Papers in memory of R. J. MacRae

the paper describes the results of an artefact search on the Northern Drift in the Upper Thames, following an initial report of surface Palaeolithic quartzite artefacts, including a second clustered location on a plateau-top at Combe, Oxfordshire. The post-depositional history of the Drift is examined and evidence discussed for both surface movement and concentration of surface quartzite clasts through wind deflation. The sites suggest a palimpsest of human occupations, widely spaced over time during cool or cold phases, concentrated at raw material source points, but with subsidiary activity elsewhere in the landscape. The study provides a glimpse of landscape strategies in areas away from valley floors, and arguments are advanced to suggest why river banks of major valleys may not have made ideal Palaeolithic living spaces. A model is proposed for the identification of other fossil Palaeolandscapes in Britain.

the paper examines the correlation between the sources for high grade flint, used primarily for sickle blades, and the `traditional' cultures of Neolithic Europe that developed during the late-sixth and through into the fifth millennium BC and were mainly defined by ceramic styles. The author concludes that many of these culture areas make sense in terms of the distribution of high quality lithic sources, and that it is the ceramic styles that follow the lithic distribution rather than the other way round