Showing papers in "Antiquity in 1968"

The Proper Study of Mankind

Abstract: Many years ago the Editor of ANTIQUITY wrote ‘Without a sense of history, and of historical problem, archaeology can revert again to mere collection; and there i s always the danger of a new antiquarianism’ (A Hundred Years of Archaeology (1950), 326). This dangergrows, and as more and more scientific aids to archaeology are provided and used, the archaeologist may seem to be concerned with, and seem to be happy to be c o n c m d with, an increasingly detailed study of trees without pausing to look at the wood of which they are a part. The question often asked these days is ‘ Whither Archaeology?’ Jacquetta Hawkes discusses this all-important problem and warns us to keep our technological Frankenstein’s monster in control and subject to human values. Her humane historical approach to the material study of the past will evoke, we hope, some heart-searchings and reappraisals among the new, albeit scientifc, antiquarians.

Invasion, Diffusion, Evolution?

Abstract: Two years ago we published Professor Grahame Clark’s Aarhus lecture in which he cogently challenged the invasion hypothesis in British prehistory which had held sway from the time of the pre-archaeological writers such as Beddoe, Rhjk and Rice-Holmes and had dominated thinking about the origins of the ancient Britons among archaeologists for the first h a y of the present century (ANTIQUITY, 1966, 172). Professor W. Y. A d a m , of the Department of Anthropology in the University of Kentucky, in this article questions the validity of what he calls ‘the theory of successive populations’, and asks us to refict again on the whole problem of archaeological interpretation in relation to evidence fiom Nubia and elsewhere.

Kalibangan: Death from Natural Causes

Abstract: Mr R. L. Raikes is a hydrologist who is head of the firm of Raikes and Partners, consulting engineers in Rome. W e recently published an article by him on ‘The Mohenjo-daro Floods’ (ANTIQUITY, 1965, 196), in which he concluded that Mohmjo-daro and ‘inevitably all other sites in the same general area of the Indus jlood-plain, were gradually engulfed by mud’. This article provoked discussion and comment in subsequent numbers. Mr Raikes now considers the end of Kalibangan some time in the 18th century BC and excludes the hypothesis of catastrophic climate change. As he has recently been accused of being a prophet of the New Catastrophism, he says that here it is rather a relief to him to be able, with conviction, to exclude catastrophic climate change.

Beidha: Early Neolithic Village Life South of the Dead Sea

Abstract: Diana Kirkbride, after war service in the WRNS, read Egyptology at University College, London, and gravitated to prehistory via the Jericho excavations. She has lived and worked in Jordan for 16 years doing her own work and excavating for the Department of Antiquities. It was on jieldwork from archaeological excavation at Petra that she discovered Beidha which she describes here. In 1962 she was elected Wainwright Fellow in Near Eastern Archaeology of the University of Oxford. She is the wife of Dr Hans Helbaek, the Danish palaeoethnobotanist. This article is a general summary of her important work at Beidha.

Climatic Change in Mycenaean Greece

Abstract: The essence of historical research is the search for the cause of a major event. The same applies to prehistoric research, except that the documents cited in evidence lack written records and may require greater speculation. One of the major events in the history of Greece was the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, which occurred about 1200-1100 BC and ushered in the Greek Dark Ages, when populations in the former Mycenaean lands were small and political organization dispersed. Although falling, strictly, within the historic period, thanks to the recent decipherment of Mycenaean written documents, the available records merely illustrate some of the business transactions of several flourishing kingdoms they give no clues to the cause for the abrupt demise of the culture. It is on this subject, with its paucity of direct evidence, that Professor Rhys Carpenter introduces some speculations drawn from natural science-the notion that climatic change in southern Greece caused repeated failure of crops and the consequent breakdown of the Mycenaean economy.

The Henge Monuments at Llandegai

Abstract: Aerial photography as a source of new archaeological sites often occasions little comment today beyond the congratulation due to the observer. Yet when Dr St Joseph followed up his original discovery [I] of the Llandegai henge monuments and cursus at suitable times with vertical and further oblique views, he provided a basic record that was remarkably complete [2]. The plan which has emerged after extensive soilstripping (FIG. I) contains at this scale very few additions. Since removal of large areas of the topsoil had already been chosen as the method of examining the major cropmarks (A-F), the search for smaller features did not warrant the use of magnetometer or resistivity survey, but could depend on direct observation. Three different types of machine were used. A drag-scraper removed topsoil in long narrow runs, leaving a clean gravel subsoil surface in which disturbances could easily be located, and finally cleared wider areas where there was a free circuit for dumping. More restricted areas required a tracked shovel, which had the disadvantage that the resulting compacted surface had to be cleared by hand, or with a backacting shoveI. The latter machine was the most versatile, three being used in the 1967 season for deep excavation and general removal of spoil, as well as for finely controlled stripping directly into hand barrows. An interpretation can now be suggested for most of the markings seen in the air photographs. Some lines and colour differences could be dismissed as the ephemeral effects of agriculture. Other extensive linear marks which diverge from the modern pattern had to be examined where appropriate, even though they might only be trenches of comparatively recent date (FIG. I, nos. 11-13 and the road). There remained an elusive network of lines, mostly curving to some extent, which it was thought could represent a field system. Those which were examined, however, showed that the southern and western parts of this tract of glacial gravel had been subject to movement, possibly due to frost action in periglacial conditions, the resulting cracks being filled with fine silt and clay. Of all the major sites examined, only the northern henge (A) had any structure preserved above ground. All other banks and mounds had been completely levelled into their ditches, and their contemporary ground surface had been disrupted by ploughing, to a final depth of 10 in. (25 cm.) in recent times. With the exception of a zone close to the inner edge of the bank of henge A, the only undisturbed archaeological

The First Sheffield Plate

Abstract: Mr J. A. Charles is a Fellow of S t John’s College, Cambridge, and Lecturer in Metallurgy in the University. In this article he analyses the metallurgy of a Minoan dagger and discovers the first recorded example of Shefield Plate, long before Bolsover’s invention, or discovery, of it in 1743. Dr F. H . Stubbings, Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and Lecturer in Classical Archaeology in the University, contributes an appendix on the archaeological contexts of this dagger, alleged to come from Gournia.*

The Urban Revolution in South Turkmenia

Abstract: Professor Masson, of the Leningrad Branch of the Archaeology Section of the Soviet Academy of Sciences, wrote for us a few years ago an article on ‘The First Farmers in Turkmenia’ (ANTIQUITY, 1961, 203). In this article he carries the story of prehistoric development one stage further, and describes the urban revolution in southern Turkmenia, stressing that the change is not so much one from peasant villagers to city dwellers, not merely the formation of large nucleated centres of population, but the formation of what he calls, in Marxist terminology, an early class society with professional specialization.

Models in Prehistory

Abstract: All cards (separate sets or the complete series) may be obtained from the Patrimoine du MusCe royal de 1’Afrique centrale, Tervuren (Belgium) at the specified price, payable either to the Banque de Bruxelles, account no. A 55/45’ or the Banque de la SociCtC GCnCrale, Bruxelles, account no. 22.783. One shilling sterling works out at approximately 6 Belgian francs. The next set which is now being printed (February 1968) is by D. W. Phillipson, and will be Zambia Z 5: Kapwirimbwe. Other sets now being prepared are: J. D. Clark: Kalambo Falls;

The Tartaria Tablets: a Chronological Issue

Abstract: In the June number of ANTIQUITY Mr Sinclair Hood introduced to the readers of this journal the sensational find of the so-called Neolithic inscribed tablets from Transylvania. When this find was announced for the first time [I], it made a great impression upon everybody who appreciated its significance. It was a kind of deus ex machina which seemed to solve once and for all one of the crucial issues of Central European archaeology: the absolute chronology of the Neolithic Period.

The Early Neolithic of Southern Italy

Abstract: HE basis for all recent discussions of the T sequence of Neolithic wares in south Italy is R. B. K. Stevenson’s excellent article of 1947 [I]. Since then all authorities (including L. Bernabb-Brea [2], S. Tin& [3] and D. Trump [4]) have recognized the existence of an Early Neolithic phase defined by the use primarily of Impressed Ware, accompanied on occasion by plain burnished wares but never by painted pottery. The introduction of painted wares (both the widespread red-painted variety generally described as dipinta a fasce larghe, here called simply Red-painted Ware, and wares of more local distribution such as the north Apulian La Quercia Ware) has been taken to mark the beginning of the Middle Neolithic phase. The general acceptability of this system has always lain more in its concurrence with the sequence of wares established elsewhere in the Mediterranean, especially in Thessaly, than in the evidence from southern Italy itself, which is both inadequate in quantity and ambiguous in significance. In this brief re-examination of the Italian evidence, I shall suggest that the distinction between ‘pure’ Impressed Ware and Impressed Ware associated with painted wares is not a rigid one and that its significance is not chronological. The evidence for the existence of ‘pure’ Impressed Ware is surprisingly slight. Of 86 sites in southern Italy,” yielding Impressed * For this purpose southern Italy comprises the regions of Apulia, Basilicata, Campania and Calabria. Ware, only 9 have produced apparently ‘pure’ Impressed Ware levels. Admittedly, the number may in fact be greater as sites yielding mixed surface collections may have had several phases of occupation, including a ‘pure’ Impressed Ware stage. However, the evidence of excavated sites suggests that this was a rare occurrence; it is certainly more common to find Impressed Ware in association with other types of pottery than on its own. The nine known sites are: Coppa Nevigata [5 ] , a settlement on the edge of the marshes near Manfredonia; another settlement site in Contrada Guadone [b] near San Severo on the northern edge of the Foggia plain (the Tavoliere); two other open sites at Scamuso [7] and Torre a Mare [S] near Bari; the caves known as Grotta del Guardian0 [9] at Polignano a Mare and Grotta delle Mura [IO] at Monbpoli, both on the Adriatic coast south of Bari; two more open sites in the Apennine foothills, one at Guadiano di Lavello [I I] in the province of Potenza and the other at Malerba near Altamura [12]; finally on the other side of the peninsula, in eastern Calabria, the settlement site of Favella [13] (Cosenza province) is also said to have produced a ‘pure’ Impressed Ware deposit. In fact only one of these nine sitesCoppa Nevigata [5]-has produced sufficient quantity of pottery for one to be certain that the Impressed Ware is really ‘pure’. Nevertheless, one might argue that the evidence is sufficient to postulate a separate ‘pure’ Impressed Ware phase. However, a closer look at the material

Thucydide et la puissance maritime de Massalia

Abstract: Josette de Wever, Thucydide et la puissance maritime de Massalia. — Une analyse approfondie du contexte historique et des sources paralleles permet d'affirmer que la phrase tant controversee de Thucydide sur le passe de Massalia (I, 13, 6) ne concerne nullement la fondation de cette colonie comme on l'a generalement admis jusqu'a present, mais fournit une indication precieuse concernant l'hegemonie maritime des Massaliotes a la fin du VIe et au Ve s. avant notre ere. Ce renseignement doit donc etre rapproche de ceux que nous ont transmis Strabon et Pausanias.

Excavation of Two Long Barrows in North Wiltshire

Abstract: question were in use in the last three centuries In this region therefore it is not unlikely that BC and the early centuries AD, during a part of foreign traders from the Roman world would which Roman trade was very active in southern find an occasional market for this specialized India. agricultural implement. Nevertheless, coulters The Roman coulter was devised especially for have not so far been reported from ancient sites use in regions where the soil was heavy, compact in the Deccan with the solitary exception of the and cohesive. In such regions the simple plough Brahmagiri specimen, and they were certainly with wooden share, as used in parts of India not adopted widely by Indian agriculturists. until today, was not effective. This disability This is understandable, for tradition dies hard would apply particularly on the hard and comin a country like India where even now the pact black cotton soils of the Deccan, and would mechanization of agriculture has made slow there give an additional utility to the iron coulter. headway.

The Function of the Yoke Saddle in Ancient Harnessing

Abstract: Dr Watson's review of Dr von Dewall's Pferd und Wagen im Fruhen China in your June issue raised a very interesting question, a hitherto unexplored aspect of which is indicated, if never developed, in the book. Dr Watson writes that the author ‘Rather surprisingly, sees no problem in the perennial question of the plac—hest or neck—on which the yoked horses took the load, and assumes that the system of traces kept the point of draught low and protected the horses from the choking effects of a band around the neck.’ Dr von Dewall referred to a girth (Bauchgurt) rather than to traces (which did not then exist) as performing this function, but was over-optimistic in believing it could be successful. But she does assign a role, although a not entirely correct one, to the yoke saddle: ‘Die Jochgabel auf dem Nacken der Pferde, an der ein Brustblatt angesetzt haben muss, das von Brust und Schulter die Zugkraft abnahm, war damit ein wichtiges Verbindungsglied in diesem Zugsystem’ . The saddle is an element of the harness long neglected in the literature and, although it could never completely have removed the pressure from the throat (‘breast’ is a euphemism), I hope to demonstrate that it would permit the withers and particularly the upper shoulder to absorb some of this-at least when the horse was in certain positions.

Archaeology and the History of British Towns

Abstract: Urban archaeology in Britain is still in its infancy, conditioned on the one hand by a concentration on the Roman period to the detriment of later centuries, on the other by a lack of close co-operation between historians and archaeologists. Only since the last war has archaeology begun to be accepted in Britain as an important source of evidence for the history of towns. This growth of interest in urban archaeology is partly due to the example set by European scholars working in the same field. Many of our important towns were founded during the Roman occupation and this has given to their archaeology a character wholly different from that typical of the towns of northern Europe. The needs of Romano-British archaeology have dominated the excavation of towns, partly because classical studies have been fundamental to British education, and partly because medieval historians have not regarded archaeology as relevant to their interests.

A Neolithic God-dolly from Somerset, England

Abstract: Dr John Coles is a Lecturer in Archaeology in the University of Cambridge, and Assistant Editor of the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. His fieldwork has ranged widely from southern England to north-west Scotland. For many years he has been tracing and excavating Neolithic and Bronze Age trackways in the Somerset Fens: recently an excavation produced the remarkable ‘god-dolly’ which he describes here. A full account of his excavations will appear in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society for 1968.

New Thoughts on the Belgae

Abstract: Late Celtic Europe is discernible along three lines: from sources in texts, in coins, and in general archaeology. Where all converge, on any portion of its story, visibility ought to be good. Such a portion is the tale of the folk whose name was (in the Romans' spelling) Belgae. Julius Caesar, within the Gaul that he conquered in 58-51 BC, met Belgae first in the basin of the Marne, and then throughout between the Seine, the sea and the Rhine [I]. Their distinctness from neighbour Celts, which he opened his Memoirs on the Gallic War by stressing [2], was afterwards declared in Strabo’s Geography to have been quite slight in language [3]. Yet they themselves could account for it by old tradition, which Caesar learnt, on approaching the Marne, from envoys sent him by their tribe the Remi. ‘Germani,’ beyond the Rhine, had been ancestors of most of them, and these had crossed it and acquired their present good lands with eviction of Gallic occupants. In the north-east part of the country, towards the lower Rhine and in the Meuse/Maas basin, tribes could still use ‘Germani’ as their common name [5]; one supposes them therefore ‘more Germanic’ than the rest. None the less, the envoys reckoned them Belgae in the broader sense [6]. In that same sense, after Caesar’s war was won, the Roman government called all the province ‘Belgica’. But there is something more to add. The Gallic War employs another land-name, ‘Belgium’. What did this mean?

The Dolaucothi Gold Mines

Abstract: The first season of excavation has shown that the building of the mound took place in four stages, though apparently as a continuous process. SiZbury I consists of a central conical mound, about 36.5 m. (120 ft.) in diameter and 5.5 m. (18 ft.) in height. At its base there is a layer of gravel, capped by a heap of turf and soil revetted by a stake circle. Above this are four layers of mixed gravel, chalk and soil, each about 0-5 m. (20 in.) in thickness and each of horizontally banded construction, the result of tipping individual basket-loads of material in a controlled manner. This complex primary mound stands on an almost level terrace, of natural origin, on the slope of the spur covered by the main mound. There is no surrounding quarry-ditch, and all the constituent materials seem to have been derived from valley-bottom deposits at a distance of several hundred metres to the north or east. As soon as it was built, the primary mound wascapped by SilburyIl, amoundof chalkrubble about 73 m. (240 ft.) across, excavated from a concentric ditch with a mean diameter of about I 16 m. (380 ft.). The vertical unweathered sides, and the unfinished state, of this ditch show that it was deliberately re-filled before its

Théocrite Simichidas et les Thalysies

Abstract: Une analyse detaillee du langage et des motifs de l'Idylle VII, dans le cadre du vocabulaire et des conventions litteraires alexandrines, nous permet d'aboutir au denouement des problemes que cette idylle a jusqu'ici presentes.

The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals

Abstract: Originally projected as one of the Research Seminars periodically held at the Institute of Archaeology in the University of London, the meeting held on this theme on the 18th and 19th May at the Institute developed at the planning stage into a major international conference. The final publication promises to be an important and unprecedented contribution focused upon the most notable growingpoint of prehistoric archaeology. Archaeologists at the meeting were in a minority, and the major papers were delivered by specialists in botany, zoology, ecology and related fields. In consequence the zoological and botanical aspects of domestication were treated in greatest detail, and the conclusions-or more accurately, the clarification of problems-which resulted are certain to change what we imagine we mean by the term ‘Neolithic origins’. The conference was organized by Professor G. W. Dimbleby and Dr Peter Ucko, and they will edit the proceedings of the conference, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals, to be published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson. Among the overseas specialists who travelled to London for the occasion were Dr Maria Hopf, Mme. A. Leroi-Gourhan, Dr W. van Zeist, Mme M. Villaret von Rochow and Professor D. Zohary (botanists); and Dr S. Bokonyi, and Professors K. V. Flannery and C. A. Reed (zoologists). As is traditional in this seminar all the papers were pre-circulated, and will be published in revised form, so that rather than attempting to summarize them here, it may be useful to emphasize some of the points which emerged in the discussions, which will not be separately published. The meaning of the concept ‘domesticated’ came in for much discussion. For the cereals, the principal plant crops of Europe and Southwest Asia, the answer seems clear, as Dr Zohary emphasized. Here the process of sowing the grain differentiates between domestic cultivation and mere systematic exploitation. The farmer automatically reaps grain with a tough rachis (since spikelets with brittle rachis shatter and fall to the ground) and in sowing is automatically selecting for this feature. Genetic differentiation thus rapidly and automatically results, and the homogeneity of the cultivated strain is maintained, since the cereals are largely self-pollinating. The domestic species consequently shows morphological differentiation from the wild prototypes, which allows its identification in archaeological residues. Maize (although not self-pollinating) similarly underwent marked change on domestication. For animals the situation is more complex: there was wide agreement with Dr Bokonyi’s view that controlled breeding is the essential criterion for domestication. But the point was made by Mr H. S. Smith that in this case ‘bred in captivity’ and ‘domestic’ may not be synonymous. One of the chief criteria for domestication in the analysis of prehistoric faunal remains has been the evidence in the age distribution for systematic slaughter, but this can take place in herds kept or exploited by man, whether or not the breeding is otherwise controlled. Several speakers commented also on the need to study both animal behaviour (and fatality ages) in herds and the techniques of hunters, to establish under what circumstances a non-random age distribution may occur in the archaeological

Durrington Walls: a Ceremonial Enclosure of the 2nd Millennium BC

Abstract: Durrington Walls lies one quarter of a mile to the north of the outskirts of Amesbury in Wiltshire and 9 miles north of Salisbury (SU 150437). Stonehenge is situated 2 miles to the south-east and 80 yds. to the south of the enclosure is Woodhenge which was excavated by Mrs Cunnington in 1926-8. The much ploughed bank, which encloses a dry valley opening on to the River Avon, was initially recorded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in the early 19th century (1812, 169), but until the recently completed series of excavations the only digging on the site was that carried out by Professor Stuart Piggott in 1952, despite recognition of the enclosure as being one of the largest henge monuments in the country. The 1952 excavations were in the nature of an exploration on both sides of a pipe trench where it intersected with the bank in its southern sector (Stone, Piggott and Booth, 1954). A double row of post-holes was recorded along the outer edge of the bank and a quantity of animal bones, flints and sherds of Grooved Ware was found on top of the old land surface which was preserved beneath it. Sherds of Grooved Ware and two small fragments of Beaker were recorded from domestic refuse overlying the bank talus. Radiocarbon dates of 2620± 40 and 2630 ± 70 BC were obtained from charcoal under the bank in its southern sector (Piggott, 1959, 289). These determinations were described by Professor Piggott as ‘archaeologically unacceptable’ as two small scraps of Beaker pottery were found in association with the abundant Grooved Ware.

La légende d'Oppien

Abstract: Des avant Sozomene (Ve s.), l'homonymie des auteurs et l'analogie des themes ont provoque la fusion du peu de que l'on possedait sur l'Oppien d'Anazarbe (Halieutiques en 172), avec une Vie de l'Oppien d'Apamee (180-21 1), concue dans l'esprit de la nouvelle Le produit de cette fusion est la Vita I de l'edition Westermann (1845). — Le chiffre de 20.000 pieces, montant de la prime accordee au poete par Caracalla selon la Souda et la Vita II, a ete evalue d'apres l'etat de l'œuvre tel que nous le encore.

Iron Age Forts and Epic Literature

Abstract: The excavation of the Clickhimin site in the Shetland Islands by the Ministry of Public Building and Works revealed the arrangement of living quarters inside a small stonebuilt fort occupied between the 4th and 1st centuries BC [I]. With the exception of a large communal stonebuilt hut in the centre of the enclosure, the inhabitants dwelt in a series of half-timbered storeyed ranges attached to the inner face of the fort wall (FIG. I). The pent-roofs of these ranges were supported by a dwarf, or casement, wall built on the wall walk, and access between the rooms at first-floor level and the walk was obtained through a series of doorways. Two stonebuilt duns in the Western Isles, Dun Ringill and Dun Grugaig, still retain the jambs of such doorways and at Clickhimin a similar door was preserved in the blockhouse guarding the fort entrance though here it led to a passage which gave access to a stair to the parapet walk at second-floor level [2].

A Radiocarbon Date for a West Scottish Neolithic Settlement

Abstract: ‘R. E. M. W. writes: Your obituary of Sir Ian Richmond is a useful account of his distinguished career but should be supplemented on the personal side. I t is for his warm and sympathetic personality as much as for his very considerable scholarship that he will long be remembered by innumerable friends and colleagues, and sorely missed by them. From the time when, about 1922, as an undergraduate of Corpus he joined me in the pioneer-excavation of the Roman fort at Caernarvon to that unforgettable day three months ago when he bravely told me in effect that his days were numbered, he was one of my closest allies, with that gift for genuine and quiet communication which to me-and to others-was his most precious quality. That he became also one of the leading European scholars in the field of Roman studies is at the present moment of secondary import to us, his familiars. We were enriched by his friendship.’

Timber Mortuary Houses and Earthen Long Barrows

Abstract: absence of such a structure, necessary to the stability of the mound, suggests the barrow to have been unfinished. The two quarry ditches flanking the mound were of approximately equal lengths and showed only slight convergence towards the tail. The S ditch reached a depth of about 3’0m. (10 ft.) and was fairly regular; the N ditch, however (excepting the E end), was about half this depth, consisting of a series of shallow scoops-the marks of quarrying. These facts, together with the incomplete appearance of the NW sector of the mound, add to the idea of an unfinished monument. (This evidence, incidentally, also supports the theory of an E to W sequence of construction.) Undecorated sherds of Neolithic pottery from the soil beneath the mound include parts of two sharply-carinated bowls in hard, dark, wellsmoothed ware. Fragments of Ebbsfleetl Mortlake ware and of an All-Over-Cord beaker were recovered from the upper levels of the primary fine fill in the ditches. I. F. SMITH and J. G. EVANS

Climatic Changes during the Course of Early Greek History

Abstract: by allowing for the growth allowance, that is the number of annual rings between the sample and the bark (it is known that freshly cut timber was used for buildings). At the Conference on Science and Archaeology held at the University of California, Los Angeles, last October, I presented results based on this procedure for samples taken from five cruck cottages in North Berkshire. The radiocarbon activity had been measured (after conversion of the heartwood to carbon dioxide) in Professor Libby’s laboratory at Los Angeles. Samples from three diflerent beams in one cruck house gave the almost identical dates of AD 1470,1480 and 1485 respectively. For another cruck the date obtained was AD 1525: for this dwelling, prior to the application of the StuiverSuess correction, the radiocarbon age implied the impossible (on other evidence) date of AD 1600. The advantage of having available a second block of heartwood from the same timber was found in dating a tie-beam, part of the reroofing of the north transept of Hanvell church. For the first sample (UCLA 1250, growth allowance 40 years) the radiocarbon age was 270 years BP giving, with no correction, the unlikely date AD 1720. Now it happens that atmospheric carbon-14 fluctuations were such that the present radioactivity in the wood that was laid down about the years AD I 530, I 560 and 1640 is almost identical: all three correspond to a radiocarbon age of about 270 years. From the first sample there were therefore three possible building dates-1570, 1600, or 1680. To decide between these, the radiocarbon activity (UCLA 1257) of a second sample having a widely different growth allowance (100 years) was determined. The date obtained was A.D. 1570, namely the one predicted on architectural grounds. The procedure would be of little value if the standard deviation from the counting of the radiocarbon was IOO or more years. In fact, the standard deviation quoted for the above work was & 60 years, but Dr Rainer Berger, who is now conducting the UCLA measurements, has recently pointed out that the margin of error allowed in UCLA results is on the high side [3]. The concordance here quoted supports this and suggests that there should be a reappraisal by medieval archaeologists of the potentialities of radiocarbon dating.

Restitution d'une harpe minoenne et problème de la ΣΑΜΒΥΚΗ

Abstract: Marcelle Duchesne-Guillemin, Restitution d'une harpe minoenne et probleme de la σαμβύκη. — Le musee d'Heraklion possede un objet en ivoire trouve par Evans dans une tombe de Zafer Papoura et faussement interprete comme une barque. Il s'agit en realite de la caisse de resonance d'une harpe en arc, tres probablement horizontale. Le terme σαμβύκη s'applique stricto sensu a la harpe verticale angulaire, mais s'est peut-etre etendu, vers la fin de l'antiquite, aux instruments semblables a celui d'Heraklion.