Series: British Archaeological Reports

Corpus, discussion, typology and cultural background are provided for a total of 34 pommels, mostly of bone but including those surviving only as gold mounts. Six types are isolated on the basis of shape, size and method of attachment. Associations are tabulated and discussed. The eight pommels of Group II had no metal blades and may have been specially mounted as funerary models where metal was too precious to bury. The Shrewton pommel may provide the starting date, c 2000 BC, for the whole series.

Treats the sites which were excluded from author's work on civilian Britain and includes small personal cult objects rather than temples and their associated objects. There are sections on Roman and Celtic deities, pagan Oriental cults and Christianity, ritual objects frequency and distribution.

Surveys types of wear traces, their causes, and their role in functional interpretation; discusses equipment, methodology, and the interferometry technique used; tabulates the microwear analyses of flints from the two sites; and discusses the results in comparison with those of other researchers. It is concluded that some intrasite correlations can he made between tool attributes and functions (eg at Mount Sandel the flake axes had all worked wood). Not only retouched edges are used, and many unretouched items show signs of use: what is a 'tool'? Intersite comparisons indicate broad types of activity. Sample size needs careful thought.

On the Humberhead Levels between the Rivers Ouse and Trent, the former raised mires of Hatfield Moors and Thorne Moors have been studies using pollen analytical, stratigraphic and radiocarbon dating techniques. Pollen analysis of nine sites from both mires has revealed a series of changes in vegetation which can be attributed to the activities of people. A series of phases of agricultural activity have been delimited from the Bronze Age through to the Middle Ages. These periods of agricultural activity are separated by phases of forest or woodland regeneration. Five regional pollen assemblage zones have been proposed encompassing a period of time from c.4500 BP to c.500 BP. Microstratigraphic study of the ombrotrophic peat from both mires has revealed a number of recurrence surfaces, of which the unhumified peat component corresponds to phase shifts to wetter mire conditions. These recurrence surfaces have been placed into five major groups which appear to reflect, in the main, deteriorations in the prevailing climate, although sea-level changes and autogenic vegetational processes are also of importance. Macrostratigraphic investigation of both mires has enabled the peat deposits to be categorised into three distinct stages of mire development: rheotrophic, mesotrophic and ombrotrophic mire. Thorne Moors shows all three stages, although there are temporal variations in the initiation and persistence of these stages in different areas of the mire. On Hatfield Moors, only a very limited development of the first two stages was encountered, and ombrotrophic peats are dominant. The differences in ontogenesis may be due to hydroedaphic variations in the vicinity of each mire. Includes

In this volume, the author examines the woodland banking in the parish of Cudham on the North Downs to establish the phases of expansion and contraction of the woodlands in the medieval period. An anomaly was evident between the Domesday Book reference suggesting extensive ploughlands and a post-medieval reference suggesting extensive woodlands. Synthesis of the evidence from a sampling survey of the banking, the place-name evidence and from documentary sources suggested changes in the land use and settlement patterns, with the woodlands consistently prominent through all periods. The extant banking is thought to relate to the earliest medieval settlement of the parish, which probably took the form of bounded estates. Their later use as woodland banks has preserved them in the landscape. Early medieval use of the landscape for transhumant pasturing, followed by a dispersed settlement in the woodlands, led to a limited, arable, open field system in the later medieval period. Non-manorial land tenure was characterised by renting, indicating the ability to generate income through the sale of surplus woodland products. The post-medieval period is characterised by privately-owned woodland compartments. The conclusion is drawn that, over time, Cudham has been maintained as a specialised, woodland resource-producing area in the hinterland of London. Appendices include a tree-recording sheet; medieval field names; and a glossary of place-name elements.

The book presents the results of an investigation of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic stone artefacts from southern England, with particular reference to assemblages from two sites at high levels in the landscape. The author aims to show that aspects of cultural adaptation in European archaic humans can be investigated using the evidence of these artefacts. She also examines the question of how best to understand Palaeolithic artefacts preserved within deposits mapped as clay-with-flints. She reviews approaches to the study of stone artefacts produced as a result of handaxe-making, then presents a study of an experimentally produced handaxe and associated waste products. This forms the basis for the methodology of artefact recording which was applied to the Wood Hill Palaeolithic assemblage from Kent, and analyses of this assemblage are presented. The themes of handaxe functional efficiency and knapping skill development, developed from study of the Wood Hill assemblage, are investigated regarding handaxe morphological variability. The results of investigations (including field-survey) at the site of Dickett's Field in Hampshire are also presented, and observations and experiments to investigate the ways in which flint artefacts weather are discussed. The book concludes with a synthesis of the evidence presented. In the accompanying CD video, the author provides the commentary for a demonstration of butchery techniques using flint tools, showing the effectiveness of various shapes and sizes of cutting implements.

Aberglasney comprises a substantial house, outbuildings, walled gardens, wooded areas, and a yew tunnel. It is situated in the Tywi valley in the Parish of Llangathen in Carmarthenshire. The Aberglasney Restoration Trust was established in 1994 to save these remains, which were in an advanced state of decay, and eventually open the gardens to the public. Archaeological involvement was required since the house and gardens were about to undergo a major scheme of restoration. The excavations aimed to remove later landscaping levels to reveal the layout of the 17th and 18th century gardens and findings confirmed that occupation started in the late 15th century, and that an extensive formal garden was laid out during the first half of the 17th century.