International Geological Congress, Moscow, August 1984

Armed with the information on source characteristics, they then analysed 28 pitchstone samples from 22 of the archaeological sites.

The data thus obtained showed unequivocally that all the analysed samples came from Arran. Moreover, using comparison of petrographic features, it proved possible to be even more specific about sources, at least for some of the samples. There are four petro- graphic types of pitchstone on Arran, named by Tyrrell (The Geology ofArran, 1928) as the Corrygills, Tormore, Glen Shurig and Glen Cloy types. Of the 15 archaeological samples studied in detail by Thorpe & Thorpe, three were definitely of the Corrygills type

and two were definitely of the Tormore type. The remaining ten were also assigned to those two types but with less confidence.

As far as the archaeologists are concerned, the interest in all this lies not just in the source as such but also in what the source location says about ancient trade routes, for the most distant pitchstone samples lie as far as 300 km from Arran. To the geologists the Thorps’ work offers an unusual demonstration of the power of today’s geo-analytical methods as well as a reminder of the important role played by geological resources in the development of civilisation. 0

Conference report Moscow in a splendidly sunny August: Red Square and the Kremlin exuding power as they always seem to do; the gay concoctions of colour upon St Basil’s Cathedral; golden cupolas and spires startlingly beautiful as ever, particularly in slanting sunshine. Estimates of registered participants at the 27th Inter- national Geological Congress varied from 4500 to 6500, but suffice it to say that geologists were thick on the ground. With the ambitious excursion programme as well, the Soviet geologists had completed an im- mensely complicated piece of organisation. We left our registration queues with the heaviest black bag of literature and other things that anyone had met in similar circumstances. Most useful was the neatly bound and hard-backed scientific programme which was to guide us through the complexities of the timetable of the days ahead.

Meetings were divided between different blocks in the Moscow State University Campus on the Lenin Hills, dominated by its great wedding cake of a main building. Others took place in the Soviet Centre some considerable distance away. Participants lived variously, some in hotels in the city centre, others in the University. A large fleet of buses plied at half- hourly intervals between these various places and the meeting centres.

Several thousand papers were presented within the various themes and symposia into which the 22 sections of the Congress were subdivided. Additional- ly there were colloquia on such subjects as the Geology of the USSR, Arctic Geology, and the Tecto- nics of Asia, together with a series of symposia related to the International Lithosphere Programme. The scientific content of all these is too vast to permit a summary. Many meetings of IUGS Commissions, Subcommissions , Committees, and Affiliated Associa- tions, etc, took place between 1800 and 2100 hours, sometimes creating later intricacies of individual transportation.

An old question was raised again: should we con- tinue to hold an International Congress for the whole of the geological sciences? Certainly there is to be one in the United States in five years time; but what of the future? Advantages are the maintenance of a broad and cohesive view of the discipline, the opportunity to attend sessions outside one’s own speciality, and above all perhaps the chance to meet colleagues from all over the world and from the diverse branches of our science. Because of the large numbers present in

Moscow and the geographical spread of meetings and other activities, it was not in fact easy to come across colleagues in other fields. The smaller and geographi- cally more confined Sydney Congress of 1976 was conspicuously successful in this respect.

At that Congress, too, the problem of excessive publication was solved, as abstracts only were issued and full papers had to find their places in appropriate scientific journals. This pattern has been largely maintained, though the Soviet organisers did issue a series of volumes of invited keynote papers which, remarkably enough, were actually already in existence at the Congress. The Russian language versions of these were very reasonably priced; not so the commer- cially published English language volumes.

However, restriction on publication does not mean restriction on the number of papers presented at the Congress. The vast number of these was emphasised not only by the complexity of the scientific program- me, but also by the large set of volumes of abstracts which did much to weigh down our black Congress bags as first delivered to us. There were, let it be said, far too many dull papers, read in dull fashion and appallingly illustrated. At one session of which I was Chairman, I glimpsed a well-known English col- league, seated in the middle of a sparse audience, binoculars raised to view the slides. He remarked afterwards that they were still incomprehensible. The organisers, too, were poorly served by those who failed to appear to deliver their papers or arrived at the very last minute with instructions about visual aids or simultaneous translation.

It is immensely difficult to find a means of severely cutting down the number of papers to be read at these congresses; but the unfortunate alternative may be a splitting of the whole arrangement, which would be sad indeed when it becomes more and more obvious that exponents of diverse branches of the geological sciences actually need to come together to further that grand synthesis we are seeking.

Soviet colleagues are to be congratulated upon a triumph of organisation in conditions of very great complexity. Vodka always seems to taste better in Central and Eastern Europe. It did so again in Moscow this August when good friends were as welcoming as ever.

CHARLES HOLLAND Professor of Geology and Mineralogy

Trinity College Dublin

IOIGEOLOGY TODAY Jan-Feb I985