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).

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.

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.

The Middle Bronze Age (c. 1600–1150 cal bc) in Britain is traditionally understood to represent a major funerary transition. This is a transformation from a heterogeneous funerary rite, largely encompassing inhumations and cremations in burial mounds and often accompanied by grave goods, to a homogeneous and unadorned cremation-based practice. Despite a huge expansion in the number of well excavated, radiocarbon dated, and osteologically analysed sites in the last three decades, current interpretations of Middle Bronze Age cremation burials still rely upon a seminal paper by Ellison (1980), which proposed that they comprise and represent an entire community. This paper analyses 378 cremation sites containing at least 3133 burials which represent all those that can be confidently dated to the Middle Bronze Age in Britain. The new analysis demonstrates that relatively few sites can be characterised as community cemeteries and that there are substantially more contemporary settlement sites, though few contemporary settlements are in close proximity to the cemeteries. The identifiable characteristics of cremation-based funerary practices are consistent across Britain with little evidence for social differentiation at the point of burial. It is also evident that only a minority of the population received a cremation burial. There is a substantial decrease in archaeologically visible funerary activity from the preceding Early Bronze Age (c. 2200–1600 cal bc) and a further decrease in the proceeding Late Bronze Age (c. 1150–800 cal bc) in Britain. This is comparable in form, and partially in sequence, to Bronze Age funerary practices in Ireland and several regions in North-west Europe.

We present radiocarbon dates, stable isotope data, and osteological analysis of the remains of a minimum of 17 individuals deposited in the western part of the burial chamber at Coldrum, Kent. This is one of the Medway group of megalithic monuments – sites with shared architectural motifs and no very close parallels elsewhere in Britain – whose location has been seen as important in terms of the origins of Neolithic material culture and practices in Britain. The osteological analysis identified the largest assemblage of cut-marked human bone yet reported from a British early Neolithic chambered tomb; these modifications were probably undertaken as part of burial practices. The stable isotope dataset shows very enriched δ15N values, the causes of which are not entirely clear, but could include consumption of freshwater fish resources. Bayesian statistical modelling of the radiocarbon dates demonstrates that Coldrum is an early example of a British Neolithic burial monument, though the tomb was perhaps not part of the earliest Neolithic evidence in the Greater Thames Estuary. The site was probably initiated after the first appearance of other early Neolithic regional phenomena including an inhumation burial, early Neolithic pottery and a characteristic early Neolithic post-and-slot structure, and perhaps of Neolithic flint extraction in the Sussex mines. Coldrum is the only site in the Medway monument group to have samples which have been radiocarbon dated, and is important both for regional studies of the early Neolithic and wider narratives of the processes, timing, and tempo of Neolithisation across Britain

The flint flakes from the Elephas antiquus bed of Clacton-on-Sea have been known for many years, and were collected by the Rev. J. W. Kenworthy. I obtained a large series between the years 1911 and 1916, but their affinities remained an enigma to me until they were examined by the Abbé N. Breuil, who denned them as Mesvinian. When once it had been suggested, one realized that this determination was obviously correct, and it has since been confirmed by several continental authorities who are intimately acquainted with the Mesvinian of Belgium.

Stratigraphy. Remnants of the High Terrace with Chellian implements occur in the district (at Frinton, Weeley, etc.) at levels of 70 to 85 feet O.D. These contain much Lower Greensand chert from the Wealden area, and I think they must be referred to the main river of the Thames basin.

The Clacton bed is the silting-up of a tributary channel which cuts across the High Terrace, and of which the base lies below the present level of low tide.

The partial excavation under rescue conditions in 1961–63 of the ditches and interior of an enclosure of the earlier neolithic period is described. The enclosure, covering a total area of approximately 2.4 ha, was defined by double concentric interrupted ditches, which were for the most part naturally filled. There were many traces of activity within the interior, presumed to be contemporary with the ditches, including pits, gullies, post- and stake-holes, and varying concentrations of struck and burnt flint and pottery. Human burials were found. There is a little Ebbsfleet pottery in secondary contexts and there are later prehistoric, Roman and medieval finds. It is probably not possible to ascribe a single or specific role to the site, which may have been important as a place where several activities were concentrated, including occupation, subsistence, exchange, enclosure or defence, burial and ritual.

This is the first report by C.B.A. Group IV (Yorkshire) on the petrological identification of stone axes since 1962 when the group undertook to help members, in part financially and in part with organisation, to obtain sections and petrological identifications of implements in their possession. Some of the sectioned artifacts are in the possession of individual members but the bulk belongs to public museum collections.

The programme was initiated by Mr D. P. Dymond, a former group secretary, and since 1964 has been continued by Mr Laurence Keen. A considerable quantity of axes remains to be sectioned. The rate of sectioning at present is about one hundred and twenty a year. Attempts by the writers to increase the rate of sectioning have been unsuccessful because it has proved impossible to interest capable technicians in the project. However, grateful acknowledgment must be made here to Mr E. D. Evens who has willingly arranged for the sectioning of virtually all the axes in the following Register. The majority of thin sections was made by Mr E. W. Seavill. The writers would also like to thank Dr F. S. Wallis, who has also kindly checked the geological part of this report, Dr D. W. Humphries, Professor W. F. Grimes, Mr J. Bartlett who has kindly made available for publication material in his keeping, Mr H. Coope, and Dr K. C. Dunham, who have made the petrological identifications.

It is convenient to begin this study of Azilian harpoons by first considering the Magdalenian harpoons of northern Spain. The two Basque sites of Aitzbitarte, a few miles within the Spanish side of the frontier, and Isturitz, not many miles within the French side of the frontier, are useful in delimiting the Spanish area from the point of view of the fauna. At Aitzbitarte, Harlé (1908) found a great predominance of red deer with one or two odd fragments of reindeer antler, whereas the well-known excavations by St. Périer (1936) at Isturitz showed a great preponderance of reindeer in conformity with other sites in the Pyrenees. The other occurrences in the three east Spanish provinces agree with that at Aitzbitarte (for instance, at Valle, Lorenzo Sierra, 1908, gives the ratio of antler fragments as red deer to reindeer: 73–1). Judged by the fauna, therefore, the modern political frontier corresponds roughly to the limit of the effective penetration of the reindeer westward, and consequently to the line of demarcation between harpoon-heads made respectively from red deer and reindeer antler.

The subdivision of the Magdalenian deposits in north Spain has never been satısfactorily resolved, and they have obstinately refused to conform to the French sequence. The main difficulty has been the lack of stratified sites; only Cueto de la Mina has yielded three layers; and two or three other caves have given two layers. Nevertheless two stages, an earlier one without and a later one with harpoons have been clearly distinguished (Breuil and Obermaier, 1936, 165–70, 192–4). Although no stratigraphical division of this later stage is possible, a number of interesting points arise from a typological study of the known harpoons.

When, in 1935, Dr Grahame Clark rediscovered the unpublished finds from a site at Glencrutchery, near Douglas in the Isle of Man, he at once realised that he had come upon the relics of a culture that was new to British archaeology. Its age and affinities were quite unknown, and in his most useful pioneer study (Clark, 1935, pp. 85–91) of the material, Dr Clark suggested that it should be assigned to a period which he called the ‘Ultimate Bronze Age’ of the Island, perhaps contemporary with the Iron Age in Britain.

Investigation of material from other Manx sites subsequently made a much earlier dating seem likely, and this impression was confirmed in 1943 by the discovery of a richly-furnished dwelling site at Ronaldsway. Thanks to this chance discovery it is now apparent that we have to deal with a new facet of Neolithic civilisation in these Islands. So far it is known to us only in the Isle of Man.

The area covered by this survey, which epitomizes the writer's work on Wessex barrows since 1929, is limited on the west by a line drawn from Weston-super-Mare to Bridport, on the east by a line drawn from Dorking to Arundel, on the north roughly by the northern limit of the chalk downs south of the Thames, and on the south by the sea. It encloses the great majority of bell, disc, and saucer barrows, all of which appear to be expressions of Piggott's Wessex Bronze Age culture. It should be noted however that elements of this culture are found outside the area dealt with, notably at various places to the north-east. Nearly all of these are so close to the Icknield Way as to make it certain that this was the means of communication linking the one with the other. Another, though less important, extension of the Wessex Bronze Age culture is represented by a few sites, some of them doubtful, within a short distance of the course of the Upper Thames, and it is probable that the river was the means of communication used.

Here it is well to point out the respects in which the boundaries of Bronze Age Wessex, as determined by my own distribution-maps of barrows, differ from those adopted in the O.S. Map of Neolithic Wessex, and by Mr Stuart Piggott in his recent paper, ‘The Early Bronze Age in Wessex.’

Radiocarbon dating and Bayesian chronological modelling have provided precise new dating for the henge monument of Mount Pleasant in Dorset, excavated in 1970–1. A total of 59 radiocarbon dates are now available for the site and modelling of these has provided a revised sequence for the henge enclosure and its various constituent parts: the timber palisaded enclosure, the Conquer Barrow, and the ditch surrounding Site IV, a concentric timber and stone monument. This suggests that the henge was probably built in the 26th century cal bc, shortly followed by the timber palisade and Site IV ditch. These major construction events took place in the late Neolithic over a relatively short timespan, probably lasting 35–125 years. The principal results are discussed for each element of the site, including comparison with similar monument types elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, and wider implications for late Neolithic connections and later activity at the site associated with Beaker pottery are explored.

The Bronze Age remains on the East Moors of the Peak District are amongst the most extensive in the country. This paper discusses their interpretation and examines the pattern of man's exploitation of the region at this period. The distribution of the remains is far from random and concentrates on areas which are the most suitable for agriculture. Prolonged mixed farming in the most favourable areas is argued for. Similar topographic characteristics throughout the area enable estimates to be made of the original levels of exploitation in the region as a whole and the degree to which field evidence has been destroyed. The pattern of settlement suggests the Bronze Age farmers lived in small groups, each exploiting its own relatively self-contained area of upland and each having a handful of ceremonial monuments. There is no evidence for a complex social hierarchy reflected by monuments or settlement patterns. Comparisons are made between the East Moor sites and those in other regions. These suggest varying levels of social organization and types of exploitation in the Bronze Age and illustrate the value of regional studies to highlight the diversity of Bronze Age lifestyle throughout Britain.

The work of the Stone Axe Sub-Committee of the South-western Group of Museums and Art Galleries, familiar to readers of these Proceedings, has made it evident that an important stone axe factory must have existed in the immediate area of Great Langdale, Westmorland. The name ‘Stake Pass,’ applied to stone axes of Group VI of the Committee's classification, indeed referred to a small working-floor discovered at this locality by Professor D. M. S. Watson over thirty years ago. The present paper first records the discovery by Mr Brian Bunch of what was evidently the main factory at Pike of Stickle, as well as a number of subsidiary working-places, and then goes on to describe the material from the sites and to discuss the distribution of the finished products as evidence of early trade.

For many years, Professor P. G. H. Boswell has studied the Pleistocene deposits of East Anglia and, from time to time, published most illuminating reviews summarising the progress of work and discussing the possible relations to the corresponding deposits of other districts (especially 1931, 1932, 1936). In his Presidential Address to the Prehistoric Society last year, he paid particular attention to a problem which has often been attacked but not yet solved satisfactorily, namely the correlation of East Anglia with the Continent; and he suggested, as a possible way out of the difficulties, the correlation of the Hunstanton Boulder Clay with Würm 2, the Upper Chalky Drift with Würm 1, the Great Chalky Boulder Clay with Riss, the North Sea Drift with Mindel, and the later Crag deposits containing a cold fauna, with Günz. He admitted, however, that such a correlation would ‘bring other difficulties in its train.’

This article constitutes a reply to a piece by Steven Mithen, in which an earlier contribution in this journal (Thomas 1988) is criticized as misrepresenting the character of Mesolithic archaeology. Mithen contends that the ‘processual’ archaeology which dominates that period can be humanized by introducing a consideration of emotion into the adaptive process. In this contribution it is suggested that the emphasis on emotion and rationality betrays a misunderstanding of the character of ‘post-processual’ archaeology, while the attempt to encompass emotion in an evolutionary ecological framework does no more than extend the remit of an inherently reductionist perspective. Emphasis is laid upon the notions of history and contextualized social action, and it is recognized that these concepts cannot be accommodated unless we allow that the fundamental characteristics of humanity are not fixed, but are themselves contingent and historically situated.

It has always appeared to me that if any real advance in our knowledge of early man is to be made, it is essential that the sequence of events during the Pleistocene period must be known, but judging from recent literature the prevalent ideas as to this succession are decidedly nebulous. Some years ago Prof. Penck drew up a scheme of Pleistocene chronology based on stratigraphical Alpine evidence which may or may not have been correctly interpreted. Instead of checking this Teutonic theory by English evidence the theory was generally accepted, and various authors have since tried to squeeze the English facts into the German theory with the result that there is no agreement between them, and it is self-evident that either the facts are, or the theory is, wrong. The custom has been far too prevalent in this country of accepting German scientific work at the author's valuation, and it cannot be too strongly insisted upon that German science has all the inherent defects of modern German thought. Classical archæology has thrown off the yoke of German theories based on preconceived ideas. Is it too much to hope that Prehistoric archæology may soon attain freedom? After all even a Geheimrath can err, and there is no room in science for ex cathedra opinions.

The northern regions of the Iberian Peninsula have traditionally been excluded in international debates on Iron Age urbanisation. However, the hillforts and oppida of the Cantabrian area show considerable similarities to the situation found in wide parts of Temperate Europe during the 1st millennium bc. One of the most important centres is the oppidum of Monte Bernorio, which was occupied between the Late Bronze Age and the Roman Conquest. This paper offers a first overview of the archaeological fieldwork carried out over the last decade, which has revealed the existence of an extremely complex and extensive system of multivallate fortifications enclosing an area of about 90 ha. Therefore, it is one of the largest Iron Age fortified sites of the whole of the Iberian Peninsula. The material culture recovered at the settlement – including large amounts of pottery, animal remains, metal objects, and glass beads – testifies both local production and long-distance networks. Moreover, the recovery of a tessera hospitalis with written text constitutes a prime example of the existence of legally sanctioned ‘citizenship rights’ among the pre-Roman communities of the Cantabrian area. Finally, recent discoveries at the oppidum itself and at the nearby Roman military camp of El Castillejo indicate a siege and conquest by the Roman army in the course of the Cantabrian Wars led by Emperor Augustus in the 20s BC. The evidence points towards the existence of one of the major battlefields of Rome’s imperial expansion in the West.

This paper examines the Mt Gabriel-type exploitation of sedimentary mineralization in the West Cork region of south-west Ireland. It includes a consideration of the physical setting of the mines, their distribution, morphology, technology, dating and cultural affinities. Mt Gabriel, the highest mountain of the Mizen Peninsula in south-west Cork, was the setting for extensive mining of surface copper beds during the closing stages of the Early Bronze Age. Recent radiocarbon dating of wood and charcoal from these sites confirms that the main period of mining activity on this mountain was between 1700–1500 cal. BC, making these the oldest copper mines presently known in north-west Europe. The importance of these sites lies not only in their antiquity, but in their unique preservation in upland blanket bog environments.

A recent programme of survey and excavation culminated in the investigation of the mine 3/4 site on the eastern slopes of the mountain. The removal of a large peat-based infill deposit from mine 3 revealed an 11 metre deep inclined opening, in which the transition from a strata-bound drift-mine to a cross-cutting tunnel was visible. Waterlogged sediments within this mine contained a large assemblage of roundwood fuel and wooden mining equipment, including a shovel, pick, wedges, lighting chips and handles for the many stone-hammers which were also found. The excavation of a large spoil mound outside this mine has provided important evidence on ore treatment in these operations, an important element of which involved the repeated crushing of rock using stone cobble-hammers. Activity areas located on the periphery of this dump included further dressing floors, concentrations of broken stone tools and a posthole structure with associated water trough.

This mining, together with an expanded Early Bronze Age metal production in south-west Ireland, may be directly associated with an important intensification of agricultural production and human settlement in this region, which also finds expression in the adoption of new sepulchral and ceremonial traditions. The ore sources constituted an important resource during this period, contributing to the emergence of controlling élites who had an important managerial role in the production and distribution of metal.

As part of the research of the joint Anglo-Maltese project on the island of Gozo, a Zebbug period rock-cut tomb was discovered in the south-east corner of the Brochtorff Circle. The integrity of this tomb and the interdisciplinary approach applied to its study make it a unique find from the Maltese islands and rare within the southern central Mediterranean.

The article presents the stratigraphy, pottery, stone, shell and bone artefacts, skeletal remains, animal bone, molluscan samples, and radiocarbon dates from the tomb. At the same time the significance of the tomb for the formative phases of collective burial, exchange and symbolic processes in the central Mediterranean and the origins of Maltese insularity is explained.