Antiquity 49

Copper and tin ores occur only rarely in association, but the discovery of bronze could have resulted from the use of such mixed ores. Once past the experimental stage tin was almost certainly obtained from cassiterite for deliberate addition to copper. However, although copper ingots are often found on excavations, tin is bafflingly absent, perhaps through excavators failing to recognise the raw material. Various types of tin ore are illustrated in colour and a few simple field tests for its presence are described.

An individual's reaction to Archaeology and Government (see abstract 75/2870) dismisses the view that archaeology is primarily for people and suggests that "rubbish collection" is in many cases taking the place of research. Sites for excavation must be shrewdly chosen for their place in a comprehensive research policy. This debate is continued by author and M G Jarrett in the same volume, pp 137-40; see also Interim (Bull York Archaeol Trust), 2(4), 1975, 3-5.

Extracts from John Ward's unpublished chapter, written in the early 1900s on aims and methods of archaeological exploration, still have relevance, even if costs of excavation then ranged between £110 and £200 per acre. Ward also quotes A H Lyell's methods of seed recovery by careful sampling and wet sieving.

Comparison between the amount of bone material recovered by trowelling 30 sq metres and that obtained by wet-sieving nearly all the deposit supplied a partial corrective to Payne's gloomy views on the efficiency of sample recovery. The sieved material in this test added no more than 2-3% to the percentages of animal stock obtained from the trowelled deposits. However, since water-sieving an entire deposit on a big site is often impossible, the excavator must work out a compromise solution to the recovery problem.

SJ 211691. With very few exceptions, most of our information about hillfort defences originates from sections only 2-3m wide; work at Moel y Gaer has demonstrated the inadequacy of such narrow sections compared with a 15m length which allows much fuller, more accurate observation and interpretation, especially when (as here) the overlying banks are little degraded. The first occupation at Moel y Gaer, of post-ring round houses with sling-stone dumps, probably belongs with one of the two palisades found well forward of the later defences; the Phase 2 settlement had four-poster buildings and a timber-framed stone-fronted rampart, while Phase 3 had rectilinear buildings of ?cill-beam construction enclosed by a dump-rampart with timber-laced stone capping.

Closer attention must be paid to the problem of whether a large (= old) timber actually dates the material with which it is associated. Tree-ring analysis of the Sweet Track timbers (Somerset) indicates their extraction from probably only six oaks, all 300+ years old. Implications for hillforts and Wessex Culture sites are particularly important.

Continues the "research/rubbish collection" debate (see abstract 75/3176): it is only by determined publicity that the interest of the public can be roused in support of archaeological research.

Cites evidence to show that the central issue in the sieving debate is whether more rigorous sieving produces more information, as distinct from more fragments of material. In reply, G Barker agrees that there is no panacea, but believes each site must be individually assessed for the most productive recovery techniques. In the end, faunal samples are either adequate or useless, with no middle ground.

A new calibration curve is presented which corrects deficiencies in extant curves, employs all available data relating 14C age to calendar age, and uses a minimum of arbitrary decisions in deriving the curve. The new curve is much smoother than previous examples because no statistical justification was found for most of the wiggles often claimed. The paper also demonstrates that many laboratories underestimate their measurement errors; more inter-lab check samples are needed.

The TLD scientists reply to comments on their Glozel results. Another year of work is needed, but meanwhile a wide range of Glozel ceramics has emerged from tests as genuinely ancient, a recent forgery to deceive the TL process can be discounted, and even forgery of the 1920s is thought unlikely. It is conceded that the archaeological objections to these conclusions are weighty.

[NY 073036]. The large cross, "fishing stone" and "saint's tomb" at Gosforth Cumbria, share a competence of carving, a style of figure drawing, types of plait and an iconographical approach not found elsewere in the area. It is likely that they are contemporary monuments and the work of one artist. Neither the "fishing stone" nor the "saint's tomb" are decorated in the Urnes style, as has been claimed, and all three carvings can be assigned to the 10th century. The "warrior's tomb" carries animal omament of Jelling type but is probably the work of a second sculptor. RNB

The interlace design seen in moulds at Mote of Mark cannot derive from Coptic models; chronology demands that any influence be in the reverse direction, from the Celtic world to Egypt.