Francis Pryor, whose work in the English Fenland is at the heart of the territory where the battle for archaeological survival is being fought, takes up the Green debate.

Ferghana, lying between the republics of Uzbekistan, Tadjikistan and Kirghizia, was famous in antiquity for its horses. Its Iron Age archaeology was brought to the attention of western audiences in Gorbunova's The culture of ancient Ferghana of 1986 (BAR S281). Here we are presented with a fascinating ethnoarchaeological study of a mid-first millennium AD burial practice and an interpretation of its symbolism

The first radiocarbon determinations for a large prehistoric cemetery in Karelia, USSR, have been obtained using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) of several organic fractions from prehistoric human bone samples. These determinations suggest an age of c. 7500 b.p. for the burials, definitely within the Mesolithic period. Additional information from skeletal and isotope evidence confirm Olenii ostrov as a very important Mesolithic site in northern Europe.

Van Andel adds an important postscript to his paper in the December ANTIQUITY

The well-being of the Sphinx is a concern of all peoples of the world. While deterioration of this venerable monument has occurred over most of its history when it was not covered, 20thcentury environmental factors appear to be hastening these changes. FIGIRE 1 shoivs the Sphinx as it was in 1850. This is the first knoivn photograph and it was taken by Masinie Du Camp. FIGURE2 was taken in November 1989 and shows modern efforts to protect the Sphinx against deterioration by cladding the paws and sides with masonry. Alteration is most apparent along the sides of the body where the sloughingoff of surface chips is a common phenomenon. By one estimate, loss of stone is occurring at the rate of about 30 cm a century.

The early Neolithic of the west Mediterranean

The archaeological complex known as the early Neolithic in the west Mediterranean represents the arrival of Neolithic traits in western Europe. Dating to around 5000 BC (Evin 1987), this complex is marked by the appearance of pottery, ground stone tools, and transvcrse projectile points. It continues for about a millennium until middle Neolithic villages, such as Villeneuve-Toulousane, begin to appear. The early Neolithic is characterized by a transitional agricultural subsistence economy. At Aude Valley cave sites, domesticated sheep first appear in aceramic Mesolithic layers with typical Tardenoisian tool assemblages and fauna (Geddes 1983). Examination of these sheep remains show that this strain originated in the Near East (Geddes 1985). Early Neolithic deposits (as defined by the presence of ceramics) are found at many of the same Mesolithic sites and contain similar lithic assemblages as well as a continuation of mixed hunted and domesticated fauna. The presumably novel open-air coastal sites of this period, such as Leucate-Corrège (Guilaine et al. 1984), also appear to represent a mixed economy. Since there is no sudden apparent shift in settlement pattern or economy associated with the early Neolithic, this period appears to be best characterized as a time of gradual transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture.

Aikens & Higuchi’s Prehistory of Japan (1982) made Japanese archaeology accessible to a wide readership. Japanese data are increasingly incorporated into mainstream analytical works by western archaeologists not directly involved in the area (e.g. Price 1981; Rowley-Conwy 1984; Rouse 1986). The year 1986 marked a further watershed in publishing Japanese archaeology, with Windows on the Japanese past edited by R. Pearson et al. and Prehistoric hunter-gatherers in Japan edited by Akazawa & Aikens. Instead of syntheses or overviews of the country’s cultural (pre-)history, they provide diverse research articles which assume some familiarity with the Japanese sequence and its problems. Both are, nevertheless, specialist publications, offered through university institutions.

Introduction

The materials from which tools are made reflect the intention of tool makers concerning function, use, size and shape of the tools. Even the materials of stone implements in prehistoric times must have reflected the intention of tool makers. Inada (1969: 4) pointed out that the technology of making tools reflects the interacting elements of materials and retouchments. It is a fundamental premise of this paper that understanding patterns of raw material utilization for stone implements is a key to the solution of questions concerning cultural tradition, cultural behaviour, culture areas and trade in the stone age.

Introduction

Ships and the sea were an omnipresent theme of Greek and Roman art and life. Shipwreck was a well-recognized risk, and an essential ingredient of ‘lost and found’ stories in novels and comedies. Conversely, safe arrival in harbour, the successful end of a journey, was a frequent motif, especially of Roman art. These ideas were obviously underpinned by economic facts: the need for metals, the sea-girt nature of Greece, Rome’s central position in the Mediterranean, and the constant threat of food shortage in the cities of the Mediterranean world generally, necessarily involved transport and trade by sea.

Into this scene has stepped, still less than 50 years old, a new character, namely underwater archaeology. Since 1945, over 1000 ancient and medieval shipwrecks have been reported in the Mediterranean, and the roll continues to grow at an unslackened pace. This rapid increase in archaeological resource has been due, of course, mainly to the widespread use of compressed-air diving gear for sport, so that most of the known wreck sites lie in inshore waters, and in popular diving areas. However, recent developments in offshore position-fixing and in underwater communications and robotics have made it possible to explore much deeper sites; the deepest so far to have been surveyed under archaeological direction (by A.M. McCann) is a late Roman wreck at 800 m deep between Sicily and Sardinia.