In 1966 David Clarke gave a series of lectures in the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge entitled Archaeological Taxonomy. These served as the basis for the preparation of a much expanded and more comprehensive treatise which was published in 1968 as the first edition of Analytical archaeology. This work was a substantial tome with the ambitious intention of providing a first approximation of an overall theoretical framework for the archaeological study of material culture.

In archaeology the recovery of ‘nuts’ means the recovery of any hard-shelled fruit or seeds, further qualified as those eaten by people. Recent analysis of environmental samples from Leang Burung-1 in the Maros district of Sulawesi (FIGURE 1) led to the recovery of a charred, almost intact nut, in deposits with an age range of 1430±600 BC (ANU-390) (Bulbeck 1997; Mulvaney & Soejono 1970).

The nut has a clear cut mark starting from the tapered end, running along the long axis. The cut was established as an incision and not a taphonomic feature based on observations under light microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy, where the cut could be seen scraping the outer tissue (FIGURE 2). The cut was probably made before charring, using a sharp tool to cut deep enough for the instrunent to pry open one of the locules to get to one of three kernels. Based on the associated materials recovered from the site, the cut probably was made using one of several flaked tool types recovered from the area, such as a levallois point — part of the Maros region blade assemblage (FIGURE 3).

In August 1998 the German archaeological world was stunned when two amateur archaeologists found decorated gold-sheet ornaments on a hill in Bavaria north of Munich, near a farm named Bernstorf, in the commune of Kranzberg. A Bronze Age fortified enclosure was known there, local amateurs having excavated it earlier in the 1990s; later, permission was granted for gravel extraction, trees were cleared and it was in this disturbed area that the gold appeared. The authorities were quickly alerted. Both the Staatssammlung in Munich (Bavarian State Archaeological Museum) and the Bayerisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege (BLfD, Bavarian State Office for Monument Care) took part in inspections and, subsequently, excavations. More gold, including a ‘diadem’, appeared and, in late September 1998, perforated lumps of amber. Then in November 2000, on the edge of an area under excavation by the BLfD, came the sensational discovery of two incised pieces of amber hailed as Mycenaean.

Cists are often met with on the open moors of Britain, and a brief account of them may therefore be of interest.

First, a few words about terminology. Our predecessors used also the words ‘Kist’ and ‘Kist-vaen’, and indeed the latter word still survives in some of our remoter western districts. ‘Kist-vaen’ is however an impossible word ; it was invented by antiquaries to whom all prehistoric monuments were ‘Celtic’, requiring therefore a Celtic name. Since the original name was unknown, new ones had to be invented. In the days when the words of Authority were heard with undue respect and awkward questions were seldom put, those spurious terms obtained wide currency. The word ‘cist’ has long been used by Scottish archaeologists, and it is the one adopted by the British Ordnance Survey.

It is not often that Egyptology features in US presidential campaigns, but such was the case back in November when Republican candidate Ben Carson asserted that the pyramids of Egypt were built not for burials but as grain stores. He had held this view for some time, apparently ascertaining it from the biblical narrative that tells how Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt, rose to be the pharaoh's right-hand man and built grain stores in the seven years of plenty to prepare for the seven lean years to follow (Genesis 41). Whether or not there is some historical truth behind that story, a leap of faith of an entirely different order is required to believe that the pyramids were the grain stores in question. Carson's theory has been widely—and quite properly—dismissed, and one could well ask, does it matter? But surely it must. Ignorance of the past among politicians, and the public at large, is not encouraging, and if they take so little notice of evidence from archaeology, will they do any better elsewhere?

Mrs Mary Aiken Littauer, a valued contributor to ‘Antiquity’ over some years, has a few bones to pick with Dr Ahmad Afshar and Dr Judith Lerner about their Note in our March 1979 issue.

‘To travel hopefully’ says Robert Louis Stevenson ‘is a better thing than to arrive’: and whoever would track a legend to its source must needs be an optimistic traveller, for his prospects of reaching his destination are remote. The man who indulges in this form of sport—and it has its fascinations—soon becomes aware that amid the records of the Ancients, which form his Happy Hunting-ground, inaccuracy and credulity abound; whereas dependable facts are few and far between. Somewhere or other a story starts—the narration of some actual incident or spectacle outside the common run. It passes from mouth to mouth, amassing a gradual increment of falsehood as it goes; until, by the time it crystallizes into legend it has become a fabrication inseparable from fiction, except perhaps for the survival within it of some chance and apparently superfluous detail, which gives us a clue to its origin and to the incident which give it birth.

Philip Rahtz, one of Britain’s finest excavators and first Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, offers his perception of the development of theory, practice – and, especially, of medieval archaeology.