The prehistory of Cape York Peninsula, in tropical northern Australia, has been more intensively investigated than that of most other parts of the continent. As a result, a considerable database now exists by which long-term archaeological trends can be evaluated. In this paper we investigate temporal trends in occupational intensities and patterns of land use during the last 37,000 years by employing: 1, the temporal distribution of all radiocarbon dates obtained for the region; 2, the numbers of sites occupied through time; and 3, rates of establishment of new sites during the course of prehistory. These archaeological trends are then compared with the palaeo-environmental record of the region to determine its potential influence on the trends. We conclude that an initial, long period of regional occupation occurred (c. 37,000–4000 BP) when cultural trends varied in tandem with gross environmental fluctuations. This was followed by a late Holocene period (post 4000 BP) when cultural trajectories diverged significantly from environmental trends. This suggests that more complex Aboriginal demographic processes were set in train during the late Holocene, associated with social structures that were more dynamic than previously. We suggest that while changing patterns of land use may be apparent, their understanding requires an enquiry into periods of emergence — that is, their immediate historical antecedents. These results have broader implications for our understanding of Australian prehistory and the prehistory of other hunter-gatherer societies.

This paper examines, through the use of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry dating, the database of Lateglacial cultures involved in the recolonisation of northern Europe. The aim is not only to determine the timing of that recolonisation, but also to propose a general model of hunter-gatherer colonisation at a sub-continental scale. The question is addressed of how long the period of abandonment of northern Europe during the Würm/Weichsel glaciation may have lasted, and when it both started and came to an end. A series of questions is asked concerning the processes and mechanics of recolonisation and the sequences for specific areas are examined. AMS radiocarbon dating shows that a two stage process was involved, which has important implications for our analysis of regional settlement patterns and the changing scale of Lateglacial hunting systems. Recolonisation was a dynamic process, integral to, and internally driven by, the social life of Lateglacial hunters. It may have been constrained by environmental and resource factors, which we have emphasised here, but ultimately it was an historical, social process and should be similarily regarded to that of the farmers. By measuring rates of expansion data are provided for use in other studies of hunter-gatherer colonisation.

The aim of this paper is to establish an absolute chronology for the prehistoric entities and sites of the Balearic islands. We begin with the human settlement of each island and continue with the temporalities of the most important entities and materials of the Pretalayotic period: the Beaker phenomenon, megalithic tombs, artificial burial caves, naviforms, and navetas. Then we define the chronological limits of the Talayotic period, giving special attention to its internal sequence and to the chronology of its distinctive monuments — the talayots, sanctuaries, and taulas. Finally we suggest the chronological limits of the material and sites ascribed to the Post-talayotic period. The approach adopted here is based on a detailed analysis of the radiocarbon dates corresponding to the main archaeological periods mentioned above. The information potential of each date has been evaluated critically in terms of the archaeological contexts from which samples were obtained.

Rock art in Morocco is widespread and varied, but little known in English-speaking circles. The present paper aims to present a broad outline of this art — almost entirely represented by engravings — as it is known today. A brief survey of past research is given. The distribution of sites is indicated, showing the country to be roughly divided into two areas: the High Atlas mountains and the sub-Saharan regions to the south. Four major groups of engravings are identified, according to theme, technique, and, to a certain extent, style. In the absence of radiocarbon or other datings, the only clues to the chronology of the engravings come from datable material objects or events. None of this art is thought to be older than Neolithic and the most recent engravings certainly date from early historical times. Problems of conservation are discussed, along with measures being taken both to protect the sites and to extend research on this informative aspect of Morocco's past.

The later prehistoric rock-engravings of Mont Bégo, in the Maritime Alps on the French–Italian border, provide a rare possibility of grasping the meaning of a group in prehistoric art. Two elements in their limited repertoire of forms are daggers and halberds, which also occur as physical objects or as images in the contemporary sites of adjacent north Italy; their contexts show they are, in that area, associated with the status of adult males in society. That same interpretation is applied to the Mont Bégo figures, and this is found congruent with other motifs — especially ploughs and cattle — in the repertoire. It may explain also the other common motif, a geometrical form interpreted as a map of a prehistoric farmstead, by associating it with plough agriculture and land division. The insights developed from the study for what ‘meaning’ amounts to in the study of prehistory are set down.

This paper discusses the evidence for pyre sites, debris, and technology associated with the disposal of cremated human remains in Bronze Age ‘barrows’. The use of the terms such as ‘cremation’, ‘cremation burial’, and ‘cremation-related feature’ are examined. The types of evidence for the remains of cremation-related activities which survive on archaeological sites are described with examples and compared with the results of modern experimental data. It is concluded that a wealth of information may be recovered in relation to the funerary rites and rituals of cremation and that Bronze Age barrows hold a potentially unique position in being able to provide evidence of various aspects of the funerary activity under one ‘mound’. While the archaeological components within different types of cremation-related features are often the same, it is the relationship between the various components within the deposit which have the potential to assist in our understanding of aspects of procedure, rites, and rituals attendant on the disposal of the dead by means of cremation.

The first season of an on-going project focused on Leskernick Hill, north-west Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, entailed a preliminary settlement survey and limited excavation of a stone row terminal. Leskernick comprises a western and a southern settlement situated on the lower, stony slopes of the hill and including 51 circular stone houses constructed using a variety of building techniques. Walled fields associated with these houses vary in size from 0.25–1 ha and appear to have accreted in a curvilinear fashion from a number of centres. Five smal burial mounds and a cist are associated with the southern settlement, all but one lying around the periphery of the field system. The western settlement includes ‘cairn-like’ piles of stones within and between some houses and some hut circles may have been converted into cairns. The settlements may have been built sequentially but the layout of each adheres to a coherent design suggesting a common broad phase of use. The southern settlement overlooks a stone-free plain containing a ceremonial complex.

The paper presents a narrative account of the work and considers not only the form, function, and chronology of the sites at Leskernick but also seeks to explore the relationships between people and the landscape they inhabit; the prehistoric symbolic continuum from house to field to stone row etc, and to investigate the relationship between archaeology as a discourse on the past and archaeology as practice in the present. It considers how the daily process of excavation generates alternative site histories which are subsequently abandoned, forgotten, perpetuated or transformed.

Small-scale rescue excavations during the course of pipeline construction have revealed a single Middle Bronze Age round-house, ring-ditch, and pits on a lowland site in the upper Severn valley with associated radiocarbon determinations which suggest a date within the range 1400–1170 cal BC. Associated finds include a large assemblage of charred naked barley and plain and decorated vessels of cordoned, bucket, and barrel urn traditions, together with a quern and a rubbing stone. The round-house, the first building of this date to be found in central Wales, can be paralleled with ones of similar date elsewhere, especially in southern England.

The environmental impact of the Late Iron Age and Romano-British ironworking hillfort of Bryn y Castell in upland southern Snowdonia was investigated by multiple profile pollen and charcoal analysis of nearby valley mire and blanket peat deposits. Pollen data, collected from five radiocarbon dated profiles within a 1.5 km radius of the hillfort, indicate that ironworking activities apparently had only localised impact on the environment. Small-scale declines in certain arboreal taxa can be correlated with occupancy of the site. Betula and Alnus appear to be most affected, with minor loss of Corylus and Quercus. The pattern of arboreal taxa and charcoal values during the ironworking period is considered in the context of evidence for deliberate woodland management, the scale and duration of ironworking, and alternative forms of human disturbance. Overall, the results of the pollen analysis suggest that woodland recovered to its pre-ironworking level except in the immediate vicinity of the hillfort. Integration of the archaeological and palaeoecological data allowed understanding of the resource-based aspects of this prehistoric industrial site and the results have wider implications for the field of experimental industrial archaeology.

The Early Iron Age enclosures and associated sites on Sutton Common on the western edge of the Humberhead Levels contain an exceptional variety of archaeological data of importance not only to the region but for the study of later prehistory in the British Isles. Few other later prehistoric British sites outside the East Anglian fens and the Somerset Levels have thus far produced the quantity and quality of organically preserved archaeological materials that have been found, despite the small scale of the investigations to date. The excavations have provided an opportunity to integrate a variety of environmental analyses, of wood, pollen, beetles, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and of soil micromorphology, to address archaeological questions about the character, use, and environment of this Early Iron Age marsh fort. The site is comprised of a timber palisaded enclosure and a succeeding multivallate enclosure linked to a smaller enclosure by a timber alignment across a palaeochannel, with associated finds ranging in date from the Middle Bronze Age to the Roman and medieval periods. Among the four adjacent archaeological sites is an Early Mesolithic occupation site, also with organic preservation, and there is a Late Neolithic site beneath the large enclosure. Desiccation throughout the common is leading to the damage and loss of wooden and organic remains. It is hoped that the publication of these results, of investigations between 1987 and 1993, will lead to a fuller investigation taking place.

The Wickliffe Mounds site is a Mississippian town and mound centre dated to c. AD 1100–1350. Excavations at Wickliffe Mounds from 1984–1996 have re-evaluated a 1932–1939 semi-professional project and have provided additional data over much of the remaining area of the site. The site was established c. AD 1100 as a small village clustered tightly around a central plaza. From AD 1175 to c. 1350 the Wickliffe people built two platform mounds next to the plaza plus several smaller mounds around the site, and expanded the village area to the edges of the bluff. The village was abandoned c. AD 1350, but a cemetery appears to be intrusive, indicating the presence of a population in the area with ties to the site. A scenario of a single chiefly cycle, followed by dispersal of the population with continued use of the site as an ‘empty’ ceremonial centre, best fits current data.

The Ciuntu rockshelter is situated in the north-western part of the Republic of Moldova, on the left bank of the river Pruth. It has a single Upper Palaeolithic layer of occupation, which was originally regarded as Early Upper Palaeolithic and was assigned to the Brinzeni archaeological culture. More recent investigations, including radiocarbon dating, have led to a revision of this suggested age and classification. The site is now regarded as belonging to the Middle Gravettian and is dated to the beginning of the last glacial maximum.

In 1988 an area of 12,000 m2 in Quarry 2 at Boxgrove, West Sussex, was identified as being under threat front gravel and sand extraction. It was decided to sample the threatened area in 1989 with a series of 6 m2 test pits. The results of this survey identified two areas that merited further investigation, and area excavations were carried out at Quarry 2/C and Quarry 2/D in 1990 and 1991 respectively. These concentrated on the main Pleistocene landsurface (Unit 4c) and revealed spreads of knapping debris associated with the production of flint handaxes. Two test pits and area Q2/C produced handaxes, over 90% of which had tranchet sharpening at the distal end. A small amount of core reduction and only a few flake tools were found: these were all from Quarry 2/C. Faunal remains were located in the northern part of the excavations where Unit 4c had a calcareous cover. In Quarry 2/C the bones of C. elaphus and Bison sp. exhibited traces of human modification.

The project employed two methods of artefact retrieval: direct excavation in metre squares and bulk sieving of units within them. Comparison of the results from these methods suggests that, when on-site time is limited, the integration of these methods is a valid technique in both qualitative and quantitative terms for data recovery. The excavated areas are interpreted as a tool-sharpening and butchery site that may have been a fixed and known locale in the landscape (Q2/C), and a location on the periphery of an area of intensive knapping reduction (Q2/D). Sedimentological and microfaunal analyses demonstrate that Unit 4c was formed as a soil in the top of a marine-lagoonal silt, the pedogenic processes being similar to those observed after draining Dutch polder lakes. The palaeoenvironment is interpreted as an area of open grassland with some shrub and bush vegetation. In places the surface of the soil supported small ephemeral pools and flashes. This area of grassland is seen as a corridor for herds of ungulates moving east and west between the sea to the south and the relict cliff and wooded downland block to the north. Within this corridor these herds were preyed upon by various carnivores, and hominids.

The temperate sediments at Boxgrove were deposited in the later part of the Cromerian Complex and immediately pre-date the Anglian Cold Stage; they are therefore around 500,000 years old. The archaeological material from these and overlying cold stage deposits is broadly contemporary with that at High Lodge, Suffolk and Waverley Wood, Warwickshire.

An Upper Palaeolithic, uniserially barbed antler point, discovered during excavations of a Devensian Lateglacial sediment sequence in a quarry near Gransmoor, Yorkshire, England, is described. The stratigraphic context of the find is summarised, and the age of the implement can be confidently estimated to between 11,500 and 11,100 radiocarbon years BP on the basis of (i) a series of AMS radiocarbon dates, (ii) radiometric dating of the wood within which the barbed point was lodged, and (iii) biostratigraphic considerations. The barbed point from Gransmoor is probably unrivalled in Britain in terms of the stratigraphic and chronological context within which it can be assessed. Some suggestions are made concerning the manufacture and function of the barbed point on the basis of markings on the antler surface and remains of some of the original mastic, features which are extremely well preserved.

In the field of European recent prehistory it is generally agreed that, from the Early Orientalising period, Etruria played a central role in long distance trade, also acting as a link between the Aegean and east Mediterranean and trans-Alpine Europe. A widely acknowledged implication is that this primary status of the Etruscans among the indigenous peoples of Italy was a secondary effect of the Greek and Phoenician colonisation in the central Mediterranean. It is the aim of this paper to show that, as early as the Late Bronze Age, Etruria emerged as a complex territorial, political, and economic entity and was able to participate in an interregional network of trade reaching as far as northern Germany and the Aegean. By the beginnings of the Italian Iron Age, this region was organised as a federation of early states, with important extensions in the southern Po plain, along the Adriatic coast, and in Campania.

The collections of Marischal Museum, University of Aberdeen include three jadeite axeheads (Fig. 1) which probably come from prehistoric Scottish contexts. This short note aims to bring them to the attention of others interested in these spectacular objects, in the hope that further work will help their place in Scottish prehistory to be better understood.

One of the axeheads (ABDUA:39404) has already been published (Murray, 1994, 104; Batey & King 1994, 25) and has been allocated number 107 by Murray (op. cit.) in the scheme set out by Jones et al. (1977). Under the Treasure Trove procedure it was allocated to Marischal Museum in 1994. The other two axeheads were only recognised after the acquisition of this specimen. One of these (ABDUA: 37080) was given to the museum by Sir Alexander Ogston in 1928. Previously it was in the collection of Dr Garden of Alford, having been found in the parish of Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. Since its discovery, this axehead has been hafted, probably by Ogston who presented nine other prehistoric implements with modern hafts to the museum.