland and forested environments would have benefited human populations in several different ways. In addition to greatly increasing the mobility of the human groups, the occurrence of fire in many types of forest would have led to substantial improvements in the economic potential of the environment. Improvements in both the quantity and nutritional quality of the food supplies available to herbivorous animals would have increased not only the total carrying capacity of the environment for these species, but also the relative growth-rates and reproductive rate of the animals. In certain cases it is likely that burning would have increased the overall ‘productivity’ of ungulate populations by a factor of × 10. Similar improvements may have been achieved in the yields of certain vegetable food resources. The potential impact of these environmental changes on the population numbers and settlement patterns of human communities is discussed, and it is suggested that the adoption of systematic policies of forest burning by hunting and gathering populations may have led in certain situations to the emergence of more complex patterns of man-animal relationships which were closely similar to those of traditional ‘herding’ or ‘pastoralist’ economies.
Palmette and Circle: Early Celtic Art in Britain and its Continental Background
Authors: Frey Otto-Herman , Megaw J. V. S. 
Published: February 2015

SummaryFollowing an outline of some aspects of continental Early Celtic art in which the importance of Mediterranean plant-derived motifs and compass construction work is emphasised, the authors consider some significant aspects of the development of the various sword sub-styles. An analysis of selected insular pieces points out the differences from, rather than the seeming similarities to continental Celtic art. It is argued that the earliest of such pieces cannot antedate the developed third century sword style(s) though absolute chronology is impossible to achieve as yet. A final section indicates that the later insular styles see a unique re-emergence of the reliance on compass based designs.
Interrupted Ditch Enclosures in Britain: the use of Aerial Photography for Comparative Studies
Authors: Palmer Rog 
Published: February 2015

SummaryAnalyses have been directed towards providing an objective basis for the untested assumption that interrupted ditch enclosures, discovered in riverine situations by aerial reconnaissance, are related to the high-lying neolithic causewayed enclosures. The results of a series of attribute analyses appear to justify the unity of the enclosures, while at the same time suggesting a division into four geographical groups. Aerial photography has been used to provide data for comparative studies. In this case, sites known only from the air have been compared with excavated enclosures which show similar characteristics. The resulting classification is thought to demonstrate the feasibility of such an application of aerial photographs.
The Meare Heath Trackway: excavation of a Bronze Age structure in the Somerset Levels
Authors: Coles J. M. , Orme B. J. , Beckett S. C. , Girling M. A. , Morgan R. A. 
Published: February 2015

The prehistoric structure described in this paper is only one of a large series of wooden roads and trackways that run into and across the Somerset Levels. The Levels themselves consist of a number of wide expanses of moorland separated by ‘islands’ of rock and sand, the whole covering a region in Somerset of about 200 square miles. In the northern part of the Levels, the peats of the valley of the River Brue have for long been subjected to hand-cutting and machine-cutting by a number of individuals and peat-companies. Through their activities, many prehistoric discoveries have been made and these have been reported at intervals in these Proceedings and elsewhere. In 1973, the Somerset Levels Project was formed to organize and conduct fieldwork and excavations in the Levels, and, through co-operation with both the Department of the Environment and the many peat interests in the Levels, the Project has been able to undertake many more investigations of prehistoric remains than had previously been possible; about 15 reports relating to recent works have been published, and those relevant to the present paper are listed in the References.The wooden trackway described here has been known to exist for almost 90 years, but so far as we are aware it has never before been fully examined, nor has it had the benefit of specialist studies dealing with dendrochronology and with fossil coleoptera associated with the trackway. These, allied to extensive wood identifications and pollen analyses, allow a more closely defined description and interpretation of the trackway which appear to us to alter the original concepts as published previously.
Two Shoulder Blades with Healed Lesions from Star Carr
Authors: Noe-Nygaard Nanna 
Published: February 2015

SummaryTwo shoulder blades with healed lesions found at the Mesolithic settlement Star Carr are described, one of an elk (Alces alces (L.)) and the other front red deer (Cervus elaphus L.). Their presence at the site throws light on the question of seasonal occupation, indicating that the site has been populated at least during winter time. In addition, some comments are made on the supposed lesions on the elk from High Furlong, Lancashire.
Social Dimensions of Early Neolithic Denmark
Authors: Randsborg Klavs 
Published: February 2015

In 1947 C. J. Becker, in his fundamental classifying work on the Early Neolithic phase of the socalled ‘Funnel-Beaker Culture’, described this set of phenomena within a frame of reference which can at best be termed ‘tribal’ (Becker 1947). For instance, in the late period of the Early Neolithic, Period C of the sequence, he observes certain differences, primarily of the type of decoration, in the pottery of respectively Northern Jutland and Southern Denmark. This result is connected with the differential patterns of distribution for other cultural features including forms of burial. Accordingly, the southern complex is baptized ‘The South Danish Megalithic Group’, the northern one ‘The North Jutland Non-Megalithic Group’. In Southern Denmark simple—‘earth’—graves are very few, while a much higher number of dolmens with Early Neolithic C pottery is known. In North Jutland the number of earth graves is considerable, but the picture is blurred by a relatively high number of dolmens too.Each of these assemblages, and a few minor ones not to be mentioned here, is seen as referring to a ‘tribe’ or ‘a group of tribes’ sharing the said types of graves, decorations on pottery, and, for instance, specific types of weapons. No clear-cut borderlines can, however, be drawn between the complexes as the geographical differences of the distributions consist of statistical concentrations of one or another trait in one area rather than of mutual exclusions. Only the type of decoration on the North Jutland pottery does not seem to occur outside this zone, while the reverse is not the case.
The Remains of a Late Glacial Elk Associated with Barbed Points from High Furlong, Near Blackpool, Lancashire
Authors: Hallam J. S. , Edwards B. J. N. , Barnes B. , Stuart A. J. 
Published: February 2015

SummaryIn July 1970, the complete skeleton of a male elk (Alces alcesL.) was discovered at Poulton-le-Fylde in a series of aquatic deposits. Uncontrolled excavation recovered most of the skeleton and part of a barbed bone or antler point of ‘Star Carr’ Proto-Maglemosian appearance. Subsequent investigation recovered the remainder of the skeleton and part of a second barbed point, allin situ. These lay in an organic detritus mud which pollen analysis has shown to belong to Zone II of the conventional NW European sequence, assigned to the Allerød Interstadial. The date is therefore likely to lie between 1000 and 2500 years earlier than that of Star Carr.Study of the bones showed at least 17 lesions, of which 3 were probably made some weeks before the animal died. The remainder were probably approximately coincident with death. These lesions were of types which implied the existence of sharp, hard-pointed projectiles (? flint-tipped arrows) and chopping blades (? axes). They were almost exclusively on limb-bones and ribs. The death had occurred in winter, both antlers having a splinter of pedicle attached, and the animal had evidently escaped butchery to die in a pool. The finds have been placed in the Harris Museum Art Gallery, Preston, by the owners Mr and Mrs J. Divine.
Prehistoric Roads and Tracks in Somerset, England: 3. The Sweet Track
Authors: Coles John M. , Hibbert F. A. , Orme Bryony J. , Pettit M. , Rushton D. , Switsur V. R. 
Published: February 2015

SummaryThe excavation of the Sweet track at two sites in the Somerset Levels has yielded unique material of the late fourth millennium bc. The track was built across a reed marsh, and the builders used a variety of timber obtained from both nearby fen-wood and from the dry land of the Burtle sand and the Poldens. Pollen analyses indicate that certain areas of the Levels were particularly favourable for forest clearance and cultivation, and the debris from the track shows a range of woodwork so far unique to the British Neolithic.
Ancient Agriculture in the Highland of Britain
Authors: Feachem R. W. 
Published: February 2015

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the ancient agriculture of the British highland, by indicating the broad distribution of the remains and by describing some examples in detail. The paper is based for the most part on records compiled in recent years in the course of the routine field reconnaissance carried out by the Archaeology Division of the Ordnance Survey, during which work on ancient highland agriculture was directed and prepared for publication by Mr James Fox, F.S.A., Assistant Archaeology Officer, Ordnance Survey. The illustrations are reproduced from documents held by the Ordnance Survey with the sanction of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Crown copyright reserved.The highland areas of Britain comprise: 1, the southwest of England; 2, Wales; and 3, England and Scotland from the River Trent to the Arctic Ocean. Most of the new information about ancient agriculture in the highland refers to area 3. It will be convenient first to summarize the situation in 1 and 2 and then to discuss area 3 in greater detail.
Passage-grave art in the Boyne Valley
Authors: O'Kelly Claire 
Published: February 2015

The art in question is found on the structural slabs of a group of megalithic tombs in the valley of the Boyne in Ireland. The tombs are all passage-graves and are characteristically situated on the highest local ground and grouped in a ‘cemetery’. The Boyne cemetery is about 15 km from the east coast and about 50 km by road north of Dublin. In an area approximately 4 × 4 km are situated the three large tumuli of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, as well as over 40 other monuments, more than half of which are passage-graves (fig. 1).The three large mounds are only a few kilometres apart; in fact, from any one of them the other two can be seen since all are in commanding situations. They are similar as regards size and appearance, that is to say, each consists of a mound of stones, or stones, earth, etc., circular in plan and flat-topped, about 85 m in diameter at the base and 12 to 15 m in height. The base of each is surrounded by a continuous kerb of large slabs, 97 at Newgrange, an estimated 110 at Dowth, and an estimated 120 at Knowth. Newgrange is the central tumulus, Dowth is to the north-east, and Knowth to the north-west.
Working with Radiocarbon Dates
Authors: Waterbolk H. T. 
Published: February 2015

C-14 datings can not only provide us with estimates of the absolute age of objects or occupation layers, but also, when available in sufficient numbers, with initial and terminal datings for cultural phases, thus defining their duration. The value of this is obvious: differential duration in different areas can at last provide definitive answers to long-disputed questions concerning the direction of cultural movement.Working with large numbers of C-14 dates is, however, not entirely free of problems. We are, for example, regularly confronted with larger differences between datings expected to be of similar age than can be accounted for by mere statistical error (Vogel, 1969a) or which can be explained by contamination or other simple causes. One can stop at this point and accept a limited testimonial value for C-14 dates (e.g. Steuer and Tempel, 1968), or one can try to go further by calculating average dates, assuming (for the most part incorrectly) that the chance of a date being too young is equal to its chance of being too old (Neustupný, 1968). The danger in this procedure is that one loses sight of the individual character of each determination: in fact one sample is much more securely associated and more closely contemporary with finds of a particular cultural phase than another, and the chance of contamination or admixture is different for each sample.Another problem is that the number of C-14 dates that one must take into consideration is often so large that they cannot be digested without some form of graphic presentation, and for this there is as yet no uniformity of practice.
Report on the Petrological Identification of Stone Axes from Yorkshire
Authors: Keen Laurence , Radley J. 
Published: February 2015

This is the first report by C.B.A. Group IV (Yorkshire) on the petrological identification of stone axes since 1962 when the group undertook to help members, in part financially and in part with organisation, to obtain sections and petrological identifications of implements in their possession. Some of the sectioned artifacts are in the possession of individual members but the bulk belongs to public museum collections.The programme was initiated by Mr D. P. Dymond, a former group secretary, and since 1964 has been continued by Mr Laurence Keen. A considerable quantity of axes remains to be sectioned. The rate of sectioning at present is about one hundred and twenty a year. Attempts by the writers to increase the rate of sectioning have been unsuccessful because it has proved impossible to interest capable technicians in the project. However, grateful acknowledgment must be made here to Mr E. D. Evens who has willingly arranged for the sectioning of virtually all the axes in the following Register. The majority of thin sections was made by Mr E. W. Seavill. The writers would also like to thank Dr F. S. Wallis, who has also kindly checked the geological part of this report, Dr D. W. Humphries, Professor W. F. Grimes, Mr J. Bartlett who has kindly made available for publication material in his keeping, Mr H. Coope, and Dr K. C. Dunham, who have made the petrological identifications.
Explanation in Prehistory
Authors: Harriss J. C. 
Published: February 2015

Jacquetta Hawkes in a paper called ‘The Proper Study of Mankind’ (Hawkes, 1968) has made an impassioned plea against what she considers to be the ‘dehumanization’ of prehistory at the hands of those who have sought to apply to it numerical methods and the techniques of the natural sciences. There can be few who do not sympathize with her denunciation of aimless manipulation of data and the use of techniques for their own sakes; and many must share Clark's fear that prehistoric archaeology will serve merely ‘… to provide intellectual games for the meritocracy’ (Clark, 1967, 472). But such comments as these only prompt the question ‘what are we studying prehistory for?’ or ‘what is prehistory about?’The well-being of any academic discipline depends upon the posing of questions like these, for if a subject is to develop at all, it must undergo periods of self-analysis when some of its practitioners take stock of what they themselves and others are doing. The analysis may be concerned with methods and techniques and may either tacitly or openly accept the existing philosophy. Or it may consider the philosophy of the subject directly, by asking if the priorities of a past age are still acceptable or whether in the different climate of thought of the present, they must be changed. Self-analysis of this kind may however produce a state of unease and disquiet.
Territorial Patterns in Bronze Age Wessex
Authors: Fleming Andrew 
Published: February 2015

The work presented in this paper arose from an attempt to study society and economy in England during the period conventionally referred to as the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. The discussion of questions of this sort is traditionally supposed to be less reliable and important than taxonomic studies aimed at the construction of a relative chronology; this is largely because the basic assumptions of typology have not been questioned very much recently. The establishment of an absolute chronology has also been a major object of research, but now that the Mycenaean import horizon has finally collapsed (Newton and Renfrew, 1970) there is a vacuum which is hardly filled by the handful of radiocarbon dates available. We have the vaguest of ideas about what was actually happening in terms of people, but our understanding of when it was happening, and in which order, is only marginally better.Most information has come from the contents of burial mounds, but the topographical aspects of the barrows have been neglected, despite the immensely valuable information collected by Grinsell for much of southern England, including lists of all known barrows and what has been found in them. Without this information, this kind of study would have been impossible. Grinsell's maps of round barrow distributions in Dorset (Grinsell, 1959, maps 2 and 4) and Wiltshire (Grinsell, 1957, maps IV and V) suggest that even on one geological solid (in this case chalk) there are great differences in the densities of these monuments, that bell- and disc-barrows are not distributed at random, and that a study of the sizes and types of cemetery might prove rewarding, although maps at this scale can only provide general indications.
An Acheulean Industry with Prepared Core Technique and the Discovery of a Contemporary Hominid Mandible at Lake Baringo, Kenya
Authors: Leakey Margaret , Tobias P. V. , Martyn J. E. , Leakey R. E. F. 
Published: February 2015

The material discussed in this paper was obtained during 1966 from the region to the west of Lake Baringo. Excavations were conducted in two areas about a mile apart, on either side of the Kapthurin River. The positions of these excavations are to be found on the 1: 50,000 Survey of Kenya map, Sheet 90/4 of Series Y731, Edition I-D.O.S. The first is located at ZR 314/637 and the second at ZR 316/621. Fig. 1 is based on a small section of Sheets 30/4 and 31/3 and is reproduced by permission of the Director of Surveys, Nairobi. A hominid mandible and a living site were discovered in the first area whilst in the second a factory site was found. These sites lie in the Kapthurin Beds of the eastern area of the Kamasian Hills. The beds are possibly upper Middle Pleistocene and are divided from the underlying Chemeron beds which are of Plio/Pleistocene age.The geology of the area was first described by J. W. Gregory (1921). It was subsequently studied and re-assessed by V. E. Fuchs (1939 and 1950) and by McCall, Baker and Walsh (1967). The most recent study has been made by Mr J. E. Martyn of Bedford College, London, who was engaged in geological mapping of the area west of Lake Baringo in 1966 and 1967. A report on the Kapthurin Beds by J. E. Martyn follows this introduction.During the course of mapping, J. E. Martyn and his assistants found a number of fossils in the Chemeron beds. He showed these to Mr Jonathan Leakey who noticed an incomplete hominid temporal bone amongst them.
British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic Handaxe Groups
Authors: Roe Derek A. 
Published: February 2015

In the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1964, the writer presented (Roe, 1964) an interim report on his programme of research on the British Lower and Middle Palaeolithic material, describing methods of studying assemblages of handaxes by metrical and statistical analysis, and outlining the first results obtained. The present paper offers a summary of the final results obtained for certain aspects of the same research project, in particular the discerning of various groupings among the 38 handaxe assemblages considered. The Groups which emerge are clusters of sites whose industries are similar in terms of the morphological range and usual degree of refinement of their handaxes.The Thesis for which the research was undertaken was completed in March, 1967 (Roe, 1967), and is available for consultation. It is of course quite impossible to quote in the present paper more than a small part of the evidence upon which the final conclusions depend.