Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 38

Analysis of thirty-three specimens of opaque red glass (commonly referred to as "enamel") dating from 1st century BC to 2nd century AD indicated an alkali-lead-silica composition. Lead oxide content was high, probably to improve product quality. The composition of the British specimens is fairly uniform, and the technical difficulties of producing this type of glass suggest strongly that it was not made in Britain but imported in cakes or slabs from a manufacturing area in the Mediterranean. The craftsmen would break the glass into small lumps, heat these in reducing conditions until soft, and then press them into cavities prepared on the ornament. This type of glass differs in composition from the less brilliantly-coloured variety used in Mediterranean mosaics.

Numbers of these figurines appear in Europe, almost none from a reliable context but collectively providing evidence of Bronze Age imports. Their presence suggests a Near Eastern influence for EBA metallurgy and glass-making in Europe, and is suggestive of a renewed influence during MBA.

The first part of the paper contains further discussion of the style of decoration and the social implications of the find (see abstracts 70/636, 72/1388). The second part describes experimental reproduction of part of such a torc. Wires of cross-section matching that of the originals were readily produced by swaging and could then be twisted to form a necklet. Next, the decorated terminal was "burnt on" to the necklet portion using the lost-wax method; and although the last stage of the experiment failed through overheating of the mould, this method will be further explored. The Ipswich torc-wires all appear to have been swaged by the same set of tools, but the terminals of torcs 4 and 5, perhaps also of 1, seem more skilfully modelled than those of numbers 2 and 3.

About 80% of shaft-hole tools and plain axes in the seven counties have now been examined. Distribution maps are little affected by the new identifications except for Group VI, now heavily represented in Gloucestershire and Berkshire. A complete revised list of shaft-hole implements for the area is presented, in Mrs Roe's classification, by type and county. The remaining lists give axes and miscellaneous items sectioned since 1962. Some emendations to the Fourth Report are noted, and there is new petrological information for Groups I and XX. More than a quarter of all products are ungrouped greenstones. Four phases of axe-manufacture are evident: Phase I, Cornish products contemporary with Hembury; II, introduction of more distant products (for example Lake District) in early 3rd millennium; and III under way by 2000 BC. Phase IV runs with grave deposits of shaft-hole battle-axes. The wide dispersal pattern of the late, Group I, axes contrasts with the much smaller-scale trade of other groups, and also indicates direct competition with Groups VI and VII. See also 73/1877.

New analyses of the beads using portable X-ray fluorescence equipment tend to negate the theory of insular manufacture. The blue colourant used would have to come from some material closely connected with metal-working, but the lead-, tin- and silver-contents of the British beads are not reflected in contemporary British metal-working. Moreover the 1970 statistical analysis (abstract 71/984) provides insufficient separation of Egyptian and British material. Recent 14C assays of historically dated Mediterranean material show the serious inadequacy of the tree-ring curve for correcting many 2nd millennium dates. The conclusion is that the Scottish and English faience beads quite probably originated in Egypt and were imported in one or two trading expeditions from Mycenae at 1450 + 50BC, that is towards the end of the insular Wessex Culture.

SW 888687. The site was first occupied in the Bronze Age by a small agricultural settlement consisting of two circular timber houses with ancillary structures and ditches. One house was eventually replaced by a stone structure. A single 14C determination suggests a date within the period 1700-1300 BC. The Iron Age settlement of Trevisker Round was probably established in 2nd century BC, if not earlier. An original inner enclosure of half an acre housing a single defended farmstead was later superseded by a larger defended enclosure of three acres, also with circular timber houses and occupation areas. This occupation was followed at end 1st century AD by a Romano-British phase of occupation which lasted until mid-2nd century. Au. Appendices discuss the Bronze Age (Trevisker Series) and Iron Age pottery, flints, querns, etc, slags, etc, and charcoals.

If the fine structure of the 14C deviation curve published by Suess in 1970 is correct, then the period from c 2200 BC to c 1700 BC (radiocarbon years) falls within one of the insensitive regions in which 14C determinations could have a number of alternative chronological values and hence could not be used to order archaeological evidence. Without disputing the now well established general trend of radiocarbon variation, this paper suggests, from recurrent evidence drawn from four recently studied Late Neolithic enclosures (Durrington Walls, Marden, Mount Pleasant and Woodhenge) that the detailed structure of the Suess curve is not necessarily valid. It is also shown that Beaker pottery traditions are unlikely to have had much influence on the evolution of the Durrington Walls style of Grooved Ware. Au(amp)

c NR 369888; NS 951798; c NN 561368. Eight new 14C dates are reported and discussed. They come from Cnoc Sligeach (shell-heap, Obanian industry) on Oronsay, Argyll, two dates in 4th millennium BC; Inveravon (shell-heap), West Lothian, five dates from late 5th to late 3rd millennium BC; and the Killin axe-factory site, Creag na Caillich, Perthshire, two dates in mid- to late-3rd millennium BC. (All dates uncorrected.)