ABSTRACT
The archaeological record for the period between c. 13,000 BP and c. 10,000 BP is limited in extent when compared with many other parts of Europe because at the time the British Isles lay on the margin of human settlement in the Old World. It is also intractable, most of our data having been acquired during the pioneer days of archaeology when standards of recovery and recording fell far short of what can be expected now. It constitutes a most inadequate basis for reconstructing human behaviour over a period of three millennia. However, it is all we have, and careful analysis does lead to a number of interesting insights. The framework of analysis proposed in chapter 4 suggested that the archaeological record could be subdivided according to whether it represented refuse discarded at a home base or within its periphery, material left at a field camp or other location where specific activities were carried out, or finds casually lost or discarded.
