Cremated remains, usually interred in urns, most commonly occur in cemeteries dating from the latter part of the Bronze Age, the closing phase of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the Pagan Saxon period. Although such remains are fragmentary, they are now recognized as providing a basis, after appropriate treatment and anatomical study, for assessing the numbers of individuals cremated, together with their age and sex (Gejvall, 1947). Sometimes, additional information can be gleaned about endemic pathological conditions (Lisowski, 1955).

The physical characteristics of the cremated remains vary from site to site, depending, as discussed by Gejvall (1963), on such factors as the method used in cremation, the firing temperature, and the extent of any subsequent pulverisation—natural or artificial. But despite the fact that there is always a large proportion of unidentifiable fragments, there are invariably certain parts, often of appreciable size, which can be recognized. It is from these fragments, when separated, that information about the number of individuals present, together with their sex and age can be obtained.

Zu den eindrucksvollsten Geländedenkmälern der keltischen Zeit zählen nebst den grossen Stadtanlagen (oppida) die sog. Viereckschanzen. Ihre Hauptverbreitung (fig. 1) liegt im süddeutschen Raum, zwischen Main im Norden, dem Alpenrand im Süden, dem östlichen Schwarzwaldrand im Westen und dem Inn im Osten (Schwarz, 1959). Einige Schanzen finden sich auch in Frankreich (Schwarz, 1962, 74). Die Geschichte der Erforschung dieser Denkmälergruppe geht bis in das Jahr 1885 zurück und die im Laufe der folgenden Jahrzehnte ausgesprochenen Deutungen bewegen sich zwischen Befestigung, Gutshof, Viehpferch und Kultplatz (Schwarz, 1960, 7 ff., vgl. auch Berger, 1962, 26 ff.).

Eine dieser Schanzen konnte in den Jahren 1958 und 1959, dank der Unterstützung durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, zu einem grossen Teil untersucht werden. Sie liegt im östlichen Teil der Schwäbischen Alb bei dem Ort Tomerdingen (fig. 1), nordwestlich von Ulm an der Donau. Die bis jetzt noch nicht publizierten Ergebnisse sollen hier in einem Vorbericht bekannt gegeben werden. Sie gewinnen insofern an Bedeutung, als sie die aufsehenerregenden Grabungen von K. Schwarz (1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963, [1968]) in der Schanze von Holzhausen südlich von München zu bestätigen vermögen und aufzeigen, dass die Situation in solchen Schanzen, auch wenn sie weit voneinander liegen (von Holzhausen bis Tomerdingen sind es rund 140 km) etwa dieselbe ist.

The morphology of a group of settlement sites in North West Wales is used to demonstrate an application of Numerical Taxonomy. Using average link cluster analysis 83 out of a total of 285 known sites are grouped into seven morphological classes which provide a basis for further analysis and interpretation.

The paper discusses the Garboldisham macehead: an unusual decorated macehead carved from red deer antler. The macehead was found in the 1960s deposited in a tributary of the river Little Ouse, Norfolk and is decorated with three spirals, making it especially significant. This paper reports on the analysis of the decoration using digital imaging, discusses a new radiocarbon date recently obtained for the artefact, and discusses its significance alongside other dated antler maceheads.

Reappraisal of an early 20th century excavation at the Cronk yn How round barrow near Ramsey in the Isle of Man suggests that a stone pair was demolished during the 3rd millennium BC to make way for a round barrow with a single central burial. It is suggested that one of the stones from the original pair was decorated with a series of motifs before being incorporated into the barrow. Some of the motifs used find parallels amongst later Neolithic incised rock art on the walls of tombs and houses, and on stone plaques. Other motifs, including what appear to be representations of deer, serve to expand the repertoire of known designs and highlight the potential of this kind of this rather understudied category of rock art. Parallels for the zoomorphic motifs can be found in Scandinavia. A review of other rock art within the Isle of Man revealed more than 70 recorded panels at 55 individual sites making this one of the more densely populated rock art landscapes in the west of Britain. Two main styles are represented, the passage-grave style, which includes the Cronk yn How Stone, and the cup-mark dominated style, or Galician Style. The latter accounts for more than 95% of recorded sites which accords well with what is known of the Isle of Man's cultural relationships during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC.

It is thirty years since the first publication (Wright and Wright 1947) of the collection of artifacts found over a period of years from the site at North Ferriby, which yielded the three boat-relics now identified as of the Early or Middle Bronze Age. With the increasing recognition of the importance of the boat finds themselves, the latest information on which has recently been published in a National Maritime Museum Monograph (Wright 1976), it is timely to review and, where necessary, revise the descriptions and attributions of the other artifacts obtained from the clays in which the boats were sealed, and also a small number of finds from the underlying fen-woodland peat. The customary and essential caveat needs to be entered that in beds of this kind propinquity of one find to another, whether in the horizontal or vertical plane, is no guarantee of association. Nevertheless, as will be seen, revised identifications and attributions of some of the objects have resulted in a pattern which is much more consistent both in itself and also with the recent evidence for the age of the boats than the somewhat confusing picture which emerged from what seemed to be reasonable deductions in 1946–7.

This paper attempts to bring together all the figurines of Syrian and Anatolian character that have been recorded from Bronze Age Europe. Several groups are distinguished, Syrian figurines from south Russia, Hittite and Syrian figurines from Mycenaean Greece, figurines from northern Europe, and post-Mycenaean forms in Greece.

Notes to the text appear at the end of the paper.

This paper examines the sources of the hammerstones imported to the Neolithic axe quarries on Pike o' Stickle. Two basic groups are identified, and these probably originated in separate areas of Cumbria. They have largely distinct distributions among the quarries, raising the possibility that different parts of the stone source could have been used by people coming from different areas of the surrounding lowlands. This has implications for the social importance of axe production on these sites.

The site of Le Pinacle, Jersey, is an important multi-phase site with horizons dating to the Early Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Gallo-Roman periods. Recent reassessment of the material from the site suggests the existence of a stone axe production centre at Le Pinacle during the Early Neolithic period. Petrological studies have resulted in the identification of a group of dolerite axes, for which Le Pinacle is the probable source. Axes belonging to this group have been identified in assemblages from Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.

Banjo enclosures are an important archaeological site type within British Iron Age studies, particularly for southern England. Significant numbers of these sites have been discovered through aerial survey but only a comparatively small number have been explored through additional survey and excavation. Chronologically these sites wholly exist within the Middle and Late Iron Age periods, c. 400 bc to ad 43. As yet there has been no standard interpretive framework for these sites and our understanding and discussion has often been based on the theoretical model most popular at the time of investigation. A key aim of his paper is to question this piecemeal approach and incorporate more recent interpretations from a much-expanded dataset. Since the 1990s large-scale landscape surveys have increased considerably the numbers of sites identified and subsequently the regions in which they are located. Tying this in with recent excavations, we have begun to redefine our understanding of banjo enclosures as more complex in their site development and function, while also providing a simplified framework which accounts for the diversity of forms, locations, and relative associations. Ultimately these enclosures are more complex than previously realised, potentially serving a multiplicity of functions with different phases of use throughout a period of significant change at the end of prehistory.

Within sight of the Neolithic axe quarries on the Langdale Pikes is a group of massive boulders at Copt Howe. The two largest command a direct view of the stone source where the sun sets into the mountainside at the midsummer solstice. Both are decorated by pecked motifs which resemble features of Irish passage tomb art. Small-scale excavation in 2018 showed that a rubble platform had been built at the foot of the main decorated surface and sealed two further motifs of similar character. New work has established an important sequence in Great Langdale. Recently obtained radiocarbon dates indicate that the main period of axe production was between 3800 and 3300 bc, whilst Irish megalithic art is later and was made between about 3300 and 2900 bc, suggesting that Copt Howe achieved its importance after axe-making had ceased or was in decline. That is consistent with an increasing emphasis on relations between northern Britain and Ireland during the Late Neolithic period. Perhaps Copt Howe itself was treated as a ‘natural’ passage tomb.

Recent radiocarbon dates obtained from two soil cores taken through the Marlborough Castle mound, Wiltshire, show the main body of it to be a contemporaneous monument to Silbury Hill, dating to the second half of the 3rd millennium cal bc. In light of these dates, this paper considers the sequence identified within the cores, which includes two possible flood events early in the construction of the mound. It also describes four cores taken through the surrounding ditch, as well as small-scale work to the north-east of the mound. The topographic location of the mound in a low-lying area and close to rivers and springs is discussed, and the potential for Late Neolithic sites nearby is set out, with the land to the south of the mound identified as an area for future research. The paper ends with the prospect that other apparent mottes in Wiltshire and beyond may well also have prehistoric origins

How hunter-gatherers manipulated and utilised their natural surroundings is a widely studied topic among anthropologists and archaeologists alike. This focuses on the Natufian culture of the Late Epipalaeolithic period (c. 15–11.7 kyr), the last Levantine hunter-gatherer population, and specifically on the earliest composite tools designed for harvesting. These tools are widely referred to as sickles. They consisted of a haft into which a groove was cut and flint inserts affixed. This revolutionised harvesting and established it on new grounds. While the plants manipulated by these tools are yet to be identified with certainty, it is evident that these implements were rapidly integrated and dispersed throughout the Natufian interaction sphere, suggesting that they provided a significant advantage, which probably constituted a critical step toward agriculture. At the same time, the Natufian haft assemblage demonstrates high morphometric variability. We review the available data concerning Natufian hafts and offer three possible models to explain the noted variability. We conclude that while these models are not mutually exclusive, this varied technological pattern is best understood as deriving from a protracted formative phase of technological development, progressing through incremental processes of trial and error.

An increasing number of buildings are coming to light on prehistoric sites in Scandinavia that seem to be related to ritual, cult, or religious activities. This paper documents examples of such buildings from the Mesolithic to the Viking Period. The Late Meolithic cemetery at Skateholm provides evidence for structures associated with materials only otherwise found in grave contexts. Certain aspects of Early Neolithic long barrows and palisaded enclosures may infer ritual practices not directly of a funerary nature. The later Neolithic was marked in the cultural groupings of various regions by the construction of palisaded enclosures, wooden structures associated with graves, or pile dwellings, each often associated with a rich finds assemblage and frequent evidence for burning. These structures and their contents show obvious distinctions from the contemporary domestic settlement and burial sites with which they were associated. Bronze Age examples include rectangular stone walled and D- and C-shaped wooden structures placed beside burial areas and facing cairns. The latter forms continue into the Iron Age, for which few other clear examples of ritual structures are apparent, in spite of historical references. Those that have been identified seem to be associated with important central places. The site of Uppåkra, in southernmost Sweden, has produced an unusual small building set beside a hall around and within which were deposited hundreds of weapons and gold and glass objects. This relationship bears a striking resemblance to the description of the hall of Wodan at Valhalla in Norse mythology.

This paper explores how geophysical survey, undertaken in conjunction with landscape and historical analysis, is contributing to a deeper understanding of prehistoric focal centres and landscape organisation in the wider ‘hinterland’ of the Hill of Tara, Co. Meath. Arising out of the Discovery Programme’s ‘Late Iron Age and ‘Roman’ Ireland’ (LIARI) Project, the present investigations targeted a number of prominent hilltop sites in the Meath–north Dublin region suspected, on the basis of archaeological, topographical, and early documentary evidence, to have been important ceremonial/political centres in later prehistory. Foremost among these are the Hill of Lloyd (Co. Meath), the location of a prehistoric enclosure overlooking the early monastic foundation at Kells; Faughan Hill (Co. Meath), the traditional burial place of Niall of the Nine Hostages; and Knockbrack (Co. Dublin), whose summit is crowned by a large, internally-ditched enclosure with central burial mound. The discovery through this multi-disciplinary study of additional large-scale enclosures, burial monuments, and other significant archaeological features serves to further corroborate the deep historical importance of these sites, and opens up new avenues for exploring such themes as territoriality, social organisation, and identity in the wider Tara region.

The remarkable series of deposits, known as “The Cromer Forest Bed,” is of never-failing interest to a great number of people. So far as we know no other part of England, and possibly no other part of the world, can boast of an accumulation precisely comparable to the Forest Bed. It was laid down when the present river Rhine flowed northwards through what is now the North Sea, and at a time separated from to-day by several hundreds of thousands of years. East Anglia, and no doubt other parts of the northern hemisphere, was then enjoying a warm climate, and was inhabited by herds of great game animals, and hunting people who left behind them a vast number of flint implements which delight, and in some cases, puzzle modern archaeologists. But there are other things than flint implements which puzzle archaeologists. In these days the mere finding of a humanly-flaked flint in a geological deposit is not the alpha and omega of the archæologist's task.

The burin is one of the commonest stone tools found in the French Cave deposits of Upper Palæolithic Age. It also occurs in England, as at Paviland, etc., though, on the whole, its occurrence in this country seems to be rarer than in France.

A classification of the various types of burin has been attempted already some years ago by the late M. Bourlon, who was a captain in the French Army, and the following note is to a very large extent founded on his work. A slight simplification has been introduced, however.

Burins or gravers (though they probably had many uses besides that of engraving) can be readily divided into two main groups:—

A. Those with a straight working edge, like that of a screwdriver.

This makes a V-shaped gutter when rubbed along a surface.

B. Those with a convex, gouge-like working edge.

This makes a U-shaped gutter when similarly used.

Rock art in Morocco is widespread and varied, but little known in English-speaking circles. The present paper aims to present a broad outline of this art — almost entirely represented by engravings — as it is known today. A brief survey of past research is given. The distribution of sites is indicated, showing the country to be roughly divided into two areas: the High Atlas mountains and the sub-Saharan regions to the south. Four major groups of engravings are identified, according to theme, technique, and, to a certain extent, style. In the absence of radiocarbon or other datings, the only clues to the chronology of the engravings come from datable material objects or events. None of this art is thought to be older than Neolithic and the most recent engravings certainly date from early historical times. Problems of conservation are discussed, along with measures being taken both to protect the sites and to extend research on this informative aspect of Morocco's past.

Prehistoric cemeteries on the Upper Rhine appear to reflect changes in used land, but variable factors influence the recovery of information. Despite these limitations, it appears that marginal land was taken in after the Neolithic, and the extensively colonised loess soils were deserted. Other parts of the North Alpine zone experience similar abandonment of primary Neolithic areas. River terraces may then have been kept open by reduced settlement or seasonal grazing, inviting renewed attention in the Late Bronze Age and further colonisation of the valley soils in the Iron Age. Major shifts in settled areas may have resulted from soil exhaustion induced by limited agricultural techniques.