Of all the early prehistoric monuments of Britain the Dorset Cursus is both the largest and at the same time one of the least known. Its claim to pre-eminence in terms of mere size is sufficiently established by the facts that it is six miles in length, contains an area of two hundred and twenty acres, and in its original state comprised a volume of earthwork amounting to some six-and-a-half million cubic feet. The significance of these figures may better be appreciated by a comparison with Avebury, which had originally an earthwork volume of about three-and-a-half million cubic feet, or with the Stonehenge Cursus, which is a little less than one-and-three-quarter miles in length, and encloses only seventy acres.

Now that more than a year has elapsed since the publication of Dr Michael Ventris’ brilliant discovery that the Mycenaean tablets inscribed in Linear B contained Greek, a preliminary answer may be given to the question of their bearing on the interpretation of Homer. My purpose here is to indicate where our 8th century Iliad and Odyssey agree with the tablets and where they differ.

Readers of Sir Mortimer Wheeler's archaeological publications are already aware of the high standard of photography demanded in his excavations. Now Mr M. B. Cookson, who has worked with him for many years, speaks in his own right and reveals in some measure how these standards are achieved.

Mr Cookson's book is addressed primarily to the archaeologist who is about to turn (at least temporarily) photographer. Nevertheless, much of what he has to say may be read with equal profit by the professional photographer who is leaving his well-equipped studio for a season on a remote excavation or by the professional archaeologist who has no photographic intentions.

This book is a proof of the persistence of scientific catchwords which continue to be used from sheer ignorance or mental indolence, although they have been exposed by research. For how long, for instance, have philologists and archaeologists been writing about Westgermanen and Ostgermanen, though people thus named never existed ? And how often do abstract terms or conceptions such as ‘people’, ‘tribe’, ‘linguistic group’ become confused with each other or projected back into periods where they do not belong ? Maurer's merit is to have clarified these problems of Germanic philology. He tells us the history of the subject as well as the relevant facts, and above all the interaction between linguistics and archaeology. His book is less a description of the interrelations between Nordgermanen and Alemanni than a history of the Germanic groups and tribes at the time of Tacitus.

Peculiar to the red clay plain of northwest Syria are the ‘beehive’ villages called ‘Campo di Melle’ by the early Venetian and Genoese traders. The characteristic beehive name and shape is a purely Western concept as the local beehive is a small mud cube. These village houses, built of mud brick, are ideally adapted to their environment ; they are warm in winter and cool in summer. The villages cluster about ancient ‘tells’ or dot the plains from Aleppo south to Homs, occupying a total area of roughly thirty by one hundred and fifty miles (PLATES v and VI). To the north and east this distinctive type of building gives way to the square mud brick house with flat mud roof supported on poles and brush, while to the west the rocky outcrops of the Lebanon range provide an easily worked stone for houses and barns.