DOMESTICITY BY DEFAULT. RITUAL, RITUALIZATION AND CAVE-USE IN THE NEOLITHIC AEGEAN

Summary.   Neolithic caves in the Aegean are conventionally understood in domestic terms, principally as temporary homes for farmers or pastoralists. This paper challenges the theoretical and empirical foundations of this orthodoxy and develops an alternative model grounded in an understanding of Neolithic ritual and how through ritualization the everyday is referenced and transformed. This model is explored with reference to the corpus of well-published cave-sites. Although further testing remains a priority, facilitated by the development of new ways of studying cave assemblages, ritual explanations are considered to provide a more credible explanation for Neolithic cave-use in all its aspects, from the selection of caves as locales for activity to the complexity and diversity of their material records. In this way the Aegean may be seen to fit within a broader pattern of ritual cave-use in the Mediterranean during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic.     

THE METALLURGY of the WILBURTON HOARDS

Summary: The results to date of a programme of research into the metallurgy of the Wilburton hoards of the British Late Bronze Age are described and some interpretations presented. Possible origins for the metal are discussed. the associated technical advances are discussed and an attempt is made to provide a realistic metallurgical context for the hoards.
I would like to thank the British Museum, London; the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography; Museum of London; Winchester City Museums; Somerset County Museum, Taunton; Dorset County Museum, Dorchester; Exeter City Museums; Plymouth City Museums; Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro; Musée des Antiquités Nationales, St.-Germain-en-Laye and Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, West Berlin for permission to take samples for analysis.
A special acknowledgement must be made to Miss E. Owles and the Moyses Hall Museum, Bury St. Edmunds for immense assistance given in the study of the Isleham hoard.
I would also like to thank Mr. D. Britton, Mr. R. Bradley and Mr. S. Needham for several useful discussions, Mr. A. McKnight for photography and Dr. M. Leese, British Museum Research Laboratory, for statistical calculations. Mr. A. McKnight for photography, Dr. M. Leese, British Museum Research Laboratory, for statistical calculations and Dr. N. H. Gale, Department of Geology and Mineralogy, University of Oxford for lead isotope analyses.