In this paper the Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork has undertaken a radical re-evaluation of the traditional paradigms of Irish prehistory, which were formed in the 1940s. He makes full use of the results of recent pipeline excavations and radiocarbon dates to show that early settlement in Ireland need not always be associated with monument or artefact types belonging to narrow chronological horizons.

The physical form of the Elizabethan theatre, as shown by contemporary prints and engravings, has long been an important field of study for Shakespeare scholars. The discoveries in the late 1980s on Bankside of first the 16th-century Rose theatre and then the Globe have provided material remains of these structures, but at the same time posed new questions relating to design and construction, as this account of the excavation of part of the Globe site in 1989 and 1991 graphically demonstrates.

All (or almost all) archaeology seeks to know the things that were by the evidence of the things that are, as battered and fragmented by centuries of collapse, decay, wear and breaking. And from the things that were, all (or almost all) archaeology seeks to know the people who were, to grasp the human meanings that were held in those things. The unthinking assumptions, common to old and new programmes for good archaeology, that go with this common framework are explored.

Spatial analysis has enjoyed a considerable vogue in archaeological studies over the past two decades, though usually applied in prehistoric contexts. The paper applies well tried techniques to the analysis of complex high-status medieval buildings and demonstrates their superiority in terms of data (especially when used in parallel) on social function and status over subjective analysis based on notions of symbolic or functional characterization.

The Šventoji site in western Lithuania is of considerable importance in understanding prehistoric settlement in the east Baltic area, not least because of the exceptional preservation conditions present. The data obtained show that prehistoric populations in the area were remarkably stable over a considerable period.

The current received view is that the economy of the Bronze Age of northern Europe was based on gift exchange rather than trade. This paper, based on a comparative analysis of three groups of Scandinavian bronze and gold artefacts – bronze statuettes of ‘goddesses with necklets’, golden ‘oath rings’ and Fårdrup bronze axes – suggest that there were one or more standard weight systems in use in Bronze Age Scandinavia. The author uses these data to state a case for a trade economy, reminiscent of the Mycenaean world.

In the usual explanation, the lintels of Stonehenge were raised on a timber crib. A new, partial Concretehenge in Bohemia offers an alternative method.

Evidence from the Channel Islands supports the view that long-distance transport of megaliths in the European Neolithic cannot be substantiated. Analysis of the stones at La Hougue Bie, however, shows that megaliths were regularly moved over shorter distances, and suggests that the distribution of megalithic sites within a region cannot be explained simply as a function of the availability of building materials. This view modifies the purely materialistic conclusions of Thorpe & Williams-Thorpe in their recent demolition of the Stonehenge bluestones myth (ANTIQUITY 65: 64–73).

The remarkable find of Iron Age gold torques from Snettisham (see ANTIQUITY 65: 447–65) was interpreted by the excavator, Ian Stead, as representing a treasury, ‘assigned to the earth for safe-keeping’, rather than a votive deposit. This article argues that these are not mutually exclusive categories, since no clear distinction was made in Iron Age Europe between sacred and profane.

Successive UK Governments have persisted in maintaining the archaic nonsense of Treasure Trove. This paper demonstrates the unsuitability of a medieval Royal Prerogative for protecting our archaeological heritage, and goes on to outline a more effective system. This rejects the principle of animus revertendi and concentrates on the protection of portable antiquities in its own right. It advocates a system of statutory reporting and certification, coupled with a policy of acquisition in the public interest.

The Council for British Archaeology pioneered bibliographical information services and its British Archaeological Abstracts was the model for similar services in other European countries. A consortium of archaeological organizations has now been formed to produce a fully computerized bibliographical service which will be available in a variety of output formats.

It is a common assumption that archaeological deposits with well-defined bands of ‘undisturbed’ sediments possess absolute stratigraphic integrity and hence that discrete cultural events are sealed within them. This cautionary tale, based on the excavation of a sandstone shelter site in Queensland, shows that this precise stratigraphic and chronological resolution can no longer be taken for granted. Conjoin sets (stone flakes struck from the same core) demonstrate substantial vertical artefact migration between layers, with consequent implications for interpretation.

This essay in the historiography of Bronze Age studies traces their growth from the early 19th-century adoption of the Three Age system to the 1960s and their subsequent decline as a distinct field of endeavour with the retreat from period-based approaches.

A conference on Interpretive Archaeologies was held at Peterhouse College, Cambridge in September 1991. It sought to explore alternatives; to share rather than impose a programme for interpreting the past. Here is one reaction.

It was to be expected that the pioneering concordat between archaeologists and Native Americans (Shared principles': a cooperation agreement between a Native North American group and archaeologists, ANTIQUITY 65: 917–20) would evoke a response from physical anthropologists.

A further contribution to the continuing debate on the best means of making the voluminous results of rescue excavations available to the archaeological community (see ANTIQUITY 64: 667–71; 65: 822–8).

The archaeological survey of the Fenlands around the Wash in eastern England was completed in 1989. This note summarizes the results in terms of knowledge and conservation needs that emerged from the subsequent Fenland Evaluation Project.

The papers in this Special Section present the latest results of research into the waterlogged later prehistoric site at Flag Fen, Peterborough. The landscape is almost flat and very low-lying, and the archaeological site consists of two main elements: a man-made timber platform and a kilometre-long alignment of posts, interpreted here as a defensive palisade. The site also has an important ritual component that continued into the Iron Age. Dendrochronology and other evidence indicates that the platform and posts were used for some 400 years, between about 1350 and 950 BC. This was a period of increasing wetness in the region.

Rather than give very detailed descriptive accounts of the eight profiles examined, what follows is a summary of the main conclusions of the soil and sediment analyses undertaken on the Fengate fen-edge at the power station subsite (1989) and Cat’s Water (1990) sub-site. The sedimentological (geochemical and mineral magnetic) analyses have been done by D. Passmore and M. Macklin, both of the Department of Geography, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and the buried soil and alluvial micromorphological analyses by the writer.