bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Excavation of Maiden Castle, Dorset. Third Interim Report
Authors: Wheeler R. E. M.
Published: January 2012

The third season's work at Maiden Castle, Dorset, extended from July to December 1936, and was to have been the last of the series. Two unexpected discoveries combined to necessitate a fourth season's digging in July and August 1937, with the end now clearly in sight. The first of these discoveries was that of a large Neolithic ditch of somewhat unusual form near the summit of the eastern knoll within the camp; and the second was that of an early complex under the existing eastern entrance of the Iron Age earthwork. The present summary will indicate these problems, and will incidentally correct certain provisional inferences embodied in the Second Interim Report (1936).
Early Artillery Fortifications at Oslo and Trondheim
Authors: O'Neil B. H. St. J.
Published: January 2012

At the present time, when the thoughts and sympathy of many are with our Norwegian friends and allies, it may be of interest to recall certain other occasions on which they have had to face invasion from the sea. Moreover, the fortifications erected in Norway during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are of particular interest for comparison with those of this country during the same period, since, doubtless owing to their geographical position, both countries seem to have been influenced only gradually and spasmodically by the developing military science of the middle European peoples, the Germans and Italians.

Most of the artillery fortifications existing in Norway, as described in Festninger og andre militœrbygninger, date from the late seventeenth century or later, but even very brief research at the time of the International Congress of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Sciences at Oslo in 1936 showed that some portions of earlier work still exist at various places, largely incorporated in later defences. No extensive survey of these remains can be attempted here, since the material is not readily available, but the two illustrations of Oslo (Christiania) here reproduced form an excellent introduction to the study of such defences.
Non-Crescentic Sickle-Flints from Sussex
Authors: Curwen E. Cecil
Published: January 2012

The view that diffuse lustre on the sharp edge of a flint indicates that the flint has been used for cutting corn, or at least grass, has often been put forward. It has recently been criticized by M. René Neuville, and these criticisms have been countered by fresh experimental evidence which has convinced the writer that this interpretation holds good. Flint flakes, some worked, some apparently unworked, are frequently found in Egypt, Palestine, and elsewhere, bearing diffuse lustre on both faces adjacent to one or more edges, and such flakes are generally recognized as having served as parts of flint sickles, for some have actually been found in their wooden mounts. The possibility of analogous implements having been used in Britain has not so far received much attention, except that the beautifully worked crescentic ‘knives’ of Scandinavian type are now generally recognized as having been sickles. A few of these latter show the characteristic corn-lustre on their concave edges.
The Chichester Amphitheatre: Preliminary Excavations
Authors: White G. M.
Published: January 2012

The discovery of the Roman amphitheatre at Chichester was made by a local resident, Mr. Raymond Carlyon-Britton, to whom the writer is indebted for permission to use that knowledge.

Believing that an amphitheatre would be a normal adjunct of a Roman town of the size and importance of Chichester, Mr. Carlyon-Britton began an examination of the outskirts of the city in 1934, with the result that, early in 1935, the writer was shown the site which has since proved to be that of the amphitheatre. It lies outside the city on the SE. (fig. 1), just over 200 yards from the walls and divided from them by the now covered course of the Lavant stream, and about 250 yards from the East Gate, where Stane Street branches off north-eastwards. The line of approach from the East Gate to the amphitheatre has not been determined; a road may have led to it directly from the East Gate, or branched off, beyond the Lavant stream, from the road which no doubt ran eastwards along the coast.
Excavations in Alderney
Authors: Marett R. R. , de Guérin T. W. M.
Published: January 2012

In January 1925, Mr. J. E. Ainsworth, of the Braye Road, Alderney, reported that an exceptionally high tide, accompanied by a heavy gale, had undermined a portion of the cliff-face at Longy Bay near the Nunnery, on the south-east coast of Alderney, and had exposed a number of small stone cists in the second, or lower, band of black soil some 10 ft. below the upper surface of the cliff-face, and about 4 ft. above mean high spring-tide level.
The Transition from the Mosaic to the Enamel Method of Painting on Glass
Authors: Knowles John A.
Published: January 2012

The change from the mosaic to the enamel system of glass-painting and the causes which led up to it do not seem to have received from historians of the art the attention which they rightly deserve. The popular view, as stated in all the books, is that glass-painters adopted enamels in preference to coloured glass. Therefore, as the demand for pot-metals fell off, there was less and less inducement for glass-makers to make them, so that the art dwindled away until it was finally lost.
Excavations on the Akeman Street, near Asthally, Oxon., Feb.–June, 1925
Authors: Stevens C. G. , Myres J. N. L.
Published: January 2012

The following details of work done on the Akeman Street between Ramsden and Asthally, Oxon., may help to supplement the somewhat meagre account of this section of the road given by Codrington, who dismisses it as follows: ‘For two miles [southwest of Ramsden] a lane marks the course, and then for three miles across the Windrush Valley there are apparently few traces, but beyond Asthall a parish boundary takes up the line’…&c. In point of fact the road is very visible during the first of these three miles, and the ‘apparently few traces’ include one of the most remarkable features in the whole of its course, namely the causeway in Pool's Bottom, Asthally. The references throughout are to Ordnance Survey 25 in., Oxon., 1922, sheet xxv, 15 (cited as ‘O.S.’).
Excavations at Ur of the Chaldees
Authors: Woolley C. Leonard
Published: January 2012

It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that the site of Ur was identified and the excavation of its ruins begun by G. E. Taylor, consul at Basra, acting on behalf of the British Museum. A number of antiquities was brought back to London, but the unsensational character of the finds in southern Mesopotamia caused them to be overshadowed by the striking discoveries then being made in the northern mounds, and work was abandoned, not to be resumed until the Great War put the British in temporary possession of the country and gave it a fresh interest in the eyes of the public. In the latter part of the war Mr. R. Campbell Thompson, working for the British Museum, made soundings at Ur, but did not carry out extensive excavations; in 1919 Dr. H. R. Hall was sent out by the Trustees and began a systematic investigation of the site, employing a considerable force of men for nearly three months, and obtaining important results. Dr. Hall's work made it evident that if the site of Ur was to be tackled seriously, a whole series of campaigns extending over many years and involving very heavy outlay would be required, campaigns to which the post-war finances of the British Museum were by no means adequate. Fortunately the Trustees were at this juncture able to join forces with the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania, and it was decided that an expedition should take the field at the joint expense of the two institutions, which should also share with the Iraq Government in the material results of the work. Of this joint expedition I was asked to take charge. Mr. F. G. Newton came as architect of the party, Mr. Sidney Smith of the British Museum dealt with the inscriptions, and at the end of the year we were joined by Mr. A. W. Lawrence. Hamoudi, my Carchemish foreman, was put in charge of the men; the actual labourers were the Muntafik Arabs of the district. Digging started at the beginning of November and went on without interruption, owing to an unusually clement winter, until halfway through February.
Notes on the discovery of a Roman Burial at Radnage, Bucks
Authors: Skilbeck C. O.
Published: January 2012

The manner of discovering the objects found was unusual, and their presence quite unlooked for. It was as follows. A carriage drive leading to a modern house was being repaired during the early days of January of the present year (1923). One of the men employed on the work brought up the neck of an earthenware pitcher on the point of his pick, which upon examination suggested Roman origin. The remainder of the pitcher was unearthed, and further investigations made. The ground was of stiff clay mixed with flints, and much blackened with an admixture of charcoal. Digging was difficult as the weather was very wet at the time and water flowed freely into the excavation.
Fifteenth-century Painted Panels from the Rood Screen of Nayland Church, Suffolk
Authors: Smith H. Clifford
Published: January 2012

The parish church of St. James, Nayland, Suffolk, on the Essex borders, dates mainly from the fourteenth and early fifteenth century. The rood-loft stairs are visible on the south side of the chancel arch, but the rood-screen itself has entirely gone. It was taken down apparently in the eighteenth century, or perhaps earlier, and portions of its framework, consisting of three arches, can be seen incorporated in the grained and varnished partition, fitted in front with three large ‘horse-box’ pews, below the gallery at the west end of the church.
The Trunnion Celt in Britain
Authors: Hemp W. J.
Published: January 2012

The two objects here illustrated are the first recorded examples from Wales of the bronze tool variously called the ‘celt with trunnions’, ‘chisel with lugs at the sides’, ‘flat axe with lateral pegs’, or ‘lug adze’. Trunnion Celt is a convenient name to adopt, as it will cover most varieties of a class of tool which may have served more than one purpose.
Pre-Roman Finds at Folkestone
Authors: Winbolt S. E.
Published: January 2012

It was probably before the Claudian invasion of A. D. 43 that the following objects found at Folkestone were either produced in or imported into Britain.

In 1918 (February and December) Mr. C. H. Stevens found in an allotment, a little west-south-west of Radnor Park, three burial urns, a flagon, and a Samian cup (fig. 1). The first found (25th February)—A on photograph—contained human bones and earth, and was much broken, but was skilfully restored by the finder.
An Anglo-Saxon Cruet
Authors: Kendrick T. D.
Published: January 2012

The small metal cruet (pl. LXXI) that is the subject of this communication was acquired by the British Museum as part of the collection of Sir Wollaston Franks, and all that is otherwise known of its history is that it had previously been in the collection of Lord Londesborough and is engraved in Fairholt's Miscellanea Graphica of 1857. It is a cire-perdue bronze casting in one piece, afterwards covered with a wash of copper and a coat of gilding, and it stands 7·2 cm. high without its lid, which is missing. It is a remarkable piece, chiefly because of the most unusual ornament on the body of the vessel which consists of two rows of identical symmetrical decorative units in relief in the form of a pair of birds in a foliate spray. It will be noticed that these birds are, so to speak, ‘locked’ into the foliage by their wings, and it will also be noticed that they are biting upwards at the leaves with a curiously emphatic gesture of the back-thrown head and gaping bill. The units of decoration are quite distinct; but they are set close enough together to give the effect of a rich and crowded surface-ornament; and it will be seen that the spaces between their tapering upper portions are filled by small lion-masks. Over the spout there is a variation in the character of the ornament, for here we have a single downward-biting bird standing on a thin foliate branch; so we see that the designer was able to adapt and modify the stereotyped pattern that so much attracted him; and there is no doubt that he was a craftsman of considerable humour and skill. He has turned the spout itself into a lion's head, not by modelling but by the use of incised lines, and he has cunningly employed spiral curves to suggest the shoulders of the beast. The simple scroll on the foot does not call for comment; but the handle should be noticed. It is in the form of a serpent issuing from an animal-mouth on the hinge of the cruet, and its quaint curly end is a most striking feature that adds considerably to the ragged, lumpy prettiness of this charming little vessel.
A Beaker-like Vessel from Bushmills, Co. Antrim
Authors: Chitty Lily F.
Published: January 2012

BY the courtesy of Mr. Arthur Deane, F.R.S.E., M.R.I.A., Curator of the Municipal Museum and Art Gallery, Belfast, I am permitted to direct attention to a vessel of outstanding interest among the magnificent collection of Irish prehistoric pottery under his charge. For help in studying it during visits to Belfast in September 1930 and 1931, I would express my gratitude also to his Staff and to Miss M. Gaffikin, whose photographs are here reproduced (pl. XL).

The pot (no. 332–1924) appears to be a degenerate example of a beaker of the Early Bronze Age. It came to the Museum with the collection of the late Mr. J. Theodore Richardson, then living at Cultra, co. Down, in July 1924: the manuscript list describes it as ‘No. 12, Cinerary Urn from near Bushmills’, but no positive evidence is extant to show that it was associated with a burial and no particulars of its discovery are forthcoming. This is the more regrettable on account of the rare occurrence of beakers in Ireland.
An ‘Encrusted’ Urn of the Bronze Age from Wales: with notes on the Origin and Distribution of the Type
Authors: Fox Cyril
Published: January 2012

On 26th March 1926 a cist burial was discovered by the grave-digger in the cemetery of Penllwyn Calvinistic Methodist Chapel, near Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire. Notice of the find was sent to Mr. George Eyre Evans, of Aberystwyth, and the buried cist was examined by him and the minister of the congregation, the Rev. M. H. Jones, B.A. I cannot do better than quote the account of the cist and its contents written down by the former immediately after the discovery.
The Construction and Use of Wheel Dials
Authors: Findlay John R.
Published: January 2012

On the southern walls of many churches in England dials are to be found of a kind which is peculiar to this country. They take the form of a semicircle with lines radiating from the centre, at which there is a. hole for the style or gnomon. This is always missing. They are known as scratch dials, incised sundials, mass clocks, primitive sundials, or sexton's wheels. The earliest known is one on Bewcastle Cross, Cumberland. It is a perfect example of the type, and the date assigned to it is A.D. 675. A diagram of this dial is given in fig. 1.
Private Purse Accounts of the Marquis of Hertford, Michaelmas 1641–2
Authors: Morgan F. C.
Published: January 2012

A few months ago the catalogue of an auction sale in Shropshire contained an entry of a manuscript, believed to be of the fifteenth century, relating to Herefordshire. Upon inspection it was established that this was an imperfect rent roll, probably of the steward of a bishop of the see of Hereford. Unfortunately as the caption and several membranes are missing it is impossible to give the exact date.

Near by in the sale room was a box of oddments, largely consisting of old school books and miscellaneous articles. Upon turning these over the writer noticed a folio manuscript volume, bound in leather, and found that this was the steward's records of leases of various properties belonging to the Somerset family in Herefordshire in the seventeenth century. A commission to purchase the two manuscripts for Hereford Public Library was unsuccessful, but later they were secured by negotiation. Upon closer examination the volume was found to have served two purposes. It had been turned upside down and the one end used to record the private purse expenses of the marquis of Hertford for a year from Michaelmas 1641 to Michaelmas 1642 by William Booth, his steward. It had been intended to record six months' expenditure only, but this had been extended to the full year, as noted in a different handwriting.
Excavations at Clausentum, 1937–8
Authors: Waterman D. M.
Published: January 2012

The following report is a summary of work carried out on the site of the Roman Settlement at Bitterne Manor, Southampton, during the summers of 1937–8. It is hoped that the excavation will be the first of a series of small trial diggings to exploit the potentialities of the site, leaving to more capable hands the task of fully elucidating the history of the Roman town.
A Romano-British Pottery Kiln at Swanpool, Near Lincoln
Authors: Webster Graham , Booth Norman
Published: January 2012

The kiln was first brought to the notice of the Archaeological Research Committee by Mr. F. W. Brookes, who had observed wasters and kiln debris in the rabbit scrapes. The excavation was included in the Committee's first year's programme as it was felt that the pottery would provide a useful dating guide for the upper levels of the Roman city and at the same time give excellent training to the small but enthusiastic band of volunteers at that time being brought together.
The Diffusion and Distribution Pattern of the Megalithic Monuments of the Irish Sea and North Channel Coastlands
Authors: Davies Margaret
Published: January 2012

The areas which bound the Irish Sea and North Channel possess physical diversities which offered differing degrees of attraction to megalith building peoples. This paper attempts a discussion of those regional differences and of their influence on settlement and intercommunication during the centuries in which the different types of megalith were being built. The Irish Sea basin and its narrower northern strait are fringed by lands in which lie the major portion of our British megaliths. The main reason for this is to be found in the existence of marine highways along the Irish Sea and along the arms which it pushes into the land, and in the presence of connecting routes across the peninsulas which bound its bays.
The Congress of Archaeological Societies
Authors: O'Neil B. H. St. J.
Published: January 2012

In 1888 the Society of Antiquaries of London issued a circular to many archaeological societies, which began as follows:

‘In accordance with a request conveyed in a memorial from a large number of representative members of various Archaeological Societies throughout England and Wales, the President and Council of the Society of Antiquaries of London have resolved to summon a Congress of Delegates of the leading local Societies to be held in their Apartments at Burlington House on a day in the ensuing Autumn hereafter to be fixed.

‘Each Society will be requested to send not more than two Delegates to the Congress, the object of which will be to consider in what manner to promote:—

1. The better organization of antiquarian research, and

2. The preservation of ancient monuments and records.’

The year 1888, therefore, marks the actual birth of the Congress, although its first meeting was not held until 17th July, 1889.
North Street, Folkestone, Kent
Authors: O'Neil B. H. St. J.
Published: January 2012

This street is close to the area of Folkestone which suffered severely from enemy action; indeed certain of the houses, which were once at its southern end, no longer exist. Examination of the remaining houses, several of them shaken by blast, was undertaken with a view to the removal of any fittings of value, should it be decided to demolish them.

This examination led at once to the realization that nearly all of the remaining houses, nos. 13 to 49 (on the western side) and 16 to 44 (on the eastern), are of seventeenth-century type with but one room on each floor, ground, first, and attic. Many hundreds of this type of seventeenth-century house have recently been studied at Great Yarmouth, where some dated examples belong to the first half of the century. At that town certain features occur in all houses of that half-century so far studied. They are (1) a front door and a back door opposite to one another with connecting passage, off which opened the ground-floor room; (2) a fire-place on the side of the room opposite to the passage, flanked on one side by a cupboard with a small window lighting it and on the other side by a winding stair, closed at the bottom by a door; and (3) the continuance of this stair to the attic floor with small windows lighting it between each floor. Stop-chamfered beams are, of course, very frequently found.
Recent Discoveries in the Minsters of Ripon and York
Authors: Peers C. R.
Published: January 2012

The two matters which I have to lay before you to-night are the results of chance discoveries made at Ripon during the installation of a heating system and at York in digging a grave. Cathedral churches in full and constant use do not lend themselves to exhaustive archaeological investigation, but it is my first duty to express to the Deans of York and Ripon my most sincere acknowledgement of their kindness in allowing these researches to be pushed to the farthest possible limits. That certain points must remain doubtful is obvious, but since nothing short of the complete ruin of the two Minsters would ensure a full examination we may content ourselves with the reflection that it is possible to pay too high a price for knowledge.
Two dug-out boats from Wales
Authors: Grimes W. F.
Published: January 2012

Of the two boats described, the first, from Llandrindod Wells, was examined by the writer in 1929 for the National Museum of Wales. The second was found before 1866 at Llyn Llydaw, Snowdonia (Arch. Camb. 1874, 147). It has recently been presented to the National Museum of Wales by Mr. Mervyn Griffith, and re-examination having shown that the illustration in the published record gives a wrong impression of its form, this opportunity has been taken of refiguring the vessel.
Chastleton Camp, Oxfordshire, a hill-fort of the Early Iron Age
Authors: Leeds E. Thurlow
Published: January 2012

Chastleton Camp, or Chastleton Barrow (pl. LIV, 1 and 2), as it is sometimes called, is situated at the south-east end of the parish, which projects like some huge spur from the north-west edge of the county and from the line of the road which on either side of the base of the spur for a short distance divides Oxfordshire from Gloucestershire on the one hand and from Warwickshire on the other. This road is an age-long trackway running diagonally across England by way of the Jurassic Belt from the Cotswolds to Northamptonshire, and is fringed by many remains of prehistoric man, in addition to the Rollright Stones and the dolmen known as the Whispering Knights. Along it must have moved the invaders of the early Iron Age to their conquest of the Midlands, establishing a line of strongholds of which Chastleton must in its original condition have been a formidable example.
Discoveries at Glozel, Allier
Authors: Reinach Salomon
Published: January 2012

The small village of Glozel, commune of Ferrières, is situated about twenty miles south-east of Vichy. No car nor carriage can go farther; you must walk almost a mile, first along a narrow lane, then down a steep hill, till you reach the right bank of a rivulet called Le Vareille, which flows into the Souchon, a tributary of the river Allier. Above the wooded bank of the Vareille, at the foot of the hill, extends a little plateau which was thickly wooded till thirty years ago, when the trees and bushes were cut down. In 1924 the Fradin family, owners of the land, decided to sow there some vegetables, and young Émile Fradin, then a boy of 18, began to dig up the soil. Soon he discovered a brick bearing some regularly distributed cup-marks which aroused his curiosity (he is intelligent, though completely devoid of learning). Fradin showed that brick to a schoolmistress, who was much interested and mentioned it to a schoolmaster; people began to talk about the discovery of ancient remains. Meanwhile, Fradin pursued his work and found an oval building, the soil of which was paved with bricks, one bearing an inscription. The inner walls of that small structure were entirely vitrified by fire. It may have been a (medieval ?) kiln, but that is now difficult to decide, because the visitors almost destroyed the walls before they had been examined by a competent person. As no bones were discovered, it cannot be considered as a tomb.
Early Iron Age Pottery from Macedonia
Authors: Heurtley W. A.
Published: January 2012

By the term ‘Early Iron Age Pottery from Macedonia’ is here meant pottery of the type found by Casson in the cemetery at Chauchitza, by the French excavators at the Toumba and Table of Sedés, and at the Table of Gona—and which is known from surface-finds in many parts of Macedonia. Much of the pottery from Patelí on Lake Ostrovo seems to belong to this class, but is not yet accessible in any publication.
Anniversary Address
Authors: The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres
Published: January 2012

The vitality and progress of archaeology so greatly depend on museums for systematic records, for the collation of objects, and for a storehouse of authority, that it seems worth while to review the general situation, and to trace the gradual emergence of objectives, which are now so clear-cut in aim and so exhaustive in scope as to justify us in believing that the museum ideal has at length been defined and stabilized. It is true that the field of activity has been much curtailed since what was first called the Home of the Muses was established by the Ptolemies at Alexandria. The Mouseion was more grandiose in scale and more liberal in its appeal than anything of later date, for not only did it comprise a theatre and banqueting-hall, a botanical garden and a menagerie, but it was a university and the centre from which radiated the whole intellectual life of a vast region. It was perhaps a little disdainful of the past, differing in this respect from the outlook of our own times, and yet in many ways our modern methods are modelled upon Alexandria far more than upon the direct but more recent ancestors of our museums, only dating back two and three hundred years. These were miscellaneous assemblages of bric-à-brac, of which the Tradescant Collection was a fair sample, containing many curiosities of nature to which fabulous properties were ascribed. The Royal Society possessed a bone from the skull of a mermaid. The horn of the unicorn was valued at a tremendous price. Mummies could always be sold to advantage, for when ground into powder their medicinal merits were great. Quack remedies as well as superstition and witchcraft appear to have influenced the collector, though of course in certain branches the enterprise of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries differed but little from our own. The accumulation of coins and medals was for obvious reasons one of the most popular and widespread types of collection; arms and armour were gathered at every Court.
Excavations on the Site of the Priory Church and Monastery of St. Peter, Eye, Suffolk
Authors: Fairweather F. H.
Published: January 2012

The small town of Eye in north central Suffolk was one of those feudal centres which sprang into great importance on the redistribution of English lands following the Norman Conquest. It had, however, a previous history as head of an Honour, being held as such in the reign of Edward the Confessor by Edric the king's falconer, and was thus chosen as a suitable site for the establishment of one of the Conqueror's prominent barons, and granted to William Malet. This man was Sire de Graville, a small town a little east of Havre in Normandy, where the priory church founded by his grandson William, and some remains on the site of the Malet castle, still exist on a height overlooking the Seine. He was apparently of English birth on the maternal side and of very high family, his mother being a sister of the famous Godiva, wife of Leofric Earl of Mercia, and was thus one of those Normans who had definite pre-Conquest connexions with Saxon England.
Excavations at Julliberrie's Grave, Chilham, Kent
Authors: Jessup R. F.
Published: January 2012

The re-excavation of this well-known barrow was undertaken at the suggestion and cost of Sir Edmund Davis (upon whose estate it is situated) after the recent publication of Dr. R. Austin Freeman's novel, The Penrose Mystery, in which it largely figures. With the ready consent of the Commissioners of His Majesty's Office of Works, the work was carried out in July 1936, and the writer had the assistance either for the whole or part of the time of Miss M. E. Greenwood, Dr. S. Graham Brade-Birks, and Sir Edward Harrison; and our thanks are due to Mr. H. Read Gillett, Sir Edmund Davis's agent, for much valuable help.
A Shaped Bone from Warren Hill, Suffolk
Authors: Moir J. Reid
Published: January 2012

During a recent visit to the famous gravel-pits at Warren Hill, Suffolk, one of the workmen handed me the bone which is described in this note. He evidently attached little importance to the specimen, which had been kept merely because it was a bone—as such are rare in the Warren Hill Gravel. The finder informed me that the specimen came from the concreted gravel—a very compact and chalky layer in the Warren Hill deposit. This claim is borne out, first, by the white, chalky appearance of the bone, which corresponds with the condition of others from the same horizon; and, secondly, by the fact that the medullary cavity of the specimen still retains some of the gravel in which it was embedded. The bone is clearly fossil, but, like others from Warren Hill, this condition is not accompanied by an addition to the weight of the specimen. The bone, in fact, probably now weighs less than it did in its pristine state—a condition of affairs, however, by no means uncommon in ancient specimens. It has assumed a consistency similar to that of chalk, and its surfaces can easily, though roughly, be scraped, or cut, by a knife.
Trial-excavations in the so-called ‘Danish Camp’ at Warham, near Wells, Norfolk
Authors: Gray H. St. George
Published: January 2012

Earthworks are not numerous in Norfolk, owing no doubt to the fact that the county is a somewhat flat one, and Hadrian Allcroft in Earthwork of England is almost silent upon the subject of camps in this district. Probably one of the best known is the Roman camp at Brancaster (Branodunum) on the north coast between Hunstanton and Wells, which encloses an area of 8¼ acres. The square is clearly visible, although becoming yearly more reduced by the action of the plough.
Plough Coulters from Silchester
Authors: Karslake J. B. P.
Published: January 2012

Among various tools and other objects of iron included in two hoards of blacksmith's scrap recovered from the bottom of a pit and a well during the excavations at Silchester in 1894 and 1900 were some plough coulters (pl. LXXVIII, I ), the importance of which in connexion with agriculture in Britain during the Roman period has hitherto passed unnoticed. Six examples altogether were found, and although each varies somewhat in size they are generally of the same form and character. They may be described as heavy iron bars, roughly octagonal in shape and from 1 to 1Image-1 in. in section, with one end forged into a knife-like form resembling the blade of the ordinary Roman butcher's-knife or ‘culter’. The blades are from 7Image-2 to 9 in. long and 3 to 3Image-3 in. in breadth at their upper end, tapering to a point at the lower end. In length overall they vary from 26Image-4 to 28 in., with one exception, which has obviously been broken off short in use. They are all much worn, which no doubt accounts for their having been consigned to the scrap-heap. The circumstances of their finding leave no possible doubt that they belong to the Roman period, but no coins or other associated objects allow of any precise date being fixed.
Notes on the Megalithic Monuments in the Isles of Scilly
Authors: Hencken H. O'Neill
Published: January 2012

In the years 1899, 1900, and 1901 Mr. George Bonsor, a British subject residing in Spain, visited the Scilly Isles, the archipelago of tiny granite islands 28 miles south-west of Land's End, for archaeological research. Mr. Bonsor was long a profound student of the archaeology of his adopted country and was interested in the history of the ancient tin trade. It was in this connexion that he visited the Scillies, for he wished to test the hypothesis that they were the Cassiterides, the fabled tin islands of the Atlantic. With regard to the tin trade, his researches proved entirely negative, but in the course of his visits he excavated and planned some of the numerous megalithic tombs that abound in the islands. Mr. Bonsor, however, never published an account of his work in Scilly, but kept the notes and finds at his castle at Mairena del Alcor near Seville for many years. There he was visited in 1926 by Mr. T. D. Kendrick of the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities at the British Museum, and through him sent a part of the finds to the Museum. At the same time the writer had become interested in the archaeology of the islands, and with the help of Mr. Kendrick was able to obtain more of the finds for the British Museum as well as plans of the more important tombs and some notes with regard to their excavation. The most important plans and an abstract of the notes the writer has included in his Archaeology of Cornwall, but space prevented the use of all of Mr. Bonsor's material. Mr. Reginald Smith, Keeper of British and Mediaeval Antiquities at the British Museum, had for a long time urged Mr. Bonsor to communicate the results of his excavations to the Society of Antiquaries, but the latter died without having done so. Subsequently Mr. Smith obtained Mr. Bonsor's plans and the full account of the excavation of the most important tomb, and these he has kindly permitted the writer to publish.
An Altar to the Mothers in Lund Church, near Kirkham, Lancashire
Authors: Droop J. P.
Published: January 2012

Mr. F. H. Cheetham, F.S.A., first drew my attention to the Roman altar in use as a font in Lund church, and persuaded me to write this note, the justification for which lies in the fact that the interesting reliefs on the sides have never yet been reproduced, though that on the front has been published. The back is plain, and there is no trace of any inscription.
A Water Cistern with Byzantine Paintings, Salamis, Cyprus
Authors: Taylor Joan du Plat
Published: January 2012

Early in March this year, shepherds reported to the Forest Department that they had found a cave, with paintings, on the ancient site of Salamis, Famagusta District. This information was passed to the Museum, for whom I inspected the place. All that was then visible was a large hole in the sand, about 15 ft. deep and 6 ft. wide, which led into a narrow shaft opening on to a round chamber; this was full, nearly to the top, with sand and rubbish. The paintings and upper inscriptions (pl. XI, 2) were all visible, and it was possible to crawl through to the second chamber, which was practically clear.
Wilkins's Copy of Sir Henry Spelman's ‘Concilia’
Authors: Jacob E. F.
Published: January 2012

In his elegant prospectus to the four volumes of his Concilia, issued in 1733 in order to obtain subscriptions for the great enterprise, David Wilkins, once a penniless Prussian orientalist, now Archdeacon of Suffolk, has included a complete list of contents. He has affixed, he tells us, asterisks to each document in the list, indicating its source; one if it came from Spelman's Concilia, two if it hailed from Archbishop Wake's own collections, three if it was drawn from his own. This starring is adopted in the prefatory list of contents at the beginning of each volume of the Concilia. In a recent paper the present writer was able to identify the Archbishop's collections as vols. ccciv–cccxxxix in the Wake Archives at Christ Church, Oxford. He pointed out there that Wake's design had been to augment his volumes of transcripts and extracts originally made for his State of the Church and the Clergy of England (1703) with a view to a new and revised edition of Spelman's Concilia. Wilkins's own collections, for many years at Leeds Castle before they passed into the Phillipps Library, were sold with the Fairfax papers in 1898, and nothing has been heard of them since; but Spelman is with us, in two solid volumes of print, and we have among Wake's letters direct testimony to show that these two volumes (the second compiled by Dugdale) served as the basis for Wilkins, when, on the Archbishop's instructions, he set out to augment and correct that valuable text for the new edition of the Concilia.
The Lechmere Stone
Authors: Brown G. Baldwin
Published: January 2012

In the house of Sir Edmund Lechmere, known as Severn End, near Hanley Castle, Worcestershire, there has been preserved for a long time past the interesting Saxon funereal stone, which, through the owner's kindness, I am permitted to make known to readers of the Antiquaries Journal. Many have seen and admired it, but it has not yet been published. Its history is unknown except in so far as its presence at Severn End goes back beyond any memories or records, and may run to centuries. So housed, it has escaped many of the ills that carved Saxon stones are heirs to, and, as the photographs on pl. XXVII will show, is in a singularly good state of preservation. One most important fact about it is its material, which is the local oolite, so much used in the neighbouring Saxon church of Deerhurst, with which it has some artistic affinities, and it is not only a local product but is attested as of Saxon origin by its general character and details.
Early Iron Age Objects discovered at Thealby, Lincs.
Authors: Dudley H. E.
Published: January 2012

Records of the Early Iron Age in the immediate Scunthorpe district are so few and far between that it seems all the more desirable to publish the recent discovery of the following group of bronzes.
Some Unknown English Embroideries of the Fifteenth Century
Authors: Kurth Betty
Published: January 2012

Although English embroideries have become a very popular subject of study and careful research during recent years, there are still a great number of hitherto unknown pieces scattered in private and public collections all over the world. Especially the works of the later medieval centuries are not yet properly collected and published, and regarding this later period much further research remains to be done.
Roman Blast Furnace in Lincolnshire
Authors: Hannah Ian C.
Published: January 2012

Close to the hamlet of Woolsthorpe (the birth place of Sir Isaac Newton), in the parish of Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, on Thursday, 21st January 1932, the miners quarrying ore for the Frodingham Iron & Steel Co. unearthed a remarkably perfect furnace or bloomery of the Roman period. In shape it was box-like, roughly but carefully hand-moulded of grey indurated clay of the local Upper Lias formation; a fragment of an ammonite fossil was found in a crack. The length was nearly 3 ft., the upper or north-west end was about 22 in., and the lower or south-east end about 24 in. in width. The top was practically level and flat, but the bottom dipped, slightly from the northwest end for about 21 in., then very sharply, so that the depth increased from 15 in. at the north-west end to 21 in. at the other. The sides were irregular, about 6 in. thick at most, and in the middle of each was a tuyere hole, some 6 in. in diameter, sharply splayed externally. The ends were open; the north-west one was evidently the charging, and the other the tipping end. The actual bottom was only about half an inch thick of the same clay, but below this were 3 or 4 in. of a different bluish clay and under it some apparently partly burned oolitic limestone brought from near by. The natural soil is the ironstone whose quarrying led to the discovery of the furnace (pl. XLIV, fig. 1).
A Late Bronze Age Find near Stuntney, Isle of Ely
Authors: Clark J. G. D. , Godwin H.
Published: January 2012

For more than seven years the Fenland Research Committee has been investigating the post-glacial history of the Fenland with a view to correlating archaeological remains and recent geological deposits. By this means evidence has been collected which bears upon the age of early phases of human settlement in East Anglia and upon the natural conditions prevailing at different periods. It has sometimes been possible to undertake systematic and purposive excavations at key sites in the confident anticipation of definite results, but stray finds made in the course of drainage works or of agriculture have also played an important part. The Stuntney hoard, which it is the primary purpose of this report to record, was discovered by a man ploughing near Stuntney Hall in January 1939.
The Excavations at Ur, 1933–4
Authors: Woolley C. Leonard
Published: January 2012

The twelfth season of work carried out at Ur by the Joint Expedition was also its last, and from this time onwards excavation will give way to the final publication of the results already obtained. It was indeed with a view of completing the material required for such publication that a twelfth season was undertaken and its scope was strictly limited by those needs. Of the many periods illustrated by our work the very important one known, since Professor Langdon's first discovery of it, as the Jemdet Nasr period was inadequately represented; but there seemed every likelihood that much light might be thrown upon it by the further investigation of the cemetery whose existence had been proved in the course of our season 1932–3, and this, therefore, was to be our main objective. Further, in 1932–3 we had found and cleared the north-west side of the Third Dynasty Temenos; but though the corners of it had been fixed, the direction and extent of the walls on the other three sides remained to be determined. The planning of these would complete our knowledge of the Temenos in historic times so far as the ruined state of its buildings allowed: this, then, was our second objective.
The Mull Hill Circle, Isle of Man, and its Pottery
Authors: Piggott S.
Published: January 2012

On Mull or Meayll Hill, a mile north-east of the Calf Sound, Isle of Man, is the remarkable megalithic monument known as the Mull Hill Circle. It is not a stone circle of normal type but consists of six T-shaped structures, each comprising two rectangular cists averaging 5 ft. 9 in. by 2 ft. 8 in., placed end to end with the inner end of each open and forming the head of the T, and approached by a short passage about 7 ft. long at right angles (the upright of the T). These pairs of cists are arranged in a circle some 50 ft. in diameter; each group distinct, with the cists placed tangentially and the passages leading radially outwards. They are so spaced as to leave a larger interval between the groups on the north and south to form two opposite ‘entrances ’. Apparently the entire circle of cists had originally been covered by a ring of stones and earth, the whole forming a ‘disc-barrow’, the bank of which contained chambers. There are vague indications of a central chamber or cist. The stone used in the construction of the monument was a local slate. No capstones remain to any cists or passages, but all appear to have been paved with flat slabs.
The Date of the Beginning of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
Authors: Whitehill Walter Muir
Published: January 2012

The eleven diligent volumes of Don Antonio López Ferreiro's Historia de la Santa Apostolica Metropolitana Iglesia de Santiago de Compostela contain a mass of documents related to the history of the cathedral of Santiago, but, in spite of this wealth of material, the date when the building was begun has never been clearly established. The Historia Compostelana (i, 78) states: ‘Est autem B. Jacobi specialis et praeclara nova Ecclesia incoepta Era I.C.XVI. V Idus Jul.’ (an. 1078), thus giving the date as A.D. 1078. However, in the Codex Calixtinus, a twelfth-century piece of pilgrimage propaganda, containing among other things a description of the cathedral, no less than four different dates are given for the event: ‘Ecclesia autem fuit incepta in Era MCXVI. Ab anno vero quo incepta fuit usque ad letum Adefonsi fortissimi et famosi regis Aragonensis habentur anni LIX, et ad necem Henrici regis Anglorum LXII, et ad mortem Ludovici pinguissimi regis Francorum LXIII, et ab anno quo primus lapis in fundamento eius ponitur usque ad illum quo ultimus mittitur XLIIII anni habentur.’
Excavations at Ur, 1929-30
Authors: Woolley C. Leonard
Published: January 2012

The eighth season of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania started at Ur on 1st November 1929, and ended on 19th March 1930. The staff consisted of my wife, who as usual was responsible for the type-drawings of objects, the planning of the cemetery, and for a share in the field-work; Mr. M. E. L. Mallowan, general archaeological assistant; the Rev.E. Burrows, S.J., epigraphist; and Mr. A. S. Whitburn, architect. Hamoudi was, as always, head foreman, with his sons, Yahia, Ibrahim, and Alawi acting under him; owing to the fact that work was always going on in at least two spots fairly far apart, greater responsibility than usual was thrown on the younger foremen, who answered admirably to the demands on them; Yahia combined this work with that of staff photographer. The number of men employed varied slightly at different times, but was always over 200 and for most of the season kept at about 240, anumber well in excess of the average of past seasons; the amount of work done wascorrespondingly great. I have to thank the Royal Air Force in Iraq for help of many sorts and not least for an air photograph of the site (pl. XXVIII) taken at the close of the season and of much value for purposes of comparison with earlier photographs; Lt.-Colonel Tainsh, Director of the Iraq Railways, for facilities enabling me to undertake a short experimental dig at Meraijib, a prehistoric site some ten miles south of Ur; and the Director of Antiquities, Iraq, for his help in this Meraijib work and to the Expedition in general. I must also acknowledge my indebtedness to the staff of the British Museum Laboratory, where the work of restoring and cleaning was as usual carried out, and in particular to Mr. E. C. Padgham for his success with the silver objects; Mr. Evan Watkin of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities undertook the mending of the stone vases, and for the mending of the pottery the services of Mrs. F. W. Bard were secured.
Cornucopia bowls and allied vessels
Authors: Pryce T. Davies
Published: January 2012

During the last twenty years the study of Samian ware has made great advancesand, notwithstanding the disfavour with which the ‘intrusive fragment’ and ‘pots and pans’ are still regarded by a certain class of historian, the value of this fabric for dating purposes is now generally recognized. Weare now familiar with most of the decorative types that are characteristic of thepre-Flavian (circa A. D. 25-68), Flavian, and late Hadrianic-Antonine ages, but much remains to be learnt with regard to the ornamental detail of the intervening period, broadly speaking the first third of the second century. Although late South Gaulish ware, ornamented in the Flavian manner, continued to be imported down to about A. D. 110, a number of new decorative types, derived from Centralor from early East Gaulish potteries, began to appear late in the first century and early in the second.