First comprehensive peat depositional records for tin,lead and copper associated with the antiquity of Europe's largest cassiterite deposits

Tin, as a constituent of bronze, was central to the technological development of early societies, but cassiterite (SnO₂) deposits were scarce and located distantly from the centres of Mediterranean civilizations. As Britain had the largest workable ore deposits in the ancient Western world, this has led to much historical speculation and myth regarding the long-distance trading of tin from the Bronze Age onwards. Here we establish the first detailed chronology for tin, along with lead and copper deposition, into undisturbed ombrotrophic (rain-fed) peat bogs located at Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor in the centre of the British tin ore fields. Sustained elevated tin deposition is demonstrated clearly, with peaks occurring at 100–400 and 700–1000 calendar years AD – contemporaneous with the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods respectively. While pre-Roman Iron Age tin exploitation undoubtedly took place, it was on a scale that did not result in convincingly enhanced deposition of the metal. The deposition of lead in the peat record provides evidence of a pre-Roman metal-based economy in southwest Britain. Emerging in the 4th century BC, this was centred on copper and lead ore processing that expanded exponentially and then collapsed upon Roman colonization during the 1st century AD.     

Geochemical indicators of preservation status and site deterioration at Star Carr

This paper presents the results of a project aimed at investigating the deterioration of organic remains at the Mesolithic site of Star Carr. Analyses of pH, Electrical Conductivity and Redox Potential are reported from borehole transects across the unexcavated part of the site. A comparison of field and laboratory measurements is made, leading to the characterisation of different preservation zones and identification of ‘vulnerable’ sediments at the site. These data are augmented by geochemical analyses of contemporary borehole sequences and adjacent historic monoliths. Analysis of surface water and groundwater has also been undertaken to assist in the interpretation of the site hydrology and geochemistry. The relationship between ‘natural’ geology and preservation potential, and the evidence for a ‘halo’ preservation effect in virgin sediments adjacent to previous archaeology trenches is investigated.     

Towards a Democratic Bill of Rights

This paper examines two different bill of rights models for Australia: the Dialogue model and a Democratic model. The Dialogue model aims to protect rights through a bill of rights, strong political review mechanisms, intergovernmental dialogue, and rights-based judicial review. The paper argues that, despite its popularity, there are serious problems with the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Dialogue model and it outlines an alternative model, a ‘democratic bill of rights’, which attempts to avoid these problems by strengthening democratic institutions and political review mechanisms without adopting rights-based judicial review. The paper concludes that a democratic bill of rights is likely to be an effective and more democratically legitimate way of protecting and promoting human rights in Australia.     

USING EXPLANATORY SPATIAL MODELS IN PLANNING CONTEXTS (a reply)

The paper surveys a complex of challenges faced by the Ukrainian people in efforts to forge an independent Ukrainian state. These include charting an independent course within the new CIS, the allocation of former all-Union assets on Ukrainian territory, relations with minority ethnic groups (particularly Great Russians) in Ukraine, and potential territorial claims by neighboring states. Among economic problems faced by Ukrainian leaders are the need for reduced dependency upon energy imports, for structural change and renovation of aging industrial infrastructure, and for maintenance of favorable terms of trade with foreign countries and the former Soviet republics.     

Surviving through movement: the mobility of urban youth in Ghana

In Africa, young people are engaging with a globalised world of flows and movements but are coming of age in environments characterised by uncertainty, economic hardship and unemployment. Drawing upon research conducted in Madina, a suburb of Accra, a social navigation perspective is adopted to explore young people's everyday mobility and their aspirations for future mobility. By drawing attention to the meanings young people ascribe to movement, and by analysing their movements as tactics of social navigation, the importance of spatial mobility to young people's everyday well-being and their processes of social becoming are illustrated. Young people find that their mobility is bounded by a range of factors including labour market characteristics, gender and generational relations, and their spatial location on the outskirts of the city and the margins of the world. However, neither their daily mobility nor their spatial imagination is restricted to Madina; real or imagined travel takes them to other parts of the city, into rural areas and across the nation's borders. Through illustrating how significant mobility can be for everyday survival, this paper contributes to ‘the mobility turn’ in the social sciences which has overlooked the importance of mobility for livelihoods in the global South.     

Folklore from Ireland

THE NATIVE TRIBES OF SOUTH-EAST AUSTRALIA By A. W. HOWITT, D.Sc Macmillan &; Co. 1904. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

WEST AFRICAN BELIEFS. Reviewed by A. Lang.

ZWEI JAHRE UNTER DEN KANNIBALEN DER SALOMO-INSELN : Reiseerlebnisse und Schilderunge von Land und Leuten. By CARL RIBBE. 352 pp. 86 figures in the text. 14 plates. 10 diagrams and 3 maps. Dresden-Blasewitz, Elbgau-Buchdruckerei, H. Beyer, 1903. Reviewed by A. C. Haddon.

TRADITIONS OF THE SKIDI PAWNEE. BY GEORGE A. DORSEY (Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, vol. viii.). Boston, 1904, pp. xxvi, 366, with 15 Plates. Reviewed by N. W. Thomas.

A PHONETICAL STUDY OF THE ESKIMO LANGUAGE, BASED ON OBSERVATIONS MADE ON A JOURNEY IN NORTH GREENLAND, 1900–1901. By WILLIAM THALBITZER. Reprint from Meddelelser om Gronland, vol. xxxi. Copenhagen, 1904. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

SOCIOLOGICAL PAPERS: 1904. With an INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS by JAMES BRYCE. Published for the Sociological Society. Macmillan. 1905. Reviewed by Charlotte S. Burne.

STUDIES IN ANGLO-SAXON LITERATURE. By H. M. CHADWICK. Cambridge University Press. Reviewed by F. M. Stenton.

JOURNAL OF THE FOLK-SONG SOCIETY, Vol. I., Pt. 5. Spottiswoode &; Co., 1904. Reviewed by L. M. Eyre.