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 view of the theories of the astronomical significance of standing stones proposed by Alexander Thom, extensive fieldwork was undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s in the west of Scotland to reassess the field evidence. Two groups of sites were identified from this work that seemed to support an astronomical interpretation, but the poor condition of many of the sites made identification of their original orientation problematical. Excavations were carried out at two damaged sites in one of the groups, in northern Mull, in order to identify the original positions of the stones. Radiocarbon dates from one of the sites, the first for a Scottish stone row, suggest construction in the Late Bronze Age. The alignment of the excavated rows, and the results of detailed theodolite surveys at and around the north Mull sites, suggest a more complex relationship between site locations, astronomical events, and the landscape than has hitherto been appreciated.

The physiographic approach to the problems of Pleistocene chronology has often been under-rated and sometimes completely ignored.

It will be well to begin this paper with a quite general statement of the basis on which this approach depends. In simplest terms it rests on the fact that the deposits with which we are concerned and to which it is sought to apply the method of palaeontological or archaeological dating were all accumulated on land-surfaces. These surfaces are themselves a proper subject of study by geomorphologists. The deposits are an integral part of the developing surface of the land. Any conclusions concerning their age and origin must be consistent with the general physiographic sequence. Physiographic considerations do not in themselves provide a very close or detailed chronology, but their indications are evidently worthy of consideration in any general purview of the difficult chronological problems concerned. Your ‘geo-chronologist’ needs to be, to this extent, a geomorphologist, as well as a palaeontologist or typologist. River-gravels and glacial ‘Deckenschotter’ mark, in general, old valley-floors and the movement of ice, in part at least, is controlled by the form of the underlying surface, subject to the evident fact that ice can, in some circumstances, move uphill.

Around the beginning of the 3rd millennium cal bc a cremation cemetery was established at Forteviot, central Scotland. This place went on to become one of the largest monument complexes identified in Mainland Scotland, with the construction of a palisaded enclosure, timber structures, and a series of henge monuments and other enclosures. The cemetery was established between 3080 and 2900 cal bc, probably in the 30th century cal bc, which is contemporary with the cremation cemetery at Stonehenge. Nine discrete deposits of cremated bone, representing the remains of at least 18 people, were identified. In most instances they were placed within cut features and, in one case, a series of cremation deposits was associated with a broken standing stone. This paper includes the first detailed assessment of the cremated remains at Forteviot and the features associated with the cemetery, and explores how the establishment of this cemetery may have been both a catalyst and inspiration for the elaborate monument building and prolonged acts of remembrance that occurred at this location over a period of almost 1000 years. The paper also outlines the parallels for Forteviot across Britain and, for the first time, draws together the dating evidence (including Bayesian modelling) for this major category of evidence for considering the nature of late 4th/early 3rd millennium cal bc society. The results and discussion have wide implications and resonances for contemplating the establishment and evolution of monument complexes in prehistoric Britain and beyond.

A contour map of part of the basin of the glacial Lake Pickering was constructed from surface and sub-surface levels. This map (figs 2, 3 and 4) gives a pictorial representation of the microtopography of the area and is amplified by an additional map (fig. 13) in which the margin of the organic deposits is given for the early Mesolithic period, based on evidence outlined below. A stratigraphical survey of the basin deposits shows that the infilling of the lake in the Devensian Late-glacial began largely with the deposition of calcareous muds. In the early Flandrian there followed a natural hydroseral development from open water to reedswamp and fen carr. Towards the end of the Boreal period and during the early Atlantic, a rise in water level was responsible for the replacement of fen carr by reedswamp. The rate of hydroseral development was affected by a progressive rise of water level. This has been determined (estimated) by radio-carbon dating the basal organic muds on the 23, 24 and 25 m OD sub-surface contours at eight sites within the study area. During the early Mesolithic (Godwin's pollen Zone IV, c.9600 BP)the water level in the basin was likely to have been in the range of 23–24.5 m OD. By reference to the dating evidence, including published pollen diagrams (Walker and Godwin 1954) and new data presented in Parts 2 and 3, the stratigraphical evidence is interpreted to show that there was considerable variation in the vegetation of the lake margin during the early Mesolithic period (pollen Zone IV). At Seamer Carr there was a large area of fen carr woodland with reedswamp fringing the open water. Star Carr had a much larger area of reedswamp, with open water close to the dry land in places, but with a narrow fringe of carr. The bed of the ancient River Hertford, which drained the basin, probably in the late Mesolithic, has been identified in two of the sections which traverse the basin.

During the first quarter of this century, not much was known about the Indian Stone Ages and only two phases, Palaeolithic and Neolithic (including microliths), were recognized. Some of the earlier discoveries recorded by Robert Bruce Foote, Coggin Brown, Cammiade, Miles Burkitt, De Terra, Paterson and others gave an impetus for the later researchers and the Stone Age cultural sequence began to take a clear shape. The most significant among the later discoveries is the identification of a distinct culture by H. D. Sankalia, which is now designated as the Middle Stone Age, and the extent of its distribution is now well established. Prehistorians who launched a systematic survey unearthed the remnants of the stone using populations from different parts of the country, viz., the Panjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Mysore, Andhra Pradesh and Madras recognizing three phases, The Early Stone Age, the Middle Stone Age and the Late Stone Age, occupying the time span of Pleistocene and Early Holocene times.

The material culture that represents the Stone Age Communities in various parts of the country displays a homogeneous pattern of development. The Early Stone Age is followed by the Middle Stone Age which in most of the regions gave way to the Late Stone Age; however, a blade and burin industry with a discontinuous horizontal distribution is known in a few regions between the Middle and Late Stone Ages.

In recent discussions of the origins and process of animal domestication (Reed, 1961, Zeuner, 1963), both authors rely on two kinds of evidence: on the one hand, the present distributions and characteristics of the different breeds of whatever animal is being discussed, together with its feral and wild relatives, and, on the other hand, the past record, given by literary and pictorial sources and the bones from archaeological and geological sites. Increased recognition of the limitations of the past record, whether in the accuracy of the information it appears to give (as in the case of pictorial sources), or in the certainty of the deductions we are at present capable of drawing from it (this applies especially to the osteological record), has led these authors to argue mainly from the present situation, using the past record to confirm or amplify the existing picture.

Arguing from the present, many hypotheses about the origins and process of domestication are available. The only test we have, when attempting to choose between these, lies in the direct evidence of the past record. The past record, it is freely admitted, is very fragmentary: the information provided by the present situation is more exact, ranges over a much wider field, and is more open to test and control. Nevertheless, the past record, however imperfect it is, is the only direct evidence we have about the process of domestication.

Western Europe is often used as the basis from which to understand the Aurignacian of other regions. For some there is good inter-regional chronocultural agreement, whereas others see significant difference. One region frequently argued to differ is the Swabian Jura (southern Germany). In a recent contribution to this issue Bataille and Conard (2018) describe the Aurignacian assemblage from Layer IV of Hohle Fels. They convincingly outline important similarities with the Western European Late Aurignacian. However, they also argue that it is older than, and different from, the most comparable Western European assemblages, and therefore that it contradicts an Aurignacian chronocultural framework built on Western European evidence. Here we assess this claim, focusing on the sites used by Bataille and Conard in their comparison. Radiocarbon dates for Hohle Fels IV of 33–30,000 uncal bp are no older than dates for Western European Late Aurignacian assemblages. Most of the features of Hohle Fels IV argued to demonstrate its dissimilarity are, in fact, evident in the Western European Late Aurignacian. One potential difference is the reported absence from Hohle Fels IV of microblades with inverse/alternate retouch. However, due to the near absence of laterally retouched microblades and uncertainty over whether the fine fraction has been searched we doubt the significance of this observation. Other recent publications have similarly suggested that the Western European chronocultural model is incompatible with other regions. In light of this we consider Eastern Europe. Despite some difference, reliable data point to the pene-contemporaneity of characteristic bladelet/microblade technologies between the two regions, a pattern that stratigraphies from sites across Europe are also consistent with. The biggest complicating factor is radiocarbon dating, which has created a culturally complex picture that is inconsistent with all chronostratigraphic data. We therefore offer some thoughts as to the use of radiocarbon dates for this period. Despite ongoing problems dates are still frequently presented with an unwarranted confidence in their accuracy. Their presentation should instead explicitly acknowledge the method’s fallibility and its inferiority to more reliable evidence such as chronostratigraphic patterning and tephra. When radiocarbon dates contradict a consistent chronostratigraphic picture the burden of proof falls to those arguing the dates’ veracity. In these cases, the reasons for the discrepancy between the radiocarbon and chronostratigraphic records require exploration.

A 2.5 ha open area excavation at South Hornchurch, Essex (London Borough of Havering) has revealed an extensive Late Bronze Age settlement on the Thames terrace gravels. The site is particularly significant because of the association of a circular ditched enclosure or ringwork with a contemporary field system, as well as clusters of enclosed and unenclosed circular structures. Two enclosures were formed by rings of pits or large post-holes. Placed pottery deposits and unurned cremation burials were found, mostly associated with structures and entranceways. Other finds include both plain and decorated Post Deverel-Rinibury pottery, burnt flint, spindle whorls, possible loomweights, perforated clay slabs, and a bivalve clay sword mould. The entire site was subsequently sealed by a buried colluvial ploughsoil which almost certainly represents the final phase of Late Bronze Age activity. The site's spatial structure, environmental context, and regional significance are discussed.

In these Proceedings over 15 years ago Gordon Childe made a classic survey of the evidence for the earliest wagons and carts in the Near East and Europe, following it three years later with a similar treatment using some additional material which had become available by that time (Childe, 1951, 1954a, b). Since then much new primary archaeological evidence has been discovered or recognized for what it is, and there have been two recent important works of synthesis, that of Boná (1960) on vehicle models in the Middle Danube, and that of van der Waals (1964) of finds of actual disc wheels in the Netherlands. From 1956 a large number of actual vehicle finds have been made in excavations on the shores of Lake Sevan in Armenian SSR; an additional second find comes from Trialeti in Georgian SSR, and new vehicle-burials found near Elista in the Kalmyk steppe, so that we now have a total of nearly 30 wagons, carts and chariots surviving wholly or in part from southern Russia, mainly of the 2nd millennium B.C. In the last 10 years or so, too, new work on the Neolithic and earliest metal-using cultures of East Europe, and on the Kura-Araxes Culture of Transcaucasia and its counterpart in eastern Anatolia has thrown new light on early wheeled transport in such contexts. Despite the penetrating and far-reaching conclusions pursued by van der Waals only four years ago there still seems room for a survey reviewing these in connection with other aspects of this cardinal problem in Old World prehistory.

This paper examines the relationship between the use of late Irish passage tombs and the development of the British and Irish Grooved Ware complex, including its Orcadian origins. The architectural forms of these passage tombs and their associated material culture, symbolic repertoires, and depositional practices in Ireland and Orkney indicate sustained connections between people in these places. It is argued that these interactions strongly influenced the development of Grooved Ware and its associated material culture in Orkney and beyond. The results of recent dating programmes are synthesised, and the character of depositional practices from 3300 to 2700 cal bc are reassessed to highlight continuities in traditions of practice and representation. Together, these indicate that the adoption of Grooved Ware in Ireland did not herald an era of large-scale social transformation and that the primary use of late passage tombs did not suddenly cease at the end of the 4th millennium bc. Instead they continued as foci for largely unchanged forms of ceremonial activity until 2450 cal bc as part of a series of ongoing social and cultural shifts in people’s material culture and practices. It is argued that the current periodisation of the late 4th–3rd millennia bc in Ireland unduly emphasises a disjuncture between the Irish Middle and Late Neolithic. An alternative view of social and cultural change that refocuses attention on social agency is proposed.

A pre-requisite for understanding the transition to the Neolithic in the Levant is the establishment of a robust chronology, most notably for the late Epi-Palaeolithic and Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) periods. In this contribution we undertake a dating analysis of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site of WF16, southern Jordan, drawing on a sample of 46 AMS 14C dates. We utilise Bayesian methods to quantify an old wood effect to provide an offset that we factor into chronological models for a number of individual structures at WF16 and for the settlement as a whole. In doing so we address the influence of slope variations in the calibration curve and expose the significance of sediment and sample redeposition within sites of this nature. We conclude that for the excavated deposits at WF16 human activity is likely to have started by c. 11.84 ka cal bp and lasted for at least c. 1590 years, ceasing by c. 10.24 ka cal bp. This is marked by a particularly intensive period of activity lasting for c. 350 years centred on 11.25 ka cal bp followed by less intensive activity lasting a further c. 880 years. The study reveals the potential of WF16 as a laboratory to explore methodological issues concerning 14C dating of early Neolithic sites in arid, erosional environments.

The Magdalenian sites of Andernach and Gönnersdorf are located in the central Rhineland at the northwestern end of the Neuwied Basin (fig. 1). The first investigation of the Andernach-Martinsberg site was carried out in 1883 by H. Schaaffhausen (1888); between 1979 and 1983 a new campaign of excavations took place at the same site (Veil 1982a). The site of Gönnersdorf was investigated between 1968 and 1976 (Bosinski 1979). The two sites are located directly facing each other above the Rhine, which at the time of the occupation was much wider than at the present day; Andernach is sited on a Middle Pleistocene lava flow, while Gönnersdorf is on the Middle Terrace of the Rhine. Both sites are assigned by pollen analysis to the end of the Bølling interstadial; the great similarities in their archaeological material, down to individual details, suggest that the two sites were contemporary.

The excavation of an oval crop mark close to the Abingdon causewayed enclosure showed a complex sequence of development, starting with a rectangular ditched enclosure and most probably ending with an oval barrow of a type with parallels elsewhere in lowland England. The site included the grave of two individuals associated with a polished knife, a belt slider and most probably a leaf shaped arrowhead, and produced a series of radiocarbon dates extending from the Earlier to the Later Neolithic. A number of formal deposits around one end of the site are matched by similar material from the inner ditch of the causewayed enclosure, suggesting a direct link between the two monuments.

The Somerset Levels are the largest area of low-lying ground in south-west England, covering an extensive region between the highlands of Exmoor, the Brendon Hills and the Quantock Hills to the west, and the Cotswold and Mendip Hills to the east (Pl. XXIII, inset). The Quantock Hills and the Mendip Hills directly border the Levels themselves, and reach heights of over 250 metres above sea level. The valley between extends to 27 metres below sea level, but is filled to approximately the height of the present sea by a blue-grey clay. The Levels are bisected by the limestone hills of the Poldens, and both parts have other smaller areas of limestone and sand projecting above the peat deposits that cap the blue-grey clay filling. In this paper we are concerned with the northern part of the Levels, an area at present drained by the River Brue.

The flat, peat-covered floor of the Brue Valley is some six kilometres wide and is flanked on the north by the Wedmore Ridge, and on the south by the Polden Hills (Pl. XXIII). In the centre of the valley, surrounded by the peat, is a group of islands of higher ground, Meare, Westhay, and Burtle. These islands, which would always have provided relatively dry ground in the Levels, are linked together by Neolithic trackways of the third millennium B.C. Several of these trackways formed the basis of a paper in these Proceedings in 1968 (Coles and Hibbert, 1968), which continued the work of Godwin and others (Godwin, 1960; Dewar and Godwin, 1963).

For many years down to 1953, our knowledge of Maltese prehistory could be summed up succinctly if rather unkindly in the phrase—‘Neolithic 3,000 B.C., Bronze Age 2,000, Punic 1,000.’ In that year, J. D. Evans's researches were published in these Proceedings. These at last provided a framework for his Period I, no longer called ‘Neolithic’ because the overlap of its later phases with metal-using cultures in nearby Sicily made it unlikely that metal was quite unknown. It was assigned a duration from the mid-second to mid-first millennium B.C. The absolute chronology will need revision in the light of the C-14 dates not then available and the correlations with the Sicilian development have met with some criticism. In any case, the isolation of the different phases was an enormous advance on which all further work in Malta will have to be based, even if, as at the time of writing begins to seem likely, certain amendments to the sequence become necessary. The later prehistoric Period II, lasting down to the 9th century when the Phoenician settlement opened Period III, was described in much less detail.

Enormous quantities of material of the first period, megalithic buildings as well as pottery and small finds, were available for study: the material remains of Period II were much more scanty, there being in effect at that time only a single site known of each of its three phases, which were correspondingly named after the Tarxien Cemetery, Borġ in-Nadur and Baħrija. In 1956, Evans published a more detailed study of the first of these phases bringing forward evidence for attributing to it the local dolmens. Phases II B and C were not ready for such treatment as the only excavations were at Borġ in-Nadur in 1881 (a sketch plan found in a Valletta photographer's shop twenty years later being the only record) and 1921-7 (disturbed levels overlying a Period I temple); and at Baħrija in 1909 (three days' work). These two phases therefore remained the most urgent problem in the prehistory of Malta. Accordingly, further excavation was undertaken on their type sites by the Museum Department of the Maltese Government in the spring and autumn of 1959.

Recent radiocarbon dating of a skeleton from Balevullin, Tiree, excavated in the early twentieth century, demonstrates that it dates to the Neolithic period, rather than the Iron Age as originally expected. Osteological examination suggests that the individual was a young adult woman, exhibiting osteological deformities consistent with vitamin D deficiency, most likely deriving from childhood rickets; an exceptionally early identification of the disease in the UK with potentially significant social implications. Isotopic analysis supports the osteological evidence for physiological stress in childhood and further suggests that the woman was most probably local to the islands. Analysis of the surviving written archive reveals that the surviving skeleton was one of several originally recovered from the site, making Balevullin an exceptionally rare example of a British Neolithic inhumation cemetery.

In the present paper it is intended to summarize the reasons why loess sections must be regarded as important for the chronology of the Palaeolithic, and to discuss an important problem to which loess sections have contributed in recent years, that of the chronological relations between the Mousterioid and the Upper Palaeolithic industries. This problem has received particular attention in the Geochronological Laboratory of the Institute since its formation by Sir Robert Mond in 1936. Several hundred analyses have been made, some of which will be published shortly in these Proceedings, from sites ranging from the Iberian Peninsula, Italy, Hungary and Poland through France and Germany to southern England, as well as from India, Africa and northern Arabia. During the later stages, the work was supported by the Central Research Fund of London University, whose help is recorded with gratitude.

Loess analysis comprises the study of grain size by mechanical analysis, determination of calcium carbonate and organic matter, the study of its porosity and texture and of the shape and quality of its grains. Two years were spent in the laboratory on the testing and improvement of various methods in use, and especially of mechanical analysis, so that the laboriousness of the work has been much reduced and results can be obtained more quickly.

The aeolian origin of loess is no longer disputed. Loess is essentially rock dust blown about and deposited from an air current. This necessitates a dry environment due either to aridity or to frost, and scarcity of vegetation. Loess dust is thus picked up on bare surfaces and deposited mainly in the steppe, where low and sparse vegetation acts like a comb, slowing down the air current and compelling it to deposit its load. Any dust that reaches the humid forest zone is incorporated in the soil that is forming there, and it thus disappears.

Some time before 1845 a remarkable hoard of Early Iron Age metalwork, almost entirely in bronze, was accidentally discovered in the vicinity of the parish of Stanwick St John, North Riding of Yorkshire, and near the great earthworks of the same period later to be excavated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. The hoard was presented to the British Museum in 1847, and though well known, has never been studied or published in its entirety, despite its importance in the history of Celtic art in Britain. The present paper essays such a full treatment, discussing first the complicated circumstances of the actual find-spot, the probable nature of the deposit, and its technological aspects. This is followed by a descriptive survey and analysis, and a catalogue with a full set of drawings by the writer. References in the text and footnotes are to the bibliography on pp. 55–8.