A series of twenty controlled experiments was undertaken to determine if heat treatment alters the speed, intensity, or appearance of wear on the edges of flint tools. Four hypotheses were tested with the following results: Heat-treated tools wore more quickly and with more severity than tools which had not been heated. When used in the same fashion and on the same materials, heat-treated flakes showed longer microflake removals from use than did non-heat-treated flakes. The use of these flint tools yielded more step and hinge flake terminations on the heat-treated tools than on the non-heat-treated tools. Flake scars from microflaking due to use had a shiny surface on flints which had been heat-treated, while such surfaces were matt on unheated materials. The results suggest that these effects should be taken into consideration when studies of use-wear are undertaken.

Eight ring-ditches and several stretches of pit alignment have been excavated between 1981 and 1985, as part of the investigation of an extensive cropmark complex on a gravel terrace in the Upper Severn valley at Four Crosses, northern Powys. Excavation of the ring-ditches, which form part of a more scattered barrow cemetery, has revealed a long and complex pattern of development of barrow types and burial forms in the period between the Middle Neolithic and the Middle Bronze Age. This is compared with the recently published sequence from the neighbouring upland barrow cemetery at Trelystan, and subdivided into four hypothetical phases. There is evidence of activity in the vicinity of some of the sites in the Iron Age, Romano-British, and possibly the early post-Roman period.

Unretouched flakes, Clactonian notches, true notches and a unifacial chopper were all used in a series of experiments on staves of yew wood. The aim of the experiments was to see which of the various Clactonian tool types could best reproduce the sharp, straight-sided taper of the Clacton spear point. Because of the hardness of the wood the experimenter was forced to begin close to the end of the wooden staves. The unretouched flakes when used in an outward whittling motion tended to produce point profiles with rounded tips; these resemble the point of the Lehringen lance. The Clactonian notch, better suited to an inward scraping motion, reproduced the same profile as the Clacton spear point. The experiments were repeated on four softer woods than yew in order to see how far the nature of the raw material affected the results. Irrespective of the hardness of the wood, rapid inward scraping consistently produced a point profile resembling the Clacton spear point using both an unretouched flake and Clactonian notches. The sharp, straight-sided taper of the Clacton spear point is therefore interpreted as being a result of the motion and technique of manufacture. Observations were taken on the efficiency and best ways of using the various stone tools used in the experiments. The most efficient of the tool types used for replicating the profile of the Clacton spear point using rapid scraping in an inward motion was the Clactonian notch.

The concentration of prehistoric monuments, broadly of the later third and early second millennium B.C., in the upper Tay valley, has been noted by more than one archaeologist in recent years (Stewart, 1958–9; Coles, J. M. and Simpson, 1965). The multiple stone circle to be described lies no more than 2 miles (3·2 km) from the north-eastern end of Loch Tay at Kenmore, and 4 miles (6·2 km) west of Aberfeldy, at Nat. Grid Ref. NN/797472 (fig. 1). It stands some 400 feet (122 m) above sea level, near and to the south of the main Aberfeldy–Kenmore road near the farm of Croft Moraig or Morag, and has long been known as a prehistoric monument: ‘Yon's the Druid Stones!’ shouted the coach drivers to their passengers sixty years ago, and only ‘the begoggled motorist’ of the day was thought likely to miss it (Coles, F.R., 1909–10, 139). Probably the earliest record of the site is that made by Robert Burns on his Highland journey in 1787 (quoted in Gillies, 1938, 14):

This paper presents the first systematic archaeological evidence from the early prehistory of south-east Ireland. The research is designed to investigate the colonization of the area during the Mesolithic period and the subsequent transition to agriculture. From a theoretical perspective, we offer a view of indigenous development. That is, we look for continuities between Mesolithic and Neolithic Ireland in terms of technology and settlement. The data, we are gathering include surface and excavated materials. Lithic assemblages were systematically collected from ploughsoils surrounding the Waterford Harbour area during the years 1983 through 1987. These materials are analyzed from the point of view of geography, raw material, reduction sequences, manufacturing technology, and chronological typology to yield an initial glimpse into the rich prehistory of the region and its pattern of settlement. Excavations during 1986, 1987 and 1989 have begun to fill in some detail including the region's first prehistoric barley, a Neolithic radiocarbon date, prehistoric pottery, a rhyolite quarry and several rich lithic assemblages.

Ty-isaf long cairn is one of a group of 13 long cairns in the Black Mountains of Brecknockshire. The existence of the group was first recognised by Mr O. G. S. Crawford, who published them in his Long Barrows of the Cotswolds. Several—in particular Ty Illtyd, Gwernvale and the two fine examples at Fostill near Llanelieu—were already well-known; but Ty-isaf, with a number of others, was first launched on an archaeological career by Mr Crawford in 1925.

Crawford's preoccupation being with the Cotswold long cairns he did not attempt to consider every aspect of the Brecknockshire cairns. This I subsequently tried to do in Archaeologia Cambrensis for 1936. But it had long been clear that the complete excavation of at least one of the monuments was badly needed to augment what we already knew— which was little enough—from chance digging and from visible features.

The Brecknockshire Society therefore deserves the thanks of archaeologists in general for undertaking this excavation, and congratulations for the success which has attended their efforts. Gratitude is especially due to the Society's President Sir John Lloyd, by whom with Mr R. G. Sandeman most of the preliminary arrangements were carried out. Other members of the Society helped in various ways. Mr Sandeman himself was present throughout the whole course of the work, and Mr Jestyn Williams was responsible for some of the surveying upon which the plan (fig. 2) is based.

Prehistorians have unreservedly extended the Early Iron Age in territories north of the Roman Empire to include, in addition to a pre-Roman Iron Age, a Roman Iron Age during which the native barbarism evolved without a break though not unaffected by the Empire. That a Late Iron Age continued in Scotland, as in Scandinavia, during post-Roman times has been less readily realized. Professor Childe nominally ended his Prehistory of Scotland with the 4th century A.D. and spoke of an unbridged chasm thereafter, four or five centuries long, to which few and undecisive relics were attributable. The extent of archaeological perplexity 30 years ago was such that J. G. Callander maintained that Skara Brae represented the same Iron Age culture as the brochs and earth-houses. Following the studies of brochs and wheel-houses by Lindsay Scott and Lethbridge, which agreed that they formed a single culture datable to the first three centuries A.D., the latter wrote recently that the culture of the Western Isles between the 3rd century and the 9th ‘is completely unknown and I think unsought’.

The hoard of gold torcs from Ipswich comprises five found in 1968, to which must be added a sixth found on 18 October 1970. The five found in 1968 were in immediate association with each other and are here numbered 1 to 5. The 1970 find, my number 6, may be accepted as from the same hoard but separated from the others during the course of earth-moving in the area concerned.

All the torcs are outstanding examples of early Celtic craftsmanship, and the group is of exceptional technical interest and great sociological and economic significance.

Excavations at Hartshill Copse in 2003 uncovered evidence for Late Bronze Age settlement, securely dated to the 10th century BC, associated with long alignments of closely set posts: prehistoric landscape features with few known parallels. Extensive sampling of the settlement remains yielded quantities of burnt flint and plain Post Deverel-Rimbury potsherds, and, quite unexpectedly, a substantial quantity of iron hammerscale. This paper presents the excavation data, with supporting dating evidence, and the results of detailed analysis of the metallurgical residues. It explores the spatial distribution of artefact types within the settlement, and presents an interpretative model for settlement use. The nature of the settlement, with its carefully planned use of space and close relationship with the post alignments, is then discussed. Together, all this provides conclusive evidence for the earliest ironworking site yet recognised in Britain. The paper concludes with a comprehensive discussion of early ironworking in its British and European context.

Changes in the geological interpretation of the history of the ancient Solent river basin have focused attention on the handaxes discovered in the Corfe Mullen area during quarrying before the Second World War. Recent geological research suggests that the fluvial terrace the handaxes are associated with may pre-date the Anglian glaciation. This is important because it contributes to the question of just when the Solent basin was first occupied by hominins, and how this relates to other areas of possible contemporary pre-Anglian occupation such as the Boxgrove Marine embayment. However, the artefacts were believed to come from the bluff of the river terrace and were thus not in situ. This paper explores that question and re-examines the context from which the handaxes at Corfe Mullen were discovered.

This paper starts by outlining the history of stone axe studies in Ireland, from their antiquarian beginnings to 1990. It then offers a critical review of the current state of knowledge concerning the numbers, distribution, findspot contexts, morphology, size, associated finds, dating and raw materials of stone axes. Having proposed an agenda for future research, the paper ends by introducing the Irish Stone Axe Project—the major programme of database creation and petrological identification, funded by the National Heritage Council, currently being undertaken by GC and EG.

Excavations were carried out intermittently between 1982 and 2005, by various excavators, in advance of quarrying activity at Upper Largie, Kilmartin Glen, Argyll & Bute. They revealed abundant evidence of prehistoric activity, dating from the Mesolithic to the Middle Bronze Age, on a fluvioglacial terrace overlooking the rest of the Glen, although some evidence was doubtless destroyed without record during a period of unmonitored quarrying. Several undated features were also discovered. Mesolithic activity is represented by four pits, probably representing a temporary camp; this is the first evidence for Mesolithic activity in the Glen. Activity of definite and presumed Neolithic date includes the construction, and partial burning, of a post-defined cursus. Copper Age activity is marked by an early Beaker grave which matches counterparts in the Netherlands in both design and contents, and raises the question of the origin of its occupant. The terrace was used again as a place of burial during the Early Bronze Age, between the 22nd and the 18th century, and the graves include one, adjacent to the early Beaker grave, containing a unique footed Food Vessel combining Irish and Yorkshire Food Vessel features. At some point/s during the first half of the 2nd millennium bc – the oakbased dates may suffer from ‘old wood’ effect – three monuments were constructed on the terrace: a pit, surrounded by pits or posts, similar in design to the early Beaker grave; a timber circle; and a post row. The latest datable activity consists of a grave, containing cremated bone in a Bucket Urn, the bone being dated to 1410–1210 cal bc; this may well be contemporary with an assemblage of pottery from a colluvium spread. The relationship between this activity and contemporary activities elsewhere in the Glen is discussed.

In a note in the last issue of these Proceedings, Professor C. Daryll Forde commented on some of the tentative conclusions set forth by the present writer in two articles in earlier issues, and went on to a general discussion of the morphology and diffusion of prehistoric burial chambers. During the last few years it has been generally held by archaeologists that the megalithic colonisation of western and northern Europe was dual in character, consisting of two separate movements—the one diffusing Passage Graves, the other diffusing Gallery Graves: this notion is implicit in the recent writings of Childe, Hawkes, Estyn Evans, Powell and Megaw. It has seemed to me abundantly clear that, even if these two sets of movements were ultimately from the same Mediterranean source (and this, too, is open to question), as far as western and northern Europe was concerned they were two distinct and separate movements. This conclusion Forde challenges, and regards all Gallery Graves as local developments from degenerate Passage Graves in the various regions of Europe to which the Passage Graves were diffused. It has seemed worth while to the present writer, before meeting Forde's detailed criticisms, to deal with his general thesis, and it is the purpose of this article to argue and describe the dual nature of the megalithic colonisation of Europe.

The present report is the fifth to be issued by this Committee in the course of 35 years' work on the petrological identification of stone implements. The four earlier reports (Keiller, Piggott and Wallis, 1941; Stone and Wallis, 1947; Stone and Wallis, 1951; Evens, Grinsell, Piggott and Wallis, 1962—hereafter referred to as the Fourth Report) were concerned primarily with stone implements from South-Western England, but also included implements from other parts of the British Isles. Since the early 1960s, when a series of regional implement petrology surveys was set up under the aegis of the Council for British Archaeology, this Committee's official work has been confined to the South-West, a region which, for administrative purposes, now comprises the seven counties of Berkshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire, together with the Channel Islands. Hampshire, formerly within this Committee's area of special interest, has been allocated to the South-East, with Sussex, Surrey and Kent. The present report is concerned, therefore, exclusively with implements from the South-West, as defined above.

The assemblages from four sites in Spain and Gibraltar form the basis of a study that addresses the behavioral significance of the variability in Middle Paleolithic chipped stone artifacts. Quantitative analysis of artifact edge morphology forms the primary focus of this work.

It is suggested that (1) morphological variability is generally continuous for the features examined, (2) retouched and unretouched lithics are extremes in a continuum of the degree of edge use, (3) lithic morphology is dynamic and artifacts may be multi-functional and (4) lithic morphoplogy is conditioned by the time of discard in the use-life of the artifact. Retouched artifacts may be more the end result of the extent and nature of the use of their various edges than preconceived tools determined by cultural traditions or intended function.

These results are applied to a study of Middle Paleolithic settlement strategies using data from the four primary sites of the study and an additional five sites in the Iberian peninsula. Differences are noted between upland and lowland strategies. Upland sites may represent more of a ‘forager’ strategy, with frequent, short-term occupations of sites. Lowland sites seem more characteristic of a ‘collector’ strategy, with longer occupations and less frequent visits to sites. Settlement response to changing Upper Pleistocene environments during the onset of the last glacial may include a shift to a more ‘forager’-like strategy in lowland settings.

Explaining the evolution of prehistoric trade systems dominates archaeological research in the Papuan Lowlands of New Guinea. However, important evidence in the form of ground stone axes, which had to be imported into this region, is largely ignored. This paper provides a summary of relevant ethnographic accounts of axe exchange systems, describes the archaeological finds from a restricted area near Kikori Station using sourcing and morphological analyses and interprets the meaning and significance of results. As this is a radical departure from traditional studies, we take this opportunity to sketch some major research questions which may aid future investigations.

In the 13 years since ‘Problems in the Stone Age of Southeast Asia’ was published, there has been a number of significant developments. There remains a lack of early cultural material despite the possibility that first occupation of the area may date back as far as 1.8 Myrs. It seems that the first hominins in the region were essentially ‘alithic’ in their adaptation, making the reconstruction of their behaviour extremely difficult. There is also a question as to which hominin was first ‘Out of Africa’ and into Asia and a suggestion that Homo erectus is, in fact, an Asian species that may have migrated west. This has important implications for interpretations of the significance of the so-called ‘Movius Line’. By the time stone tool use does appear regularly in the record, modern humans are present but it is still hard to identify the kinds of directional changes that are associated with the Late Pleistocene elsewhere in the world. The question of when humans were able to exploit tropical forests in the region is also one that recent work explores. The recent discoveries from Flores of stone tools that appear to pre-date the arrival of modern humans, and a possibly associated ‘dwarf’ hominin, Homo floresiensis, all require re-appraisal of the nature of human activity in the region.

It is particularly interesting for those British geologists who devote themselves to studying the Thames gravels, to have a statement, as accurate as possible, of the results at which I have arrived in a parallel study, which I have pursued for nearly twenty years in the Somme valley.

On the slopes and in the foot of this valley, a series of deposits bear witness to successive oscillations with phases of erosion and aggradation, episodes which brought the river from a high level to its actual course, running on the deposits of its last aggradation, those which are visible being peaty.

There is every evidence, judging by the remains left by the river on the slopes of its valley, of a series of levels, differing both in height and physical state, as well as in their paleontological and archaeological content. These have been called terraces, though this term is very inexact, for they are generally only steps surviving of ancient scooped out aggradations, which in their turn filled up the modern valley. Each is really complex, and, far from being of one date, is the accumulated result of phases of fluvial accretion at different periods of aggradation, which spread out or partially removed, at the beginning and end of these phases, the contributions of lateral phenomena, usually solifluxion, at the time of the deepening of the river bed.

Ever since Martin's definition of Breton tumulus burials in 1900 the discrete distribution of biconical handled vases or vases à anses has been well known (Martin 1900). In 1928 details of similar vessels in the Channel Isles became readily available through Kendrick's survey of the Bailiwick of Guernsey (1928). In Southern Britain, however, the nineteenth century finds at Portland G2 and Winterbourne Stoke G5 have reained unconfirmed and consequently discussions on Armorico-Wessex connections in the Early Bronze Age have treated the question of cross-Channel ceramic exchange with notable circumspection.

In light of the enculturation of landscapes by ethnographically documented hunter-gatherers, we should expect Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to have endowed their early Holocene landscapes with meaning. Attempts to find evidence for this have focussed on the unusual and exotic – those aspects of the archaeological record that seem immediately unrelated to subsistence. In this contribution, I suggest that fireplaces, ubiquitous on Mesolithic sites and often swiftly passed over in site reports as evidence for cooking alone, had played a key role in the process of landscape enculturation. Although we cannot reconstruct the specific meanings once attached to early Holocene landscapes, by appreciating the social and cultural significance of fireplaces we gain a more holistic view of the Mesolithic than is currently the case, whether in those studies that focus on settlement and subsistence or those that cite examples of ritual. In the course of making this argument, I summarise the evidence for fireplaces from Mesolithic Britain, noting the need for more systematic reporting. Finally, I provide a case study from western Scotland that seeks to view a suite of fireplaces in the context of the landscape topography, early Holocene environments, subsistence economy, and by drawing on selected ethnographic analogies.