Northern Belize lies in the northeastern quadrant of the central rainforest zone of the area formerly occupied by Classic Maya civilization, adjacent to the ecological frontier with the northern zone, the arid karstic plain of northern Yucatan. It is bounded on the east by the Caribbean, and is traversed by two of the major rivers of the Maya lowlands, the Rio Hondo and Rio Nuevo, the upper tributaries of which drain the Maya heartland of south Campeche and northeastern Peten.

The advance of new scientific methods, in particular the thermoluminescence technique for analysis of ceramic objects (Aitken and Fleming, 1972; Perlman et al., 1972), have opened up new possibilities for investigation of the mysterious finds at Glozel. As a first contribution we describe in this article the thermoluminescence analysis of a number of typical Glozelian objects: inscribed clay tablets, face urns, sexual idols, small vessels (lamps) and bobines. Our results are in marked contrast with earlier assumptions of forgery: all objects investigated prove to be genuine and give a preliminary date within the period 700 BC-AD 100.

For prehistorians of an earlier generation North Africa was an important staging area for the diffusion of neolithic arts into Western Europe, The light of Egyptian civilization was diffused along the southern Mediterranean until it dimly illuminated the cave dwellers of the Maghreb and Iberia (e.g. Vaufrey, 1955, Forde-Johnston, 1959). Spanish prehistorians, beginning with Bosch-Gimpera, were particularly fervent Africanists: even Martínez Santa Olalla's (1946) terms, ‘Hispanomauritano’ (for the Impressed Ware Culture) and ‘Iberosahariano’ (for the Almeria Culture), gained wide acceptance for a time. Under the influence of Tarradell (1959), Africanism has lost ground even in Spain and more recent syntheses (such as McBurney, 1960) have emphasized the continuing mesolithic tradition in North Africa. Still, the idea of close North AfricanISpanish ‘connexions’ persists even among anti-diffusionists (Renfrew, 1967). A brief review of the Neolithic of the Maghreb is appropriate, therefore, in order to indicate its true importance for Western Mediterranean prehistory.

It is well enough known that readers of English enjoy unimpeded access to 'the greatest book written about the Etruscans' in George Dennis's Cities and cemeteries of Etruria (Strong, 1968, 140). Well enough known: but not entirely true. Dennis's references to the Etruscans themselves have rather less evocative charm and lasting value than his guide to their country: 'he (and his contemporaries) got the history hopelessly wrong' (Finley, 1972, III; and see Dennis himself, 1893, on Phoenicians in America).

The winter of 1973-74 saw the extension of British archaeological activities to Qatar, an independent Arab state on the western shore of the Gulf to the east of Bahrain (FIG. 1). Surrounded on three sides by sea, Qatar’s inland borders lie with Saudi Arabia on the south-west and Abu Dhabi on the south-east. From the air Qatar appears to rise imperceptibly from the sea, its arid limestone plateaux stretching endlessly southward until they meet the high encroaching dunes from Saudi Arabia. Although generally flat the terrain is far from featureless and low cliffs, eroded mezas and dramatic gas flares add interest to the landscape in the west near Dukhan where the British Archaeological Expedition to Qatar was hospitably accommodated by the Qatar Petroleum Company.

In the year 1725 William Stukeley entered into correspondence with the eminent Scottish antiquary, Sir John Clerk of Penicuik. 'It has been a frequent matter of wonder to me', wrote Stukeley in his first letter, 'that so many monuments of Antiquity as Scotland may justly boast of, should for ages past lye exposed to the sun, neglected and untouched, whilst every corner of Italy is ransacked and threadbare, we waste away immense sums of our treasure for some abject gleanings there, overlooking a rich and ripe harvest at our own doors.