Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 71

The Lower Palaeolithic site at Elveden, Suffolk, was the subject of new excavations from 1995--9. Excavations around the edge and in the centre of the former clay-pit revealed sediments infilling a lake basin that had formed in Lowestoft till, overlying chalk, the till being attributed to the Anglian glaciation (MIS 12). The lake sediments contain pollen that can be assigned to pollen zones HoI and HoIIa of the early Hoxnian (MIS 11). Overlying grey clays contain ostracods, molluscs, vertebrates, and carbonate concretions. Together they are indicative of a fluvial environment in a temperate climate. AAR ratios (amino acid racemisation) on the molluscs also suggest correlation with MIS 11. Further indications of a fluvial context are indicated by thin spreads of lag gravel along opposite sides of the clay-pit, marking the edges of a channel. The gravel forms the raw material for the human industries which consist of handaxes, flake tools, flakes, and cores. Further artefacts were found in the overlying black clay, which is interpreted as a palaeosol that formed with the silting-up of the channel. The basin was further infilled with colluvial `brickearths', which also contain artefacts that are probably derived from the underlying gravel. Further evidence of soil formation was identified in the `brickearth'. Coversands with periglacial involutions overlie the `brickearth' at the top of the sequence. These probably formed in the last cold stage, the Devensian (MIS 5d--2). Includes French, German and Spanish summaries, and

The recognition over the last twenty years, that the Quaternary deposits of the West Midlands cover a longer period of time than previously envisaged has led to a re-analysis of their contained Palaeolithic archaeology. Stone tools have been found in the region for over a hundred years and cover most periods of hominid colonisation from the time of the earliest occupants of the country over half a million years ago. Twentieth century research in the West Midlands, often led by Professor F W Shotton at the University of Birmingham, correlated the Palaeolithic of the region with the Quaternary geological sequence as it was then understood. Shotton identified the `Wolstonian' glaciation as the key event of the Midlands Pleistocene, around which a chronology for the Palaeolithic could be built and gave an age of less than 250kyr for this episode. Work since 1985 has compared the Midlands sequence with the oxygen isotope record of the ocean basins and shown that the concept of a relatively recent `Wolstonian' is now untenable and that the former chronology built around it is too short for the observed events in the area. This new time paradigm, with the earliest occupation of the area thought to be c.500kyr, has made necessary a reconsideration of the chronology of the Palaeolithic and Middle Pleistocene of the area. This new time framework brings into critical focus the issue of reworking of the archaeology and its true age. The tools themselves present complications of analysis compared to many other areas containing a Palaeolithic record, perhaps most notably through the use of largely non-flint raw materials, some which may have been introduced into the area by early humans or an hitherto unidentified glacial event. This opportunity to present a new chronology of occupation comes out of the work carried out by the Shotton Project based at the University of Birmingham, and by the University of Liverpool. Includes French, German and Spanish summaries.

table of bones and teeth found at various northwest European Mesolithic sites, by type

The paper discusses 226 Earlier Neolithic pits found at Kilverstone in Norfolk. In particular, it focuses on the dynamics involved in the site's creation, investigating what had happened to the material found in the pits prior to deposition, and exploring the material connections (refitting sherds and flints) across the site. As a result of these material insights, it proved possible to shed important light on the character of that place in particular, and on the temporality of Neolithic deposition and occupation in general. Includes French, German and Spanish summaries.

The article starts from the standpoint that the pottery collectively called `Beakers' is united by the thread of a potting and style tradition; that wrapped up in that tradition are also expressions concerning what such a pot is for and who it may represent; and that both style and those embedded meanings mutate through the long currency of British Beakers. The argument put forward is that newly emerging chronology for Beaker grave groups suggests that there was one critical point of rapid mutation in both pot form and associated artefacts, and that this phase (referred to as a fission horizon, c. 2250--2150 BC) underlines the difficulties that past schemes of steady evolution have run into. In reviewing the continental background for Beaker-carrying cultures, a corridor of Bell Beaker/Corded Ware fusion is perceived along the southern flanks of the Channel. The author argues that this created a modified spectrum of Beaker culture which stands at the head of the insular phenomenon. He proposes that the long ensuing currency of Beaker pottery and Beaker graves in Britain does not hold up as a unified, steadily evolving entity; instead, three `phases of meaning' can be suggested: 1) Beaker as circumscribed, exclusive culture; 2) Beaker as instituted culture; 3) Beaker as past reference. The fission horizon initiates phase 2. Includes French, German and Spanish summaries.

The paper describes the development of a prehistoric landscape by the River Nene at Grendon Lakes, partly revealed in the 1970s and partly during excavations in 1998 and 2001, which are reported in full. Two major phases of archaeological activity are evident, one interpreted as Neolithic--Early Bronze Age, the other as Iron Age. The gap between these is bridged by an environmental sequence reconstructed with the aid of a pollen core from an adjacent palaeochannel, which shows that human activity continued in the intervening period. The landscape is comparable in form, though not in scale, with that investigated 13 km downstream at Raunds, and helps shed light on the distinctive features of Midlands river valleys like the Nene in prehistory. In conclusion it is suggested that the different characters of the Neolithic and Iron Age features at Grendon mask some underlying similarities in the way they structured people's movements and encounters. Specialist reports available in the archive are listed at the end of the paper. Includes French, German and Spanish summaries.