The archaeological work being undertaken in the New England region of northern New South Wales is part of a long-term study of the prehistory of this part of the state, combining field survey with the excavation of stratified sites. In both these aspects work is proceeding on a regional basis, at present concentrating on a coastal river valley (that of the Clarence), and the Northern Tablelands, areas offering contrasting environments, sub-tropical riverine and coastal conditions and rugged upland over 3,000 ft. above sea level. In reconnaissance the aim is a total regional record, to give a full picture of the range of evidence for prehistoric occupation and exploitation of any area, and the distribution, within the region as a whole, of particular types of site. This should provide a setting within which the excavated material may be interpreted, with the hope of eventually establishing connexions between art, ceremonial and industrial sites, and the dated industries, so gaining a fuller reconstruction of the life of the prehistoric occupants of the area.

The astronomical significance of Stone- henge has been the subject of intermittent debate and speculation ever since 1740, when Stukeley [I] first observed that the axis of the sarsen structure and of the Avenue pointed at least approximately to the sunrise at the summer solstice. Apart from Sir Norman Lockyer [z], however, few professional astronomers concerned themselves with this question, until the appearance in,Nature of the two articles by Gerald S. Hawkins, Professor of Astronomy at Boston University, in 1963 and 1964 [3]. The first of these claimed the discovery of a number of additional alignments of astronomical significance, marked by pairs of stones and other features of the site; and the second suggested that the Aubrey Holes had been used as a neolithic 'computer' for the prediction of movements of the moon and of eclipses. Subsequently these theories received much wider publicity, in Britain as well as in the United States, through a CBS television programme, The Mystery of Stonehenge, which provided a superb example of partiality and tendentiousness in the presentation of an academic controversy.

Professor Hawkins has now elaborated his ideas in a book whose title, Stonehenge Decoded, leaves no doubt of his confidence in the rightness of his conclusions-a confidence explicity echoed in his text. 'There can be no doubt that Stonehenge was an observatory; the impartial mathematics of probability and the celestial sphere are on my side' (p. vii). 'I think I have demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the monument was deliberately, accurately, skilfully oriented to the sun and the moon' (pp. 146-7). 'I think I have put forward the best theory to account for the otherwise unexplained holes' (p. 147). 'I think there is little else in these areas that can be discovered at Stonehenge'(p. 147).

This magnificently produced volume is in itself a tribute to the devoted and rewarding work which Claude Schaeffer, aided by many skilful collaborators, began at Ras Shamra-Ugarit 36 years ago. The frontispiece illustrates a 5000-pound Syrian banknote, engraved with designs of Ugaritic ivories, a mark of honour in addition to that which was bestowed when the author was made a ‘Freeman’ of the city of Latakia. His many friends and admirers in this country will rejoice that he is held in esteem and affection in the East no less than in the West.

The account here presented describes the discoveries made in the 18th and 19th campaigns of 1954-5, and includes a full-scale map of the ‘Grand Palais’ and the ‘Petit Palais’ which, besides being buildings of great architectural interest, have yielded historical and archaeological treasures in abundance. Associated with the former building we have the remains of a royal garden, a parterre which, with its surrounding paths, is an ancient forerunner of Louis XIV's achievement at Versailles, but 31 centuries older, and in another court we find an ornamental pond bordered with a low stone parapet. Not far away was a furnace for the baking of cuneiform texts; some of them had never been removed from the ashes.

This article attempts to highlight certain qualities of the Eskimo economy seen in overview and, if it repeats some anthropological clichés, perhaps the repetition will serve a purpose for clichés, despite their shortcomings, often become such by an innate worth. Further, some used here seem to have been largely forgotten in recent literature on Eskimo prehistory. A rare exception, and a point of departure for this article, was recently offered by Collins, who notes, 'In America, however, there is sometimes a tendency to see an overly close relationship between specific cultural manifestations and particular kinds of environment, and to overemphasize the role of environment in the dissemination of culture. In the Eskimo field this point of view is reflected in the related concept of a rather sharp dichotomy between inland and coast, with the former the center of origin—a kind of fata morgana that has beset Eskimo archaeology for decades and which still exerts its residual influence, even though the concept in its original elaborated form no longer finds acceptance.' (Collins, 1962, 134.

It is becoming apparent that megalithic man possessed and used a considerable knowledge of geometry. As more of his constructions are unravelled, we obtain an increasing appreciation of his attainments. Undoubtedly he also observed the heavenly bodies and used them to tell the time of day or night and to tell the day of the year. To take geometry first, let us look at the various shapes which, in his hands, a ring of stone could take. To understand these rings fully it is necessary to appreciate that he used extensively a very precise unit of length—the megalithic yard (MY). The exact length of this unit has become known to us by an examination of simple circles and flattened circles. When the author produced the first batch of circle diameters there was no universally accepted statistical analysis for the determination of the reliability of a quantum such as the suggested value for the megalithic yard. Then Broadbent produced two papers providing exactly the methods required to find, from a set of measurements, the most probable value of the quantum and the probability level at which it could be accepted [1,2]. This last is very important because Hammersley had shown that almost any random set of (say) diameters will yield an apparent unit of some sort.

The only previous report of parasite eggs from archaeological excavations in Britain is that of Taylor (1955), but their occurrence in ancient deposits and human remains in other parts of the world has been known since 1910, when Ruffer reported Schistosoma haematobium eggs in the kidneys of two Egyptian mummies. Szidat (1944) found eggs of the roundworms Ascaris and Trichuris and structures resembling eggs of the tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum in the bodies of a girl and a man recovered from a bog in East Prussia. Pizzi and Schenone (1954) recovered eggs of the roundworm Trichuris trichiura and cysts of the protozoan parasite Entamoeba from the frozen body of an Inca child found in a tomb in the Andes. T. trichiura eggs were also observed by Helbaek (1958) in the stomach contents of a corpse recovered from a peat bog in Grauballe, Denmark.

Very little work has so far been done on the Bronze Age in South-East Bulgaria. This is an area which is of the greatest importance in the prehistory of South-Eastern Europe, a fact which has been often stressed by archaeologists working in the Eastern Mediterranean [I]. Geographically linked closely to Asia Minor and the Mediterranean lands, and especially to the Troad, South-East Bulgaria should provide important data for the establishment of relations between these lands in the Bronze Age. With these aims in mind the village settlement of Ezero, a site which even before excavation was obviously one of many periods, presented itself clearly as a place for excavation. Ezero, also known as Dipsis, is 3 km. south-east of Nova Zagora: it is not far from the well-known settlement site of Karanovo and 24 km. from the Azmak mound described in a recent number of this journal [2]. Preliminary excavations carried out from 1952-8 at Ezero showed that the settlement had a great thickness of occupation levels dating from the Early Bronze Age. Systematic excavation was restarted in 1961 and continued in 1963 and 1964.

The site is bordered by swampy ground and large open water-meadows. The damp, easily worked soil was well suited to primitive agriculture, and the meadows to stock-rearing.

One of the best known and most quoted finds in western Europe must be that of the ‘princess's burial’ of Vix discovered early in 1953 not far from Châtillon-sur-Seine below the Celtic stronghold of Mont Lassois (Latisco). The contents of the grave are such that classical no less than prehistoric archaeologists have had cause to add to the still increasing literature on the site [I].

Recently, discussion has ranged over two of the foremost problems concerning the Vix burial: first, the question of date and provenance for the great Krater or mixing bowl, at more than 5 feet tall the largest extant bronze vessel of the Greek Archaic period. Second is the matter of the route taken by Greek and Italic imports into Western Europe from their place of manufacture—whether via the Alps or through the entrepôt of Marseilles, founded as Massalia by Phocaian settlers in about 600 B.c.—a debate which has continued since first opened in these pages more than 35 years ago [2]. Ancillary to these two points is the question as to the reason why costly objects made their way into the heart of Celtdom, to what end, with what exchange in mind—what in fact was the status of those native nobles whose graves and settlements have produced the basic clues for such tantalizing investigations?

Hetty Pegler's Tump or the Uley Barrow in Gloucestershire, some five miles south-west of Stroud, has been well known since it was first dug by Dr Fry in 1821 and then, in 1854, by Dr Thurnam and Professor Freeman [I]. The plan published by Thurnam has often been reproduced, and is shown here again for ease of reference (FIG. I). It is on such a small scale that the details of the monument are obscured, but until now it was the only plan available. Now, due to the courteous co-operation of Miss Olive Lloyd-Baker of Hardwick Court, Gloucester, it is possible to publish a plan (FIG. 2) and a view (FIG. 3) of the monument made in 1821 by J. T. Lloyd-Baker and his account of what went on at the time.