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publisher: Elsevier articletitle: Tin ingots from a probable Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Salcombe, Devon: Composition and microstructure journaltitle: Journal of Archaeological Science articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2016.01.018 content_type: article copyright: Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Archaeology has a long tradition of volunteer involvement but also faces considerable challenges in protecting and understanding a geographically widespread, rapidly dwindling and ever threatened cultural resource. This paper considers a newly launched, multi-application crowdsourcing project called MicroPasts that enables both community-led and massive online contributions to high quality research in archaeology, history and heritage. We reflect on preliminary results from this initiative with a focus on the technical challenges, quality control issues and contributors motivations.

This paper proposes that a contextual approach is required to make the most of the rich and diverse evidence for Early Bronze Age funerary practices in Scotland. It reviews the spatial patterning of the principal funerary traditions and identifies significant regional differences in their popularity by region. The chronological relationship between Beaker and Food Vessel burials is then reviewed in the light of new radiocarbon dates. Both distributional and chronological factors then contribute to a refined, regional and contextual approach to Beaker typology. The paper concludes by bringing these various strands together within the geographical and historical context of North-East and East-Central Scotland, in order to provide two regional ‘narratives’ of social organisation and identity.