Uruk is the ancient name of the great ruin-field of Warka, which is situated near the station of El Khidr on the Irak railway, about 20 kilometres north of the Euphrates. It is now in the heart of a desert region almost exactly in the middle of the land of Sumer (the Shinar of the Old Testament).

No book quite like this has ever been written. That is partly because the scientific discoveries upon which it is based are themselves so new that some of them are still unpublished (the earliest pictograms, for instance). But even when the knowledge is less new it is, for the most part, the special preserve of a few students, of great powers but limited range and outlook. Professor Childe can meet them on their own ground, for he has studied the archaeology of the Near East and India (as well as of Europe) at first hand. Four of the nine chapters in this book ‘are based on first-hand study of the original objects, and reports’ (p. vii); and, indeed, so are the relevant parts of the first three—the last two being of a general nature. There is probably no man living with better qualifications for such a theme as the Making of Man; and that holds true, whether one agrees (as the reviewer does) with Professor Childe's thesis, or not. Most of it, of course, is not opinion but fact.

The earlier efforts of mankind to assure an abundance of food consisted largely in the performance of magical ceremonies, frequently orgiastic in character. It is sometimes forgotten that such methods, even after regular cultivation had come into being, long continued to survive in close association with what we should consider more rational procedures. Yet this is a fact which we need to keep steadily in mind while we try to work out the early history of the traction-plough, which here refers to ploughs drawn by animals, especially those of the ox-kind,

Uruk is the ancient name of the great ruin-field of Warka, which is situated near the station of El Khidr on the Irak railway, about 20 kilometres north of the Euphrates. It is now in the heart of a desert region almost exactly in the middle of the land of Sumer (the Shinar of the Old Testament).

Inquiry immediately makes it clear that man must first have come to know iron through meteorites. Except for the great masses at Ovifak in Greenland, which are outside the question, iron from earthly sources is not known to occur in the native state. It does, however, occur in metallic form in meteorites (FIG. 2) and is the only metal to do so. In this form it may be found in solid lumps of metal weighing as much as 50 tons (Bacubirito), 36½ tons (Ahnighito), or 15⅔ tons (Chupaderos). But of course most of it occurs in much more manageable sizes—in pieces as large as a man’s head, a hen's egg, a pea, or only as dust. But all meteorites are not solid iron, Very many are a mixture of iron and stone (FIGS. 1, 3) or what is to all intents and purposes merely stone (FIG. 4), and so useless to man as a source of iron. All meteorites fall into one of these three classes.

In connexion with the publication of the report on the neolithic settlement at Koln-Lindenthal I undertook, in the autumn of 1933, with the support of the Notgemeinschaft der deutschen Wissenschaft, two months’ exploration in Hungary, Rumania and Jugoslavia. Apart from museum researches in prehistory the chief object of this journey was to study the building methods of the primitive peasant cultures in these countries. In compiling the report on the ‘band keramik’ settlement at Koln-Lindenthal it was found necessary, in order to elucidate many of the finds, to compare them with ethnographic material from settlements peopled by primitive peasants in modern Europe. This method proved no less helpful than when employed earlier by Oelmann, Menghinl and others in dealing with other prehistoric studies. Prehistoric cultures invariably comprise objects the use of which can only be ascertained by comparison with cognate ethnographic or cultural material. For, owing to the conservative character of the peasant, modern primitive peasant cultures have retained certain structures and institutions which are derived, without a doubt, from archaic, even neolithic prototypes. Comparison of modern material with our prehistoric finds by no means postulates a direct historic connexion between the two, especially when the objects compared are widely separated in place, culture, nationality and race. Rather is ethnography called in to furnish a sound basis for assumptions about our finds by relating them to similar phenomena of modern times.

This statement, made by Curajod some years ago during the introduction to a course of lectures at the Louvre, is definitely provocative, for, however true it may be and however much we can learn from a study of ornamental forms and systems of decoration with regard to trade and intercourse, it has in general proved extremely difficult to correlate the movements of designs with those of definite groups of people, still more with those of definite races. We can, for instance, assert quite definitely that the neolithic pottery of China is closely related to that of the black-earth region of south Russia, but we find it by no means easy to associate the invention or transportation of this pottery with any particular group of peoples, and we cannot even say for certain that the fact that we find it in two so far separated regions can be regarded as proof of any very considerable racial migration. Such a migration does, indeed, seem the most satisfactory way in which to explain the relationship, but it can also quite satisfactorily be accounted for by the conquest of one region by a small minority from the other, or of both by a small minority from some common centre, who imposed the imported style on the new possession.

So many local and overseas enquiries have been received that the Archaeological Committee of the University of Pretoria feels that a preliminary account of the excavations being conducted at Mapungubwe is desirable. I have accordingly been authorized to publish the following statement.

The plain of Argos is roughly triangular in shape. The base lies along the sea coast from Lerna to Nauplia and the apex is at Mycenae, which thus overlooks the Argive plain as Deceleia overlooks the Attic. The traveller, who, like Pausanias, approaches Argolis from the northeast by way of Corinth and Nemea and sees, as he emerges from the Tretos defile, the Argive plain opening before him to the southeast, will notice among the foothills to his left a rather inconspicuous, but isolated hill standing out between two steep and rocky conical peaks. This is the citadel of Mycenae. It owes its strength to its natural position, which is easily defensible, and it has an ample supply of fresh water from the spring Perseia running into an underground cistern reached by a secret passage. There were also three wells within the walls and at least one rain-water cistern. No enemy can hope to approach its walls in any force without being observed, and its distance from the coast precludes any danger of surprise from the sea. As a seat of power it is admirably placed. It dominates the Argive plain and it controls the routes that lead northeast to Corinth and the rich districts easily accessible thence, the fertile littoral of Achaia or the Boeotian coast with the central Greek plain behind. The site was thus naturally inhabited early in the Bronze Age, probably from the very beginning of that age on the Mainland of Greece about 2800 B.C., and round it on the outlying hills were neighbouring settlements so that the district even then must have been fairly well populated.

In ‘ A note on certain Agate Beads ’, printed in the Antiquaries Journal (x, 149), Mr H. C. Beck drew attention to their obscure origin. In addition to a recent distribution of 500 to 1000 roughly made agate beads, which may have come from the sale of the belongings of an old sea-captain, Mr Beck gave fourteen finds unconnected with this recent distribution, which included a comparatively small example found by Woolley at Ur in a layer confidently pronounced to date from before the ‘ Flood ’, one bead from Algeria, a string from Jerusalem, one bead from an Irish bog, a string from near Frankfort, one bead from a Merovingian grave, a string from Brittany associated with the dolmen period, others from Nantes, Orleans and elsewhere in France, and four finds from the Sudan, two being from Omdurman, where it is stated that they are occasionally dug up, and one from the 25th Dynasty treasury of Sanam at Dongola.

Roman barrows have long been known on the Continent and in R this country, but until recent years they have hardly received the attention they deserve. In the forties and fifties of last century a number of Roman barrows suffered from the jaunty zeal of tophatted antiquaries and their attendant ladies who, as at the opening of the Holborough barrow in 1844, contrived to pass the time ‘at intervals between digging and pic-nicing, in games of various descriptions … and in other amusements’, but who were sometimes glad of the shelter ‘afforded by the hole we had ourselves dug … in which we managed so to interlace parasols and umbrellas … as to form a tolerably impenetrable roof over our heads’.

The most impressive megalithic monument in the world, which has come to be known as the ‘Avebury Complex‘, lies on a spur of the Middle Chalk running northwestwards from the main massif of the North Wiltshire Downs. Immediately to the west runs the river Kennet. The monument consists of an approximately circular bank with a ditch on its inner side enclosing a level area of 28½ acres. On the inner edge of the ditch stood a circle of standing stones. Inside the circle again stood two interior settings of standing stones, each consisting of a double concentric circle, that to the north having in its centre three stones forming the so-called ‘Cove’, and that to the south a monolith. There was one original entrance through the bank and across the ditch at the south, and to this entrance an avenue (usually called ‘The West Kennet Avenue’) consisting of a double line of standing stones placed in pairs, averaging 50 feet apart transversely, and at average longitudinal intervals of 80 feet, led for a distance of over a mile from two small concentric stone circles on Overton Hill, known as ‘The Sanctuary’.

Of their kind there are few things more beautiful than the field-walls in a stony country. They are constructed, as a rule, without mortar, and for that reason are called ‘dry stone walls’; the term is useful, as a distinction, and will serve, but many of them are reinforced by an admixture of earth, or of a kind of daub that sets fairly hard. The walls of the moister West Country are the most beautiful of all, for innumerable plants take root in the earthy crevices and enrich the lovely grey stonework with a natural ornament that is entirely pleasing. Vivid green splashes of pennywort, yellow stars of celandine, clusters of violet, and the twisted white cords of ivy are Nature's version of carved vine-scrolls and interlaced designs, with the added beauty of colour. Far be it from me to institute odious comparisons between the works of Man and of Nature; both are good to look upon, and I yield to none in admiration of the masterpieces of Anglian sculpture. But these, alas, are few and far between; they are not always accessible or easily seen; whereas there are, by way of compensation, hundreds of miles of most enchanting field-walls in Cornwall alone. I began my study of them without fully realizing their aesthetic qualities; when my eyes were opened I found it difficult to look at anything else.

Amongst the early Christian monuments of the British Isles the Scottish cross-slabs form a well defined group. They are related to the Irish and Manx crosses of the 7th and 8th centuries and show occasionally some connexion with Northumbrian art. But, out of motives borrowed from these different sources, there was evolved in Scotland a type of monument peculiar to that country. The erect slab was constantly preferred to the free-standing cross, and, although a flat style of carving, similar to the Irish style, was used, and many of the Irish motives—spirals, interlacing and occasionally animal-interlacing—were adopted, the spirited rendering of hunting scenes and fantastic animals, and the use of the cross, framed in the slab as in a page of manuscript, gave to these monuments a definite originality.

Few places in the world have given rise to more fantastic speculation than this volcanic island, 70 square miles in area, lying in the Pacific Ocean, lat. 27° 10′ s., long. 109° 20′ w. Actually the so-called ‘mysteries of Easter Island’, or rather the explanations which have been offered, are not the work of trained men of science. It is natural that the huge statues, standing erect as they do in a naked landscape against a background of black and yellow, should have appealed to the poetical imagination. But those who wish to face with candour the problems presented by certain parts of the world may well be annoyed when the poets’ lyrical love of mystery becomes the starting-point of speculation. The best students of Easter Island have always told us that it was Polynesian and could only be explained by Polynesia. The evidence that we have now obtained is merely an addition to what was already a formidable pile. Nevertheless we expect that before long others will come forward again with tales of a lost continent of Lemuria, submerged beneath the waters of the Pacific; and that Easter Island is one of its peaks, peopled with Lemurian idols!

The distribution of woodland and the stages of its gradual disappearance were of fundamental importance in the early historical geography of England. Wood was a valuable element in medieval economy and one of the chief factors affecting the nature of settlement, The evidence concerning the extent of the woodland in early England is of two kinds : (1) the surface geology, which provides a basis for the reconstruction of the original extent ; (2) the statistics of the Domesday Book: these refer to the eleventh century, but they may have some retrospective value. The present essay is an attempt to examine the Domesday evidence for the south and south-western counties of Berkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.