This volume reports on the archaeological investigation of a Late Neolithic long-chambered dolmen accidentally discovered near Goult in Provence, France, during a flood of the Calavon River in 1994. The monument was sealed beneath thick sedimentary deposits that have favoured the excellent preservation of the remains, a situation that sometimes occurs in the foothills of mountainous massifs; the megalithic tomb of Reguers de Seró in the province of Lleida, Spain, was preserved and discovered in similar circumstances.

Part 1 of this book presents a well-documented and detailed overview of the Neolithic funerary complexes of Provence, reviewing the history of research and the current state of knowledge. This is a valuable summary for those interested in recent work on the prehistory of this region. Part 2 turns to the site of Ubac itself. The first six chapters of this section describe the discovery, excavation and the architecture of the monument, and then outline the changing environment of the site and its setting. Two large chapters—comprising almost half of the entire volume—then examine the human skeletal remains, including depositional processes and palaeopathologies (several of the appendices also focus on these skeletal remains). The third and final part of the volume consists of short chapters that put the results into perspective, mainly on a regional scale, with particular emphasis on the human remains. The original excavation, the results and the rigour of the argument advanced are all exemplary.

This volume expands our knowledge of regional sequences for the end of the Neolithic in Provence, and, in particular, for funerary and burial practices. The Ubac dolmen was constructed after 3300 BC, and continued in use until c. 2600 BC. It forms part of a series of funerary monuments in western Provence, such as Château Blanc at Ventabren, which is often placed at the beginning of the regional megalithic tradition. Sites such as the Dolmen de Coutignargues feature a semi-subterranean burial chamber, with drystone-wall construction, stone roof slabs and a trapezoidal plan; and these sites are similar to those attested at the Arles-Fontvieille group. To the west of the Rhone, in contrast, burial chambers were constructed above, not below, ground, and surrounded by cairns with external drystone facings. The Ubac dolmen was enclosed within a circular earthen mound with a stone covering, delimited by two concentric circles of small standing slabs. This layout is reminiscent of many megalithic tombs in Iberia. In Navarre, in the southern Pyrenees, for example, the semi-subterranean Longar hypogeum was constructed with drystone walls, with slabs lining the entrance corridor and an imposing capstone over the chamber; this hypogeum contained the bones of about 100 individuals, at least one of whom died between 2630 and 2500 BC.

The burial chamber of the Ubac dolmen was initially about 2.9m long and 1.5m wide, with a maximum internal height of about 1.6m; the entrance passage leading to it was very short. The chamber contained the remains of at least 40 individuals. Three or four phases of funerary activity have been identified through the application of the archaeothanatological principles advanced over recent decades by Henri Duday and his team. A detailed analysis of the human remains, such as the taphonomic processes affecting the dispersal of individual skeletons, leads to a careful reconstruction of the sequence of actions performed during the deposition and management of the deceased's bones. This approach, impressively applied here, has been neglected for too long in published studies of these southern dolmens. The resulting discussion is extremely interesting, and the material on which it is based will no doubt continue to yield further insights with future methodological developments in, for example, bioarchaeology. Further radiocarbon dating, and the use of Bayesian analysis, would be particularly welcome.

As often in our discipline, a particularly good research project raises new questions. In this case, the next step is to consider whether walls built of mud-brick might have complemented the surviving stone structures that are the immediate object of attention. Studies of burial practices have recently focused on the human body, but the architecture of the monuments within which they were contained also warrants detailed study. Work on the Boileau hypogeum has also drawn attention to the layout of funerary objects within tombs, particularly personal ornaments. Further work on the setting of the Ubac dolmen in its local landscape is precluded by the thick covering of colluvium across the surrounding area. As a result, the hypothesis that the construction of the monument was preceded by an individual burial, possibly associated with the remains of a ceramic deposit and two now broken stelae, must remain conjectural. None of this, however, detracts in any way from the high quality of this work, which will probably become a point of reference with relevance well beyond the region of Provence. This book can be recommended to anyone working on, or interested in, megalithic structures across Western Europe.