This paper critically examines the known radiocarbon evidence for the human recolonisation of a part of north-western Europe, the north-western Ardennes. Two sites in this region, the Trou de Blaireaux at Vaucelles and the Grotte de Sy Verlaine, have been suggested as two of the earliest human occupation sites after the Last Glacial Maximum in northern Europe. The dating evidence from these two sites, alongside other late Magdalenian sites in the immediate area, is reviewed and found to be highly problematic. More recent radiocarbon work using AMS is described and the results discussed. On this basis it is suggested that there is no direct evidence for human presence in this region prior to the start of the Böiling Interstadial phase of the Lateglacial, c. 13,000 BP.

A comparative study of four Late Pleistocene sites — Il'skaja (Russia), La Borde and Mauran (France), and Wallertheim (Germany) — was undertaken. The sites are considered to be kill and/or habitation sites, showing bovid dominated faunal assemblages which have already independently been described as resulting from hominid hunting activities. In this synthetic paper it is discussed whether these archaeological records reflect a distinct mode of procurement. Focusing on the faunal remains, similarities and differences are demonstrated between the varying bovid assemblages in terms of the body profiles, and age and sex structures, and evidence of hominid bovid carcass exploitation is examined. Physical, taphonomical, and hominid behavioural implications of the different variables compared are treated in a problem-oriented discussion. The results indicate focussed and selective hunting strategies in parts of Europe during the Middle Palaeolithic, emphasising that during the period an enormous variation of subsistence options existed, some of them quite similar to those of the Upper Palaeolithic.

This paper offers a summary of our present archaeological knowledge of the modern county of Norfolk, a large and geographically diverse tract of northern East Anglia, during the 5th–2nd millennia BC. It concludes by listing some topics deserving of future research.

A survey is presented of the Iron Age in Norfolk, the area containing the heartland of the tribal territory of the Iceni during the Late Iron Age. It makes use of new information from prolific artefact finds from recent excavations and fieldwork, and employing unpublished data from the county Sites and Monuments Record. Settlement evidence and artefact distributions are analysed and used to construct a model for the development of settlement from the Early Iron Age to the Boudican rebellion of AD 60–61. The model emphasises a process of continuous change, showing the population expanding, moving from west to east and finally onto the central claylands. Evidence for field monuments is reviewed, revealing regional groupings and an association between hillfort-type and rectangular enclosures and linear earthworks with strategic locations on the boundaries of better soils. Three zones are thus defined. Artefact types including tores, coins, coin hoards, and horse equipment also reveal distinct regional patterning. Some larger sites are identified as serving more than simple agricultural functions, playing a key role within and between the three defined zones. The importance of ritual and religion within Iron Age society is emphasised and is considered to underlie the deposition of artefacts and hoards around Snettisham and in the vicinity of the south Norfolk border; a practice later revived in the Romano-British period.

Excavations at a deeply alluviated site near St Ives, Cambridgeshire, revealed a complex sequence of boundary works of later prehistoric and Roman date running along the edge of a former course of the river Great Ouse. The most significant of these were two successive pit alignments constructed in the early-mid 1st millennium BC. One alignment ran along the very edge of the channel and was waterlogged over much of its length; upon excavation producing a rich assemblage of worked wood, including hedging debris. Broader discussion on the social context of pit alignments as boundary systems is offered.

In view of the theories of the astronomical significance of standing stones proposed by Alexander Thom, extensive fieldwork was undertaken during the 1970s and early 1980s in the west of Scotland to reassess the field evidence. Two groups of sites were identified from this work that seemed to support an astronomical interpretation, but the poor condition of many of the sites made identification of their original orientation problematical. Excavations were carried out at two damaged sites in one of the groups, in northern Mull, in order to identify the original positions of the stones. Radiocarbon dates from one of the sites, the first for a Scottish stone row, suggest construction in the Late Bronze Age. The alignment of the excavated rows, and the results of detailed theodolite surveys at and around the north Mull sites, suggest a more complex relationship between site locations, astronomical events, and the landscape than has hitherto been appreciated.

The Anglezarke/Rivington uplands of central Lancashire have, in recent years, suffered severe erosion. In response a programme of field survey was undertaken during 1983 and 1985, supplemented by palynological investigation, modern vegetation survey, and sample excavation. Two sites were investigated in detail, a cairn of likely Bronze Age date and a flint scatter of earlier Mesolithic type. The field survey demonstrated human activity on the upland throughout the prehistoric period and emphasised the heavy post-medieval exploitation of the moorland. Sample excavation confirmed the prehistoric activity and, in the case of the Mesolithic site at Rushy Brow, demonstrated the possibility of recognising and reconstructing periods of prehistoric activity of very short duration — perhaps only a few hours.

The project involved the survey and selective excavation of an area of field system adjoining the Romano-British ‘courtyard house’ settlement of Chysauster, near Penzance, Cornwall, supported by soil and pollen studies and by the extensive landscape surveys. The excavation had two main elements: study of the rectilinear field system and excavation of a Bronze Age funerary cairn incorporated in one of the field boundaries. The earliest field system, probably with origins in the 2nd millennium BC, was largely modified by a more irregular and strongly lynchetted field pattern, probably associated with more intensive Iron Age and Romano-British agriculture. There was also some medieval or post-medieval reuse and modification. The cairn pre-dated a boundary bank of one of the early fields and was the focus for a number of cremation burials. Six of these were accompanied by pots which, together with their radiocarbon dates, provide a significant group of the middle phase of the Trevisker variant of the British Food Urn ceramic tradition. Excavation of field boundaries showed evidence of long periods of modification and lynchet accumulation but lacked good artefactual or radiocarbon dating evidence. Soil and pollen analysis produced significant new evidence for this region, showing the former existence of a brown soil under open oak/hazel woodland, with some cereal cultivation taking place, prior to the construction of the Bronze Age cairn. Later cultivation techniques led to deterioration in soil status and to soil erosion. Some field boundaries may have been constructed at this time to conserve soil or as dumps for clearance stone. The changes, through deforestation, cultivation, and erosion influenced the plant communities in the nearby valley where pollen analysis of a peat section suggested three phases of human activity.

An archaeological evaluation and excavation were carried out prior to a housing development in 1992, at Bramcote Green, in the London Borough of Southwark. Up to 3 m of organic rich, alluvial clay silts were deposited during the late Glacial period between about 12,000 BP and 9000 BP. A wide, shallow channel flowing south towards the Thames cut through the clay silts during the early Holocene and was filled with a series of clay and peat layers. Between 6000 BP and 4000 BP fast moving water channels formed on the marshy ground on the east side of the site and broader channels on the sand and gravel outcrop on the west side of the site. A subsequent rise in water levels, possibly seasonal, deposited inorganic muds across most of the site until c. 3500 BP. Over the filled-in channel were laid two phases of a wooden trackway which may have been laid across the marsh between high ground to the south and Bermondsey Island to the north. The earlier trackway consisted of two parallel lines of alder logs held in place by alder stakes. The second consisted of a single line of oak logs with alder stakes along one side. Radiocarbon dating of the second trackway places it in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. The site was covered by a thick layer of peat dated to the Late Bronze Age.

Blawearie Cairn was first excavated by Canon William Greenwell in 1865. His findings indicated that the cairn was a cist cemetery of the Early Bronze Age. Recent excavation has demonstrated that the cairn was originally a kerb circle and that funerary rites were not necessarily its prime function.

Although the study of Early Bronze Age round barrows and cemeteries has flourished in recent years, detailed studies of the siting of barrows and cemeteries in relation to local topography and contemporary monuments are rare. This paper analyses the distribution of barrow cemeteries in relation to three major monumental complexes in Wessex: the South Dorset Ridgeway, Avebury, and Stonehenge. The analyses indicate that the location of barrows and cemeteries was strictly regulated. Although the specific pattern in each region is different, and closely related to the local topography of rivers and ridges, an underlying structural principle has been identified. This principle is that of circularity, and it is suggested that the various patterns of cemetery layout, involving curved settings and arcs, reflect the shape of the round barrows contained within them, the stake- and post-circles which lie buried beneath some of them, and the shape of the timber and stone monuments upon which they focus. This tradition of cemetery regulation appears to have continued to effect mortuary behaviour well into the Middle Bronze Age, alongside new systems of settlement and burial patterning which were developing in areas away from the ancient monumental foci. Finally, pointers towards future related research are outlined.

This paper is a study of the 58 recorded antler maceheads of the so-called ‘crown’ type, their technology, distribution, dating, and possible origins and relationships. An illustrated catalogue is appended.

A new framework for the consideration of Neolithic axes is proposed, consisting of six rock classes defined by rock composition and working properties. The use of rock from these classes varied systematically in Britain, and reflected local geology. Flint exploitation, whose significance in the production of axes has been grossly underestimated, is considered in especial detail (with a full survey of flint mines and quarries). A major study of axe morphology is reported on. The paper includes gazetteers of caches of stone axes (many previously unpublished) and of axes found in burials.

Anthropomorphic hiked short swords were a rare and specialised weapon whose size, style, and human symbolism altered little over some 300 years. A small proportion of these short swords are engraved or stamped with designs inlaid with gold or other metals which are suggested to represent different stages of the lunar cycle. The measurement of time in nights is evidenced by later Gallo-Latin calendars written in Gaulish and this is endorsed by literary evidence for Late Iron Age France which points to the association of this knowledge with a specialist religious class. It is suggested that the swords were used in practices or ceremonies associated with making and keeping the time by counting nights, and determining what was a propitious day.

This paper presents a selection of compositional analyses of Iron Age copper alloy artefacts from northern Britain. The results were obtained as part of a larger project which examined Iron Age and Roman copper alloys in northern Britain (the region from the Trent-Mersey to the Forth-Clyde). The quantitative analyses were carried out using EDXRF on drilled or polished samples. Comparisons are made with results from the late Bronze Age and early Roman period in northern Britain. The results are also compared with those already published from a range of Iron Age sites in southern England. The large total number of copper alloy analyses from the British Iron Age has made possible a synthesis of the data which has largely been assembled piecemeal. It is now clear that a tin bronze was the principal copper alloy for much of the Iron Age. The composition of this alloy is distinct from the alloys used in the Late Bronze Age and during the Roman period although there is considerable ‘blurring’ at the transitions. A brief outline of the analytical method employed and the analytical results are included.

Excavations at the Neolithic site of Jeitun in Turkmenistan, Central Asia, were carried out by a British team between 1991 and 1994 as part of a collaborative project with Soviet and Turkmenian archaeologists. Jeitun was first systematically excavated in the 1950s by Professor V.M. Masson and was shown to be a small settlement of mudbrick houses and ancillary buildings together with yard layers. Our recent excavations have attempted to refine knowledge of the site's stratigraphy and architecture by using fine-grained excavation and recovery techniques and by sampling systematically for sediments, plant and animal remains, and artefacts. We have also obtained the first suite of radiocarbon dates from the site which shows that it was first occupied at c. 6000 cal. BC and may only have remained in use for a few centuries. The excavations have uncovered the lowest architectural phases at Jeitun, as demonstrated by detailed examination of two houses at the northern end of the site. Both houses have a complex history of use, with well laid gypsum floors and intervening layers of sand and mudbrick destruction. Such complexity may indicate that the site was not occupied permanently, although year-round occupation is, on present evidence, equally likely. We tentatively define three phases in the occupation of the site, from ephemeral use in the lowest layers to complex and intensive occupation in the uppermost parts. These phases cannot be separated by the 11 radiocarbon dates obtained, which appear to suggest that activity at the site increased relatively rapidly over a short period of time. Further excavation and analysis is needed to refine and strengthen our conclusions.