ON THE INTENT TO MAKE CRAMP: AN INTERPRETATION OF VITREOUS SEAWEED CREMATION 'WASTE' FROM PREHISTORIC BURIAL SITES IN ORKNEY, SCOTLAND

Summary.   Vitreous slag-like material, known as 'cramp', from prehistoric cremation burial sites in Orkney is, apart from cremated bone, one of the recurrent remains found within or around Bronze Age burials. Although the suggestion that cramp was formed by the fusing of sand attached to dry seaweed while it was being burnt was first proposed in the 1930s, there has never been a consideration of seaweed's contribution to cremation other than as a potential fuel. Scientific analyses presented in this paper corroborate the use of seaweed. It is suggested that cramp may have been deliberately produced to act as an efficient collector of shattered bone which otherwise could have been lost during the cremation. Far from being a 'waste', cramp could well have been another form of 'human-remains' in its own right.     

A NEW STUDY OF THE CURSUS COMPLEX AT DORCHESTER ON THAMES

Summary. This paper reviews some recent developments in the study of non-utilitarian monuments in relation to a new analysis of a group of earthworks at Dorchester on Thames, Oxfordshire, excavated between 1946 and 1981. It traces the changing character of these different sites in the light of a series of radiocarbon dates, and argues that analysis at this broad chronological and geographical scale is likely to be more informative than piecemeal investigation of individual 'types'of monument.     

FLINT-WORKING IN THE METAL AGE

Summary. This paper considers the relationship between flint technology and the development of metalworking in Britain. The gradual adoption of metals is reflected by changes in the range of flint flakes being produced, the efficiency with which the raw material was worked and the number of implement types that continued to be made of stone. The main types to remain in use were those for which flint was a more suitable material than bronze. The intensity of flint-working as a whole may be one clue to the accessibility of metal in different areas.