A series of twenty controlled experiments was undertaken to determine if heat treatment alters the speed, intensity, or appearance of wear on the edges of flint tools. Four hypotheses were tested with the following results: Heat-treated tools wore more quickly and with more severity than tools which had not been heated. When used in the same fashion and on the same materials, heat-treated flakes showed longer microflake removals from use than did non-heat-treated flakes. The use of these flint tools yielded more step and hinge flake terminations on the heat-treated tools than on the non-heat-treated tools. Flake scars from microflaking due to use had a shiny surface on flints which had been heat-treated, while such surfaces were matt on unheated materials. The results suggest that these effects should be taken into consideration when studies of use-wear are undertaken.

This paper sets out the detailed stratigraphy and chronology of the palaeolithic rockshelters of Asprochaliko and Kastritsa excavated in the 1960s, the methods used by the original investigators in excavation and classification of the finds, and the general characteristics of the stone industries and fauna. Methods of estimating the density of finds are discussed. Estimates of time density — the number of specimens accumulated per unit area per unit time — are applied to the upper palaeolithic deposits at both sites and reveal major differences in the rate of discard of material, indicating more intensive occupation at Kastritsa. Inter-site differences in the proportion of faunal species and artefact types are analysed in the light of the time-density evidence, and the various factors that could have influenced the pattern of inter-site variation are discussed.

A sequence of deposits ranging in date from Late-glacial to the present produced detailed evidence of environmental changes, reflecting both climatic fluctuations and the effects of human activities. A Later Mesolithic occupation horizon, with lithic industry and associated faunal remains, is dated at about 5280 bc. It was sealed by a deposit of tufa. An irregular linear excavation, dated at about 2765 bc, is interpreted as a quarry; the backfill contained Earlier Neolithic pottery and other settlement debris. The first phase of later activities is marked by the deposition of a large quantity of Peterborough ware. Later on, part of the site was ploughed over and at the same time a series of small ditches, interpreted as elements of a system of land boundaries, was dug in the adjacent area. Late Beaker and Food Vessel sherds indicate the approximate date of these events.

Recent years have seen a shift of archaeological focus away from the confines of the individual site and towards broader issues of land-use and landscape history. Hence a need for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence which tells us about the area utilized from sites rather than about the environment on the site itself. Valley sediments are one possible source of this evidence and this paper considers their potential with specific reference to sediments in chalkland valleys on the South Downs. It also attempts to confront some more specific problems of landscape history. One aim was to assess the extent of erosion and valley sediments within defined study areas and to establish to what extent climatic and land-use factors were responsible for changes in the pattern of sedimentation. It was also hoped that detailed work on land-use sequences would provide a framework for considering long-term settlement trends on the chalk. Why, for instance, do we have dense concentrations of archaeological sites on land which is today somewhat marginal, and how were the valley bottoms utilized in prehistory?

This paper is inspired by and based upon a field survey of the Carrowmore megalithic cemetery carried out by the writer and Mr Desmond Smith, then Hon. Secretary of the Sligo Field Club, in 1972–73 and revised in 1977 following the clearance of scrub from a number of sites which had hitherto been incapable of proper examination. So far as is known, this is the first attempt at a definitive, if admittedly superficial, survey of this unique assemblage of tombs and other sites since that conducted by Col. W. G. Wood-Martin almost a century ago and recorded in The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland (1888). The only other definitive survey was that made in 1837 by George Petrie, archaeologist to the Ordnance Survey, and recorded in the Ordnance Survey Letters for County Sligo. In addition, Petrie prepared a map of the area of the cemetery (unfortunately not reproduced in the Ordnance Survey letters) in which he marked and numbered all sites to his knowledge then extant. This map was revised and used by Wood-Martin and it is on this later version that the identification of sites in the present survey is based.

A fairly close acquaintance with Carrowmore over the past twenty years or so has encouraged the conviction that the problems posed are of greater variety and complexity than have up to now been acknowledged.

This paper investigates the distribution of artefacts and monuments in one part of the Peak District, in relation to the land use models put forward by Hawke-Smith in 1979. Although these distributions are generally consistent with his predictions, they suggest that communities in newly settled areas may have been of lower status than those near the henge monument of Arbor Low. This distinction is emphasized in the burial rite and by differential access to imported materials.

This paper describes the distribution of reaves (Bronze Age land boundaries) on North and East Dartmoor (cf. Fleming 1978a for South Dartmoor). It is suggested that they form a pattern which reflects the territorial arrangements of several communities distributed around the edge of Dartmoor. Each of these territories tended to be about 3–4 km in breadth and to include a single block of enclosed land laid out on one axis, sometimes covering over 1000 ha. The scale of territories here is more independent of the incidence of major geographical features than is the case on South Dartmoor. There is normally a simple division between enclosed land and upland pasture, without the intermediate settled valley zones which are important on the South Moor. Classic parallel reave systems occur, but so do simpler ‘block systems’, and this variability can best be conceptualized as a continuum, within a broad tradition of laying out enclosed land on a major axis and in rectangular parcels. It is suggested, mainly on the basis of the interdependence of the pattern's components, that most boundaries on Dartmoor were laid out in response to a single decision taken around 1300 bc (1700/1600 BC), although some cross-ridge reaves may be earlier in date. Some details of the layout reflect different levels of social organisation — what are here termed the neighbourhood group, the community, and the regional level of organisation. The paper also discusses the settlement history of different regions of Dartmoor, suggesting that a third major upland common, the East Moor, should be considered equivalent to the North Moor and the South Moor in terms of the development of land use. The East Moor was eventually encroached upon by the Rippon Tor parallel reave system, probably the largest prehistoric field system known in Britain.

Archaeological evidence for centralized storage facilities may provide useful information about the organization of prehistoric economies. In the background are a range of explanatory ideas. ‘Redistribution’ is a term which has been applied to the evidence from some British hillforts. Resources might be collected and then re-allocated through a permanent agency of co-ordination. They might be mobilized as tribute to elites as part of political strategy. This has been suggested for early British hillforts, and the evidence is reviewed. Much depends on the interpretation of the ‘four-poster’ structures at these sites as storehouses. A survey of these structures on British and continental sites strengthens this interpretation, and a further survey shows that, in Britain, disproportionate numbers of these structures are found at massively enclosed sites. A modified form of site catchment analysis suggests that some of the hillforts stored produce mobilized from an area which was greater than is likely to have been farmed directly from these sites. One possible inference is that resources were mobilized from subordinate settlements. It is suggested that stored grain was a critical commodity if rising populations and climatic change combined to increase the risk attached to the cereal harvest.

The excavation of a ‘Welwyn-type’ burial exposed during pipe-laying is described. The cremation, accompanied by a decorated mirror, was contained within a wooden box. Other grave goods included amphorae, flagons, a cup and an iron ring with associated timber. The grave is the most westerly of its type. It is suggested that the combination of grave goods indicates a synthesis between two elements in late Iron Age society, and a BC date for the burial is proposed. Specialist reports include a study of the decorative technique used on the mirror and of its composition, also of the ceramic, soils and bone, with appendices on conservation and on a possible amphora burial from Aston Clinton.

Results of investigations into the palaeoecological setting of the stone-circle/ring-cairn prehistoric complex on Cefn Gwernffrwd, Mid-Wales are presented in two radiocarbon-dated pollen diagrams. Mesolithic and Neolithic environments of the locality are briefly discussed. The conjectured archaeological age of the complex is then considered and compared with the palaeoecological evidence. The latter indicates construction of the complex in two separate episodes in the Bronze Age. Initial construction was probably in the Overton period (3650–3400 bp); later major local disturbance in the Penard period (3000–2800 bp) may be associated with construction of the ring cairn. These dates may slightly underestimate the age of human activities as they are based on fine particulate peat fractions of horizons in which the effects of activities are evident. The indications of a previously forested environment may have implications for the astronomical significance of the ‘alignment’ at the complex. Blanket peat initiation on the plateau was apparently connected with the Bronze Age impact on forest in this locality.

The background to discoveries of early mining sites in southwest Ireland is examined. Particular attention is devoted to the workings at Mount Gabriel, currently believed to date from the Bronze Age. Working principally from historical sources it is concluded that the site was exploited in shallow workings and trial pits between c. 1852 and 1862. Theories concerning the output of these and other Irish mines are discussed. Palaeoenvironmental and archaeological survey as well as documentary research are recommended to help solve the many outstanding problems.

Tell Bouqras is situated in eastern Syria, on the right bank of the Euphrates, c. 35 km south-east of Deir ez-Zor (35°05′ 12″N, 40°23′ 50″E). The ‘neolithic’ village was built on a promontory of the plateau area overlooking the Euphrates floodplain, just opposite the mouth of the Khabur (fig. 1). H. de Contenson and W.J. van Liere (1966) conducted a trial excavation at the tell in 1965. Their results showed that the ‘hunter-shepherd society’ of Bouqras (van Liere and de Contenson 1963; Hooijer 1966) dated from the second half of the seventh millennium bc (Vogel and Waterbolk 1967).

Before this period villages with an economy based on agriculture and animal husbandry mainly occupied the mountainous areas bordering the ‘fertile crescent’. During the second half of the seventh and the first part of the sixth millennia be the spread of such villages can be observed outside of the areas formerly occupied. The chronological and geographical position of Bouqras makes the site particularly suited to be investigated as an example of the sedentary communities which started to settle the more downstream Euphrates and Tigris drainage basins in the lowlands of eastern Syria and Iraq, beyond the regions where rainfall-fed farming would have been possible. Furthermore, the location of Bouqras at similar distances, as the crow flies, from Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in western and northern Syria and early sixth millennium settlements in northern Iraq, would give the opportunity to trace contacts between these separate regions.

With these objectives a team from the Universities of Amsterdam and Groningen, directed by Prof Dr H. T. Waterbolk and Prof Dr M. N. van Loon, undertook new excavations at Bouqras from 1976 to 1978. Financial support was obtained from the Netherlands Organization for the Advancement of Pure Research, the A. E. vanGiffen Instituut voor Prae- en Protohistorie in Amsterdam and the Biologisch-Archaeologisch Instituut in Groningen. We express our gratitude to Dr A. Bahnassi and Dr A. Bounni of the General Directorate of Antiquities and Museums in Damascus, for granting the excavation and survey permits and for their interest in our work. Mr A. Mahmoud of the Museum of Deir ez-Zor was very helpful during our stay in the field.