Summary.  Vitreous slag‐like material, known as ‘cramp’, from prehistoric cremation burial sites in Orkney is, apart from cremated bone, one of the recurrent remains found within or around Bronze Age burials. Although the suggestion that cramp was formed by the fusing of sand attached to dry seaweed while it was being burnt was first proposed in the 1930s, there has never been a consideration of seaweed's contribution to cremation other than as a potential fuel. Scientific analyses presented in this paper corroborate the use of seaweed. It is suggested that cramp may have been deliberately produced to act as an efficient collector of shattered bone which otherwise could have been lost during the cremation. Far from being a ‘waste’, cramp could well have been another form of ‘human‐remains’ in its own right.

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This well-produced book is the result of a conference held on Orkney in 2001, in response to the discovery of the enigmatic site of Mine Howe, and the wealth of Iron-Age and Viking remains found throughout the island archipelago and further afield, but which have been rather overshadowed by the dominance of Neolithic monuments. The main themes of the book are burial, settlements and artefacts, language and society, as well as archaeological experiment.During the Later Iron Age and Viking periods, the sea was not the barrier we largely perceive it to be today. It was the connecting and unifying element that moved not only people and goods but ideas and news around the seaboard of Britain. It is not surprising, however, that this book does not address seacommunications directly due to the paucity of evidence for Iron-Age boats. Despite the wealth of images of rock-carved seagoing vessels in the Bronze Age and of such rare examples as the Dover Bronze-Age Boat (discovered in 1992) and of the three Late-

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