Towards a fuller, more nuanced narrative of Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age Britain 2500-1500 BC

This contribution considers some of the many recent advances in our understanding of Chalcolithic and Bronze Age Britain and uses these to highlight the weak points in our current state of knowledge. Focusing mainly on the period 2500–1500 BC, it concentrates on issues of chronology, human movement, the role of metal and monuments as 'drivers' of action, and the potential offered by current studies of artefact manufacture, use and depositio

The re-dating of some Scottish specimens by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU)

The purpose of this note is to alert readers to the fact that some AMS dates determined by ORAU on Scottish material between 2000 and 2002 have had to be deleted and re-determined, because of a problem in the ultrafiltration system used to pretreat bone samples during that period (see C Bronk Ramsey, T Higham, A Bales and R Hedges 2004, Improvements in the pretreatment of bone at Oxford, Radiocarbon 46(1), 155–63, for details). In many cases it has been possible to undertake the re-dating using left over material from the original (unprocessed) samples; in other cases, re-sampling will be necessary. Lists of both sets of material are appended here, and readers are requested to use only the new dates, and to delete the old versions

An Early Bronze Age 'dagger grave' from Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle, Fife

In February 2000, ploughing disturbed the capstone of a cist, located on the side of a prominent knowe at Rameldry Farm, near Kingskettle in central Fife. Excavation by Headland Archaeology Ltd on behalf of Historic Scotland revealed a short cist which contained the crouched inhumation of a man aged 40-50, who had suffered from arthritis, some tooth loss and possibly Paget's Disease. He had been buried wearing a garment adorned with six V-pelforated buttons. Five of these are of Whitby jet (including one with unique decoration including inlaid tin); the sixth is of the mineral lizardite, and has an enigmatic coating, possibly a glaze. Behind his shoulder was a dagger, of 'Milston type (East Kennet variant) it had had a fancy horn hilt and a scabbard lined with animal skin. The scabbard yielded two A MS radiocarbon dates, with a mean value of 2280-1970 cal Bc at 2

A jet bead from Flag Fen, 2004. In F. Pryor & M. Bamforth (eds), Flag Fen, Peterborough: Excavation and Research 1995-2007

The site at Flag Fen lies at the centre of a once-wet Fenland bay, immediately east of Peterborough. In the Bronze Age a huge alignment of posts crossed a kilometer of wetland to link the two sides of one of the most important and intensively studied prehistoric landscapes in Britain. This volume discusses work carried out at Flag Fen since the completion, in 1995, of the comprehensive Flag Fen Basin Report (EH Archaeology Report, 2001)