Continuing our focus on the Hebridean Mesolithic, this paper describes new dating on the human bone from Oronsay, showing that late Mesolithic occupation may coincide with the coming of the Neolithic.

The authors examine critically MacKie's long-standing contentions concerning Neolithic Britain — theocratic control of society, the relationships between monuments and sunrise or sunset on significant days of the year, the use of an ‘elaborate and accurate’ solar calendar and its survival into the Iron Age and into modern times.

New calibration studies of burials from the Catacomb culture of western Eurasia enable better understanding of the spread and development of different Bronze Age traditions.

What conditions preserve archaeology, and what conditions accelerate decay? Here experts from York, using the wealth of experience and data gathered from that city, discuss the issues.

‘The separation of theory and practice is not one that will easily be overcome by academic and philosophical critique, however necessary and important these are.’ (Shanks & Tilley 1992: xxii). Here a team of archaeologists address this difficult theme, in the light of their experiences under the flightpath of Heathrow Airport.

The symbolism of the horse in Eneolithic society is explored in this paper. Recent excavations in the Eurasian steppes demonstrate the importance of horses before domestication and horse riding became common; showing they were eaten, exploited and revered.

Many scholars emphasize the Soviet Union's invasion of Lithuania in 1940 as the first traumatic event in Marija Gimbutas'life, but she was exposed to conflict from the time of her birth. She was born in Vilnius, a city that was at the root of conflict between Lithuanians and Poles during the 1920s and 1930s. It is unclear why she created an image of a peaceful ‘Goddess-oriented Old Europe’, as her life was inseparable from various ethnic and ideological conflicts of 20th-century Europe.

Interpretation of archaeological landscapes has developed within two main disciplines. Social theory has provided a foundation for understanding cultural landscapes, and palaeoecology has provided techniques for understanding physical landscapes. Despite their potentially complementary nature, the two approaches remain polarized, and as described here, result in the incomplete studies of past landscapes.

Walls with recesses to hold and protect skeps of bees were studied in Britain, Ireland and France. From an analysis of 1214 site records, the distribution, dates and characteristics of these walls are reported; some conclusions are drawn about the beekeeping practised (1100–1900) and certain regional differences.

A man and a woman were found in a double burial dating from the 1st century BC and located in a Xiongnu burial site in northern Mongolia. An offering box at the head of the man's coffin contained both remains of domestic animals and a human hyoid bone. The skeleton of the man was complete whereas the woman's hyoid bone was missing. The isolated hyoid bone could belong to the buried woman, which suggests the removal of her tongue and probably her sacrifice.

Work by the South Cadbury Environs Project shows that analysing the alignment and morphology of large-scale geophysical data plots can greatly enhance diachronic and synchronic interpretation of a landscape. A pilot study demonstrates that discontinuity of boundary systems features as strongly as continuity in succeeding landscapes.

A manuscript scroll preserved in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, proves to be the log from the first in a series of flights undertaken by O.G.S. Crawford (1886–1957) in association with Alexander Keiller (1889–1955), which ultimately resulted in publication of their classic volume, Wessex from the Air (1928), a key work in the history of archaeological aerial photography. The roller-board on which the scroll is mounted proves equally interesting, being a cavalryman's mapping board of a type in use from the 1870s to the late 1920s. These items are placed in their respective historical contexts and an explanation is offered for their seemingly improbable conjunction.

Research at Mosu I. northern Botswana, has discovered a 10th-century AD ivory cache. Although small, this is one of the largest single concentrations of ivory recovered from southern Africa. Consideration of other occurrences suggests that ivory was prepared throughout the area and traded as finished bangles.

The lack of botanical remains from farming sites in Africa remains a serious archaeological problem. This paper discusses how the indirect evidence of pottery may help to evaluate grain farming in African archaeology.

Previous research has documented textile and basketry production at Moravian Upper Palaeolithic sites, c.27,000 BP. Recent research extends these technologies to Russia and Germany, and amplifies information on perishable fibre artefacts from France. Collectively, these data illustrate the ubiquity of perishable technologies across the late Pleistocene world.

Various methods of analysing the dating of the late Glacial suggest various interpretations. Here, in answer to a paper from 1997, radiocarbon dates are calibrated and used to reconsider the dating of this contentious period.

The technical and aesthetic qualities of the many varieties of Polish flint utilized from the Middle Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age are analysed and assessed, and show how different flints were selected for different purposes.

Archaeologists and anthropologists work alongside, but outside, conventional science, Quite often, as here, misunderstandings and misreadings of archaeological data and interpretation can distort the reading of our discipline!