The excavation of a mesolithic site at Cass ny Hawin, Isle of Man, is described. Later agriculture had destroyed all but a few features including a hollow, which was certainly artificial but probably not a residential structure. There was an extensive lithic industry, dominated by microliths. The distinctive nature of the Manx microlithic industry is discussed, as well as the subsistence economy and human colonization of the island.

The partial excavation under rescue conditions in 1961–63 of the ditches and interior of an enclosure of the earlier neolithic period is described. The enclosure, covering a total area of approximately 2.4 ha, was defined by double concentric interrupted ditches, which were for the most part naturally filled. There were many traces of activity within the interior, presumed to be contemporary with the ditches, including pits, gullies, post- and stake-holes, and varying concentrations of struck and burnt flint and pottery. Human burials were found. There is a little Ebbsfleet pottery in secondary contexts and there are later prehistoric, Roman and medieval finds. It is probably not possible to ascribe a single or specific role to the site, which may have been important as a place where several activities were concentrated, including occupation, subsistence, exchange, enclosure or defence, burial and ritual.

The excavation of a large circular dished earthwork near Carnforth, North Lancashire, in 1982, has revealed a substantial Bronze Age funerary monument. The earliest structure was a sub-rectangular enclosure of limestone boulders dated to c. 1740–1640 BC cal. and associated with parts of two poorly preserved inhumation burials lying on the previously cleared ground surface. Both burials were accompanied by typologically early metalwork. The central inhumation was associated with a flat axe and dagger, suggesting an individual of high status as well as providing an important link between the early stages of development of both bronze types. The subsequent overlying cairn of smaller stones included eleven fairly discrete concentrations of inhumed bone, and seven of cremated bone and pottery. All this material was extremely fragmentary, and was probably derived from later re-use of the cairn.

Two Bronze Age cremation cemeteries excavated between 1968 and 1975 are reported and discussed. At Coneygre Farm, Notts., fifty-one cremations were excavated, thirty-one in pots, six in cists, and fourteen uncontained. Cremations were deposited in a roughly linear arrangement and no barrow was found. At Pasture Lodge Farm, Lincs., twenty-seven pots were found, of which twenty-five had associated cremations, and fifteen further sherds could represent burials. Vessels in this cemetery form a small cluster. Pottery from these two cemeteries is broadly similar to Deverel-Rimbury ware and with vessels from other sites in the region is considered to form an East Midlands group of Bronze Age pottery. Vessels of this type from Frieston and Grantham, Lincs., are illustrated for the first time. Examination of thin sections of the pottery from the two cemeteries suggests that most, although not all, of the materials used could have been found locally. Organic remains found in thin sections provide environmental information. The effect of soils on durability of pots and their probable function is discussed. A direct relationship is noticed for the first time between the age of the cremated individual and the capacity of the pot in which the cremation was deposited.

A segment of earlier Bronze Age arable landscape incorporating isolated round barrows on the high chalk spur of Hog Cliff Hill became the chosen location for a later Bronze Age earthwork of considerable dimensions. The area excavated within the bank and ditch was densely occupied by two major phases of buildings of timber construction, lasting into the earliest Iron Age. Sometime during the early Iron Age the oval enclosure was replaced by a more substantial one which partly followed its line and contained a series of unusual structures comprising dry-stone flint banks or wall-footings. The site was subsequently abandoned, the land probably being returned to agricultural use, until the Roman period when the agger of the Roman road from Dorchester to Ilchester was constructed across the earthwork.

Excavation of the basilica of the Roman town of Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) has produced evidence for two phases of pre-Roman occupation. The earlier, probably dating to the mid-first century BC, consisted of roundhouses and pits. Around 20 BC a rectilinear steet pattern, with building plots at right angles to the streets and rectangular buildings, was laid out; later a palisaded enclosure was built. Imports included amphorae and fine pottery; Central Gaulish wares suggest an early trade connection to the south. There is some evidence of disuse before the Roman streets were laid out on a different alignment in mid first century AD.

Test excavations in 1984 at the middle palaeolithic rockshelter of 'Ain Difla (Wadi Hasa Survey Site 634) in west-central Jordan produced a lithic assemblage dominated by elongated levallois points with very few retouched tools. Length/width ratios of the levallois points and width/thickness ratios of a sample of complete flakes suggest an affinity with Tabun D/Phase 1 mousterian sites. This kind of assemblage is generally thought to occur during the early Levantine mousterian. However, there is evidence of persistence of Tabun D assemblages in the southern Levant until the middle/upper palaeolithic transition. Comparing the ’Ain Difla lithic assemblage with those of other Levantine mousterian sites underscores problems with the analytical frameworks used to ‘date’ sites through technological and metrical analyses. A rather coarse-grained regional paleoenvironmental sequence exacerbates these problems.

Magdalenian settlement systems and man/land relationships in South-west Germany are reconstructed, using archaeological evidence and modern ethnographic observation. Archaeological sites are divided into four size categories, each with distinctive structural and artefactual records, and assigned to different seasonal and functional uses in the annual subsistence cycle. Hunting of reindeer and horse dominated and, in contrast to previous theories of long-distance reindeer following, a territorial model of land-use is proposed.

The exceptional preservation of structural detail at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B site of ‘Ain Ghazal allows analysis of techniques of house building, and of sequences of construction and modification of houses. Frequent remodelling was common, with a trend towards smaller residential areas. The concept of the ‘development cycle’ is applied, to explain the structural modifications in terms of the changing nature of the co-residential group.

Survey in the inhospitable steppe lands of eastern Jordan has revealed late neolithic settlements, part of a settlement pattern probably of the sixth millennium BC. Faunal and artefactual evidence is sparse, but the sites are characterized by lithic assemblages dominated by burins. Analysis of the structures and their relationship to artefactual deposits offer opportunities for further research.

The widespread alliance systems of Australian Aboriginal society had an economic and survival value in harsh environments, but in resource-rich areas such as South-east Queensland it is more a question of strategies for increasing regional carrying capacity. Recent archaeological results in the area, with evidence of increases in site numbers and artefact deposition rates and diversification of subsistence resources to include small-bodied species, show the development of new patterns of technology, economy and demography following major environmental changes in the post-Pleistocene period. Widespread changes in Australian prehistory around 4000 years ago may have been triggered in certain key areas such as South-east Queensland.

Some recent literature on the problem of hoards is reviewed, dealing particularly with the distinction between votive deposits and stores of objects. An alternative approach is developed, considering the long-term variations in the nature of intentional deposits in European prehistory. Three stages are suggested. In the initial stage, a unitary system of deposits prevailed, especially of food and selected artefacts, including metal when available. In the developed stage, characteristic of the Bronze Age, a dual system allowed both votive deposition and accumulation and recycling, especially of non-local metal. The final stage, in the later Iron Age, saw renewed emphasis on votive deposits, especially on the borders of emerging polities.

The occurrence of mesolithic artefacts around Malham Tarn and Great Close Mire has been noted from the 1920s onwards. Pollen analysis at Tarn Moss to the west of Malham Tarn in the 1950s indicated that forest clearance had begun during Zone VI (c. 7000–5500 bc). Between 1972 and 1982, five prolific flint sites and a sixth, minor site were located in this area. The sites are of ‘Narrow Blade’ affinities and may have formed a summer base camp for hunter/gatherer groups operating in the Craven Pennines. Some artefacts of neolithic date have been found on the sites and this may indicate continuity. There is evidence for forest clearance and settlement in the later neolithic and this was well established by the Early Bronze Age.

The structures and artefact patterning of the Bronze Age settlement at Thorny Down are re-examined in the light of newly discovered documentation from the original excavation. Two phases of settlement are recognized, the earlier one pre-Deverel-Rimbury. Analysis of artefact patterns allows the functional interpretation of different structural types. Four settlement units can be identified, similar to recurring modules previously defined on Middle Bronze-Age sites in southern England.

The Bronze Age remains on the East Moors of the Peak District are amongst the most extensive in the country. This paper discusses their interpretation and examines the pattern of man's exploitation of the region at this period. The distribution of the remains is far from random and concentrates on areas which are the most suitable for agriculture. Prolonged mixed farming in the most favourable areas is argued for. Similar topographic characteristics throughout the area enable estimates to be made of the original levels of exploitation in the region as a whole and the degree to which field evidence has been destroyed. The pattern of settlement suggests the Bronze Age farmers lived in small groups, each exploiting its own relatively self-contained area of upland and each having a handful of ceremonial monuments. There is no evidence for a complex social hierarchy reflected by monuments or settlement patterns. Comparisons are made between the East Moor sites and those in other regions. These suggest varying levels of social organization and types of exploitation in the Bronze Age and illustrate the value of regional studies to highlight the diversity of Bronze Age lifestyle throughout Britain.

In some areas of Britain landscape reorganization in the post-Roman period has not destroyed earlier systems of land division, which have instead been preserved in modern arrangements. Topographic analysis of landscapes on the heavier soils of East Anglia reveals sometimes very extensive co-axial field systems of probable later prehistoric origin. Other such systems, however, are probably of later date. Co-axial planning may be not a continuous tradition of landscape organization, but rather a recurringly adopted solution to the problem of competing claims to large areas of open land.

Previously unrecorded finds from the Le Câtillon hoard are documented. It is now clear that the hoard was not found in three lots but in a single closed group. The brooches in the hoard suggests a date of c. 40–20 BC rather than during the Caesarian campaigns. The suggestions that the silver brooches in the hoard and others like them are Italian and that most Gallo-Belgic coinage arrived in Britain during the Gallic Wars are reviewed critically.

Pottery-making in parts of Igboland is discussed from an ethnoarchaeological perspective. In line with a long tradition of descriptive studies, the pottery manufacturing processes are here outlined, but emphasis is laid firstly on studying pottery decorations (techniques and motifs) prevalent in parts of Igboland within their socio-cultural and economic contexts; and secondly, on observing and studying how the Igbo people (potters and users of pots) classify pottery products (traditional pottery classification). A second set of observations concerns functions of pots, their distribution, consumption, life span and eventual disposal. Finally, the paper also looks at the social and cultural setting of pottery production — factors which still favour pottery production in Igboland and those that may lead to its eventual abandonment (including the status of potters in Igbo society and the learning process of pottery manufacture).

A simple derivation of henges from causewayed camps is rejected. Attention is also drawn to a range of neolithic structures, some covered by a mound, some not. Though interpreted as mortuary structures, they have affinities to henges. Henges may thus best be derived from a broad tradition of neolithic structures; this may in turn have been part of a more widely distributed north-west European tradition of both ritual and domestic structures. Within Britain, similarities of form and function suggest that henges should be seen as a parallel development to ring banks, ring ditches and stone circles. Regional preferences rather than distinct regional types of monuments emerged. Later survival of henge traditions into the first millennium is also discussed.