Between 1795 and 1974 early Indian iron may be said to have had three separate phases of research. The first phase lasted from 1795 to about the middle of the 19th century. There were two types of writings in this period. The first type represented the metallurgical experiments on pre-industrial Indian steel called wootz, the term which is derived from the Canarese term ukku meaning steel, having been introduced into the English language by Pearson in 1795 (Yule and Burnell, 1903).

The long-term history of prehistoric populations is a challenging but important subject that can now be addressed through combined use of archaeological and genetic evidence. In this study a multidisciplinary team uses these approaches to document the existence of a major population bottleneck in Finland during the Late Neolithic period, the effects of which are still detectable in the genetic profile of the Finnish population today. The postglacial recolonisation of Finland was tracked through space and time using radiocarbon dates and stone artefact distributions to provide a robust framework of evidence against which the genetic simulations could be compared.

Long characterised as merchants in pursuit of metals, the Phoenician settlers on the Iberian peninsula are here given an alternative profile. The author shows that a new aristocracy, visible in the archaeology of both cemeteries and settlements, was engaged in winning a social advancement denied it at home in the east. In particular, the Egyptian alabaster vases found in Spain, far from being the products of pillage or trade, were appreciated as prestige objects which often ended their days as receptacles for high status cremations.

This paper concerns the regions of Central and Southern Mexico, Guatemala, British Honduras, and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador, which are recognized by archaeologists to have constituted a cultural unity in pre-Spanish times. This area was one of the two centres of civilization in pre-Columbian America, Peru, being the other. It includes the several cultural centres north of Tehuantepec, usually grouped together under the name of Mexican Civilization, and those south of that isthmus, in the Mayan zone. For a long time before the Spanish conquest this entire region formed a definite cultural unit—it was a culture area, using this term in the precise meaning as defined by Kroeber—for which the name Mesoamerica is now generally used.

For modern communities, she is the moon goddess and protectress of Maya culture and women; for scholars she is one of a number of deities with different roles in the Postclassic period. Which is the real Ixchel? The author excavates the story of the Maya goddess and her re-invention by myth-makers – including archaeologists.

A distinctive type of stone tool, from midden sites on the eastern Queensland coast of Australia, is identified from ethnographic accounts of the preparation of fern roots as food.

In South Africa, as in so many regions, the world of dirt archaeology in shelter floors and of rock art on shelter walls, have also been rather separate as domains of study. In research at Rose Cottage Cave, bridges are being made to link both strands of evidence of the forager social strategies from which both derive.

Recognition of distinctive ceramics by visual inspection is the norm in surface survey - especially when ceramic types are as varied and colourful as those of Islamic medieval pottery. Here petrographic analysis is used successfully to define the ceramic categories and the contributions of local and imported wares.

The estimation of past population levels continues to be an important aspect of archaeological research. Here Antonio Curet offers new formulae for estimating prehistoric populations in lowland South America and the Caribbean using data derived from houses and settlements.

A further contribution on art, history and archaeological attitude in South Africa.

Bororo and cultural continuity

Cultural continuity and discontinuity is a fascinating issue in archaeological investigation, especially in regions where native populations are still present, as in the case of southeastern Mato Grosso. Since there is no necessary correlation between archaeological cultures and self-conscious ethnic groups (Hodder 1978; 1982; Jones 1997), research in areas where a link between ethnographically andlor ethnohistorically known groups and the archaeological record can be established presents a significant challenge for the study of processes involved in cultural continuities, ruptures, and the maintenance or abandonment of stylistic boundaries. This is especially true in a context of colonial impact on native populations, as in the case of the Bororo society.