Book reviews

TRANSFORMATION SCENE: THE CHANGING CULTURE OF A NEW GUINEA VILLAGE, by Ian Hobgin. The International Library of Sociology and Social Reconstruction, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London, 1951. xiv + 326 pp. with 2 maps and 22 plates. Price 30s.

AN INTRODUCTION TO WORLD POLITICS. By Professor W. Friedmann. 2nd ed. London, 1952 (Macmillan & Co. Ltd.), pp. xiv + 384. (Maps and tables).

THE SOCIAL SERVICES OF MODERN ENGLAND. By M. Penelope Hall. Routledge, 1952. Pp. viii 332. Price 25s.     

Life in the Woods: Tree-throws, 'Settlement' and Forest Cognition

The deposition of Early Neolithic material within tree-throw hollows in described, and the possible role of fallen trunks as places of occupation, settlement foci and landscape markers is discussed. Having implications for the interpretation of ubiquitous later Mesolithic pit dwellings, the evidence suggests a continuity of forest 'identity'. Accordingly, patterns of clearances are also explored in relationship to modes of occupation, and the employment of 'big wood' in Neolithic monuments discussed.     

Neutron activation analysis of fine grey pottery from Conimbriga,Santa Olaia and Tavarede,Portugal

The concentrations of two major elements and thirteen trace elements in 73 selected sherds of fine grey ware from the Iron Age and Roman period, excavated at Conimbriga, Santa Olaia and Tavarede, Portugal, were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. These concentrations were used to calculate distance matrices which were then subjected to cluster analysis employing SAHN and k-means methods, as well as to principal components analysis, to group the sherds according to the overall similarity of their compositional characteristics. The results showed that equivalent groupings appeared regardless of the taxonomic method used. Two major clusters were recognized corresponding to two different sites, namely Conimbriga and Santa Olaia, suggesting that the ceramics from these sites were made locally. No significant differences in compositional patterns were observed between iron age and roman sherds from Conimbriga.