Resin preserved on New Kingdom vessels from Amarna in Middle Egypt provides evidence for incense burning and trade. Here Margaret Serpico & Raymond White describe a new interdisciplinary research project.

The term ‘public archaeology’ can mean many things. It can be as simple as a photocopied brochure left outside a fenced-off archaeological excavation or as complex as an elaborate series of educational programmes. For the purposes of this paper, the term ‘public archaeology’ is used to describe those projects and programmes designed to enhance popular knowledge of and appreciation for archaeology.

Research in Dadong Cave, southern China, has revealed evidence suggesting that nonlithic materials were used in the tool kits of the Chinese Lower Palaeolithic.

The French have long been proud of their prehistoric sites. Lascaux and, more recently, Tautavel and la Grotte Chauvet are part of the national cultural consciousness. This interest in prehistory begins at primary school; Lascaux and Tautavel are specifically mentioned in programmes of study, even though the 1999 programmes have been pruned and ‘lightened’ (alleges). French primary school children all know who ‘Lucy’ was.

Scanning electron microscopy provides an insight into the lapidary techniques of the ancient Near East. Engraved features on quartz cylinder seals have been compared to those produced experimentally, leading to a radical reassessment of the date for the introduction of the engraving wheel.

The undisturbed shaft deposit G7000x in front of the Great Pyramid at Giza has been regarded as the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I, even though it did not contain a mummy. The absence of the mummy has posed problems for the finds categorization as a tomb and has given rise to elaborate hypotheses. As shown here, these difficulties can be largely eliminated if the find is understood as a funerary deposit and not a tomb. The new categorization is also significant for the understanding of Old Kingdom funerary practices.

Herodotus' 5th-century BC Histories provide us with one of the earliest written accounts for the practice of cannibalism. This paper examines the references concerning cannibalism contained in Herodotus, reviews the theories proposed to account for these references, and suggests a new explanation for this cultural motif.

Archaeology — as a branch of anthropology in Argentina — mainly deals with the past of its indigenous peoples. This way of understanding archaeology has its roots in the organization of national scientific institutions and in the development of natural history museums of the last century (Lopes & Podgorny in press). As in Brazil (Lopes 1997), the museums were the loci for the establishment of archaeology and natural sciences as academic fields in Argentina. The collections and their classification and exhibition were tied to geographical categorization of aboriginal cultures within the national territory (Podgorny 1999a). In both Buenos Aires and La Plata museums — the first two centres to develop archaeological studies — archaeology grew from the travels of exploration that surveyed the resources of the country.

Professional archaeology in Britain has changed out of all recognition over the last 40 years, from an amateur world with a few paid professionals, to a fully professional activity. The changes have come about through different intiatives — popular and bureaucratic — and have led to new organizational structures, new funds, new people and different approaches. Few individuals have bridged this dynamic period as close to the driving seat as Professor Geoffrey Wainwright, or been able to see from where the many pressures for change came. Rarely were the initiatives widely published or documented, and the present state of things often seem to bear little relation to what went before. We have commissioned Professor Wainwright to review the changes and developments in the archaeology of England — from his perspective — and explain how and why many of the changes that underlie archaeology in 2000 have come about.

In 1997 a new collaborative research project was initiated by the British School at Rome. This project draws on a variety of sources of archaeological information to explore the regional impact of the City of Rome throughout the period from 1000 BC to AD 1300. The project provides a common collaborative research framework which brings together a range of archaeologists and historians working in various institutions. In this paper those involved in different aspects of this new project outline their work and its overall objectives.

In the mid 1980s, anthropologists such as Marcus & Fischer (1986) called for a ‘repatriation’ of anthropology, bringing the tools of the discipline to bear on the ‘home’ situations of Euro-America rather than focusing on ‘alien, exotic’ traditions.

In June this year, we published Geoffrey Wainwright's paper on ‘The Stonehenge we deserve'. This paper aimed to provide a review of progress towards sorting out the many problems of management, presentation and conservation of this World Heritage site and its landscape. As readers of ANTIQUITY are well aware, the fortunes of Stonehenge are intimately linked with politics, money and public opinion, and the long saga of possible solutions to make the site a better place for the future rest on these changing variables. Dr Wainwright outlined past strategies and the hope of future solutions as they were early this year. Already things have changed and the invited responses which we publish here discuss the recent changes of plan for Stonehenge. Baxter & Chippindale review the difficulties of the ‘current’ scheme and its incompatibility with visitor numbers. Fielden exposes the incompatibility of the A303 proposals for Stonehenge with legislation and planning; and Kennet & Young raise the problems of the various Plans and politics.

We sent these responses to Dr Wainwright for his current view of the situation.

Archaeology in education has been introduced in South Africa only recently as the politics of the past precluded the application of archaeology in the classroom. This paper presents the background to South African education and educational archaeology and discusses some of the issues and studies undertaken in South Africa. It also offers comment on the factors which determine and shape educational archaeology of the present and those that may affect the discipline of archaeology in the future.

The locations of the medieval castles of the Japanese island of Okinawa have been analysed through a variety of environmental and statistical methods, showing the development of different polities in the Gusuku period.