Belle Tout is the second of a series of headlands where the South Downs meet the English Channel between Eastbourne and Brighton. Three kilometres to its east, the chalk downland comes to an end at Beachy Head, while Birling Gap immediately to the west provides direct access to the shoreline. Belle Tout, in between, is a gorse-capped plateau of virgin downland, 40 hectares in area with chalk cliffs rising to a maximum height of 84 metres (fig. 1).

The even lines of the headland are only broken against the cliffs where a shallow valley runs down towards Birling Gap from the highest point at Belle Tout lighthouse. At a height of 40 metres this valley veers to the south and is cut by the present cliff edge. It was within the valley at this point that the Beaker site was discovered and excavated (NGR TV557956). The natural subsoil throughout is Upper Chalk save within this valley where the chalk is covered by a drift deposit of loam with patches of flint debris laid down under periglacial conditions. Under normal vegetation this surface loam would be acid, but a mildly alkaline reaction in the soil has been brought about by gorse roots penetrating to the underlying chalk.

The problem of dating cursus monuments has troubled British archaeology for some decades. A series of recent radiocarbon determinations from sites in lowland Scotland suggests that cursus monuments defined by posts and pits are generally earlier than the more familiar bank and ditch structures, and may have been constructed very early within the British Neolithic sequence. The implications of such a sequence are discussed in relation to the affinities of these structures, and landscape change between 4000 and 3600 cal BC.

The cave known as the Mugharet Kebara opens at the western foot of Mount Carmel, 13 km. to the south of the Wady el-Mughara, and 1½ km. south of the railway station of Zikhron Yaaqov. It faces north-west on the 60 m. contour line, at 2½ km. from the sea, from which it is separated by a strip of marshy land and a wider belt of sand dunes.

The first sounding on this site was made in 1927 by Dr M. Stekelis, who was unable to continue owing to lack of funds. In 1930, unaware that Dr Stekelis had already tested the cave, I went over from the Wady el-Mughara with Dr Theodore McCown and spent one day in digging a trial trench (Garrod 1932), which revealed the presence of a Natufian layer with an underlying level containing an industry then unfamiliar, but since described under the name Kebaran (Turville-Petre, 1932). At the bottom of the trench we found a number of typical Aurignacian implements. In the summer of 1931 Francis Turville-Petre and Mrs C. A. Baynes undertook a three months' season at Kebara on behalf of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem and the American School of Prehistoric Research. During this time they camped with us at the Wady el-Mughara, so the two expeditions were in close touch and able to compare results throughout the campaign. The work at Kebara revealed a very rich Lower Natufian horizon (Layer B) with a thin underlying level (Layer C) containing the new Kebaran industry. This culture, which has proved to be fairly widespread in Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, is Neuville's Upper Palaeolithic VI (Neuville, 1951). Turville-Petre published the material from Layers B and C in the year following the excavation (Turville-Petre, 1932), but the Aurignacian industries of Layers D and E which were dug to contact with an underlying Levalloiso-Mousterian, have for various reasons never been studied or described in print.

The recognition over the last 20 years that the Quaternary deposits of the West Midlands cover a longer period of time than previously envisaged has led to a re-analysis of their contained Palaeolithic archaeology. Stone tools have been found in the region for over a hundred years and cover most periods of hominid colonisation from the time of the earliest occupants of the country over half a million years ago. Twentieth century research in the West Midlands, often led by Professor F. W. Shotton at the University of Birmingham, correlated the Palaeolithic of the region with the Quaternary geological sequence as it was then understood. Shotton identified the ‘Wolstonian’ glaciation as the key event of the Midlands Pleistocene, around which a chronology for the Palaeolithic could be built and gave an age of less than 250 kyr for this episode. Work since 1985 has compared the Midlands sequence with the oxygen isotope record of the ocean basins and shown that the concept of a relatively recent ‘Wolstonian’ is now untenable and that the former chronology built around it is too short for the observed events in the area. This new time paradigm, with the earliest occupation of the area thought to be c. 500 kyr, has made necessary a reconsideration of the chronology of the Palaeolithic and Middle Pleistocene of the area. This new time framework brings into critical focus the issue of reworking of the archaeology and its true age. The tools themselves present complications of analysis compared to many other areas containing a Palaeolithic record, perhaps most notably through the use of largely non-flint raw materials, some which may have been introduced into the area by early humans or an hither-to unidentified glacial event. This opportunity to present a new chronology of occupation comes out of the work carried out by the ‘Shotton Project’ based at the University of Birmingham, and by the University of Liverpool.

The long history of investigations at Hoxne, Suffolk, beginning when John Frere discovered Palaeolithic implements there in the last decade of the eighteenth century, has been described by Moir. Moir himself worked on the deposits at Hoxne, and the results of his investigations, together with those of Reid, have formed the basis for our knowledge of the geology and archaeology of the deposits. From these investigations it is clear that Hoxne is an important site, for it is one of the rare places where there are interglacial lake deposits and Palaeolithic implements in direct association with ground moraines of the older glaciations. Moreover, the deposits occupy a well-known position in the East Anglian Quaternary succession.

Well-defined late Neolithic structures in lowland Britain are rare. The contents of pits with Grooved Ware have, therefore, been used to interpret both settlement patterns and economic activity in this period. Pits occur both individually and in groups, are normally circular or slightly oval in plan and rarely exceed 1 m in diam or 2 m in depth (Wainwright and Longworth 1971, 250). Most were probably for grain storage (Field et al. 1964, 367) which were later filled with refuse.

The Amesbury area, 3 km E of Stonehenge, has produced several groups of pits of this type. They include five at Ratfyn (SU 15954205) N of Amesbury (Stone 1935; Warren et al. 1936, 196), four at Woodlands (SU 151431) 250 m S of Woodhenge (Stone and Young 1948; Stone 1949), a group within a henge on Coneybury Hill (SU 13434161) (Richards 1984, 183) and others on King Barrow Ridge (SU 135425) (Richards 1984).

It is 50 years since Stuart Piggott excavated the prehistoric complex at Cairnpapple. At that time there were few excavated parallels in Scotland, and interpretation inevitably relied heavily on sites excavated in southern Britain. Much more locally relevant data are now available and the sequence at Cairnpapple can now be reassessed its regional context.

Piggott identified five Periods, commencing with a stone setting, ‘cove’ and cremation cemetery of ‘Late Neolithic date’ around ‘c. 2500 B.C.’. Period II was a henge monument, consisting of a ‘circle’ of standing stones with ceremonial burials in association, and an encircling ditch with external bank – ‘Of Beaker date, probably c. 1700 B.C.’ Period III comprised the primary cairn, containing two cist-burials ‘Of Middle Bronze Age date, probably c. 1500 B.C.’ Period IV involved the doubling of the size of the cairn, with two cremated burials in inverted cinerary urns. ‘Of final Middle Bronze Age or native Late Bronze Age date, probably c. 1000 B.C.’ Period V comprised four graves ‘possibly Early Iron Age within the first couple of centuries A.D.’

The present paper, using comparable material from elsewhere in Scotland, argues for a revised phasing: Phase 1, comprises the deposition of earlier Neolithic plain bowl sherds and axehead fragments with a series of hearths. This is comparable to ‘structured deposition’ noted on other sites of this period. Phase 2 involved the construction of the henge – a setting of 24 uprights – probably of timber rather than stone, probably followed by the encircling henge ditch and bank. The ‘cove’ is discussed in the context of comparable features in Scotland. Phase 3 saw the construction of a series of graves, including the monumental ‘North Grave’, which was probably encased in a cairn. Piggott's ‘Period III’ cairn was then built, followed by the ‘Period IV’ cairn. The urn burials seem likely to have been inserted into the surface of this mound, which may have covered a burial (since disturbed) on the top of the Period III mound, or may have been a deliberate monumentalising of it. The four graves identified as Iron Age by Piggott seem more likely to be from the early Christian period.

The reassessment of Piggott's report emphasises the value of the writing of a clear, and sufficiently detailed account. While no report can be wholly objective it can be seen that Piggott's striving for objectivity led him to write a paper that is of lasting value.

No accurate survey of a flint mine exists. It is planned to carry out such a survey at Grime's Graves over a period of several years. Its purpose is to study the growth of the flint-mine complex, the evaluation of mining techniques and ancillary industries, and trade relations; and to discover settlement sites related to the industrial complex. Preliminary field work was carried out in the summer of 1972. This included geophysical and chemical surveys, ground surveys, and aerial photography. Excavations were undertaken to test the results of the scientific surveys. A detailed contour map of the site was prepared by photogrammetry.

This paper arises from the work of the Ancient Mining and Metallurgy Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute, of which Committee the authors are Chairman and Deputy-Chairman respectively.

The method of research has been to obtain drillings from the uncorroded metal of typical Early Bronze Age implements, for analysis in research laboratories. Ninety-eight analyses are published below in Tables I–III (pp. 106–21). They are of 51 halberds (fig. 1), 39 axes of various types and 7 knives or daggers of Beaker Culture type. The halberds are classified according to Ó Ríordáin; and certain of the axes according to Raftery; broad and thick-butted (fig. 2, 41–2) referred to below as ‘thick-butted’; narrow and thin-butted (fig. 2, 23) referred to below as ‘thin-butted’; other types of axe are bevelled (fig. 2, 25), similar to the thin-butted, but generally squatter, with edges bevelled; and flanged (fig. 2, 95), the thin-butted type with flanged edges. Certain thin-butted or flanged axes are decorated and these are classified I (fig. 2, 85) or III according to the system of Megaw and Hardy; some axes cannot be classified, being unfinished; a few are anomalous wafer-like forms.

The stripping, for commercial purposes, of an area of chalk downland near Leckford, Hants., led to the excavation of a small ring ditch containing the remains of two male inhumations. The earlier, 3740±80 BP uncal., buried in a mortuary chamber, was accompanied by a bell-shaped beaker of early type (with European or Wessex/Middle Rhine affinities), an antler spatula, two pairs of gold earrings, a gold tubular bead, 55 stone beads, a copper dagger, a flint strike-a-light, a marcasite nodule and a number of flint tools and flakes. The second burial, 3780±80 BP uncal., interred shortly after the first in the same grave, was accompanied by a finger-nail decorated beaker and two flint flakes.

Metallurgical analysis of prehistoric material has hitherto been concentrated on examination of early artifacts, presumably made from newly-won metal, which may therefore contain trace elements to indicate the sources and trade-routes of contemporary metal supply. The present study was undertaken to discover whether bronze artifacts from the British Middle and Late Bronze Age, when an important component of the bronzes produced must have been re-used metal, show nonetheless perceptible variations in metal composition, which might correlate with changes of bronze types, or with the successive industries of the archaeological sequence.

Analyses were made at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology in the University of Oxford, using an optical emission spectrometer. Samples of the bronzes studied were examined for the elements copper (Cu), tin (Sn), lead (Pb), arsenic (As), antimony (Sb), nickel (Ni), bismuth (Bi), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), silver (Ag), gold (Au) and magnesium (Mg), the only elements found in the bronzes in appreciable quantities.

Knowing the source of the red deer in the Mesolithic shell middens on Oronsay is necessary for a reconstruction of the early post-glacial settlement patterns in the southern Hebrides. If they came from Colonsay, then it is conceivable that the combined resources of Colonsay and Oronsay could have supported a population on these small islands for extended periods of time — as the seasonally data from the middens suggests when taken at face value. If there were no red deer on Colonsay, it is more likely that the Oronsay middens result from many short intermittent visits to the island. Since early post-glacial faunal assemblages are unknown from Colonsay, and unlikely to be found, this paper discusses the relevance of lithic assemblages for inferring the hunting of red deer. It describes recent fieldwork on Colonsay and the discovery of the first Mesolithic sites, notably that of Staosnaig. It concludes that the microlithic elements within the assemblages are too small to indicate red deer hunting. If Mesolithic foragers went to Colonsay to hunt red deer, they probably left rather quickly and empty-handed.

If our Society has for the current year, chosen a President representing Irish Archaeology, I hope it will not be misunderstood if I interpret it as a compliment to recent progress of work and research in Irish Archaeology rather than as a personal tribute.

This is not rhetoric. Most Curators of large Museums are constantly facing the danger of becoming nothing else but glorified stamp-collectors; and, whilst they gradually acquire an ever-increasing first-hand knowledge of the actual material, it is the very material itself, with its continuous additions, which absorbs all too frequently their best energies.

Hence, with notable exceptions, the Museum career does not make for fertility in literary output; and it is principally occasions like the present one which almost compel a museum Curator to open, as it were, his drawers of new material and to bring some of their contents to the knowledge of fellow-workers in his own and in allied fields of learning.

The Fatyanovo Culture, together with its eastern twin, the Balanovo Culture, forms part of the pan-European Corded Ware Complex. Within that complex, it represents its eastern expansion to the catchment of the Upper and Middle Volga River in the European part of Russia. Its immediate roots are to be found in the southern Baltic States, Belarus, and northern Ukraine (the Baltic and Middle-Dnepr Corded Ware Cultures), from where moving people spread the culture further east along the river valleys of the forested flatlands. By doing so, they introduced animal husbandry to these regions. Fatyanovo Culture is predominately recognised through its material culture imbedded in its mortuary practices. Most aspects of every-day life remain unknown. The lack of an adequate absolute chronological framework has thus far prevented the verification of its internal cultural dynamics while overall interaction proposed also on typo-stratigraphical grounds suggests a contemporaneity with other representations of the Corded Ware Complex in Europe. Fatyanovo Culture is formed by the reverse movement to the (north-)east of the Corded Ware Complex, itself established in the aftermath of the westbound spread of Yamnaya populations from the steppes. It thus represents an important link between west and east, pastoralists and last hunter-gatherers, and the 3rd and the 2nd millennia bc. Through its descendants (including Abashevo, Sintashta, and Andronovo Cultures) it becomes a key component in the development of the wider cultural landscape of Bronze Age Eurasia.

In many regions in north-west Europe, the Middle Bronze Age is seen as the first period in which a ‘humanly-ordered’ agrarian landscape took shape that has resonance with rural landscapes of historical periods. But what did this ‘ordering’ actually involve? Basing ourselves on a survey of the rich evidence from the Netherlands – including the evidence on everyday settlement sites as well as the use of the non-everyday ‘ritual’ zones in the land – we argue that from c. 1500 cal BC onwards the landscape was organised and structured by specific, ideological concepts of regularity and categorisation that are distinct from those of the preceding Neolithic and Earlier Bronze Age. We will show that elaborate three-aisled farmhouses of very regular layout emerged here around c. 1500 cal BC and argue that this profound architectural change cannot simply be explained by assuming agricultural intensification combined with indoor stalling of cattle, as conventional theories would have it. Also, we will argue that the way in which the settled land was used from this period onwards was also different than before. Neolithic and Early Bronze Age settlements, far from being ‘ephemeral’, seem to have been organised along different lines than those of the Middle Bronze Age-B (MBA-B: 1500–1050 cal BC). The same holds true for the way in which barrows structured the land. Although they were significant elements in the organisation of the landscape from the Late Neolithic onwards and do hardly change in outer form, we will show that MBA barrows played a different role in the structuring of landscape, adhering to long-term categorisation and zoning therein. A similar attitude can also be discerned in patterns of object deposition in ‘natural’ places. Practices of selective deposition existed long before the MBA-B but, because of different subsistence bases of the pre-MBA-B communities, their interpretations of unaltered ‘natural’ places will have differed significantly. The presence of multiple deposition zones in the MBA-B also must have relied on a unprecedented way of persistent categorisation of the ‘natural’ environment. Finally, the evidence from ‘domestic, funerary and ritual’ sites is recombined in order to typify what the Dutch Middle Bronze Age landscape was about.

After a mesolithic occupation, with pits and hearths, the site had been successively cleared, cultivated and abandoned before the digging of a pair of parallel ditches—Kilham I. After a period of silting a larger structure enclosed by a timber wall set in a bedding trench—Kilham II—had a banked burial chamber with a forecourt at its eastern end. The construction of the long barrow of chalk rubble derived from flanking quarry ditches took place in two phases separated by burning of lengths of the timber enclosure. A ring ditch dug across the line of the avenue east of the long barrow belongs to an Early Bronze Age use of the locality. Any covering round barrow mound had been completely removed by cultivation that affected the area from the middle of last century down to the present day.

The Lanhill Barrow stands on the south side of the Chippenham–Marshfield road about 2½ miles west-north-west of the former place. It stands on level ground with a gentle slope to the south down to a small spring a few yards away on that side. The water runs east and at the bottom a dam has been carried across the field thus at one time forming a small lake, this is probably later in date than the barrow itself. The direction of the barrow is slightly south of east and north of west with the larger end to the former point. It is about 185 ft. long by 90 ft. wide at the east end, gradually tapering to a point at the west.

Excavation on the Thames floodplain in London revealed traces of Early Neolithic occupation and burial on a sand and gravel bar beneath alluvium. A large expanse of peat also buried by alluvium was recorded between these finds and the modern river Thames suggesting that the occupation was situated on or close to the foreshore. A single grave cut into the natural sand contained a poorly preserved crouched inhumation, possibly of a woman. The burial was accompanied by a fragment of carinated bowl, a flint knife, and other struck flints. A radiocarbon date from an oak retaining plank within the grave of 5252±28 BP (4220–3970 cal BC: KIA20157) makes this burial one of the earliest from the British Isles and the earliest known for London. A scatter of struck flint and pottery predominantly of Early Neolithic date was recovered from adjacent areas of the sand. A nearby hearth contained fragments of Early Bronze Age pottery pointing to later prehistoric activity nearby.

Charred plant remains indicate both the collection of wild plant foods and cultivated cereals in the Early Neolithic. Radiocarbon dating of the adjacent peat deposits indicated their rapid growth within the Middle Bronze Age with a marked decline in woodland cover at the start of the sequence and a rise in grassland and herb species. Cereal pollen then briefly became a significant component of the sequence before declining to more modest levels.

The present paper is based on a new study of the material from all the prehistoric sites so far excavated in the Maltese Islands. This was made in the course of preparing for publication a Corpus of all the known monuments and material of the islands (for the Royal University of Malta). The results achieved, especially those gained by the intensive study of the pottery (much of it hitherto unpublished), seemed to justify more rapid publication than could be expected for the Corpus itself, and I have to thank the Archaeological Survey Advisory Committee of the Royal University of Malta for very kindly granting me permission to publish this preliminary report on the advances made so far. At the same time I should like to record my best thanks to the Director of the Valletta Museum, Dr J. G. Baldacchino, and his Assistant, Mr C. G. Zammit, for their wholehearted co-operation in granting me every facility for the pursuit of my studies, and for the help which they have given in innumerable ways in forwarding the work of the Survey. Lastly, it is a pleasure to thank Prof. L. Bernabò Brea for his great kindness during a week spent with him in Syracuse and Lipari, and for much help from his unique knowledge of Sicilian archaeology.