Archaeological evidence for centralized storage facilities may provide useful information about the organization of prehistoric economies. In the background are a range of explanatory ideas. ‘Redistribution’ is a term which has been applied to the evidence from some British hillforts. Resources might be collected and then re-allocated through a permanent agency of co-ordination. They might be mobilized as tribute to elites as part of political strategy. This has been suggested for early British hillforts, and the evidence is reviewed. Much depends on the interpretation of the ‘four-poster’ structures at these sites as storehouses. A survey of these structures on British and continental sites strengthens this interpretation, and a further survey shows that, in Britain, disproportionate numbers of these structures are found at massively enclosed sites. A modified form of site catchment analysis suggests that some of the hillforts stored produce mobilized from an area which was greater than is likely to have been farmed directly from these sites. One possible inference is that resources were mobilized from subordinate settlements. It is suggested that stored grain was a critical commodity if rising populations and climatic change combined to increase the risk attached to the cereal harvest.

The excavation of a ‘Welwyn-type’ burial exposed during pipe-laying is described. The cremation, accompanied by a decorated mirror, was contained within a wooden box. Other grave goods included amphorae, flagons, a cup and an iron ring with associated timber. The grave is the most westerly of its type. It is suggested that the combination of grave goods indicates a synthesis between two elements in late Iron Age society, and a BC date for the burial is proposed. Specialist reports include a study of the decorative technique used on the mirror and of its composition, also of the ceramic, soils and bone, with appendices on conservation and on a possible amphora burial from Aston Clinton.

Results of investigations into the palaeoecological setting of the stone-circle/ring-cairn prehistoric complex on Cefn Gwernffrwd, Mid-Wales are presented in two radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams. Mesolithic and Neolithic environments of the locality are briefly discussed. The conjectured archaeological age of the complex is then considered and compared with the palaeoecological evidence. The latter indicates construction of the complex in two separate episodes in the Bronze Age. Initial construction was probably in the Overton period (3650–3400 bp); later major local disturbance in the Penard period (3000–2800 bp) may be associated with construction of the ring cairn. These dates may slightly underestimate the age of human activities as they are based on fine particulate peat fractions of horizons in which the effects of activities are evident. The indications of a previously forested environment may have implications for the astronomical significance of the ‘alignment’ at the complex. Blanket peat initiation on the plateau was apparently connected with the Bronze Age impact on forest in this locality.

The background to discoveries of early mining sites in southwest Ireland is examined. Particular attention is devoted to the workings at Mount Gabriel, currently believed to date from the Bronze Age. Working principally from historical sources it is concluded that the site was exploited in shallow workings and trial pits between c. 1852 and 1862. Theories concerning the output of these and other Irish mines are discussed. Palaeoenvironmental and archaeological survey as well as documentary research are recommended to help solve the many outstanding problems.

Tell Bouqras is situated in eastern Syria, on the right bank of the Euphrates, c. 35 km south-east of Deir ez-Zor (35°05′ 12″N, 40°23′ 50″E). The ‘neolithic’ village was built on a promontory of the plateau area overlooking the Euphrates floodplain, just opposite the mouth of the Khabur (fig. 1). H. de Contenson and W.J. van Liere (1966) conducted a trial excavation at the tell in 1965. Their results showed that the ‘hunter-shepherd society’ of Bouqras (van Liere and de Contenson 1963; Hooijer 1966) dated from the second half of the seventh millennium bc (Vogel and Waterbolk 1967).

Before this period villages with an economy based on agriculture and animal husbandry mainly occupied the mountainous areas bordering the ‘fertile crescent’. During the second half of the seventh and the first part of the sixth millennia be the spread of such villages can be observed outside of the areas formerly occupied. The chronological and geographical position of Bouqras makes the site particularly suited to be investigated as an example of the sedentary communities which started to settle the more downstream Euphrates and Tigris drainage basins in the lowlands of eastern Syria and Iraq, beyond the regions where rainfall-fed farming would have been possible. Furthermore, the location of Bouqras at similar distances, as the crow flies, from Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in western and northern Syria and early sixth millennium settlements in northern Iraq, would give the opportunity to trace contacts between these separate regions.

With these objectives a team from the Universities of Amsterdam and Groningen, directed by Prof Dr H. T. Waterbolk and Prof Dr M. N. van Loon, undertook new excavations at Bouqras from 1976 to 1978. Financial support was obtained from the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research, the A. E. vanGiffen Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie in Amsterdam and the Biologisch-Archaeologisch Instituut in Groningen. We express our gratitude to Dr A. Bahnassi and Dr A. Bounni of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus, for granting the excavation and survey permits and for their interest in our work. Mr A. Mahmoud of the Museum of Deir ez-Zor was very helpful during our stay in the field.