Department Of Prehistory Research Articles

The Rediscovery of the Lost Hoard of Late Bronze Age Axes from Roxby, Lincs.

SummaryA hoard of eighteen bronze axes and three pieces of unwrought metal cake was discovered at Roxby, Lincs. in November 1882. After the sale of the pieces in 1931 all trace of the hoard was lost until it was identified in 1975 among the Wellcome Collection of prehistoric antiquities, which had been transferred to the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities of the British Museum. The hoard is fully described, illustrated and analysed by atomic absorption. It includes scrap axes as well as local ‘Yorkshire’ ones of the Late Bronze Age Heathery Burn Tradition, datable to the eighth/sixth centuries B.C., and was probably deposited towards the end of this period.

J. R. Collis (ed.): The Iron Age in Britain—a review. Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 1977. 72 pp., 6 pls., 43 figs. £2.50.

J. R. Collis (ed.): The Iron Age in Britain—a review. Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of Sheffield, 1977. 72 pp., 6 pls., 43 figs. £2.50.

University of Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

University of Sheffield: Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

Research Report by the Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, 1976

The major themes of departmental research into the prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and the nearer Pacific Islands have been established now for some years. They have been chosen because they are seen as decisive for the personality of the region in prehistory and look to take advantage of the unique opportunities it offers for archaeological research.

Archaeology at the University of New England, 1975-6

An account of current research at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of New England, was published in Australian Archaeology 3, just a year ago (Connah, 1975). The purpose of the present account is to bring the reader up to date with archaeological activities at Armidale over the last year.

Current Research at the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology, University of New England

Our research interests include topics outside as well as inside Australia, for instance my own work on the Late Stone Age and Iron Age of West Africa has recently led to the publication of The Archaeology of Benin by Oxford University Press and I have further material in preparation for publication concerning the Lake Chad area of N.E. Nigeria. Likewise, Iain Davidson is presently completing work on man-environment relationships during the late Pleistocene in Spain.

A Preliminary Report on New Research on Man-Land Relations in Aboriginal Australia

More Than 20 Years Ago (1953) research was published on the relationship between mean annual rainfall and the size of the domain occupied by Australian Aboriginal tribal groups. When the original series of 409 tribes was refined to a more homogeneous basic series of 123 tribes, in which all water resources were locally earned as rainfall, the coefficient of correlation between the two variables approached 0.81. This coefficient expressed a systematic inverse logarithmic relationship between the amount of rainfall and the land required to support a tribal population. Further, it carried the implication that tribal populations tended to approximate a constant of 500 persons, based on estimates of tribal size from a variety of observers. The unexplained variance in this statistical relationship amounted to 35% of the total and included a variety of errors in ascertainment, as well as deviations in tribal numbers from the postulated constant. The exercise served to validate the assumption previously made (1950) that tribal numbers in Australia approached a constant value.During the year 1973, as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Anthropology and in the Department of Prehistory at the Australian National University, Canberra, it was possible to reexamine the relationships between Aboriginal men and their land in Australia at a much more complex level than previously undertaken. The high-speed computer has become available since the first attempt, and extensive resources in a first-class research institution provided the time and data necessary. During the 20 years that have intervened since 1953, the environmental data on continental Australia have increased enormously; it may now be one of the best studied continents in the world in these terms.

: Prehistoric and Roman Studies Commemorating the Opening of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities . G. de G. Sieveking.

: Prehistoric and Roman Studies Commemorating the Opening of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities . G. de G. Sieveking.

Prehistoric Bronzes in the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities

Prehistoric Bronzes in the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities

Prehistoric and Roman Studies. Commemorating the opening of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities. Edited byG. de G. Sieveking. xii + 282pages, 68 figures and tables, 91 plates. London, The British Museum, 1971. Price £2.

Prehistoric and Roman Studies. Commemorating the opening of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities. <i>Edited by</i>G. de G. Sieveking. xii + 282<i>pages</i>, 68 <i>figures and tables</i>, 91 <i>plates</i>. London, The British Museum, 1971. <i>Price</i> £2.

Prehistoric and Roman Studies: Commemorating the Opening of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities.

Prehistoric and Roman Studies: Commemorating the Opening of the Department of Prehistoric and Romano-British Antiquities.

A Petro-Archaeological Study of a Deposit of Neolithic Stone Tools at Stará Břeclav, Czechoslovakia

There is no need to stress that at the present day it is becoming increasingly accepted that the further expansion of prehistory depends not only on the development and ever greater precision of the actual methods of archaeology, but also to an equal degree on the application of natural scientific research methods. This has been well exemplified in the series of systematic studies on petrological research on stone artifacts published in these Proceedings.A similar tendency can be noted of late in many other European countries, France (Cogné and Giot, 1957; Giot, 1964), Austria (Zirkl, 1956–9), Germany (Frechen, 1965; Wiegers, 1950; Scholz, 1968), Hungary (Végh and Viczian, 1964), Poland (Kowalski and Kozlowski, 1959), the Soviet Union (Gajduk, 1963; Kovnurko, 1963; Petruň, 1967) and Switzerland (Hugi, 1948).In Czechoslovakia, too, from 1960 onwards, regular petrological-archaeological co-operation has been carried on between the Department of Prehistory at the Philosophical Faculty of the Purkyně University of Brno and the Department of Mineralogy and Petrology of the same University. To begin with, the stone building material of Great Moravian architecture in the region of the lower Dyje valley and the lower Morava valley (Štelcl and Tejkal, 1961–7) was petrologically examined and latterly the investigation has been extended to cover the chipping and polishing industry of the Stone Age (Štelcl, 1967; Malina, forthcoming; Štelcl and Malina, 1966, and forthcoming).