Antiquity 44

There are two main lines of current research concerned with determining the source of metal artefacts: (a) the correlation of artefact composition, especially trace elements, with ore composition (as undertaken by Pittioni and by Coghlan et al; and (b) the correlation of groups of artefacts of like composition, the groups consisting of very large numbers of artefacts (as undertaken by Junghans et al at Stuttgart). Both are discussed in relation to copper alloy artefacts, to objects of gold and lead, and to ferrous material. It is concluded that lead (in glasses, lead pigs or other lead objects, pottery glazes and leaded bronzes) is the most promising metal to tackle, since study of the isotope ratios shows them to vary according to the geographical origin of the lead ore. J M

A paper on the text many scientists do not know what history is, or merely assume that it is not science. Recent writings indicate a split between those archaeologists who pursue historical goals and those who reject them (believing them to be merely particularising and descriptive) and attempt instead to formulate generalised laws of culture process. However, archaeology must retain its historical goals, as long as it is recognised that history seeks to explain events as well as describe them. Moreover, the generating of theoretical explanations which can be objectively tested lies well within the Thomsen-Worsaae tradition of prehistory. Those who believe that generalised socio-cultural laws can be deduced from the intractable materials of archaeology would be better employed as ethnologists or social scientists, studying living societies. In biology, historical (ie palaeontological) and processual studies provide mutual enlightenment and stimulation; similarly, archaeologists will almost inevitably make comparisons and theorise about process while they attempt to understand and explain the past. They thus contribute to a self-awareness which will assist the understanding of present-day problems.

Owing to the de Vries effect (variations in 14C concentration) radiocarbon dates do not agree at all periods in time with independent chronologies. This preliminary report of the Uppsala Conference (August 1969)* reviews the various methods of calibrating radiocarbon dates by reference to chronologies built up from tree-ring series, varves, thermoluminescence and historical evidence and which can be taken back to 5000 BC. The causes of the lack of agreement are also discussed in terms of possible changes in climate, in cosmic ray flux and in the intensity of the geomagnetic field, the latter being judged the most important factor. J M. * Now published as Radiocarbon Variations and Absolute Chronology, Proc XIIth Nobel Symposium, ed Olsson, Ingrid U; Stockholm, Almqvist & Wiksell, 1970.

J Hawkes' protest about the intrusion of science into humanistic archaeology (69/281) arises from nurture in a compartmented educational system which encourages students of the humanities to believe that scientists are neither subjective nor imaginative. But by its very nature archaeology is dependent on scientific method for the highly complex task of extracting data of all kinds from the mute primary material, and for the experiments and hypotheses that lead to the building of models of the past. For such work only a mature and integrated interdisciplinary approach, such as that achieved by (for instance) molecular biology, can hope to succeed. The statistics to which J H objects can then be seen as a necessary first step in making inferences from large assemblages of material; moreover, the raw data must be freely available for others to study and reinterpret. Fortunately for archaeology, the coming generation will be equally confident in the field and in the laboratory.

Roman Britain provides a context in which to examine the hypothesis that "a loan-word denoting a concrete object may be taken to indicate that the object itself has been borrowed, probably from the same source as the loan-word". Between 500 and 600 words are known to have been adopted by Welsh from Latin during the Roman occupation. Of these, many reflect administrative, military and educational matters which support the hypothesis, and some hundred refer to objects for which there is archaeological evidence to support the notion of introduction, or at least improvement, by the Romans. Another 100 words are more difficult to explain by archaeological means, mostly because they denote organic materials; however, out of fifteen named plants, for instance, the Romans were demonstrably responsible for introducing nine and improving another three. In general therefore the hypothesis is valid.

The analyses of copper alloy objects carried out at Stuttgart by Junghans, Sangmeister and Schröder were derived from single samples from each object and were initially classified according to their bismuth content. It is now demonstrated by the use of laboratory castings (made in the form of Late Bronze Age socketed axes and having bismuth contents close to the values used to delimit the groups employed by Junghans et al) that, owing to the high density of bismuth and its relative insolubility in copper, considerable vertical segregation occurs. Resulting from this it is estimated that some 4-25% of the objects sampled in the Stuttgart study could have been mis-classified - the greater percentage being associated with the higher proportion of bismuth. Lead was also found to undergo segregation, but the range of variation fell within the limits of experimental error. JWH

A review article on Megalithic Enquiries in the West of Britain (see abstract 69/457). The reviewer finds this a stimulating work which raises many fundamental questions. Points of disagreement with the individual contributors are mainly on matters of detail, except that the concept of the Cotswold-Severn Group of megalithic tombs appears misunderstood, and the proposed typology based on "protomegaliths" cannot be regarded as proved until it has been chronologically anchored at both ends at least. What is lacking in this book is a truly objective taxonomy, although Lynch and Powell make a valuable start with their terms long tomb and "chamber-and-passage tomb'. A scheme on these lines needs much further development if we are to answer the question what ancient peoples built megalithic tombs in which ancient places in Europe, and why? Meanwhile this book is welcome for its challenge to many accepted beliefs.

An examination of the aims and methods of industrial archaeology includes a critical bibliography of the subject. As a growing discipline and valuable source of information, industrial archaeology must be seriously taken into account by economic historians. Incentives to the study include the need to preserve a representative selection of industrial monuments and to record those that must be destroyed. New information on the distribution and size of industries of the past is now available to planners, and can have practical as well as historical uses.

A check on radiocarbon chronologies for the Neolithic period has begun with thermoluminescence determinations on sherds of Bandkeramic ware from the Netherlands, Germany and Czechoslovakia.The results, which were obtained by the "fine-grain" TL method and have a probable error of about + 400 years, are not consistent with the 'short chronology for the Neolithic. They show most consistency with the tree-ring corrected C14 dates, but because of the comparatively high experimental error for TL dating they also fit the uncorrected C14 chronology.