Antiquity 45

The duration and reality of the supposed Wessex I and Wessex II episodes is questioned on the basis of the most crucial of the gravegoods (daggers, axes and goldwork). The Central European, especially Ún tician, relationships often cited are too generalised for dating purposes The Bush Barrow and Breton types of dagger both derive from a generalised Central European repertoire of early dagger elements; moreover, a chronological separation of Bush Barrow and Camerton-Snowshill daggers seems inadvisable. The Bush Barrow axe is atypical in Britain, and our Arreton Down axes are not of classic Ún tice form; our (rare) pins of Ún tice type are of the mostly widely distributed and imprecisely datable varieties. For the goldwork, technical examination shows that most of the finest pieces were made by one smith, and the phase of princely graves must have been short. The conclusion is that two external influences, Breton and Central European, were adopted by the self-aggrandising native Wessex people over a quite short period.

[TA 056674]. In the light of evidence from Willerby Wold, re-excavation of the Kilham barrow dug by Greenwell in 1868 confirmed suspicions of a mortuary enclosure with burial chamber. Some Mesolithic activity (pits, hearths and flints) was evident before two long ditches, seven metres apart, were dug, perhaps for a long barrow of which all other evidence has disappeared. Through their silt a bedding trench had been cut for the posts of a trapezoidal mortuary enclosure to which three gaps gave access. At the E end there remained evidence of the earthen banks, a forecourt to the burial chamber and a post-lined avenue leading eastwards from the barrow. Two phases of ditch-cutting and hence of mound construction were apparent, and the enclosure posts had been burnt before the mound was raised. Finds were scarce in the primary silt of the ditches, but the secondary silt contained material of Neolithic to medieval date. A 14C date in early 3rd millennium was obtained. See also 72/1142.

It has been accepted since Jacobsthal (1944) that there was an Eastern influence on Early Celtic art; the means by which this probably came about is now explored. The most critical formative period for La Tène art lies between 520 and 450 BC. At that time Persian influence was pressing westwards into Thrace and Macedonia, princely gifts were exchanged, and the great treasure of the Achaemenian army was lost to Greeks and Thracians. Another influence disseminated to Central European craftsmen came from the Scyths, who moved westwards into the Hungarian Plain with their own distinctive art style as well as with treasures obtained from the Middle East. Key objects in tracing these influences include drinking-horns, torcs, animal-shaped handles for vessels, and distinctive Oriental details like curly horns and emphasised limb-joints. These traits, largely ignored by the Greeks, were enthusiastically absorbed and transformed by Celtic craftsmen. In Romania and the Balkans, however, a similar set of influences produced the less well-assimilated style seen eventually in the Gundestrup cauldron.

The southern extent of the glacial ice-limits in S Wales are still far from clear, pace D Q Bowen in a recent article. One cannot build too much on a single 14C date from Paviland Cave, and the exact limits of the Irish Sea and S Welsh glaciers respectively remain debatable. However, if one accepts the Paviland date, one should likewise accept recent 14C dates for a kame terrace near Dale (Pembrokeshire) which indicate a glaciation of that area after c 38,000 BP, ie. in Late Weichselian-times; and on this basis a revised map of the ice limits can be offered. However, Bowen and the author do agree on a more important point, that further progress on Late Pleistocene problems in S Wales will depend on clarifying archaeological events along the S Pembrokeshire coast, particularly the apparent occupation break between Aurignacian and Creswellian. Here a 14C programme on cave bones of cold-climate fauna would be helpful.

The postscript is to Case's "Neolithic Explanations" (70/616) and relates to current experimental work in domesticating the musk ox and the moose. With both these species wild calves are being caught, easily tamed and used when mature for selective breeding. Unless a species migrates seasonally it can safely be left to forage unattended except for, eg, wool-collection and calf-taming. Wild moose are attracted to the domesticated, not vice versa. Cross-breeding of domesticated with wild animals may be actively sought rather than avoided. In prehistoric times, reliance on stored winter feed (with its enormous labour costs) is less likely than the exploitation of areas where natural winter feed was available. The greatest problem of the Neolithic stock-raisers entering Britain was probably the sea-transport of their animals; however, the ease of taming indigenous wild stock suggests this as the principal means of augmenting imported domestic herd nuclei.

Two devices in current use at the British School at Rome are described with full working drawings. One is a silhouette screen for the direct tracing of pottery profiles; the other is a specially designed form of epidiascope to project small objects for tracing at either 2:1 or 1:1. The first instrument costs almost nothing, the second about £15 of which more than half is for the lens.

Payne's challenge (69/441) to accepted notions on the origins of domestic sheep and goats is very welcome, but his suggestion of an interbreeding population of sheep and goats in the Pleistocene does not fit recent experimental evidence, particularly that relating to the coat. This suggests that neither natural selection over the last 20,000 years nor interbreeding between wild and domestic stock has produced much alteration in the coat of sheep and goats. As a parallel, the deer, subject only to natural selection, has a coat similar to that of the modern wild sheep. The difficulty about accepting Payne's view that all modern wild sheep stem from feral domesticates lies in the absence from wild sheep of the longer tails and whiter coats that post-Neolithic escapes ought to have produced.

[SH 968757]. A recut in 1969 of Gardner's section of the main S rampart established a structural sequence partly confirmed by a series of 14C dates. Charcoal from a thick pre-rampart occupation layer and from the collapse of the rampart itself suggests that the Period I defence of timber "rafts" set in clay and tied to uprights at front and back was built in about 9th century BC. The Period II rampart (c 500 BC) was of dry-stone walling with horizontal timber-lacing and stone revetting. Both ramparts had been burnt, the second producing quantities of slaked lime. The Period III-IV stone-faced rampart was built further out, beyond the primary ditch. Sufficient metal and ceramic material is now known in the Welsh Marches to support the theory of a penetration by Urnfield peoples, perhaps those who built the promontory forts of Lower Normandy. A geographically distant site, the Wittnauer Horn of Switzerland, provides the best structural parallel to Dinorben I among excavated sites.

The premise that all remains which illuminate the human past are valuable for our understanding of man in his environment has an ethical counterpart, "that every generation inherits the duty to examine, to record in advance of destruction, and selectively to preserve, all such remains". Many archaeologists are now heeding their responsibilities (witness the founding of RESCUE); but too many remain idle.

SE 952601. Brief preliminary report of the most interesting site on a sixteen-acre area excavated ahead of quarrying. Demarcated by a square ditch with ten-metre sides was a large trapezoidal grave-pit containing the remains of a chariot, its fittings and its owner. Iron tyres, bronze navehoops and woodstains survived from the twelve-spoke wheels. The pole shaft, nearly four metres long and capped with iron, had been broken in two to fit the grave. Two three-link bridle bits, five terrets, two buckles, sheet-bronze fragments and ?whipmounts were present, but no linch pins. The coachwork had been inverted over the body where it rotted away. Adjacent was a circular ritual house and pits containing skulls; in another rectangular barrow the burial, laid on the old ground surface, did not survive (see also 72/1404).

[S 9073]. About half of the interior has now been excavated to reveal a fifteen-metre round porched house set within a circular ditched enclosure and probably belonging to the last phase of the Irish Bronze Age. Beyond the ditch was a sizeable timber-built smithy containing many fragments of moulds for LBA weapons and tools. Nine large open-air hearths appear to be associated with this industry. A little more medieval material has come to light, but no further unambiguous EIA evidence (see 70/823).

The reality of Thom's "standard megalithic fathom" is questioned; the basic unit of measurement at each monument was probably simply the height of some notable local person. Comparison of Thom's figures with heights for a modern population shows the expected measure of agreement.

Long review. This "remarkable book by a remarkable man" (see 71/1148) is compulsory reading for archaeologists because of the possibilities it raises. However, it can be shown that the complexity of apparent lunar motion is such that there are as many as thirty "interesting" declinations to be observed, and sixty possible sightlines for them. Thom's theory could be tested by taking any horizon with a pair of good notches and checking for megalithic sites at the intersections of the reversed sightlines. There are many uncertainties relating to corrections for refraction, parallax and so on; moreover the date of 1650 BC assumed by Thom may be objected to. Nonetheless, after applying the strictest criteria to Thom's Table 7.1, fouteen impressive instances are left out of forty; further experiments at these sites are needed, for Thom's interesting work deserves a full programme of "megalithic" observations,