South Britain Research Articles

Beakers: Deconstruction and After

Taking grave and non-grave pottery together, five summary regional groups of beaker pottery are proposed for Britain and Ireland: Group A, Ireland; Group B, north Britain and eventually widespread; Group C, north and to some extent south Britain; Group D, south Britain; and Group E, East Anglia and south-east England. It is anticipated that further discoveries and research will enable these groups to be refined regionally.These groups are set in a quarter-millennium calendrical chronology, which suggests that they may all have appeared around or near the mid-3rd millennium BC, and that many of their aspects were long enduring, some surviving to the 2nd quarter of the 2nd millennium BC.Decorative features especially are related to bell-beaker pottery in western Europe, to Single Grave pottery across the North Sea, and to native Late Neolithic pottery. In presenting the chronology of these relationships, it is argued that a widely held view that bell-beaker pottery evolved in north-west Europe requires modification.

A Vase à Anse from Guernsey in the Channel Islands

Tomalin (1988) commented on the similarities of vases a anses in Jersey to those in both north Brittany and south Britain. However following earlier writers, including Kendrick (1928, 89) and Hawkes (1938, 112), who also noted these vessels in Jersey, he finds no examples from the rest of the Channel Islands. Interestingly Kendrick illustrates a single-handled vase à anse from the site of La Rocque qui Sonne, Guernsey (1928, pl. XIV, G80); he describes it simply as a ‘small globular cup’ with ribbon handle (1928, 164). Presumably the Guernsey vessel's single handle excluded it from Kendrick's class ‘I’ of ‘Biconical vases with ribbon handles’ from Jersey, which he identified as ‘familiar Bronze Age ware in Brittany’ (1928, 89).The finding of vases à anses in the Channel Islands indicates communication with at least Brittany, though at a period when the islands seem to have had little to offer the visitor, being at a date just prior to an apparent cessation of contact with Armorican ‘exchange partners’ of long standing. Briard (1986) used the vases à anses among other artefacts, to stress such contacts between the islands and Brittany during the Later Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.

Morphometric variation of the common shrew (Sorex araneus) in Britain, in relation to karyotype and geography

SummaryA multivariate study of variation in mandible dimensions was conducted to determine whether common shrews of different karyotypic race (Aberdeen, Oxford, Hermitage) in Britain differ in morphology. Differences between samples from north and south Britain suggest that geography is more important than karyotype as a morphological determinant. However, the distinctiveness of hybrids in the ‘Oxford‐Hermitage’ hybrid zone raises the possibility that there are genetic differences between the races.

Geochemistry of bimodal basalt-subalkaline/peralkaline rhyolite provinces within the Southern British Caledonides

Bimodal associations of basalt and rhyolite of Upper Ordovician age which were erupted in a submarine environment occur within the Caledonian orogenic belt of South Britain at Parys Mountain (Anglesey), in Snowdonia (North Wales) and at Avoca (SE Ireland). The volcanic rocks have experienced hydrothermal alteration and low-grade metamorphism, and therefore immobile elements (e.g. Ti, Zr, Nb, Y) have been used to identify the original geochemical characteristics. The basalts have characters transitional between volcanic ‘arc’ and ‘within plate’ types consistent with eruption on an extensional part of an active continental margin. Two groups of rhyolites have been identified. A low-Zr group (Zr<500ppm), represented at all three locations, is interpreted as originally of high-K, subalkaline type. A high-Zr group (Zr>500ppm), represented at Snowdonia and Avoca, is interpreted as originally being peralkaline in composition; their high Zr/Nb ratios (>10) are typical of peralkaline rhyolites erupted above subduction zones. The bimodal nature of the associations and the peralkaline character of some rhyolites indicates magma production in a complex tectonic setting, transitional between an active continental margin/island arc and an extensional environment. Associated sulphide mineralization is volcanogenic and probably syn-sedimentary. High-level, rhyolitic magma chambers are thought to have driven convection of the hydrothermal fluids from which the sulphides precipitated.

Hemipelagic shelf sedimentation and climatic cycles: the basal Jurassic (Blue Lias) of South Britain

The sedimentology, cyclicity and hiatuses of the Blue Lias Formation (basal Jurassic) were investigated at five localities in South Britain. Most carbonate mud, which is the dominant carbonate component, has been neomorphosed to microspar. However, carbonate mud was apparently supplied by coccoliths in zooplankton faecal pellets, suggesting hemipelagic sedimentation. Clay is assumed to have been supplied by rivers. The three sediment types involved reflect cyclic changes in bottom-water oxygenation levels combined with changes in the clay-to-carbonate mud ratio. Walsh power spectra have been applied for the first time to measured sections in order to investigate the control of cyclicity. This application is analogous to palaeoclimatological studies of Pleistocene oxygen-isotope (ice-volume) records. The spectra show that 1 or 2 sedimentary cycles, of constant thickness, occur in four out of five sections, each of which represents several million years. The maximum possible duration of these cycles is too short for their generation by sea-level changes. Their regularity, stability and order of duration (tens of thousands of years) are consistent with the hypothesis of sedimentary cyclicity controlled by climatic change, itself forced by orbital changes in insolation (Milankovitch theory). The duration of both cycles recognised is less than 93,000 years (93 ka) and may record changes in orbital precession (21 ka) and obliquity (41 ka). Assuming that one ammonite zone represents 1 Ma, comparison of the longest-possible with the implied durations of the cycles, suggests that the sections are at best 20–40% complete. Loss of sediment may have occurred during winter storms or hurricanes. A model relating the sedimentary cycles to changes in the volume of runoff is proposed.

Values as a function of ethnicity and socio‐economic status: A cross‐national study

Abstract This paper examines the interactive roles of geographical/ sociopolitical context, ethnicity, and socio‐economic status on values structures in South Africa and Britain. A modified version of the Rokeach Value Survey was administered to South African Indian and English‐speaking students of above average and average family income backgrounds and to British Indian and indigenous students of above average, average, and below average family incomes. The data were subjected to a series of canonical variate analyses demonstrating the separate and interactive effects of the three factors under study. The complex configuration of value structures which emerged was comparatively discussed in terms of the social contexts in which they were embedded and their significance highlighted for cross‐national investigations in this area.

A magnetic deep structural geology interpretation of Ireland

A new 10 nT compilation of magnetic data for Ireland and the immediately adjacent sea area shows distinct geophysical provinces of characteristic magnetic signature separated by major magnetic linears which can be related to important geological lines. In the far northwest there is a structurally coherent Grampian tectonic‐thermal zone bounded to the southeast by the Fair Head‐Clew Bay Line. Between the Fair Head‐Clew Bay Line and the western extension of the Southern Uplands Line, which forms the northern margin to the Southern Uplands of Scotland, is a segmented zone of relatively small magnetic anomalies and geological bodies of mixed crustal affinity: Grampian massifs, Lower Palaeozoic sedimentary basins bounded by major shear faults, relics of Lower Palaeozoic oceanic and related crust, and possible older microcontinent fragments. These separate areas have quite individual structural and metamorphic histories. There is good evidence for the Grampian Massifs having undergone significant lateral movement during Lower Palaeozoic times, and it can be inferred that many of the now adjacent bodies are only docked. The original position of each block is now not known. In the far southeast of Ireland are relics of a Cadomian Craton which are now tectonically imbricated with Lower Palaeozoic rocks. This is probably the segmented margin of the stable Cadomian craton which is inferred beneath Wales and south Britain. Between the Southern Uplands Line and the northernmost extent of the relics of the southern craton is a zone of deep‐seated, low‐amplitude magnetic anomalies and major linears. These are about 30° oblique to the southern margin of this vestiges of the Iapetus ocean zone, but are nearly parallel with the northern margin.

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

The last glaciers (Loch Lomond Advance) in Snowdonia, N. Wales

AbstractEvidence for 35 former cwm glaciers has been mapped in Snowdonia, N. Wales. Glacial limits are based on end moraines, boulder and drift limits, and the down‐valley extent of hummocky moraine. Protalus ramparts indicate that at least 16 semi‐permanent snow beds down to altitudes of 150 m also existed. Radiocarbon dates and pollen stratigraphy indicate that the glaciers and snow beds belong to the Loch Lomond (Younger Dryas) Stadial. The existence of a large number of ‘Older Series Moraines’ is questionned. Glacier reconstruction and contouring allows calculation of fan line altitudes, and trend surface analysis indicates that they rise from 450 m in the southwest to 700 m in the northeast. It is inferred that mean July temperature at sea‐level was around 8·5°C. Two differences between north and south Britain are recognized. Firstly in Snowdonia, as in the Lake District and Southern Uplands, the dominance of southerly air streams appears less than in the Scottish Highlands. Secondly, whereas in the Scottish Highlands, the glaciers appear to have stagnated in situ following initial active retreat, some of those farther south were active during much of the time their margins retreated.

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Medicine in South Africa and Britain

Further Observations on choanoflagellates in the genus Calliacantha Leadbeater, with Special reference to C. multispina sp.nov. from South Africa and Britain

A species believed to be more primitive than C. natans (Grontved) (type species of Calliacantha Leadbeater) has been described and illustrated by means of light and electron microscopy of dry whole mounts prepared in situ from freshly gathered sea water, mainly in South Africa but supplemented by one gathering from Britain.

The South African National Party and the British government (1939–1961)

Abstract It is not uncommon that the ideas propagated by a political party in opposition are not implemented once the party has won power. The National Party Governments’ policies towards the United Kingdom since 1948 offer a clear illustration of a governing party's inability to realise its earlier aspirations. Political, economic and military realities set bounds to the National Party's intention of freeing South Africa of her overwhelming British fixation in these areas. What is more, the National Party after 1948 even endeavoured to strengthen particularly the military ties with Britain. While the National Party Governments tried to move closer to Britain, the latter was in turn moving gradually yet unmistakably away from South Africa. The basic cause of this process of alienation was British apposition to apartheid. The National Party's pre‐1948 desire to loosen the ties between South African and Britain was. paradoxically, being realised. It was however Britain that was pushing South Africa aside an...

European Adjustment to Economic Reforms and Political Consolidation in Zambia

Europeans came to the area that is now Zambia in small numbers during the first four decades of the twentieth century primarily as missionaries, administrators, farmers, or employees of the copper or lead and zinc mines. The most extensive period of European immigration, however, was the decade and a half following World War II. In 1946 there were 22,000 Europeans in the country, while in 1962 the European population reached a peak of 77,000. The overwhelming majority of Europeans came from South Africa, the Rhodesias (Zambia was then Northern Rhodesia), or Britain— in that order of frequency. Most of those born in the Rhodesias had British and/or South African ancestry. In the immediate preindependence period slightly more than a third of the Europeans were citizens of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, into which Northern Rhodesia was incorporated from 1953 to 1963; most of the rest were approximately evenly divided between British and South African citizenship.

The 1969 Southern African Customs Union Agreement

On 11 December 1969 representatives of the Governments of Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland signed a Customs Union Agreement, replacing that of 1910.1 Preliminary negotiations had been protracted. Bipartite discussions had begun some six years before, between South Africa and Britain, as the colonial power responsible for Bechuanaland, Basutoland, and Swaziland; but South Africa suspended the talks early in 1965, pending a reappraisal of her relationship with the three territories concerned, made necessary by their rapid constitutional advance, which led to complete independence. Negotiations were not resumed until mid-1968; several quadripartite meetings took place in Pretoria during 1968–9, including one at ministerial level. Eventually the detailed draft of the treaty was agreed.

U. S. Support of Rhodesia

America premacy in Rhodesia. She is responsible for backing up the fascist regime of Ian Smith to further suppress the liberation of our African brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia). Capitalists and right-wing politicians are two main instruments manuvering U.S. assistance to Rhodesia. Many African statesmen and Africanist scholars vociferously denounce South Africa, Great Britain, and Portgual for the role that they are playing in Rhodesia, but often let deceitful white America off the hook. The Smith clique, backed by U.S. and British imperialists, is ruthlessly suppressing the Zimbabwe patriots and people who have risen in the struggle for freedom and independence. The existence of the racist Smith's puppet regime, as well as its barbarous massacre of the Zimbabwe patriots, is the product of the vicious crimes and schemes of the

Air Reconnaissance in Britain, 1951–5

Accounts of air reconnaissance in Britain have already been printed in this Journal (XLI, for north Britain; XLIII, for south Britain): the present paper records recent discoveries, bringing the previous records up to date.Of the last five summers only in 1955 was there a marked drought favourable to the development of crop marks; but it has been possible to observe different parts of the country under a wide variety of conditions. These have allowed advantage to be taken of different combinations of weather, crops, and soil, so that a buried site invisible one year might be seen in another. Moreover, opportunities for reconnaissance in March and April have meant that large areas could be observed soon after spring ploughing, when soil-patterns in bare fields often reveal disturbances in the ground. These conditions have been particularly valuable for studying Celtic field-systems on the chalk downs and traces of ancient agriculture in the Fenland.In the north, reconnaissance has revealed an interesting new group of military works, apparently of early date, at Troutbeck on the margin of the Lake District, besides yielding much fresh information at sites already known. This is particularly true of the extensive Roman sites in Scotland that often now lie within several different fields, not all of which are under suitable crops in any one year. Two forts, two signal-stations, and some sixteen temporary camps may be added to the list of discoveries given in JRS XLI.

REGIONAL VARIATION IN THE DISTRACTION DISPLAYS OF THE OYSTER‐CATCHER.

Summary.The Oyster‐catcher Haematopus astralegus populations of western Europe (Holland, South Britain, Fair Isle, Unst and Faeroe Islands) differ very little morphologicallv, but show interesting variations in their distraction displays.These displays, comprising (1) aggressive flight, (2) a furtive run, (3) false‐brooding, (4) pseudo‐sleeping, and (5) lure display, are described, with comments on their regional importance. Aggressive flight, false‐brooding and lure display are more strongly developed in Faeroe than elsewhere. At Fair Isle (and to a less extent at Unst) displacement “ butterfly‐flight” replaces lure display.It is shown that the lure display has evolved as a terrestrial modification of displacement “ butterfly‐flight”, which has proceeded furthest in the Faeroe population, hardly at all in the more southerly populations, and to an intermediate degree among the birds of Unst.The Oyster‐catcher's extension to the Faeroe Islands—probably from the British area, in Comparatively recent times—involved colonization of an atypical moorland habitat. The distraction displays appear to have been perfected in the absence of terrestrial predators other than men and dogs, which have been present for about 1000 years.The remarkable development of these display patterns is probably due to hereditan differences, affecting ethological attributes, which have arisen between the Faeroe and the more southerly populations. It is suggested that their evolution has been stimulated by the psychological effect of frequent disturbance of the brooding urge by man, during the attempt to colonize a new and unsympathetic environment.