In 1998 a circle of timber posts within the intertidal zone on the north Norfolk coast was brought to the attention of the Norfolk County Council Archaeological Service. A subsequent programme of archaeological recording and dating revealed that the structure was constructed in the spring or early summer of 2049 BC, during the Early Bronze Age. Because of the perceived threat of damage and erosion from the sea a rescue excavation was undertaken during the summer months of 1999. The structure was entirely excavated, involving the removal of the timbers and a programme of stratigraphic recording and environmental analysis. A survey was also undertaken within the environs of the site which has identified further timber structures dating from the Bronze Age. Detailed examination of the timber from the circle has produced a wealth of unexpected information which has added greatly to our understanding of Early Bronze Age woodworking, organisation of labour and the layout and construction of timber ritual monuments.

For the last 50 years the site of Star Carr has retained a role of considerable importance within Mesolithic studies. Recent archaeological and palaeoenvironmental survey of the Vale of Pickering (Schadla-Hall 1987; 1988; 1989; Lane & Schadla-Hall forthcoming) permits an understanding of the regional context of Star Carr and indicates the site itself now needs to be re-evaluated. This paper will focus on the lithic evidence recovered during the recent excavations and field survey in order to explore the nature of peoples' engagement with the landscape of the Vale of Pickering during the Early Mesolithic.

A small-scale excavation, undertaken in advance of building works at Faraday Road, Newbury, Berkshire, encountered an apparently intact Early Mesolithic layer containing abundant worked flint directly associated with animal bones. The site lay on the floodplain of the River Kennet in an area already well-known for Mesolithic remains and certainly represents an extension of the site found at nearby Greenham Dairy Farm in 1963. The flint assemblage was dominated by obliquely-blunted microlithic forms accompanied by a restricted range of other items. The animal bones were, unusually, dominated by wild pig with clear evidence of both primary butchery and food waste. Spatial analysis of the bone and flint assemblages indicated discrete activity areas, possibly associated with hearths. Both pollen and molluscan data were recovered which, together with the results of soil micromorphological examination, confirmed an Early Holocene date for the formation of the Mesolithic layer. Radiocarbon dates place the site in the late 10th–early 9th millennium BP. The paper re-examines the nature of known Early Mesolithic activity in this part of the Kennet valley, with particular reference to the specific environmental conditions that seem to have prevailed. It is concluded that the Faraday Road site represents one part of a continuum of Early Mesolithic occupation that stretches along a considerable length of the floodplain, with each focus of activity witnessing repeated, but intermittent, occupation spanning a period of more than a millennium.

The Middle Palaeolithic site of Karabi Tamchin is presented here for the first time. Karabi Tamchin is a collapsed rock-shelter in Eastern Crimea (Ukraine), and is the only known, stratified Palaeolithic site in the highland regions of the First Crimean mountain range. Preliminary results of three excavation seasons indicate that the site differs fundamentally from Middle Palaeolithic sites excavated at lower altitudes, in terms of both lithic and faunal exploitation. The site, therefore, provides essential information regarding regional land-use patterns in Crimea. Karabi Tamchin was probably repeatedly occupied by relatively small, mobile groups during short-term, possibly seasonal hunting forays into upland regions.

This paper presents the results of the first investigation of vegetation change and human activity from a river valley west of the Somerset Levels. The record is contrasted with the pollen and archaeological record from south-west uplands (Dartmoor and Exmoor) and the Somerset Levels. Vegetation change and archaeological evidence are shown to be generally consistent, with evidence from the middle valley of Mesolithic vegetation disturbance (with nearby lithics), Neolithic clearance of terraces and slopes in the lower valley and Neolithic–Bronze Age ceremonial and domestic activity, but in the upper reach the maintenance of wooded valley floor conditions probably with management until historic times. The valley floor and surrounding slope vegetation history is found to be significantly different to that of the uplands with lime and elm being significant components of the prehistoric woodland record. The data suggest that lime is restricted to terraces and lowlands below 200 m OD throughout the prehistoric period. The pollen data from the valley suggest the lowlands had a rich and mixed ecology providing a wide range of resources and that, despite less visible archaeological remains, human activity is manifest through palynological evidence from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. The largest expanse of valley-floor terrace, the Nether Exe Basin, which was at least partially deforested in the early Neolithic contains a rich assemblage of Neolithic–Bronze Age ceremonial, funerary and domestic archaeology associated with an early and clear palynological record of woodland clearance, arable and pastoral activity.

In this article, the author investigates off-site artefacts distribution around the prehistoric settlements of Turkish Thrace and provides evidence relating to prehistoric land use. Intensive block and transect surveys were completed in two small separate areas in the Edirne region, as well as intra-site gridded collection of settlements. Since until now no intensive archaeological surveys have been conducted in Turkish Thrace, this work is unique for the whole region. Results show that most of the prehistoric settlements in the Edirne region can be described as mobile, reoccupied flat settlements. Most off-site artefacts were found either immediately or in small concentrations around the settlements.

A combination of on- and off-site palaeo-environmental and archaeological investigations of the upper Allen valley of Dorset conducted in 1998–2000 has begun to reveal a different model of landscape development than those previously put forward. A combination of off-site geoarchaeological and aerial photographic survey and palynological analyses of two relict palaeochannel systems, and sample investigations of four Bronze Age round barrows and a Neolithic enclosure, have been combined with inter-regional summaries of the archaeological and molluscan records to re-examine the prehistoric landscape dynamics in the study area. Preliminary results suggest that woodland development in the earlier Holocene appears to have been more patchy than the presumed model of full climax deciduous woodland. With open areas still present in the Mesolithic, the area witnessed its first exploitation of the chalk downs, thus slowing and altering soil development of the downlands. Consequently, many areas perhaps never developed thick, well structured, clay-enriched soils (or argillic brown earths), but rather thin brown earths. By the later Neolithic these under-developed soils had become thin rendzinas, largely as a consequence of human exploitation. The presence of thinner and less well-developed soils over large areas of downland removes the necessity for envisaging extensive soil erosion and thick aggraded deposits in the valley bottom in later prehistory. The investigations have suggested that, if there were major changes in vegetation and soil complexes, these had already occurred by the Neolithic rather than in the Bronze Age as suggested by previous researchers, and the area has remained relatively stable since.

The ancestry of the long mound has long been a key focus in debates on the origins of monumental and megalithic architectures in western France. Typological schemes and absolute dates have alike been invoked in support of different models of monument development, but with limited success. Recent excavations at Prissé-la-Charrière, a 100-metre long mound in the Poitou-Charentes region, have emphasised the importance of internal structure and the complex process of modification and accretion by which many long mounds achieved their final form and dimensions. Excavations have revealed an early megalithic chamber in a dry-stone rotunda, that was progressively incorporated in a short long mound, then in the 100 m long mound we see today, which contains at least two further chamber tombs. The wide range of monument forms present in western and northern France during the 5th millennium BC suggests that the issue of monument origins must be viewed in a broad inter-regional perspective, within which a number of individual elements could be combined in a variety of different ways. Consideration of seven specific elements, including the shape of the mound, the position and accessibility of the chamber, and the significance of above-ground tomb chambers as opposed to graves or pits leads us to propose a polygenic model for the origins of the long mounds and related monuments of western France.

A small panel of mobiliary rock art containing two cup-mark motifs discovered in north Pembrokeshire in August 2002 is described and compared with other finds of rock art from Wales. Although the sites with passage-grave style rock art in north Wales are well-known, the more widespread yet less impressive cup-mark dominated panels found mainly around the upland fringes of the country have received relatively little attention. A provisional corpus of 33 rock-art sites comprising more than 37 panels is provided.

A Middle Bronze Age house and burnt mound were excavated in 2001 within the large-scale prehistoric landscape under investigation at Bestwall Quarry, Wareham, Dorset. The house was succeeded by the burnt mound which was associated with two large pits. All the structures were associated with a substantial and well-preserved assemblage of Deverel-Rimbury pottery. Most of this pottery, and two copper alloy bracelets, also of Middle Bronze Age date, comprised remarkable closing deposits that marked the abandonment of the structures.

Initial compilation of a digital record of petrological thin-sections prepared from ceramics found in the United Kingdom, the English Heritage UKTS database, was completed in 1994. This paper was commissioned by English Heritage as one of a series of period studies designed to synthesise and review the contents of the database. From the total of c. 20,000 thin-sections recorded, c. 5500 (28%) relate to prehistoric pottery. Within the prehistoric entries, coverage varies both by period and by region. The main results are summarised by region, and a series of general discussion points is highlighted. The themes of technology, production, and exchange, the movement of pottery in the earlier prehistoric period, and the potential symbolic significance of inclusions such as rock, bone, and grog are all considered. Finally, recommendations for the minimum standardisation of petrological reports on prehistoric ceramics, and for further research, are outlined.

The well-known Palaeolithic site at Cuxton, Kent (TQ 710 665) is situated on a remnant of Pleistocene terrace deposits of the Medway, which lies on a chalk spur at the junction of the main river and one of its former tributaries (Fig. 1). These deposits have been known as a source of Palaeolithic artefacts since at least 1889 (Payne 1893, cited in Tester 1965), and have been the subject of two controlled excavations, the first by P.J. Tester in 1962–3 (Tester 1965), and the second by John Cruse (on behalf of the Maidstone Area Archaeology Group) in 1984 (Cruse 1987).

In late February and early March 2002, an archaeological watching brief at Lynford Quarry, Mundford, Norfolk revealed a palaeochannel with a dark organic fill containing in situ mammoth remains and associated Mousterian stone tools and debitage buried under 2–3 m of bedded sands and gravels. Well-preserved in situ Middle Palaeolithic open air sites are very unusal in Europe and exceedingly rare within a British context. As such, the site was identified as being of national and international importance, and was subsequently excavated by the Norfolk Archaeological Unit with funding provided by English Heritage through the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund.

This report presents some of the initial results of the excavation. It sets out how the site was excavated, outlines the stratigraphic sequence for the site, and presents some provisional findings of the excavation based on the results of the assessment work carried out by project specialists and Norfolk Archaeological Unit staff.