PLATES I-IOT H I S report describes and discusses the archaeological sites explored by the writers in an intensive survey of the lower catchment of the river valley which reaches from just south-west of Pigaidakhia to the mouth of the Ayiofarango just west of Kaloi Limenes (FIG. I ). This area was chosen because it was known to be of considerable archaeological importance, yet in recent years it had been subjected more to the depredations of tomb-robbers than to the exploration of archaeologists. 2 In addition, there was the possibility that a road would be cut through the valley from the Mesara to Kaloi Limenes. A survey in advance of such work would enable sites of archaeological importance to be recorded and either investigated or safeguarded before any construction work took place.The survey was spread over four weeks in the summer of 1971, when four archaeologists were involved, and over three weeks in 1972 when a geologist, a physical geographer, and a human geographer were concerned with the survey. In addition, archaeological staff working at that time on the excavation of a tholos tomb at A. Kyriaki were able to supplement their work of the preceding year. It was intended from the first that the survey should cover the entire human occupation of the lower catchment from earliest times to the present day, and that the natural environment of this occupation should be as fully established as possible. Furthermore, the survey was undertaken intensively, and not selectively. In so far as it was possible, the survey team covered the total area of the lower catchment from the river bed to the watershed, in order that the total pattern of human settlement in the area might be recorded.Brief mention must be made of some of the problems of interpretation which we have faced in compiling this report. In many cases settlement sites produced only small quantities of sherds, and these were mainly weathered coarse wares. Recognizable sherds on these sites tended to belong mainly to the latest period of occupation, and earlier occupation was barely represented amongst surface finds. At E5 and E6, for example, only two identifiable Minoan sherds were found on the surface, although the river-cut section revealed two levels containing Minoan pottery. This section, at E6, proved to be of great importance in that it allowed us to identify some coarse ware fabrics as Early Minoan, Hellenistic, or late Hellenistic/early Roman, which in turn allowed us to ascribe dates to settlement sites where distinctive pottery of one of these periods was found in only very small quantities.
IntroductionPeat has been used as a fuel and as an additive to arable fields to aid fertility since prehistoric times in many parts of northern Europe (e.g. Fenton 1986; Whittle et al. 1986). The cutting of deep peat and the construction of peat stacks as part of the drying process has been documented from Medieval times, but the antiquity of such activities is unknown. Peat stacks are ephemeral structures whose purpose is to aid the drying of hard-won, wet peat in areas where other fuels such as wood and coal are expensive or unobtainable. They are typically cleared within a few months of construction and leave no traces of their former presence. Here we report the unprecedented discovery of a ‘fossil’ pyramidal peat stack dating to the 2nd millennium BC, from the Isle of Barra in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Individual turves contained finger and thumb impressions and pollen analysis reveals environmental conditions at around the time of cutting. The method of extracting and stacking the peat used some 3500 years ago may be similar to that used today.
The paper presents the results of an intensive survey of two upland basins in eastern Crete. Following a description of the geology and topography of the area, the methods of survey, data manipulation, and pottery analysis are described. There follow catalogues of ceramic type fabrics and other finds. The results of the survey are then presented in three chronological phases (Neolithic, Bronze Age, Graeco-Roman), interpretations are suggested, and a final section provides an overview of the development of human settlement in the region. It is suggested that initial colonisation took place in the Final Neolithic but was short-lived. The basins were only reoccupied during the Protopalatial period, when both nucleated and dispersed settlements were occupied. There is no certain evidence for continued occupation after LM IIIA and the third phase of occupation did not begin until the fourth century BC. Hellenistic and Roman occupation in both nucleated settlements and farmsteads seems to have prospered over a period of eight or nine centuries.
and particularly Frere 1987, 288). Forty years ago Graham Webster reviewed the archaeological evidence for its use, and his account (Webster 1955) superseded earlier national and regional accounts (e.g. Cunnington 1932, 173; cf. Webster 1955, 199 n. 2). Since 1955, however, a considerable expansion in both excavation and publication, coupled with developments in recovery, recording and identification procedures, has resulted in a commensurate increase in the quantity and quality of the available evidence, which makes a detailed re-assessment of coal's significance overdue.The importance of the archaeological evidence is emphasized by the limited literary testimony of the use of coal in the ancient world in general. What references there are are difficult to interpret. Solinus (Collectaneae rerum memorabilium, cited in Haverfield 1906, 220-1) refers to a fuel that 'never whitens into ash but, as the flame fades, turns into rocky balls', which was used on the altar of Minerva in Britain, presumably at Bath. But this identifiable description is unique and, as Webster (1955, 199) noted, the fact that the word carbo was probably used to indicate both coal and charcoal makes other identifications in classical sources difficult. One or two other references may occur, by Theophrastus (De Lapidibus, 11,[12][13], possibly to denote the use of lignite in Thrace, Liguria and Elis (Eichholz 1965, 96-8), and by Pliny (Natural History, 34.20), recording the use of carbo for bronze working in areas of the provinces short of wood; but the problems are highlighted by the uncertain nature of the fuel noted in Pliny {Natural History, 2.111) and regarded by Webster (1955, 199) as natural gas, and by the probable variety of other inflammable substances known to authors such as Theophrastus (De Lapidibus, 11, 14 and 19), which Eichholz (1965, 96-8) interprets as references to pitchstone and palygorskite. In addition to the problems of interpretation, however, the almost complete silence of classical sources on the use of coal is not unduly significant, considering the limited degree to which they refer to non-political matters in north-western Europe.The nature and reliability of the evidence Some 200 Romano-British sites, ranging from small farmsteads to major towns are listed in the Appendix (see p. 00) as having yielded stratified coal. They represent a minimum of several hundred individual contexts, often reflecting temporally or functionally diverse aspects of the same site. Indeed in many instances far more coal-yielding contexts have been identified on sites than published accounts would lead one to believe, and this may well be equally true of other sites where it has been impossible to consult full archives. However, a number of points need to be made about the variety and consistency of this substantial body of evidence. Firstly, it should be noted that excavators' identifications of coal have been accepted at face value because confirmation has rarely been possible. Coal has been taken to include (where the differentiat...
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