In March 1949, work was carried out at The Bull Ring, Dove Holes, Derbyshire, by members of the Oxford University Archaeological Society, as part of the general survey of ‘henge“ monuments, undertaken by Mr R. J. C. Atkinson. The site was surveyed and was found to be of the ‘double-entrance’ class of Henge Monument. No stone-holes were found, but it is known from an 18th century account that the monument once had a stone setting similar to that at Arbor Low, Derbyshire. Trenches revealed the form of the ditch and bank, but the dating evidence was confined to two fragments of pottery, one of them a rim sherd, probably related to Beaker fabric.

The authors of these notes acknowledge the ready collaboration of the numerous excavators who have contributed information or notes concerning work carried out during the present year.

I have chosen for the subject of my address a description of the excavations carried out at Grime's Graves by Mr. A. Leslie Armstrong and myself in the autumn of 1915. The work consisted in the digging over of four new floors, a description of which will form the main part of my paper. We also re-examined the mass of material left on three of the older floors excavated in 1914, viz., 3, 4, and 13, and devoted some time to searching the field which lies to the west of the plantation, which, in spite of many years' examination, still yields quantities of new implements. I have included, too, a description of some of the implements from a zone near Botany Bay, from which, in 1914, I obtained a number of pieces. This station lies about a mile on the Brandon side of the plantation, and is probably the ploughed-over site of some pits of similar date.

Owing to the kindness of some members of the Society, viz., Messrs. W. G. Clarke, H. H. Halls, R. H. Chandler, and the Rev. H. G. O. Kendall, I have been able to figure and describe a number of fine implements which clearly belong to the same culture—found either on the field or on the surface of the Graves, and these, together with various specimens found on these spots by Mr. Armstrong and myself, are dealt with separately.

A segment of earlier Bronze Age arable landscape incorporating isolated round barrows on the high chalk spur of Hog Cliff Hill became the chosen location for a later Bronze Age earthwork of considerable dimensions. The area excavated within the bank and ditch was densely occupied by two major phases of buildings of timber construction, lasting into the earliest Iron Age. Sometime during the early Iron Age the oval enclosure was replaced by a more substantial one which partly followed its line and contained a series of unusual structures comprising dry-stone flint banks or wall-footings. The site was subsequently abandoned, the land probably being returned to agricultural use, until the Roman period when the agger of the Roman road from Dorchester to Ilchester was constructed across the earthwork.

In 2015, excavations at Stainton Quarry, Furness, Cumbria, recovered remains that provide a unique insight into Early Neolithic farming in the vicinity. Five pits, a post-hole, and deposits within a tree-throw and three crevices in a limestone outcrop were investigated. The latter deposits yielded potentially the largest assemblage of Carinated Bowl fragments yet recovered in Cumbria. Lipid analysis identified dairy fats within nine of these sherds. This was consistent with previous larger studies but represents the first evidence that dairying was an important component of Early Neolithic subsistence strategies in Cumbria. In addition, two deliberately broken polished stone axes, an Arran pitchstone core, a small number of flint tools and debitage, and a tuff flake were retrieved. The site also produced moderate amounts of charred grain, hazelnut shell, charcoal, and burnt bone. Most of the charred grain came from an Early Neolithic pit and potentially comprises the largest assemblage of such material recovered from Cumbria to date. Radiocarbon dating indicated activity sometime during the 40th–35th centuries cal bc as well as an earlier presence during the 46th–45th centuries. Later activity during the Chalcolithic and the Early Bronze Age was also demonstrated. The dense concentration of material and the fragmentary and abraded nature of the pottery suggested redeposition from an above-ground midden. Furthermore, the data recovered during the investigation has wider implications regarding the nature and use of the surrounding landscape during the Early Neolithic and suggests higher levels of settlement permanence, greater reliance on domesticated resources, and a possible different topographical focus for settlement than currently proposed.

This article presents the evidence for the distribution of Late Minoan stone vases outside Crete. This class of evidence has not been discussed previously and as the amount of material involved is substantial, over a hundred vases, it is here set out as a contribution to the discussion of Minoan foreign connexions in the earlier part of the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean.

The vases were made in Crete in Middle Minoan III/Late Minoan I—Late Minoan III A 1, c. 1600–1400 B.C., as is shown by the contexts of parallel vases from sites in the island (see the Catalogue). Most of the exports occur in Aegean contexts of this period; for those from contexts later than c. 1400 B.C. it is most reasonable to believe that they too were exported from Crete at the time of their floruit, containing in use for a time afterwards. In any case most of them are fragments, which indicates that their time of arrival and period of use were earlier than the late date of their contexts. Moreover after c. 1400 B.C. Cretan influence abroad ceased (Desborough 1964, 166–7; cf. Furumark 1950, 263–4 for the end of Minoan contacts with Trianda and Phylakopi), nor is there evidence that stone vases were then made in the island.

The megalithic tomb of Pedra Branca lies at Montum, on the west coast of Portugal about 140 kilometers south of Lisbon by road (fig. 1). The tomb is the first in Portugal to have yielded Beaker graves overlying earlier burials; prior to its discovery, no Beaker remains had ever been noted further south than Palmela, in the estuary of the Sado river, approximately 40 kilometers from Lisbon. The tomb is situated on the top of a small hillock 100 m above sea level, separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a fertile undulating plain about 5 km in width. The Lake of Melides lies to the north and, to the east, the hills of Grandola rise steeply to an altitude of 300 m; an expanse of rough terrain stretches to the south, ravined by various small streams which flow into the Lake of Santo André on the coast.

When the tomb was discovered by surveyors of the Geological Services of Portugal, it was already very badly damaged; all the orthostats had been broken for use in local construction and part of the circular covering mound had already been ploughed under. The Services therefore, decided that a salvage campaign was called for, and a team made up of the authors, was invited to carry it out with funds granted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

This paper attempts to resituate the Irish so-called ‘Royal’ sites within our vision of the Iron Age by challenging current understanding of their function as primarily situated in a ceremonial or ritual realm. While the evidence from these sites speaks to the complexity of their function, conceptualisation, and symbolic relevance, it is argued here that they are integral focal points of settled landscapes. Their architecture is suggested to address very specific concerns of the agrarian communities that built them and, in its very distinct change over the course of the Iron Age, to reflect broader societal developments, namely the emergence and decline of new society formations. Artefacts and ecofacts, architecture and landscape context of these sites contain a wealth of information on the activities that were taking place on and near them. It is argued that, freed from a binary ritual/profane interpretational framework, this evidence becomes readable as a record of Iron Age society and its dramatic changes over time.

Perforated plates of fired clay have long been recognised as a component of Late Bronze Age material culture in south-eastern England, but recent developer-funded excavations have produced a wealth of new evidence. These artefacts, showing a considerable degree of standardisation, are now known from more than 70 sites, which show a markedly riverine and estuarine distribution along the lower Thames. Their function is still uncertain, but it is suggested that they were parts of ovens for baking bread, a new technology for food preparation in the later Bronze Age. Some of the largest assemblages of such plates are found at strongly defended sites, and it is further suggested that the baking and consumption of bread was particularly associated with such sites of social authority. The estuarine distribution is discussed in this paper, and it presents further evidence for the regionally distinctive nature of food consumption in later prehistory.

Monumental ditches and Bell Beakers are two key phenomena in later prehistoric Europe involved in the study of El Ventorro, near Madrid. In this article, we discuss and develop an analytical protocol for a thorough characterisation of the patterns of breakage, abrasion, and representation of ceramics. The procedure is tested with a large ceramic sample from ‘Pithouse 013’, an unusually rich context which challenges stereotypical accounts of the domestic sphere, feasting, and prestige goods deposition. This sunken feature was filled with a heterogeneous mixture of recently broken remains and secondary residues, and is reinterpreted here as a ditch segment instead of everyday fossilised occupation surfaces. The paper sheds important new light on depositional practices, the social biographies of Beaker pottery, and the infilling of ditched enclosures. It also allows the assessment of the potential of this integrated re-fitting and taphonomic strategy to illuminate poorly understood aspects of pottery in a range of time–place contexts.

In remote times bleak and exposed sites in the east of the county of Durham were occupied by folk who made microlithic implements. On the top of Sheddon's Hill, near the Black Fell, Gateshead, these relics were fairly abundant among hundreds of pieces of flint collected; and examples have been found elsewhere in the district and on the coast.

Many of the Belgian Tardenois types are represented among these finds, the small trapezoid which has not yet been excavated on Sheddon's Hill was found on a site near by and a small round scraper on a coast site. The finding of these remains on Sheddon's Hill adds something to our information about the distribution of the Tardenois folk in Britain who probably as Capt. Buckley has suggested spread westwards from the Continent at a time when the North Sea did not exist.

The pygmy and small implements shown to-night from Cornwall were found on the landward slope of Trevose Head, near Padstow, on the north coast of the county. The sea end of this promontory rises to some 200 feet, and thence the ground inclines rapidly back to the mainland, the connecting neck being not more than half a mile wide. At the narrowest part the rain-water, constantly filtering through the adjacent peat, wastes down the hard bedrock of slate, comes out as a small spring, which, in the course of ages, has cut a channel of a hundred yards in length to the cliff edge. At the springhead stands a cairn of a massive block of white quartz, obviously of great age, but whether coeval with the prehistoric settlpment it would be impossible to say. This cairn or beacon would be seen from a long way over the adjacent bay, and might have served to guide seafarers of any age to the fresh-water supply. Here, amongst the faint traces of trenching and hut circles, the small implements, and chips made in their manufacture, all of snow-white patina, were lying about in great profusion.

In this paper I shall endeavour to outline the progress which has been made recently in archaeological studies in the prehistoric periods in Wales. In the last number of the Proceedings (1931, 383–4), I contributed at the request of the Secretary a number of notes on this subject, taking as my starting point the publication of Dr. R. E. M. Wheeler's book, Prehistoric and Roman Wales, in 1925. In the present instance I propose to give a more detailed, as well as a more general account, demonstrating how recent research and discoveries have advanced our knowledge, clarifying the position in relation both to Wales herself and to the connexions of Wales with other external influences.

The publication of Prehistoric and Roman Wales in 1925 may truly be said to mark the end of one era and the beginning of a new. Drawing together the scattered threads of what had been done before, Wheeler has given them meaning and set forth the results of many years of unorganised, frequently ill-considered, work in tangible form. In so doing, he has exposed the gaps in our knowledge and suggested, specifically or by implication, a policy in the form of a series of problems the elucidation of which will lead ultimately to a more complete picture of the early cultures of Wales, and hence of Britain as a whole. Wheeler's survey therefore forms a natural and admirable jumping-off place, and the subject will be treated in the following pages in its natural chronological sequence.

Not only is Grimes' Graves an essentially East Anglian site, but it is also one of the most interesting, and most perplexing, prehistoric sites of Britain, presenting many controversial problems which only persistent research and careful observation will solve.

Recent work upon the site has marked a distinct advance in this direction, notably by the fortunate discovery in 1920 of Floor 85 with its definite stratification, and evidences of successive occupation during at least five widely separated intervals of time. With Dr. R. V. Favell as a co-worker, excavations were resumed upon this floor in August, 1921, and continued for six days. An additional 40 square yards was carefully and systematically explored down to the level of the boulder clay, resulting in the recovery of a further series of important flint implements and examples of engraving. Owing to the favourable nature of the site with its stratified chipping and occupation levels, each sealed and separated by sterile layers of humus, and closely compacted chalk debris, it has thrown important light upon some of the problems of the Grimes' Graves industry, and should enable not only certain definite conclusions to be arrived at, but materially assist in the ultimate classification of the various cultural forms of the implements from the Graves generally.

In the present state of our knowledge of the Neolithic period in England, and especially as regards its pottery, any light that can be thrown upon it is welcome, and it is on that account that I have brought before the Society a report on two discoveries of Neolithic remains: at Pangbourne, Berks., and Caversham, Oxon.

It is greatly to be regretted that owing to the circumstances of the discovery accurate observations could not be made. In May, 1928, workmen were engaged in levelling ground to make a tennis court, at “Farmhili,” Courtlands Hill, Pangbourne, and in doing so came upon, and, as is unhappily so often the case, disturbed and partly smashed a human skeleton, other animal bones, of which a few only survive, and a large bowl of coarse pottery, definitely of Neolithic type. It would seem that when found the bowl was imore or less complete, but Mr. G. W. Smith, of Reading, who visited the spot the day after the discovery, was only able to find about two-thirds of the vessel, in fragments, on the rubbish heaps of excavated material. These fragments, together with the other remains, were presented by the owner of the land, Lt.-Com. W. S. Macilwaine, R.N., to the Reading Museum, where the writer had the opportunity of examining them.