Scott Archaeol Rev 5

After the editor's introduction, Andrew Foxon (1-7) points out Scotland's lack of a strong archaeological organization and of any means to cross-reference the information produced by the professional bodies; some ways forward within the CBA Scotland organization are suggested. In 'Scotland and the Viking menace' S T Driscoll (7-11) explains why a sound philosophical approach is vital for the successful development of public archaeology; the current concern with 'marketing' archaeological information produces a Jorvik Viking Centre where the 'consumer' is given no critical tools to evaluate what is on display. Blaise Vyner (11-12) comments on 'Professional responses to public archaeology'. A Grace (12-15) in 'Archaeology through the view finder: an assessment of the potential applications of video in archaeology' stresses the importance of pre-production planning; footage taken for excavation archive purposes can be re-edited for the general public. W S Hanson (15-16) comments that video costs must be kept in mind, but even non-professional operators can make a passable site record which will also interest the public. In 'Funding in Scottish archaeology - Catch 22?' Jill Harden (17-22) asks for well-designed regionally based research strategies, sufficient funds (government and independent) to see them through, and professional staff both to do the work and to communicate excitement to the public about it. The ad hoc service that developed in the 1970s has failed to deliver and needs radical attention.

Reviews evidence in the light of Renfrew's view that Arran cairns were territorial markers for egalitarian societies. Taking a wider view, that of the Firth of Clyde, and looking at other evidence for Neo activity and also the preceding Meso patterns, it is concluded that the Arran monuments arose from a long tradition of seasonal Meso resource exploitation. The island has several other special features and cannot be regarded as typical of Atlantic seaboard monument patterning. R Chapman provides comment (56-8), considering the Meso evidence in the Firth of Clyde insufficient to bear such weight, and asking how the postulated 'complex' foragers changed into farmers; the territorial model for Arran tombs cannot yet be dismissed.

Discusses Hunsbury and Yorkshire querns and their distribution, as well as the method of manufacture in relation to other British and European quern quarries of prehistoric and Roman date, especially Wharncliffe and Rivelin in S Yorkshire. Use is made of L Butcher's manuscript notes on twenty-six years' research. At least some querns were finished in or near the quarries. Future work should include a study of the more intractable flat querns. (See also Briggs in 89/456.)

Using Thorpe Thewles material, sixteen sherds representing a cross-section of early ceramic types were subjected to 150 cycles of freeze and thaw. A few stood the process fairly well, but even some of the Roman wares suffered badly; clearly only some types of pottery will survive to be picked up in fieldwalking.

The editor introduces (95-7) a small collection of papers by noting some dissatisfaction with the Society for Medieval Archaeology's proffered guidance to English Heritage (88/1980), which seems an inadequate reflection of the achievements and potential of medieval archaeology. These papers are meant to restore enthusiasm as well as open out the potential for interrelating different settlement types. John Oxley (97-103) in 'Medieval urban archaeology: design and reality' argues that unwelcome biases are introduced by different sources of funding: three separate statements of research aims in urban archaeology are compared, but will be no more than academic exercises without a restructuring of effort. Paul Courtney (103-10) in 'The Marcher town in medieval Gwent: a study in regional history' demonstrates the value of historical sources for understanding small towns by studying the impact of Marcher lordship on the development of Gwent's towns and using urban rankings to compare their economies. Moving north to Scotland, Donnie A MacKay (110-14) in 'The western Highlands and Islands: a cultural backwater?' discusses Clearance settlement archaeology of 17th to 19th centuries with special reference to Skye: although the study of belief systems, family bonding, and the like is not easy to relate to field survey and interpretation, such multidisciplinary work is vital to providing a context and therefore understanding the processes at work. Matthew H Johnson (114-20) looks at 'Late medieval houses in western Suffolk: new directions in the study of vernacular architecture'; he criticizes the theoretical conservatism seen in the discipline, and the absence of sampling strategies, and offers some new techniques and frameworks for analysis based on the house as encoding social relations. The editor's second paper (120-4) on 'Finds in medieval archaeology' calls for a fresh approach to the huge database of med finds: they need interrelating from different contexts (cf S Moorhouse at Sandal Castle).