The state of current knowledge on the Bronze Age in Hungary, was summed up twenty years ago by Dr Francis Tompa, who had by then written several shorter studies on the subject, and had excavated a number of cemeteries and settlements. His summary defined the modern approach to the Bronze Age in Hungary though his conclusions have since been modified in detail by later explorers. How fruitful his work proved to be was shown by the interest of critics abroad and by the fact that research at home took a sudden upward swing.

A few years later Dr Paul Patay published a study in which he came to somewhat different conclusions on the chronology of the Early Bronze Age; he also gave a detailed account of the various cultures that must have shaped the course of the Bronze Age in Hungary and in this he was substantially in agreement with Dr Francis Tompa.

Dr Amelia Mozsolics dealt with chronological problems of the Bronze Age in Hungary, but had not yet reached satisfactory newer conclusions. Her paper was published only in Hungarian. She presented a useful summary of the history of her subject, and at the same time sharply criticized the views held by foreign and Hungarian experts on the Bronze Age.

Three seasons of archaeological fieldwork were carried out in 1998–2000 by Cornwall Archaeological Un within the Imerys Stannon China Clay Works, Bodmin Moor. The first two seasons involved the excavation of an Early Bronze Age cairn group and Middle Bronze Age and Middle Iron Age settlement activity. The third season on the Northern Downs involved the evaluation a number of cairns, field systems, and palaeoenvironmental sites.

The cairn group consisted of three earlier Bronze Age ring-cairns and two ‘tailed’ cairns. One ring-cairn continued to be used as a ceremonial monument in the Middle Bronze Age and was reused during the Iron Age as a dwelling. An artefact assemblage including Bronze and Iron Age pottery and stonework was recovered. Two prehistoric beads one of faience, the other of amber, were also found.

Ten Bronze Age radiocarbon determinations spanning 2490–1120 cal BC and two Iron Age determinations (370–40 cal BC) were obtained from three of the cairns. Two pollen columns on the Northern Downs were also dated. Significantly, a series of eight determinations was obtained from a single column, which provided environmental information from the Mesolithic through to the early medieval period. The radiocarbon dating showed that impact on the vegetation of the Down commenced during the Neolithic, with larger-scale clearance during the Bronze Age. Widespread open grassland was established by the Middle Bronze Age.

It is suggested here that use of space within the cairn group was structured and that the cairns formed a monument complex which was part of a wider landscape cosmology, involving groupings of particular monument types and the referencing of rocky outcrops and tors.

The investigations on Stannon Down were important as an opportunity to study an Early Bronze Age ceremonial landscape and reconsider how later Middle Bronze Age and Iron Age peoples on Bodmin Moor might have engaged with and interpreted the materiality of earlier prehistoric monuments.

Following an outline of some aspects of continental Early Celtic art in which the importance of Mediterranean plant-derived motifs and compass construction work is emphasised, the authors consider some significant aspects of the development of the various sword sub-styles. An analysis of selected insular pieces points out the differences from, rather than the seeming similarities to continental Celtic art. It is argued that the earliest of such pieces cannot antedate the developed third century sword style(s) though absolute chronology is impossible to achieve as yet. A final section indicates that the later insular styles see a unique re-emergence of the reliance on compass based designs.

Our Palaeolithic ancestors did not make good representations of themselves on the rocky surfaces of caves and barring certain exceptions – such as the case of La Marche (found on small slabs of stone or plaquettes) or the Cueva de Ambrosio – the few known examples can only be referred to as anthropomorphs. As such, only hand stencils give us a real picture of the people who came before us. Hand stencils and imprints provide us with a large amount of information that allows us to approach not only their physical appearance but also to infer less tangible details, such as the preferential use of one hand over the other (i.e., handedness). Both new and/or mature technologies as well as digital processing of images, computers with the ability to process very high resolution images, and a more extensive knowledge of the Palaeolithic figures all help us to analyse thoroughly the hands in El Castillo cave. The interdisciplinary study presented here contributes many novel developments based on real data, representing a major step forward in knowledge about our predecessors.

The wealth of settlement evidence has supposed a decisive difference between prehistoric archaeology of the Mediterranean compared to that of Central Europe. This situation has changed substantially during recent years due to large scale rescue excavations carried out in central and eastern Germany. Individual houses as well as large settlement complexes have been systematically recorded and can now be dated to the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age. The catalogue of all ground plans discovered up to 2019 in the federal states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia has recently been published as a supplementary volume of the proceedings of the conference ‘Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Settlement Archaeology’, held in Halle (Saale) in October 2018. Based on the geographical distribution, shape, size, orientation, and dating of the more than 240 building ground plans, the present study examines the architecture and settlement development of the Corded Ware and Bell Beaker communities, as well as of the Únětice complex, between the rivers Saale and Elbe. This analysis offers new insight into the way of life of the first full metalworking societies of central Germany from the 3rd and first half of the 2nd millennium bce, which so far have mainly been approached through their outstanding, but numerically limited, funerary remains and hoards.

The hoard of bronzes from Blackrock near Brighton, was first published in 1916, and later received treatment by Curwen in his Archaeology of Sussex. The obviously foreign elements in the hoard have not been clearly recognised in the past, and in view of their significance it is desirable that a more detailed description of the finds should be put on record, and that some attempt should be made to fit them into the existing pattern of the Late Bronze Age of the British Isles.

The following objects (all of bronze) were found in the hoard:

• I. Three ‘Sussex Loops.’

• II. Two plain armlets.

• III. Eight unlooped palstaves.

• IV. Rapier blade with three rivet holes.

• V. Dirk handle.

• VI. Decorated spiral finger-ring.

Unfortunately the exact locality and conditions of finding cannot be determined with certainty, but there is good reason to believe that the discovery was made at Blackrock, about two miles to the east of Brighton. There is little doubt that all these objects were found together, and that they comprised the whole hoard.

Of these objects, the Sussex loops can be fairly closely dated in the British Bronze Age, and the bronze dirk handle and decorated spiral finger-ring are imports from Schleswig-Holstein or North Germany. The origin of the other objects is less certain, but it is immediately clear that a study of this hoard may be of value in cross-dating between our own Bronze Age and that of the Northern Countries.

First we will discuss the ‘Sussex Loops’ and their chronological position in the British Isles.

Only three Roman coins varying in date from the late third century AD to about the middle of the fourth century AD were found during the excavations. These came from superficial deposits within the interior of the enclosure, in the area covered by the detailed plans, F, G, and H (see Fig. 5), and are as follows;

When a team of the Archaeological and Anthropological Department of the Cambridge University, working under Mr. Eric Higgs, recently discovered a Mycenaean dagger at the foot of the Kastritsa Mountain (altitude 757 metres), a few metres west of the mouth of the paleolithic cave, it came as no great surprise: for, in the last 15 years, about 10 bronze swords and daggers of Mycenaean provenance have been found in Epirus.

On the other hand, the discovery of the paleolithic cave itself at the western foot of the Kastritsa Mountain, and the finds yielded by its excavation, were as unexpected as they were important. It is hoped that continued excavations of the cave with its deep deposits and clear stratification will throw light on some of the problems connected with Homo Sapiens: his origins, the time of his appearance in Europe, his relation to other groups in Epirus and outside it, the civilization he evolved, and the ecological conditions in which he lived in the last phase of the last Ice Age (Würm III).

A fresh and more extensive excavation of the prehistoric settlement north of the village of Kastritsa, at the eastern foot of the mountain, would not be devoid of interest either, for it would complete the cycle of prehistoric research and probably throw light on the mesolithic occupation of which little is yet known in Greece.

The granite upland of Dartmoor has attracted settlers coming into the south-west of Britain from the early Bronze Age (Beaker phase) onwards. The long outline of the moor is visible from the South Devon coast, which with its series of good harbours invites intrusion. The navigable lower reaches of the south-flowing rivers—the Plym, Yealm, Erme, Avon, Dart and Teign—and the ridgeways along their watersheds provide convenient thoroughfares across the intervening coastal belt, the South Hams and the hinterland of Torbay, as far as the foot of the main escarpment. Above this steep ascent, where the granite overlies the Devonian rock formations, and where the rivers run in deep wooded gorges, the moorland mass forms a rolling tableland (1000-1400 feet high), broken only by the profile of the numerous upland valleys or by the fantastic eroded outlines of the tors. It is in this zone (light shading, fig. 1) that the evidence for most of the prehistoric settlement and early cultivation is to be found. Between 1400 and 1500 feet, the ground rises markedly again to the uninhabited northern heights (Yestor 2039 feet) and the southern heights (Ryder's Hill 1692 feet), in which the rivers have their sources and which are now blanketed in peat bog (dark shading, fig. 1). The heights apart, Dartmoor contains a broad tract of elevated open country, well-watered grass and heather moor, ideally suited to sustain a primitive pastoral economy. In many places on the marginal slopes and in the upland valleys a sufficient depth of sandy soil has accumulated on top of the rock to make arable cultivation possible; at present, cultivation ceases at about 1000 feet, which is the normal tres line.

The implements which Mr. G. W. Smith has been good enough to exhibit at my suggestion are a selection from no less than one hundred and seventy in his collection from a small and shallow pit on high ground overlooking the Thames, near Tilehurst Station, 3 miles north-west of the centre of Reading. It is perhaps unfamiliar ground to members of this Society, but has been well studied in the past, and the following list, together with other papers quoted in the text, will put the reader in possession of the principal facts at present ascertained as to the geology and flint-finds of the neighbourhood:—

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., LIV., 600 (sketch-map of the high gravels near Reading, Tilehurst and Goring Heath being marked alike).

Q.J.G.S., XLIX., 311, from which the accompanying section of the Thames Valley is derived (Fig. 8).

Q.J.G.S., XLVIII., 40, where the Tilehurst plateau-gravel is described as glacial.

Proc. Geol. Assoc., XV., 157 and 308.

Proc. Geol. Assoc., VIII., 348 (heights given, above the river and Ordnance datum, of flint-finds).

Berks, Bucks, and Oxon Archæological Journal, II., 16 (Treacher).

Trans. Berks Archæol. and Archit. Soc., 1881–2 (Stevens).

The purpose of this paper is to put on record the discovery of various sites, containing traces of prehistoric man, in the neighbourhood of Bombay.

The area of greatest importance is that of Worli. It is a cotton milling suburb of Bombay, distant some 4 miles from the Fort, and is situated on low lying marshy ground and bounded to the West by a low steep hill having a maximum height of 100 ft. O.D., and consisting of igneous basalt overlying amygdaloidal trap with a dyke of F.W. strata between. This dyke contains fossils of marsh tortoises, frogs and plants resembling bulrushes. The basalt is capped with red earth which is decomposing trap, and contains nodules of agate and blocks of chert. West of the hill is the Arabian Sea. The northern extremity of this hill ends in a spur which juts out into the sea, and here is the fishing village of Koliwada, consisting of mud huts.

In my Presidential Address delivered at the first meeting of the Society in 1908 I referred to the possibility that we might be able to trace in this part of the world the various periods which have hitherto been chiefly associated with deposits in rockshelters and caves in France and elsewhere. The object of the present paper is to bring before the members of the Society the present position of this question so far as my own researches are concerned with a view to stimulating further enquiries into the subject.

Before passing to details it will be necessary to give a brief account of the scope of the enquiry and to sum up our knowledge of the rock shelter and Cave periods of the Palæolithic Age so far as it is possible to do so. To give an adequate up-to-date description of the subject is not a very easy matter, for so far as I am aware no detailed account of the various Cave periods has been written in recent time, and advances in knowledge have to be sought for in the periodical publications of many different societies of various countries, a task which to most of us who are not within reach of a first-class library is practically impossible. Even when these can be consulted it rarely happens in my experience that sufficient attention is paid by illustration and description to the many varieties of types of implement associated with the different periods.

Though little flint-work was found in our excavations, the High Lodge industries are well established, and rest upon a large quantity of implements, chiefly in the Sturge collection now at the British Museum. The specimens shewn at the meeting by Mr. S. G. Fenton (who claims to be the first discoverer of the site) and Mr. G. F. Lawrence were thoroughly representative and very welcome; but the following are all from the national collection, which includes the fine series formerly in the possession of Canon Green well. Of the mass of material now available very little has been published, and the only illustrations appear to be the three in Sir John Evans' book (Figs. 425, 426, 426A). Dr. Sturge recognised the two main divisions (Proceedings, i., 69–72), and the following illustrated specimens are from the brick-earth series only–lower in position but later in date than the hand-axes that abound on the site. In any choice of this kind the tendency must be to give greater prominence to exceptional pieces, either the rarest or the best worked; and an effort has been made to counteract these by including specimens typical of the main groups.

Few would doubt that prehistorians have come to regard the formulating of models and the testing of hypotheses as among their most important concerns in recent years. This trend towards explaining, rather than merely accumulating data can be regarded partially as reflecting a desire to maintain some degree of command over a rapidly expanding body of information, but also the feeling that prehistoric archaeology has tended to lag behind related behavioural disciplines such as ecology or geography. What has become a highly conspicuous feature of these developments is that prehistorians have tended to undertake two radically different kinds of studies, particularly on prehistoric subsistence. The first relies upon published archaeological data, often accumulated over several years, from regions as large as countries or even continents; the second type, however, tends to be more modest in scope, and based upon a small body of evidence that has been specifically collected from either a small number of sites, or at most, a small region such as a single valley system. Recent studies by Murray (1970) on European neolithic animal husbandry, or by Ammerman & Cavalli-Sforza (1971) on European neolithic dispersal rates are convenient examples of the first type of study: both may be contrasted with the more detailed, localised types of studies on the same topics by Payne (1972) and Barker (1975). Whilst these two approaches may be complementary, it is nevertheless noticeable that they often reach strikingly different conclusions that frequently result from fundamental divergences of opinion about the quality of the data itself, and the most appropriate way to examine it.

A Correspondence in Man a few years ago led to the expression of various attitudes towards the nomenclature of Lower Palaeolithic finds. It was agreed that cultural names should not be used to describe distinct techniques, but it was recognised that difficulties of terminology might arise, since techniques may indicate cultural similarities and therefore perhaps connections. When the time factor enters into the problem then other authorities differ. Professor Childe says, ‘where there is the slightest danger of confusing the chronological with the cultural classification, such usage is to be deprecated.’ Yet Professor Garrod later states, ‘the time has come when the labels Lower, Middle and Upper Palaeolithic should be used exclusively in a chronological sense,’ and she refers them to subdivisions of the geological chronology. Nevertheless, as Professor Garrod herself remarks, ‘nine prehistorians out of ten continue to use these terms as more or less synonymous with hand-axe, flake and blade industries respectively,’ so these names have a purely technical or cultural significance. It follows from Professor Childe's sage advice that their chronological application ought to be allowed to fall into disuse. There is a perfectly good chronology supplied by the geologist already, with a world-wide system of five glaciations (Geikie), or their equivalents. Moreover, since it is becoming more and more apparent that the division into hand-axe, flake and blade industries is unsatisfactory (there are blades, according to Burkitt's definition of a blade, in Lower Palaeolithic industries), the threefold division has lost its meaning. I therefore suggest that we label as Lower Palaeolithic all those industries of the Pleistocene not comprised within the purely cultural group association of those predominantly blade industries which are found towards the end of the Upper Pleistocene, and are known as the Upper Palaeolithic. It is the purpose of this paper to clarify the relationship between technique and culture in the Lower Palaeolithic industries, to define more satisfactorily the terms, culture, industry and technique as used by the prehistorian, and to define some, at least, of the major cultural assemblages in North-western Europe.

In September 1986 a small excavation was done by S. T. to investigate an area of primitive-style mine-workings on Copa Hill, Cwmystwyth, Dyfed (SN816756). A small opencast and several overgrown tips associated with pebble hammers occur where the copper-rich Comet Lode outcrops on the brow of the hill. Copa Hill is within an area of seventeenth–twentieth-century lead-mine workings which extend for 1.2 km along the N side of the Ystwyth Valley (fig. 1). Radiocarbon dating of charcoal from within one of the tips suggests that mining commenced in the middle Bronze Age.