XIV.—The Discovery of Prehistoric Pits at Peterborough and the Development of Neolithic Pottery

Archaeologia ◽  
1910 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Wyman Abbott ◽  
Reginald A. Smith

The series of relics exhibited to the Society come from an early settlement at Peterborough, dating from a time when flint was in general use, perhaps before the introduction of metal, at least among the poorer inhabitants of the country. The site is a promontory rising out of the Fens and lying on the north-east side of the town. The river Nene joined the Fens about half a mile to the south-west of the site, which is only a few feet above sea-level, and was almost surrounded in times of flood. So far as can be determined at present, the extent of the settlement is several acres, but the ground has not yet been moved except on the west side, where unfortunately no observations were taken. There were no surface indications of human habitation, and no burrows noticed on the promontory or in its neighbourhood. The subsoil is gravel, fine and coarse, varying in depth from 8 to 10 feet. The top 18 inches of gravel, underlying the soil, is reddish brown, mixed with a reddish loam, which sometimes occupies natural pockets 3 to 8 feet deep, cutting down through the gravel and at times reaching the cornbrash below.

1980 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olwen Brogan

In the Gebel Garian, about 20 kilometres south of Asabaa, the map-makers of 1964 indicated an ancient wall (Fig. 1) called Hadd Hajar (i.e. wall of stone) running south-west for six kilometres from Ras al Tays al Abyad (858 m; the Hill of the White Goat) on which stood a watch tower, to Ras al Said (764 m). The country crossed by Hadd Hajar is about 690-730 m above sea-level with a gently-undulating surface constituting a fairly open and level valley. The hills are covered with esparto-grass. On the west the Wadi Wamis winds among closely-set hills while, in the north-east, the wall is carried for a further three quarters of a kilometre across a narrow valley from Ras al Tays al Abyad to another hill Ras al Saqifah. An old track comes southwards down this valley flanked on the east side by a barrier of hills over 800 m high. Where the track crosses the wall there is a Roman building (Gasr al Saqifah) with traces of an archway for people and flocks to pass through. Two kilometres to the south is an old cistern (Majin Saqifah) presumably Roman. Beyond, the track continues about 25 kilometres to a large well, Bir al Shaqaykah (Sceghega), after which it is another 28 kilometres south-eastwards to Mizdah on the Wadi Sofeggin.


1967 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 353-371
Author(s):  
J. J. Coulton

About 10 metres south-west of the sixth-century temple of Hera Akraia at Perachora, and nearly due west of the little harbour lies the small courtyard previously known as the ‘Agora’. Since its purpose is not known, it will here be non-committally referred to as the West Court. It was first excavated in 1932, and more fully, under the supervision of J. K. Brock, in 1933, but it was not entirely cleared until 1939, and it was at that time that the Roman house which stood in the middle of the court was demolished. The West Court is discussed briefly (under the name of ‘Agora’) in Perachora 1 and in the preliminary reports of the Perachora excavations. Short supplementary excavations were carried out in 1964 and 1966 to examine certain points of the structure.In shape the West Court is an irregular pentagon, about 24 metres from north to south and the same from east to west (Fig. 1; Plate 91 a, b). It is enclosed on the west, north, and on part, at least, of the east side by a wall of orthostates on an ashlar foundation. For a short distance on either side of the south corner, the court is bounded by a vertically dressed rock face which is extended to the north-east and west by walls of polygonal masonry. At the south-west corner the west orthostate wall butts against the polygonal wall, which continues for about 0·80 m. beyond it and then returns north for about 8 metres behind it.


1853 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-217
Author(s):  
James D. Forbes

The following remarks, being the result of a careful examination of a small district of country characteristic of the relations of the trap formations, are perhaps worthy of being recorded; although the general features of the county of Roxburgh have been very clearly stated in a paper by Mr Milne, published in the 15th volume of the Edinburgh Transactions.The outburst of porphyritic trap forming the conspicuous small group of the Eildon Hills, may be stated to be surrounded by the characteristic greywacke of the south of Scotland. It forms an elongated patch on the map, extending from the west end of Bowden Muir in the direction of the town of Selkirk, and running from west-south-west to east-north-east (true) towards Bemerside Hill, on the north bank of the Tweed. The breadth is variable, probably less than is generally supposed; but it cannot be accurately ascertained, owing to the accumulated diluvium which covers the whole south-eastern slope of this elevated ridge. On this account, my observations on the contact of rocks have been almost entirely confined to the northern and western boundaries of the trap, although the other side was examined with equal care.


1980 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
pp. 69-73
Author(s):  
R.P Hall

An unusual occurrence of ultrabasic material was located in the eastern Sukkertoppen region during the reconnaissance mapping programme of 1977, the findings of which were described by Allaart et al. (1978). It occurs on a small exposure on the west side of a north-pointing peninsula in the middle of the large nunatak Majorqap alangua (65°53'N, 50°40'W), to the north-east of the Majorqaq valley (Hall, 1978, fig. 21). The area is composed predominantly of a suite of granulite facies granitic gneisses which contain numerous enclaves of pyroxene-bearing amphibolites, and locally anorthositic and gabbroic rocks similar to those seen in the Fiskenæsset anorthosite complex (Myers, 1975). The gneisses in the centre af the nunatak are highly irregular in orient at ion, occupying the complex interseclion af closures af at least two major fold phases. A belt af amphibolitcs forms the cliff at the south-west tip af Majorqap alangua. Related rocks occur in arnphibolite facies in the acea around the lakc Qardlit taserssuat immediately to the soulh (Hall, 1978).


1970 ◽  
Vol 36 ◽  
pp. 125-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Coles ◽  
F. Alan Hibbert ◽  
Colin F. Clements

The Somerset Levels are the largest area of low-lying ground in south-west England, covering an extensive region between the highlands of Exmoor, the Brendon Hills and the Quantock Hills to the west, and the Cotswold and Mendip Hills to the east (Pl. XXIII, inset). The Quantock Hills and the Mendip Hills directly border the Levels themselves, and reach heights of over 250 metres above sea level. The valley between extends to 27 metres below sea level, but is filled to approximately the height of the present sea by a blue-grey clay. The Levels are bisected by the limestone hills of the Poldens, and both parts have other smaller areas of limestone and sand projecting above the peat deposits that cap the blue-grey clay filling. In this paper we are concerned with the northern part of the Levels, an area at present drained by the River Brue.The flat, peat-covered floor of the Brue Valley is some six kilometres wide and is flanked on the north by the Wedmore Ridge, and on the south by the Polden Hills (Pl. XXIII). In the centre of the valley, surrounded by the peat, is a group of islands of higher ground, Meare, Westhay, and Burtle. These islands, which would always have provided relatively dry ground in the Levels, are linked together by Neolithic trackways of the third millennium B.C. Several of these trackways formed the basis of a paper in these Proceedings in 1968 (Coles and Hibbert, 1968), which continued the work of Godwin and others (Godwin, 1960; Dewar and Godwin, 1963).


1950 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 261-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Cook ◽  
R. V. Nicholls

The village of Kalývia Sokhás lies against the base of one of the massive foothills in which Taygetus falls to the plain three or four miles to the south of Sparta (Plate 26, 1). It is bounded by two rivers which flow down in deep clefts from the mountain shelf. The hillside above rises steeply to a summit which is girt with cliffs on all but the west side and cannot be much less than four thousand feet above sea level; this von Prott believed to be the peak of Taleton. Its summit is crowned by the ruins of a mediaeval castle which was undoubtedly built as a stronghold to overlook the Spartan plain; the only dateable object found there, a sherd of elaborate incised ware, indicates occupation at the time when the Byzantines were in possession of Mystra. The location of the other sites mentioned by Pausanias in this region remains obscure, but fortunately that of the Spartan Eleusinion has not been in doubt since von Prott discovered a cache of inscriptions at the ruined church of H. Sophia in the village of Kalývia Sokhás. In 1910 Dawkins dug trenches at the foot of the slope immediately above the village and recovered a fragment of a stele relating to the cult of the goddesses and pieces of inscribed tiles from the sanctuary. The abundance of water in the southern ravine led von Prott to conclude that the old town of Bryseai with its cult of Dionysus also lay at Kalývia Sokhás; but no traces of urban settlement have come to light at the village, and the name rather suggests copious springs such as issue from the mountain foot at Kefalári a mile to the north where ancient blocks are to be seen in the fields.


1988 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 175-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Harrison

Amorium is in eastern Phrygia, 170 km. south-west of Ankara, 70 km. north-east of Afyon, 12 km. east of the town of Emirdaǧ, and near the source of the Sakarya (Sangarius) (Fig. 1). It lies on the north-facing lower slopes of the mountains of Emirdaǧ (the Turkish town, previously called Aziziye, has the same name), and the ancient site of Amorium lies within the relatively recent village of Hisarköy. The mountain of Emirdaǧ gives rise to various streams which flow into a tributary of the Sakarya, and at Amorium the view to the north extends over some 50 km., showing, in the middle distance, the tree-lined course of the river, and the mountains of Sivrihisar beyond. The ancient town (which includes a large prehistoric hüyük) was mentioned by Strabo, and indeed the name of Amorium appeared earlier on coins, in the second or first century B.C. The site was rediscovered by W. J. Hamilton in 1836.


1939 ◽  
Vol 76 (8) ◽  
pp. 360-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Shirley

In the type area the Ludlow Rocks generally have been divided into Lower Ludlow Shales, Aymestry Limestone, Dayia Shales and Whitcliffe Flags in upward sequence. The Dayia Shales are characterized by the presence of enormous numbers of Dayia navicula (J. de C. Sowerby). This preponderance of D. navicula in the shales immediately above the Aymestry Limestone has caused a tendency to regard beds in other localities containing this fossil as being on the same stratigraphical horizon in spite of the character of the accompanying fauna. In two recent papers on the Ludlow Rocks of the Welsh Borderland (Straw, 1937, and Earp, 1938) it has been shown that D. navicula ranges through at least 3,000 feet of strata, occurring commonly throughout this great thickness and outlasting more than one change of fauna. Although, in this area, the brachiopod ranges from the zone of Monograptus nilssoni into the Upper Ludlow it has not hitherto been recorded below the Aymestry Limestone in Shropshire. This gap in our knowledge is now filled by the discovery of specimens in Lower Ludlow Shales exposed in a small quarry 40 yards north-east of Stokewood Cottage, which is on the west side of the railway line a little over a mile south of Craven Arms. The quarry shows about 15 feet of nodular shales with thin limestone seams. The commonest fossils are Chonetes laevigata (J. de C. Sowerby), C. minima (J. de C. Sowerby), and Stropheodonta filosa (J. de C. Sowerby) which occur in large numbers on some of the bedding surfaces. Other fossils are Stropheodonta euglypha (Dalman), Delthyris sp., Orthoceras sp., Dalmanites sp., and a plectambonitid. Dayia navicula seems to be confined to a thin layer on the north side of the quarry. Graptolites referable to Monograptus cf. chimaera occur fairly commonly. About 400 yards in a south-easterly direction another small quarry exposes Conchidium Limestone which is about 170 feet stratigraphically above the beds in the first quarry.


Archaeologia ◽  
1938 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 129-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Fox

In the angle between the rivers Ogwr and Ewenny on the northern margin of the Vale of Glamorgan, east of the town of Bridgend, Brackla Hill (287 ft.) is the outstanding feature. Its pastoral slopes are linked to higher ground on the north by a saddle, on the east side of which there is a gentle fall to a tributary of the Ewenny, and on the west to a rivulet which flows into the Ogwr. Coity village lies at the point where the saddle merges into the upland.


1965 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-416
Author(s):  
R. F. Mereu

Abstract A three component array of Willmore seismometers and a hydrophone were used to record the seismic events at Marathon, Ontario during the Lake Superior crustal experiment of 1963. The first part of each record was digitized and from an analysis of the particle motion diagrams, apparent angles of emergence of the seismic rays were determined. It was found that these angles can be used to distinguish between P2 and Pn waves. When the shot distance was less than 220 km., the first arrivals emerged with an apparent angle of 40-50°. As the shot distance was increased beyond 220 km., the rays emerged with an apparent angle of 51-70°. The apparent velocities of the (40-50) and the 51-70°) rays were 6.6 km/sec and 8.2 km/sec respectively. Further analysis of the results showed that the Moho below Marathon dipped downwards toward the south west with an angle of approximately 4°, indicating that the crust is considerably thicker on the south west side of Marathon than on the north east. A study of the ray azimuths gave some evidence of the presence of lateral inhomogeneities in the crust.


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