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.     

Concubinage and marriage in medieval canon law

The medieval canon law adopted an ambivaient attitude toward concubinage among the laity. While the canonists disapproved of concubinage on moral grounds, they sought to assimilate the status of the concubine to that of the married woman and thus to legitimize concubinous relationships. In this process of assimilation the canonists made use of the institution of clandestine marriage, which created problems of its own. The crucial difficulty lay in constructing a satisfactory system of proof, so that it would be clear whether or not a given couple should be treated as married, or whether they should be considered legally as unmarried. The Council of Trent abolished lay concubinage and clandestine marriage, but thereby created a system of marriage law flawed with defects almost as serious as those experienced under the medieval law.