PUTTING LITHICS TO THE TEST: NON-SITE ANALYSIS AND THE NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENT OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND

Summary. The earliest farming communities in Southern England were for a long time represented solely by the structural remains left behind in the form of burial monuments, henges and causewayed enclosures; only recently, through problem-oriented surface collection, has any attempt been made to locate their settlements. This paper suggests that such attempts have been limited by the very desire to locate 'sites' which made the technique attractive in the first place. Instead it is suggested that we should be attempting to 'think Mesolithic', and by using our knowledge of Neolithic settlement and land-use strategies, attempt to locate zones of continuity which undoubtedly occurred in certain 'favourable locations'within the landscape. Case studies from East and West Hampshire are discussed and two types of adaptive behaviour are identified.     

PERFORATED STONE AXE-HEADS IN THE BRITISH NEOLITHIC: THEIR DISTRIBUTION AND SIGNIFICANCE

Summary. This paper investigates the ways in which stone axes were modified in areas of Britain distant from their original sources. One small group was turned into pendants and another seems to have been converted into maceheads. This has implications for studies of the 'axe trade' that assume that such artefacts had a fixed value throughout their distribution.     

SEA CHANGE: NEW EVIDENCE FOR MESOLITHIC AND EARLY NEOLITHIC PRESENCE IN THE CHANNEL ISLANDS WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO GUERNSEY AND THE RISING HOLOCENE SEA

This paper summarizes the results of recent research on the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods in the Channel Islands and focuses on the integration of new information into the long‐ running efforts to explain the processes by which the Neolithic became established in Guernsey and the other Channel Islands. This research builds on Kinnes's work on the complex monument at Les Fouaillages, Guernsey in the early 1980s and the review by Patton of Neolithic communities in the Channel Islands in 1995. Many rescue and research excavations in Guernsey have provided new evidence which informs the complex relationships between Guernsey, the other Channel Islands and the north‐west of France at the time of the Mesolithic and Early Neolithic. Analysis of the data takes into account recent French research (and in particular Cassen et al. 2000 and Guyodo and Hamon 2005 ). Also, at the time of writing, Kinnes's work on Les Fouaillages is being prepared for publication ( Kinnes et al. forthcoming , see below). The developments are discussed against new and existing data for rising sea levels and the consequent isolation of Guernsey as an island.     

THE MESOLITHIC of the CHANNEL ISLANDS: ECONOMY and SETTLEMENT IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Summary: Results of recent surveys, combined with a re-evaluation of lithic assemblages from earlier surface collections, suggest the existence of several Mesolithic sites in the Channel Islands. the lithic assemblages from these sites find parallels on the mainland of North-Western France, suggesting that most of the Channel Island sites date to the 'Middle Stage'Mesolithic (c 8500-10,000 BP). the evidence for Mesolithic activity in the island is discussed in the context of the evidence for changing sea-levels and environmental conditions. It is argued that sites were preferentially located at the junction of several ecozones and that, for a short period of time during the 8th & 9th Millennia BP, sea-levels and environmental conditions in the area were particularly favourable for the exploitation of a broad range of resources.     

MARINE RESOURCES IN THE MESOLITHIC AND NEOLITHIC AT THE GROTTA DELL’UZZO (SICILY): EVIDENCE FROM ISOTOPE ANALYSES OF MARINE SHELLS*

Oxygen isotopes in shell carbonate samples from the marine rocky‐shore intertidal gastropod Monodonta turbinata (Born) are investigated in both modern analogue specimens and in archaeological specimens from the Grotta dell’Uzzo (Sicily). Variations in shell edge values of δ¹⁸O in living specimens collected monthly over two years are closely correlated with monthly seawater temperatures measured at the time of collection, showing that the species can be used for palaeoseasonality studies. Analyses of shell edge δ¹⁸O values in archaeological specimens, from Mesolithic through to early Neolithic phases at the Grotta dell’Uzzo, enabled the inference of various seasons of collection of shellfish and how such seasonality varies between the different phases of occupation. Interesting similarities and differences exist between the seasons of marine shellfish exploitation and the seasons inferred from the vertebrate zooarchaeological assemblages. A major inference drawn from the analyses and discussion is that the exploitation of all marine resources (fish and shellfish) increased in the later Mesolithic and early Neolithic periods.     

山东东南地区春秋战国时期各国货币述略

本文所述山东东南地区,其范围是指以今山东临沂市为中心,以沂、沭河流域为主体,古代齐长城以南的临沂、日照两市各县及周边市县。该地区东临大海、西接内陆、南与苏北地区相邻。具有居山、顺河、临海的特殊地理历史环境,在春秋战国时期,这     

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF URANIUM AND OF TL-PRODUCING MINERALS IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MATERIALS

A technique is described by which the spatial distribution of uranium as well as of thermoluminescent minerals can be examined in the same archaeological sample. The uranium distribution is replicated on an aluminized plastic film with the help of a ‘spark counter’following reactor-irradiation of the sample, while the TL pattern is photographed directly from a γ-irradiated sample. Implications for dating from such a comparative examination are discussed for certain pottery and flint samples.     

MEDITERRANEAN CORAL: ITS USE and EXCHANGE IN and AROUND the ALPINE REGION DURING the LATER NEOLITHIC and COPPER AGE

Different types of Mediterranean coral are described, and the potential sources of prehistoric coral in the central Mediterranean are considered. Early examples of coral artefacts from in and around the alpine region, as well as their finds-contexts, are then described and chronologically defined, and their value, use, and exchange is discussed.     

SHIFTING SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN THE SOUTHERN JORDAN VALLEY AND DESERT FRINGES OF SAMARIA DURING THE EARLY BRONZE AGE I PERIOD

Abstract

This study deals with the unprecedented settlement activity during the Early Bronze Age I that has been recently recorded in the Jordan Valley and the desert fringes of Samaria. The increase in the number of sites primarily characterises the latter part of the period (Early Bronze Age IB), and is accompanied by two other important phenomena: population inroads into new regions, and the first appearance of fortified sites. A profound crisis at the end of the period resulted in the almost complete abandonment of the valley sites and the concentration of settlement along the eastern foothills of Samaria.     

THE DEVELOPMENT of NEOLITHIC and COPPER AGE SETTLEMENT IN the GREAT HUNGARIAN PLAIN PART I: the REGIONAL SETTING

Summary: This paper describes the development of settlement over the period 6000-4000 BC in part of central Europe. It contrasts the patterns of initial agrarian occupation with the subsequent expansion of population in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin. This area is of particular interest, both as a major focus of prehistoric settlement, and because it is possible to compare the results of recent local surveys with a well documented series of regional distributions.     

FROM RAW IRON TO SEMI‐PRODUCT: QUALITY AND CIRCULATION OF MATERIALS DURING THE IRON AGE IN FRANCE*

Iron raw materials provide a privileged source of information for the reconstruction of metallurgical techniques and the circulation of iron products. An interdisciplinary approach, combining archaeological and archaeometrical studies of the exemplars known from the French Iron Age, has been undertaken. This enables a new typological classification to be produced that demonstrates a correlation between morphological and structural properties. Through comparison with chronological data, it is possible to propose a reconstruction of the organization of production according to three main periods, which are characterized by the circulation of different qualities of iron and by diverse levels of artisanal specialization.     

THE NEOLITHIC of the AVEBURY AREA: SEQUENCE, ENVIRONMENT, SETTLEMENT and MONUMENTS

Summary: The implications are discussed of the first five seasons of a regional project to investigate the Neolithic sequence and environment, and the context in which monuments great and small were built, in the area around Avebury, north Wiltshire, England. A five-phase local sequence is proposed. There was a varying mosaic of clearances, and settlement density may have been low. the episodic character of monument building stands out. With the exception of Silbury Hill, none of the monuments need indicate significant social ranking, and more attention can be given to their sacred character and to the tradition which produced them.     

JADE and GREENSTONE IN the PREHISTORY of SICILY and SOUTHERN ITALY

Summary: The authors consider the specific nature and possible provenance of the various rock types commonly described as 'jades'or 'greenstones'from which some of the prehistoric axes and adzes in southern Italy and Sicily were made. Despite the presence of jadeite-rich pyroxenes in Calabrian metamorphic rocks, a non-local origin, probably in the north Italian or Alpine zone, seems more likely for 'jadeite'implements in the south. By contrast, nephrite and serpentinite artifacts probably derive from sources in southern Basilicata, Calabria, and possibly northeastern Sicily, where alluvial deposits or natural outcrops could have been exploited. Certain aspects of procurement and techniques of manufacture are comparable with others recorded ethnographically. Evidence emerges for long-distance as well as local and interregional exchange.     

MATERIAL CULTURE and CHRONOLOGY of the MIDDLE NEOLITHIC of WESTERN FRANCE

Summary: The article is meant to update the sequence of the various 'cultural groups'making up the Middle Neolithic of the French west coast, and sets out a few definitions of the ceramic sets on which the periodization is based, between Normandy and Gironde, from 5500 BP to 4600 BP (4400-3400 BC Cal.).