PRE‐CHRISTIAN OFFERINGS FROM GULDHULLET NEAR SMØRENGE ON BORNHOLM,DENMARK

As a result of metal detector surveys over several years, a unique find of gold figurines and gold foil figures from the 6^th century AD has come to light at a locality known as Guldhullet (‘the gold hole’). Geomagnetic surveys and a subsequent excavation in 2017 revealed a large number of ‘cooking pits’ close to the present‐day damp area where the finds were made. The pits are roughly contemporary with the gold finds, which suggests that the location was both a sacrificial site and an important communal meeting place.     

Decisive Evidence for Multidirectional Evolution of Sociopolitical Complexity in Southern Africa

While pioneers of archaeology in any given region have established the foundations of the discipline, their views have not remained unchanged in places such as Europe, North America and Australasia. In these regions, successive generations of researchers changed the direction of their work based not just on new observations but also in light of new methods and theories. For example, the idea of a Bronze Age revolution popularised by V. G. Childe in Europe was superseded by multiple alternatives over the years. In southern African Iron Age studies, John Schofield, Gertrude Caton-Thompson, Roger Summers, Keith Robinson and Peter Garlake created an impressive platform upon which successors could build. Confronting firm disapproval from more experienced researchers in the early 1980s, Huffman speculated that the evolution of sociopolitical complexity in our region was a linear relay from Mapungubwe to Khami via Great Zimbabwe. This position was sustained as the conventional wisdom largely, we argue, because no new research was being carried out in key areas of the region, and too few students, in particular African ones, were being trained to expand the focus of investigation. Here, we present new data to support our argument, that the pathway to sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa was multilinear. We propose looking forward rather than back, and to continue to seek the exposure of scales of interaction between multiple but chronologically overlapping entities associated with the rise of sociopolitical complexity in southern Africa.     

The occurrence and implications of post-mortem ‘pink teeth’ in forensic and archaeological cases

On sectioning six of eight externally well-preserved teeth taken from four skeletons from Medieval Chichester they displayed a superficial similarity to teeth described in the forensic literature as ‘pink teeth’. This article reviews the occurrence of ‘pink teeth’ in forensic specimens and describes the teeth from Chichester using a variety of analytical techniques. We conclude that, despite the similarities, the pink coloration in the archaeological specimens has a different cause from the forensic samples, and that in archaeological contexts the pinkness is probably related to post-mortem change brought about by saprophytic fungi. However, the exact cause of the coloration remains unexplained. We discuss briefly the implications of this observation for dental ageing techniques and other studies of archaeological teeth.     

The tyranny of Richard III

To Tudor historians Richard III was a quintessence of tyranny. This belief was derived from the informed opinion of many who had experienced his brief reign. To them a tyrant was one who came to the throne without right or who governed against the interests of the political nation. There can be little doubt that Richard usurped the throne: it is also the case that in one important respect his government alienated a significant section of the nobility and gentry. Following the revolts of late 1483 Richard systematically placed trusted northern adherents in control of the unreliable and hostile southern counties. This action transgressed the unwritten law that the rule of the counties lay in the hands of their native élites. Its highhandedness was recognized by the author of the Croyland continuation and its pattern can be reconstructed from the record of grants from the Crown during the reign. Not only does the settlement of 1483-4 provide dramatic evidence in support of the Tudor tradition, but its circumstances also suggest an explanation for the continuing controversy surrounding Richard's reign. What was thereby tyranny in the south was good lordship to the loyal north. It is conceivable that the conflicting interpretations of the last Plantagenet spring from this regional division.     

A little souvenir: the Marquess and the Mycenaean columns

This is a study of change over time, both in attitudes to objects, and in the manner of their collection. The example of a pair of columns from a Mycenaean tholos tomb, the so-called 'Treasury of Atreus' at Mycenae, serves as a point of departure for discussion of the value of material culture in the context of archaeology's emergence as a discipline.