Clacton-on-Sea is a coastal town in the County of Essex, England. It is 75 km northeast of London, 18 km southeast of Colchester (fig. 1). The archaeological site which is the subject of this report comes within Clacton Urban District (civil parish of Great Clacton) although associated earlier discoveries extend to Jaywick Sands, and in the opposite direction, northward, to Holland-on-Sea, both in the same Urban District. The National Grid Reference for the site is TM 157134.

The Pleistocene deposits at Clacton have attracted attention since the first half of the nineteenth century when John Brown of Stanway collected mammalian remains from the foreshore (Brown 1838, 1840). Flint artifacts first appear to have been recognized at the end of the century (Kenworthy 1898). Hazzledine Warren watched exposures between Clacton Pier and Lion Point from about 1910 to 1950, and collected the large quantity of artifacts and faunal remains now in the British Museum. His many papers give much of the history and details of the site and surrounding area (especially Warren 1922, 1923, 1924, 1951, 1955). The only previous controlled archaeological examination in the Clacton area was conducted by Dr K. Oakley and Mrs M. Leakey in 1934 on behalf of the British Association, and their report was published in volume 3 of these Proceedings (Oakley and Leakey 1937). More recently, pollen data relating to these excavated deposits have been obtained from boreholes behind the cliff on West Marine Parade and the foreshore (Pike and Godwin 1953; Turner and Kerney 1971).

The site of Nahal Oren is 10 km south of Haifa in the Wadi Fellah at its junction with the old Tel Aviv-Haifa road, Israel.

The first excavations at Nahal Oren were made by Professor Stekelis in 1941, when the cave was emptied; a Natufian industry was found (Stekelis 1942). In 1954–9 there were further excavations in front of the cave (Stekelis and Yisraeli 1963). Numerous fine artefacts indicated the presence of two phases of the Kebaran, Natufian and ‘pre Pottery Neolithic A and B’ industries. The well known complex of house foundations on artificial platforms or terraces was exposed during this work.

The industrial succession indicated that the site was suitable for the study of late Palaeolithic cultures and their associated economies. The recent excavations, supported by the British Museum and carried out by Cambridge University and the Israel Museum, had the following objectives: to attempt the total collection of artefacts from restricted areas, to establish the relevant stratigraphy, and to collect a broad spectrum of organic remains, by methods developed by the British Academy's Major Research Project, the History of Early Agriculture.

In July 1970, the complete skeleton of a male elk (Alces alces L.) was discovered at Poulton-le-Fylde in a series of aquatic deposits. Uncontrolled excavation recovered most of the skeleton and part of a barbed bone or antler point of ‘Star Carr’ Proto-Maglemosian appearance. Subsequent investigation recovered the remainder of the skeleton and part of a second barbed point, all in situ. These lay in an organic detritus mud which pollen analysis has shown to belong to Zone II of the conventional NW European sequence, assigned to the Allerød Interstadial. The date is therefore likely to lie between 1000 and 2500 years earlier than that of Star Carr.

Study of the bones showed at least 17 lesions, of which 3 were probably made some weeks before the animal died. The remainder were probably approximately coincident with death. These lesions were of types which implied the existence of sharp, hard-pointed projectiles (? flint-tipped arrows) and chopping blades (? axes). They were almost exclusively on limb-bones and ribs. The death had occurred in winter, both antlers having a splinter of pedicle attached, and the animal had evidently escaped butchery to die in a pool. The finds have been placed in the Harris Museum Art Gallery, Preston, by the owners Mr and Mrs J. Divine.

The explorations conducted by the Institute of Archaeology, Allahabad University, in the last few years in the alluvial plain of the Central Ganga Valley, bounded by the Ganga on the south and the Sarju on the north, have brought to light extensive traces of Stone Age occupation in an area completely devoid of rocks. The work has also revealed the connection between this appearance of early man and the morphological features brought about by the changing course of the Ganga in the Pleistocene. The Gangetic alluvial is clearly divided into two distinct formations, the older known as Bhagar, and the younger as Khadar. The terminal of the Bhagar constituted the bank of the Ganga when it was actually forming this area and gradually receding southwards to form the deposit of the Khadar. Over a very wide area the exposed sections of the Bhagar (fig. 1) consist of four layers having a thickness of 8 to 10·5 m. On the top there is a sandy soil (30 cm to 1·50 m) overlying a plastic clay deposit (90 cm to 2 m in thickness). The third layer is constituted by blackish soil (1·50 m to 3 m) full of small kankar nodules. The bottommost exposed layer or the fourth (2 m to 4 m) from the top, containing kankars, is yellowish in colour. There is no doubt that the sandy deposit capping the old formation marks the end of an epoch in the life of the Ganga, and it was deposited by the river with a flood-plane higher by at least 10 metres than its highest flood-plane subsequently recorded.

Mesopotamia is an elongated basin running from Syria south-eastwards to the Persian Gulf. It is bordered on the south-west by the Arabian massif, on the north by the mountains of Anatolia, and on the east by the Zagros range. Agriculture in this basin is controlled by climate to an extent unknown in Europe, particularly by water supply, which may come from rainfall or from rivers that flow out of the mountains. The modern boundary of rainfall sufficient for agriculture, which for practical purposes may be taken as 200 mm or 8 in reliable annual aggregate, runs across northern Mesopotamia from west to east and then turns south-east, following the foothills of the Zagros (fig. 1). We have at present no reason to think that this approximate boundary has shifted appreciably during the period with which we are concerned, although there were almost certainly marginal fluctuations. The limited palynological evidence, which comes from the mountainous regions north and east of Mesopotamia, suggests that after about 12000 bc both temperature and precipitation gradually increased and that by about 9000 bc oak and pistachio trees were beginning to reinvade the Zagros foothills, an area from which they had been eradicated during the cooler temperatures of the last glacial period (van Zeist and Wright 1963; Wright 1968; van Zeist 1969).

No accurate survey of a flint mine exists. It is planned to carry out such a survey at Grime's Graves over a period of several years. Its purpose is to study the growth of the flint-mine complex, the evaluation of mining techniques and ancillary industries, and trade relations; and to discover settlement sites related to the industrial complex. Preliminary field work was carried out in the summer of 1972. This included geophysical and chemical surveys, ground surveys, and aerial photography. Excavations were undertaken to test the results of the scientific surveys. A detailed contour map of the site was prepared by photogrammetry.

Plans for the petrological examination of stone axes from Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire (C.B.A. Group 14) were initiated in 1946, when Mr F. T. Baker, now Director of the City of Lincoln Libraries, Museum and Art Gallery, agreed to become local secretary to the survey. Professor W. D. Evans (now Lord Energlyn), Head of the Geology Department at Nottingham University, undertook the petrological side of the work, and the thin sections were cut by Mr R. D. Hendry, Chief Technician to the Department. By 1962 about 120 sections had been cut and these were sent to Dr F. S. Wallis and Mr E. D. Evens, who found that a large proportion of them could be assigned to already established groups. During the next few years, the number of axes sectioned rose to 180. In 1968 Dr W. A. Cummins took over the petrological work and in 1970 Mr C. N. Moore became the local secretary. Since 1969, the sections have been cut by Mr J. Blount at Imperial College, London.

The present report is based on 422 stone axes from Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. This total includes nearly all the axes in local museums within the area, as well as the relevant axes from the British Museum and a considerable number from private collections. The only local museum collections not included are those at Louth, Stamford and the Spalding Gentlemen's Society. In view of this, it is considered that the report gives a fairly representative coverage of the axes found in the area. A breakdown of this coverage is given in Table 1.

The excavation of the Sweet track at two sites in the Somerset Levels has yielded unique material of the late fourth millennium bc. The track was built across a reed marsh, and the builders used a variety of timber obtained from both nearby fen-wood and from the dry land of the Burtle sand and the Poldens. Pollen analyses indicate that certain areas of the Levels were particularly favourable for forest clearance and cultivation, and the debris from the track shows a range of woodwork so far unique to the British Neolithic.

In the study of the earliest copper metallurgy, copper ornaments have received little attention compared with copper tools. Yet they are of particular interest because they often represent the earliest use of metal other than gold.

The purpose of this paper is to give an account of the ancient agriculture of the British highland, by indicating the broad distribution of the remains and by describing some examples in detail. The paper is based for the most part on records compiled in recent years in the course of the routine field reconnaissance carried out by the Archaeology Division of the Ordnance Survey, during which work on ancient highland agriculture was directed and prepared for publication by Mr James Fox, F.S.A., Assistant Archaeology Officer, Ordnance Survey. The illustrations are reproduced from documents held by the Ordnance Survey with the sanction of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office, Crown copyright reserved.

The highland areas of Britain comprise: 1, the southwest of England; 2, Wales; and 3, England and Scotland from the River Trent to the Arctic Ocean. Most of the new information about ancient agriculture in the highland refers to area 3. It will be convenient first to summarize the situation in 1 and 2 and then to discuss area 3 in greater detail.

The art in question is found on the structural slabs of a group of megalithic tombs in the valley of the Boyne in Ireland. The tombs are all passage-graves and are characteristically situated on the highest local ground and grouped in a ‘cemetery’. The Boyne cemetery is about 15 km from the east coast and about 50 km by road north of Dublin. In an area approximately 4 × 4 km are situated the three large tumuli of Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth, as well as over 40 other monuments, more than half of which are passage-graves (fig. 1).

The three large mounds are only a few kilometres apart; in fact, from any one of them the other two can be seen since all are in commanding situations. They are similar as regards size and appearance, that is to say, each consists of a mound of stones, or stones, earth, etc., circular in plan and flat-topped, about 85 m in diameter at the base and 12 to 15 m in height. The base of each is surrounded by a continuous kerb of large slabs, 97 at Newgrange, an estimated 110 at Dowth, and an estimated 120 at Knowth. Newgrange is the central tumulus, Dowth is to the north-east, and Knowth to the north-west.

The existence of a close relationship between Mycenaean Greece and Italy is known to us through two main kinds of archaeological evidence: Mycenaean pottery found in Italy—mainly in Apulia and Siciliy, although a few finds also come from the Tyrrhenian coast (1)—and bronzes of Italian type present in Greece and Crete.

The amount of information derived from these two groups is unequal. The majority of the Mycenaean pottery found in Italy has been readily identified and has offered a sound basis for the chronology of the Italian Bronze Age cultures, but the bronzes of Italian type found in the Aegean area have often been included in a group of ‘European’ elements, for years the object of discussions and controversial interpretations (2).

The almost exclusive concentration of Mycenaean pottery in coastal sites of continental Italy and Sicily clearly indicates that it was only transported by sea, and was not used for large-scale exchanges with the populations of the inland areas (3). From the distribution map of Mycenaean pottery in Italy we can therefore see a series of fixed points—actual settlements or traces of sea-passages—but lack the possibility of identifying any kind of movement linking the Mycenaeans on the coasts with the interior and northern regions of Italy. It seems probable, on the other hand, that such movements actually took place, since some at least of the Italian-type bronzes found in the Aegean certainly were not produced in the same areas of Italy where the Mycenaean pottery is concentrated. For this reason, a close study of the distribution, cultural significance and relative chronology of these types in Italy would be important to explain their presence in the Aegean.

Within recent years, much attention has been focused on the earliest objects of harness which have long been noticed in the archaeological record. They are a matter of some importance in the perception of social structure from extant remains; Kossack (1954) presented strong arguments in favour of interpreting, in this manner, the early Hallstatt (Ha C) horse harness from Bavarian graves. Other major publications have since added to the picture of widespread, supposedly aristocratic adoption of harness and wagons in association with burial rite (northern and central Italy in the Early Iron Age, von Hase 1969; the Iberian peninsula in the same period, Schüle 1969; the Middle Danube to the Russian Steppes and to the Asian hinterland, Potratz 1966). Nor has the thesis of Gallus and Horvath (1939) been ignored, and the activities of ‘Thraco-Cimmerian’ cavalry still play a large part in the interpretation of west European horse harness. Already in 1954, however, Kossack observed the continuing elements of native, western Urnfield Europe in the entirely new combinations of grave-goods in Ha C and he indicated that the cheekpieces, while being modelled closely on the lines of preceding types found in the region of the Middle Danube, were, in fact, local variants chiefly concentrated in the graves of Bohemia and Bavaria. That western Europe had long had its own forms of cheekpiece was demonstrated by Thrane in 1963, yet the mouthpieces themselves have received no consolidated attention. This paper is an attempt to redress the balance, by gathering together the earliest metal bits in Europe west of Slovakia and Hungary, in order to see what light they throw on the problems of continuity and transition at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age.