Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 63

Discusses evidence for pyre sites, debris, and technology associated with the disposal of cremated human remains in BA `barrows'. The use of terms such as `cremation', `cremation burial', and `cremation-related feature' are examined. The relationships between archaeological components within different types of cremation-related feature are seen as key.

Small-scale rescue excavations during the course of pipeline construction have revealed a single MBA roundhouse, ring-ditch, and pits on a lowland site in the upper Severn valley with associated radiocarbon determinations which suggest a date within the range 1400--1170 cal BC. Associated finds include a large assemblage of charred naked barley and plain and decorated vessels of cordoned, bucket, and barrel urn traditions, together with a quern and a rubbing stone. The roundhouse, the first building of this date to be found in central Wales, can be parallelled with ones of similar date elsewhere, especially southern England.

EIA enclosures and associated sites on the edge of the Humberhead Levels contain an exceptional variety of archaeological data of importance not only to the region but for the study of later prehistory in the British Isles. Few other later prehistoric British sites outside the East Anglian fens and the Somerset Levels have thus far produced the quantity and quality of organically preserved archaeological materials that have been found, despite the small scale of the investigations to date. The excavations have provided an opportunity to integrate a variety of environmental analyses, of wood, pollen, beetles, waterlogged and carbonised plant remains, and of soil micromorphology, to address archaeological questions about the character, use, and environment of this EIA marsh fort. The site is comprised of a timber palisaded enclosure and a succeeding multivallate enclosure linked to a smaller enclosure by a timber alignment across a palaeochannel, with associated finds ranging in date from the MBA to the Roman and medieval periods. Among the four adjacent sites is an Early Mesolithic occupation site, also with organic preservation, and there is a Late Neolithic site beneath the large enclosure. Desiccation throughout the common is leading to the damage and loss of wooden and organic remains. It is hoped that the publication of these results, of investigations between 1987 and 1993, will lead to a fuller investigation taking place. There are separately authored reports on: `The excavations 1987--1993' by P C Buckland, M Parker Pearson, R E Sydes & J Moore (226--33); `Artefacts' by P C Buckland, G Crawley, C Cumberpatch, M Dearne, J A Edmond, J Henderson, A Myers, M Parker Pearson & M L Wright (233--7); `Waterlogged wood' by M Taylor (237--8); `Pollen analysis' by B Brayshay & D Hale (238); `Beetle remains' by T Roper & N Whitehouse (238--45); `Waterlogged macrobotanical remains' by S Boardman (245--8); `Charred plant remains' by S Boardman & M Charles (248--50); and `Soil micromorphology' by J-L Schwenninger (250).

An Upper Palaeolithic, uniserially barbed antler point, discovered during excavations of a Devensian Lateglacial sediment. Age of implement is estimated to between 11,500 and 11,100 radiocarbon years BP on the basis of (I) a series of AMS radiocarbon dates, (ii) radiometric dating of the wood within which the barbed point was lodged, and (iii) biostratigraphic considerations.