Antiquity 63

Access analysis is a means of investigating the relationship between spatial order and society, here used to examine the patterns created by boundaries and entrances as found in Orkney Iron Age settlements. Applying the technique to brochs at Gurness, Midhowe, and Howe indicates the elaborate means of segregation of space that were used, and suggests in particular social inequalities between broch occupants and outbuilding occupants.

Earlier Oxford AMS results gave a Late Iron Age/early RB date for the body, but Harwell gave it a late RB date. The peat was consistently dated as EIA. A new set of Oxford AMS dates published here, for body, stomach contents, and peat, together with reassessment of the date discrepancy and of the environmental factors, point to the 1st centurY AD for the body. F B

A computer-based method of morphological recording and classification devised by RCHME is described, and its advantages argued. It has special relevance to schemes for monument protection, in which there is urgent need to assess the relative importance of thousands of sites known only from air photography, but it could have wider applications in (eg) the rapid descriptive recording and primary analysis of complex systems of upstanding remains. The data are held on Foxbase+, a relational database; work on Kent is nearly complete and output in various forms is available. F B/Ed

A prehistorian and an Egyptologist examine the divide between Egyptian, Aegean, and European chronologies, with special reference to four recent books. Tree-rings, radiocarbon, volcanic eruptions, and astronomical events all have their gaps and/or discrepancies, but there are signs of reconciliation not too far off. Already it seems that Hallstatt B starts just before 1000 BC and finishes well before 800, with important consequences for Ha C.

Describes a highly evolved system for recording and analysing the mass of material obtained from the AAPP, a 1400 mile/2250km corridor from Santa Barbara (Cal) to Austin (Texas). The computer system collects data from a barcode reader, a video-imaging system, digital scales, and digital calipers. These data are manipulated on INFORMIX (relational database) running under UNIX, and special software was developed for the auto-recording and the interactive analyses. Some disadvantages are noted, but advantages include: better measures of relative abundance through measurement of surface area; error reduction; and ease of analysing artefacts through their images.

A gross imbalance exists between the resources spent on excavation and post-excavation, and the wider research beyond the individual site. Moreover immense amounts of data remain unpublished. It is therefore hard to justify yet more excavation, and a pause might be both salutary and productive. However, a limited number of large-scale excavation projects could be justified in theoretical and social terms. The way we write reports needs to be reassessed, and the current 'strident professionalism' exerts too much control over what the public supposedly ought to think about its past. Archaeology should be challenging the heritage industry, not conforming to it.

Recovered in field-harrowing, a (damaged) bucket representing one of a group of eight (two from English contexts) has been studied. It was raised from brass sheet and decorated with a hunting scene in punched technique. The inscription, to 'Master Count', uses 6th century letter forms. All eight buckets were probably made in the same workshop, or closely related ones (state? military?) in the E Mediterranean. Their iconography is discussed and a domestic use (bathing?) deduced. The Bromeswell findspot, 1km from the high status Sutton Hoo site, is unsurprising. XRF analyses are appended.

Changes in the toe- and anklebones of skeletons from the early agricultural site of Abu Hureyra (Syria) indicate habitual kneeling during a heavy activity best interpreted as grinding on a saddle quern. A number of other features, eg worn-down teeth, arthritic changes, and well-developed arm muscles, support this finding.

Excavation of Henslowe's theatre, built 1587, altered 1592 and demolished after 1605, has shown a polygonal structure 74ft in outer diameter, perhaps divided on the basis of 14 gallery bays with variations for entrances etc. There is evidence of plaster and thatch, of a possible raked auditorium floor, and of at least two stages. F B

The significance of the Little Woodbury excavations, with the recognition of post-buildings (at the expense of 'pit-dwellings' previously believed to be the norm) and the establishment of settlement archaeology, is examined in the context of political events and of English and German academic traditions. F B

Post-processualists such as Hodder and Shanks & Tilley consider that culture is independent of biology; but the capacity for culture is a product of evolution and some aspects of the evolutionary approach in archaeology are valid, in terms of individuals endowed with common psychological propensities taking decisions in unique ecological, social, and historical contexts. F B

Comparison of a rigorously selected group of calibrated 14C dates suggests that the overlap of Meso and Neo technologies lasted at least 300 years in Britain and 800 in Ireland (at 1 sigma). Reasons for this are examined and a more flexible approach to the customary Meso/Neo 'divide' called for. Some cultivation by indigenous hunter-gatherers does seem to be indicated, although regular food production (especially in Ireland) was probably introduced by immigrants from Europe. F B/Ed

Discusses the merits of various approaches to publishing large urban excavations and reviews four recent reports in the Excavations at Chester series. The increasing problem of unpublished urban sites is less a failure of resources than of the profession itself; the solution lies in adoption of individual, rather than unit, responsibility. F B/Ed

Archaeology is still missing from the conservationists' agenda, largely because we fail to convey our message to the public; but why do we rush to excavate eroding monuments (such as the rich variety now known in the Fens) instead of organizing their proper protection? Recent exhibitions at the British Museum and Royal Academy have still been artefact-oriented rather than stressing the landscape context. Scheduling is a poor solution, merely downgrading the other 90% of monuments (which are anyway best treasured at local level). A new plan for Dartmoor will involve good maps and publications to make 'shared information . . . the basis of protection'. Let us invigorate the conservation debate and encourage a sense of local pride in, and poetic or artistic response to, the past.

Reports on new survey of the only Welsh crannog yet known, together with fresh analysis of l9th century accounts of its discovery. It may be identified with Brecenanmere, and be a royal residence of the kings of Brycheiniog. A dump of stones is surrounded by two plank palisades dendro-dated to late 9th/early 10th centuries, though it may be a multi-period site. Its closest parallels are Irish. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions Brecenanmere, and a Llandaff charter indicates an estate of over 1000ha. Careful search may reveal more Welsh crannogs.

Ethnographic and archaeological review of evidence for the rise of storage economies during the Upper/Late Palaeolithic.

A historian argues that we make Stonehenge and its like unnecessarily mysterious by invoking distant ethnographic parallels. Our own rites, and those of our documented past, show that just as important as the pursuit of power is the need for religion helping people to cope with mortality. Even Burl, who recognizes the importance of symbol in its own right, tends to over-mystify the Bronze Age rather than searching for common human denominators. As we enjoy 'the enduring stone structure of the church, and song at the turning of the year', so perhaps did prehistoric people at the Stonehenge winter solstice. Sacred kingship renewed itself at the henges just as modern royalty celebrates its rites of passage in our cathedrals.

The remains of a twelve year-old child had been distributed, after partial decomposition, between four pits which also contained substantial remains of two cattle and two sheep. Several features reinforced the impression of a ritual act; was this a drowned unknown body requiring special treatment?

Review-article on J P Mallory, In search of the Indo-Europeans (1989), with particular concentration on the supposed dispersal of horse (and cart), and on the lack of good evidence for westward movement of the Kurgan culture. The book is recommended as a serious contribution, though does not deal adequately with the weaknesses of the traditional view.