The written sources are overwhelming for that great historical event, the conquest of the world by Europeans between the 15th and the 19th centuries. Historical archaeology, especially in north America, now provides an important source of evidence of a different character. But what was it like to receive Europeans on your shore, what was it like to be dispossesed? Here is a report specifically concerned with relations between native and newcomer at the Cape, one of those African regions which first felt the European impact.

It is uncommon for the prehistorian to engage in the writing of culture history in the wider sense of the term – that is, to comment on major works of literature and art in the light of contemporary experience, learning and values. As archaeology has become a more professional field of study, discourse in recent years has come increasingly to have a discipline-centred focus. There is a price to pay for the habit of looking inward: the loss of contact with cultural and intellectual developments in the world at large. What is attempted in revisiting Old Calabria, a classic that Norman Douglas wrote in the early part of this century, is an experiment at writing archaeological discourse that is less self-centred and instead tries to look outward.

The fascicules of the final report on Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, the key Aegean sequence for the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition, are starting to appear, along with the publications of the Stanford survey of the region. Here, those reports prompt a wider review of existing explanations for the emergence of Greek social complexity, and the identifying of a new and major impetus as the basis for a revised model.

The paper by Ian Kinnes et al. in the March number published the gold objects from Bush Barrow, Wiltshire, examined the evidence for the original form of the large lozenge, and described its recent restoration into a domed profile. In this paper a different view is taken of evidence for the original form of the lozenge and of the wisdom of its recent transformation.

In view of the issues raised by the preceding paper, ANTIQUITY invited the Chairman of the United Kingdom Institute for Conservation to comment.

The new Dorchester by-pass is being constructed (scheduled completion in autumn 1988 through a busy landscape of later prehistoric England – and one where fieldworkers have been very active recently, especially at the Maiden Castle hillfort, and in the county town itself. Survey and excavations along the by-pass route were undertaken by the author for the Trust for Wessex Archaeology. The excavation at Flagstones House, directed together with Martin Trott, identified a late Neolithic causewayed enclosure. This note concentrates on the chalk engravings from that site, which lies to the west of Max Gate, the house of Thomas Hardy. It is perhaps apposite that the Wessex novelist built his home so close to the heart of a sacred Wessex site.

The preservation of organic remains and environmental indicators in those soft, damp and colourful deposits that visually indicate ancient excreta is familiar. This note reports a horse parasite, and draws attention to preservation of valuable material in deposits much less promising in nature.

Earlier this year, a BBC television series dived into the regions where underwater archaeology fades into the murkier waters of treasure-hunting. This is an opportune moment to review an archaeologist's account of his rôle in the richest of recent recoveries, the gold from the Spanish galleon Atocha.

Vegetable remains are a rarity in Palueolithic contexts. These new determinations on material from southern Egypt establish securely the date of an intensive grass-tuber and fish economy in the Nile Valley towards 20,000 years ago.

Apparent deficiencies in Irish legislation for the protection of archaeology have been much commented on (e.g. ANTIQUITY 62: 4–5); here, the Keeper of Irish Antiquities at the National Museum points also to some of its strengths – for example, in protecting artefacts and non-artefactual material as well as sites and monuments – and explains the vigorous measures now taken to bring the law and the penalties up to date.

Another proposal is made as to why there often are ard marks under barrows.

The new Monuments Protection Programme (Darvill et al. 1987; the November 1987 ANTIQUITY) will depend heavily on scoring systems to assess the relative value of different monuments and areas. Here are some comments by someone else with experience of scoring sites.

Prehistoric figurines and building models are rarely discovered in clearly defined, non-funerary contexts in the Near East and eastern Mediterranean regions. When they are found in association in a cache of over 50 objects it is a notable archaeological event. Here Dr Edgar Peltenburg, Director of the Lemba Archaeological Project, Cyprus, argues that the cache provides important new light on the evolution of cult places in the eastern Mediterranean.

Excavation of a new Classical shipwreck, off the east coast of Siciliy, has provided the first find of a Roman surgeon's kit from a marine context.

After many years new research is being undertaken into the prehistory of the islands of Malta at the invitation of the Maltese authorities. One of the early results of the work, started in 1987, is the discovery of evidence for domestic architecture to complement the already well known ritual monuments of the Maltese islands.

Cornish gabbroic pottery has one of the more distinctive British petrological signatures and a remarkable distribution in space and time. Here recent developments are reviewed and some misconceptions corrected