bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Wayland's Smithy, Berkshire
Authors: Peers C. R. , Smith Reginald A.
Published: January 2012

In Northern mythology Wayland the Smith corresponds to the Roman Vulcan or the Greek Hephaestus; and his name cannot have been attached to the well-known group of sarsen slabs in Berkshire till the Teutonic invaders reached the upper Thames in the fifth century. This cunning worker in metals appears on the Franks casket in the British Museum, dating from soon after 700; and the monument is mentioned under the name of Wayland's Smithy in a charter of King Eadred to Aelfheh dated 955.
Some Irish Antiquities of Unknown Use
Authors: Armstrong E. C. R.
Published: January 2012

In Sir William Wilde's Catalogue of Bronze Antiquities is described and illustrated under the heading of chariot furniture an iron-backed bronze disc, 3¾ in. in diameter, coated with white metal, projecting from which is a bronze stud in the form of a dog's head, 1½ in. long, with a human head engraved on its muzzle. The stud is threaded by a bronze chain made up of two rings and double loops (fig. 1, 1). Wilde considered this object was intended for the attachment of a trace. It was found when making a railway cutting near Navan Station adjoining the River Boyne in July 1848, associated with a quantity of human remains; the skull of a horse; a number of antiquities including a bronze bridle-bit, and harness-plate; iron rings plated with bronze; some small bronze buttons; and seven ornamented gilt-bronze plaques.
A Prehistoric Invasion of England
Authors: Crawford O. G. S.
Published: January 2012

In his account of the leaf-shaped bronze swords of the Hallstatt period, the late M. Déchelette wrote: ‘Doubtless one might ask whether this weapon might not have been brought to the British Isles by the first Celtic invaders, but that is purely conjectural (une conjecture fragile), for it is difficult among the British finds the same period to detect any really characteristic analogies’ (vol. ii, pt. 2, p. 724). The same paragraph points out that bronze swords of identically the same type have been found in regions as widely separated from each other as Scandinavia, Bohemia, and Ireland, to which one might add Finland and Southern France. The conclusion is irresistible that these swords were derived from a common centre of dispersal, and that they were not evolved independently in each region. Had the evolution taken place locally there might have been similarity, but not identity of type. I propose to bring forward evidence in support of the hypothesis that, towards the close of the Bronze Age, the British Isles were invaded by the first wave of Celtic-speaking peoples, bringing with them leaf-shaped bronze swords, many other entirely new types of bronze objects, and at least two types of pottery new to these islands and evolved somewhere on the Continent. I suggest that these invaders may have been Goidels, arriving about 800–700 B.C. Possibly the new types under review may not all be strictly contemporary; and there may have been more than one wave of invasion. But there can, I think, be no doubt that an invasion on a large scale took place at about this time.
Excavations in Malta
Authors: Zammit T.
Published: January 2012

During the month of September 1920 excavations were carried out by the Museum Curator at Rabat, in the vicinity of the Roman Villa Museum.
Note on the Hallstatt Period in Ireland
Authors: Armstrong E. C. R.
Published: January 2012

On page 86 of the 2nd edition (1912) of the late J. R. Allen's Celtic Art is the statement, ‘Of the smaller Hallstatt sword with an iron blade and a bronze handle, having antennae-like projections at the top, one specimen from the Thames is to be seen in the British Museum, and there are about half a dozen others in the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin.’ Déchelette (Manuel, ii, 2nd part, page 737 and note 3) repeated this on Allen's authority. But no swords of this type have, I believe, been discovered in Ireland. As no examples have been exhibited with the Academy's collection it is difficult to account for the mistake.
A Roman Site at Ham, near Newbury, Berks.
Authors: Crawford O. G. S.
Published: January 2012

During the late autumn of 1919 I did some digging in a gravel-pit where, during the war, I had found fragments of pottery. One workman was employed and the necessary funds were subscribed by residents in the Newbury district. The pit is in the parish of Thatcham, on the south side of the Bath road, exactly midway between Thatcham and Newbury, in the angle between the Bath road and the ‘lower way’ to Thatcham. The gravel for which it is worked is that of the lowest terrace, about twenty feet above the Kennet; the terrace here forms a bluff on the north side of the valley. The field in which the gravel-pit lies is called Prince Field on the Thatcham Award Map of 1817. The pottery was most abundant in the east and south faces of the pit, where old trenches and remains of fire were also found. It was possible to distinguish between the gravel filling of these old trenches and the much compacter undisturbed gravel; and the work consisted in clearing out the filling, which yielded a large quantity of potsherds.
The Age of Stonehenge
Authors: Holmes T. Rice
Published: January 2012

The article on Stonehenge that appeared in the January number of the Nineteenth Century demands consideration. The writer, Mr. E. Herbert Stone, after re-stating and defending Sir Norman Lockyer's views, which I shall presently explain, notices ‘some criticisms’, including those of Mr. Arthur Hinks and my own. ‘Rice Holmes’, he says, ‘sets forth the old arguments in favour of the Bronze Age theory, many of which are fallacious … the deservedly high position occupied by Mr. Rice Holmes in the literary world has led some archaeologists, who have not understood the technicalities of the subject, to accept his opinions without question’.
The Amulet of Charlemagne
Authors: Conway Martin
Published: January 2012

In January 814 Charlemagne died at Aix-la-Chapelle and was there buried on the same day. The event was of staggering importance. The Roman Empire of the West, which the barbarians had overthrown, was remembered even by them as the greatest thing in the world. Theodoric had tried to revive it and failed. It had lain dormant for more than three hundred years and then Charlemagne had apparently succeeded in reviving it, and had signalized the year 800 by being crowned Emperor by the Pope in the church of St. Peter at Rome.
Hallstatt Pottery from Eastbourne
Authors: Budgen W.
Published: January 2012

Adjoining the northern boundary of the parish of Eastbourne and extending to the foot of the downs on the west, there is an area of arable land until recently forming part of the Motcombe Farm, part of the property of the Duke of Devonshire. The district was formerly called Northwick, and later Green Street: it was crossed by an ancient way called ‘Green Street Drove’, running east and west. The land has recently been acquired by the Corporation of Eastbourne for the purpose of their housing scheme and for allotments.
Roman Coffins discovered at Keynsham, 1922
Authors: Gray H. St. George
Published: January 2012

Interesting archaeological remains of the Roman period, including two coffins, were discovered in digging for the foundations of Messrs. J. S. Fry & Sons' new factory and garden city at Keynsham Hams, Somerset, on 1st May 1922. Having heard of the discovery from Mr. J. E. Pritchard, F.S.A., I made arrangements to visit the site on 4th May. Mr. A. Bulleid, F.S.A., joined me during the afternoon and took some photographs. The position is three-quarters of a mile east of the Cemetery and Mortuary Chapel on the Bristol Road, where cut stone, tesserae, tiles, and pottery of the Roman period, indicating occupation, have recently been found.
Papworth and his Ordinary
Authors: Collins S. M.
Published: January 2012

It is by no means improbable that many standard works of reference owe their being to sheer exasperation of spirit. It is not, certainly, ascertained that there has ever been compiled any Dictionary of Bricklaying and Masonry, for example, by a working Cabinet Minister. But such an association of subject and author would not be more far-fetched than that of a quite well-known civil engineer in his day, Sir George Grove, and his even better-known Dictionary of Music; or of the medical man Peter Mark Roget and his verbal Thesaurus. The amateur, it may be supposed, hampered in the prosecution of one of his secondary interests by the lack of any comprehensively encyclopaedic work on it, must snatch time from his main calling in order to provide such an adjunct, though he might have counted on finding it ready done for him by experts. Papworth and his Ordinary of Arms offer a reasonably close parallel to those other cases. The practising architect would trench upon his scanty leisure to labour at an index of coat-armour—felt as indispensable as it was lacking to a fuller pursuit of his heraldic studies—because an adequate one done by specialists was not to hand.
A Late-Antique Ivory Pyxis
Authors: Dalton O. M.
Published: January 2012

The cylindrical box (pyxis) illustrated in the plates, now in private possession, belongs to a small class carved with pagan subjects; the majority of pyxides are Christian. When Graeven issued his series of photographs of antique carvings in ivory and bone about twenty years ago, the number of pagan examples only amounted to a dozen, with a few fragments, and two among them, those with Orpheus and the beasts, at Bobbio and Florence respectively (see below), are claimed by some authorities as Christian. Since that time the remains of another pagan box with Bacchic scenes have come to light, discovered in the chapel of the Sancta Sanctorum at the Lateran in 1903, and now preserved in the Vatican. There may have been further discoveries not brought to general notice; otherwise the present example is the first addition to the list since the third year of the present century.
Ancient Carving from Sussex
Authors: Couchman J. E.
Published: January 2012

The Dolmen goddess, who is represented in somewhat varying forms on the statue-menhirs of France, is of doubtful origin. M. Salomon Reinach suggests the western world: M. Déchelette, in his Manuel d'Archéologie, favours the eastern, and says that as the cult becomes more sporadic the farther it spreads from the regions of the Mediterranean, so should its origin be sought in a region neighbouring the Aegean littoral, or at least further south than France; he refers to finds of Sir Arthur Evans in Crete, and Dr. Schliemann at Hissarlik. M. Louis Siret would persuade us that the earliest and less distinct figures on the stones represent but primitive symbols of the deified elements.
Further Roman Finds in Kent
Authors: Whiting W.
Published: January 2012

Some few hundred yards west of Minster church there is a small farm known as ‘Watchester’, a name which is significant and suggests the place has a Roman origin. Standing there and looking south over the flat expanse of the Minster Marshes, one can well imagine it the landing-place of vessels when the area was covered by the sea. Northwards from this village the road leading to Birchington is doubtless also Roman; almost at the top of the first hill, in digging graves in the modern cemetery, many fragments and complete vessels of pottery have for some years past been unearthed.
Supplementary excavations at Hal-Tarxien, Malta, in 1921
Authors: Ashby T.
Published: January 2012

Professor T. Zammit was so kind as to invite me, during a short visit to Malta in March and April 1921, to conduct supplementary excavations under the torba floors of the sanctuary at Hal-Tarxien, which he had discovered and excavated. The results are not without interest both for the history of the building and from the nature of the objects found. They bear out Professor Zammit's conclusions as to the relative date of the various portions of the building; and we may add that the spiral decorations and small niches found in the temple of the second period all appear to belong to the latest (third) period in the history of the whole. It also unfortunately seems clear that we have not, as I had hoped, acquired any information to help us in the dating of the various forms and decorations which we find in the pottery of Malta. The excavations in those parts of the building which belonged to the first and second periods revealed in almost every case the existence of an earlier floor below that which had previously been cleared. Taking the earliest building first, we found that the slabs in the right-hand apses BB, DD (which are alone preserved, the left-hand apses having been destroyed by subsequent alterations) rested upon the rock, which had been cut away so as to follow their curve, and were kept in place by inclination against one another, smaller stones being placed to block up the interstices between them.
Excavations at Tell el Obeid
Authors: Woolley C. Leonard
Published: January 2012

The Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania has now completed its second season's work in Mesopotamia. This time I had with me Mr. C. J. Gadd, of the British Museum, for work upon the inscriptions; Mr. F. G. Newton (who came from Egypt to join us in January) for the architectural side; and Mr. G. M. FitzGerald for general archaeological work: to all three I am indebted for a companionship as pleasant as their help was invaluable. From Carchemish I brought two of my old native foremen, Hamoudi and Abd es Salaam, and the son of the former; owing to their presence we were able to undertake two sites at once, and while the bulk of the men were employed on clearing the Ziggurat at Ur, under the supervision of Messrs. Gadd and FitzGerald, I could devote most of my time to the excavation of Tell el Obeid, where Hamoudi was in charge of sixty local Arabs camped in tents on the ruins. The two excavations, being quite distinct in character and geographically, will be dealt with in two reports: the present account treats of Tell el Obeid, the more ancient site.
Discoveries near Cissbury
Authors: Wolseley Garnet R. , Smith Reginald A.
Published: January 2012

Park Brow is a ridge of the South Downs, running roughly north and south. The southern end of the hill, upon which three early inhabited sites have been found, abuts on the valley from which rises the higher hill crowned by Cissbury camp. On Park Brow there is clear evidence of the presence of man in ancient days. Very many lynchets or steep banks are found, a sunken trackway runs along the southern crest of the hill, adjoining which, where it passes the Early Iron Age site, is seen an embanked pit; while over the greater part of this area, as well as in the adjoining valleys, fragments of ancient pottery, rough flint scrapers, and other implements, together with many flint flakes, can be picked up.
Notes on the Shrine of St. Swithun formerly in Winchester Cathedral
Authors: Le Couteur J. D. , Carter D. H. M.
Published: January 2012

The Shrine of St. Swithun was, next to that of St. Thomas of Canterbury, perhaps the most famous and important in the south of England. Indeed, many of the pilgrims going to Canterbury broke their journey at Winchester in order to pay their vows at this shrine, and to rest their weary limbs for a day or two in the Guest House of St. Swithun's monastery.
Notes on some English Alabaster Carvings
Authors: Hildburgh W. L.
Published: January 2012

The following notes consist of brief accounts of, and comments upon, some examples of English alabaster work, most of which have been exhibited before the Society at different times and are at present (1924) on loan at the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.
The Beeston Tor Hoard
Authors: Smith Reginald A.
Published: January 2012

The discovery of several coin-hoards including the first issue of King Alfred points to widespread disturbance and consequent insecurity which are easily explained by the Danish menace; and the exploration of Beeston Tor cave by the Rev. G. H. Wilson, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, confirms this surmise, and at the same time gives a precise date to some jewellery which would otherwise remain conjectural. Incidentally it throws light on a discovery recorded in 1705, and enables an estimate to be made of the stylistic changes of two centuries in English craftsmanship.
Anneau émaillé trouvé à Eauze (Gers)
Authors: Michon Étienne
Published: January 2012

Le sol de l'ancienne civitas Elusatium, aujourd'hui Eauze dans le département du Gers, a à plusieurs reprises rendu au jour des objets antiques. Il y a deux ans y a été recueilli notamment l'anneau de bronze émaillé, de forme ovoïde, reproduit ci-dessous, de 3 centimètres et demi environ de diamètre maximum, dont la décoration se détache en rouge sur fond champlevé.
Anniversary Address
Authors: The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres
Published: January 2012

Livy has recorded that on the farm of a notary called Lucius Petillius at the foot of the Janiculum, two stone chests were unearthed, which according to their inscriptions should have been respectively the coffin of Numa Pompilius and the receptacle for his books. The remains of the king had disappeared, but in the second chest there were two bundles, each containing seven books, not only entire but apparently quite fresh: seven in Latin about the Pontifical Law, seven in Greek about Philosophy. Valerius Antias said that they contained the doctrines of Pythagoras, supporting by this plausible fiction (mendacio probabili) the credit of the vulgar opinion (vulgata opinio) that Numa had been a disciple of Pythagoras. As this undermined the established system of religion, the books were burned, the fire being made by the public servants whose duty it was to assist at sacrifices.
Anglo-Saxon Finds at Warwick
Authors: Chatwin Philip B.
Published: January 2012

In the summer of 1923 several Anglo-Saxon graves were discovered at Emscote, on the right bank of the river Avon, one mile above Warwick, and fifty yards from the south side of the embankment of the Great Western Railway. The remains of five or six interments were found, the bones being very fragmentary and soft. They lay in a thick bed of gravel which has been gradually removed. As soon as Mr. Cleaver, the owner of the gravel-pit, realized that these were ancient interments and the objects probably of some interest, he reported the matter to the Mayor of Warwick (Dr. Hubert Tibbits), who communicated through our Secretary with Mr. John Humphreys, F.S.A., one of the Local Secretaries for Warwickshire. At the latter's request I kept in touch with the excavation work, but by that time all the important objects had been found; since then one more grave has been disturbed, in which only a spear-head was found with the bones. As the gravel-pit on this side is practically exhausted, it seems improbable that any further discoveries will be made in this direction.
An unusual find in the New Forest Potteries at Linwood, Hants
Authors: Hawkes C. F. C.
Published: January 2012

For over three-quarters of a century the New Forest potteries have had their place in the archaeology of Roman Britain. The first discoveries at Crock Hill were made by the Rev. J. P. Bartlett in 1852, and our Secretary Akerman's paper on these, together with J. R. Wise's work at Islands Thorns and elsewhere, soon made ‘New Forest ware’ as familiar a household word as ‘Castor’ or ‘Upchurch’ in the mouths of Victorian antiquaries. These researches made it clear that the potteries flourished mainly in the latter part of the Roman period: not only do we hear of no associations with ‘Samian’ (Terra Sigillata), but the majority of the coin-finds, rare as they were, were later than the middle of the third century. But to the early explorers ‘the Romans’ remained always alien conquerors, and it was left for Haverfield, who reviewed the material in 1900, to point out that the New Forest wares ‘have no Roman or Italian analogies, and are obviously native’. ‘It is a melancholy pleasure’, he remarked, ‘to find in this secluded corner of Britain a survival, however poor, of native ways.’ And in his Romanization of Roman Britain he duly quoted ‘the New Forest urns with their curious leaf-ornament’ among the ‘little local manufactures’ attesting the ‘sporadic survival’ of native Celtic art under Roman rule. But both there and in Professor Collingwood's Roman Britain it is in the livelier decoration of Castor ware that this was more explicitly recognized; and in the latest expression of his judgement, Professor Collingwood sums the matter up in a more guarded fashion.
Verulamium Again
Authors: Wheeler R. E. M.
Published: January 2012

The excavation of Verulamium in the years 1930–4 originated in a coincidence of archaeological need and local opportunity. The former, at this late date, needs no elaboration; the latter, it may be recalled, lay in the acquisition, by the Borough of St. Albans, of the southern half of the walled site, now known to have taken shape in the second century A.D. A central area within the new Corporation property accordingly remained for three years the main focus of the excavations, supplemented by an intensive examination of the town-defences, including two wall-towers and three gateways, of which two lay on property retained by Lord Verulam.

Archaeologically, the problem confronting the excavators was twofold: to establish (for the first time) the outlines of the economic history of a major Romano-British town deep-set in the 'lowland zone'; and to determine the relationship, topographically and culturally, of the successive Belgic and Roman settlements. It was a familiar fact that Verulamium had held an important royal mint at the beginning of the first century A.D., and, whether the term municipium applied by Tacitus to the town in A.D. 61 be taken at face-value or no, the chance of observing the growth of a first-class Roman city out of a first-class pre-Roman one was unsurpassed on any other site. It was, therefore, essential that the exploration of a part of the Roman city should be accompanied by a systematic search for its predecessor.
Dragonesque Brooches and their Development
Authors: Bulmer William
Published: January 2012

Among the many brooches which have been found at Corstopitum, six specimens are recorded of the S-shaped or dragonesque type, which in its fully developed form has been well described as one of the finest examples of Romano-Celtic art. The type occurs predominantly in the military districts of Roman Britain (cf. distribution map, fig. i). Over 75 per cent. of the known examples have been found north of a line joining the Severn and the Humber, but even in this area only one site, Traprain Law, has yielded so many examples as Corstopitum, and of the six found at Traprain only two were complete, and one was a mere fragment. The Corstopitum brooches, while having in common the S-shaped or dragonesque outline, differ so much in other details as to invite the consideration of their mutual relationship and their respective places in the development of the type.
The Bleasdale Circle
Authors: Varley W. J.
Published: January 2012

Bleasdale Circle was discovered in 1898 by Messrs. Thomas Kelsall and Shadrach Jackson and excavated by them in the period 1898–1900, their work being reported upon by Professor Sir William Boyd Dawkins in the Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society of 1900. Upon the conclusion of these excavations the site was planted with conifers and rhododendrons, and the posts of the inner ring (pl. XLVI) were raised to the surface of the ground adjacent to their original holes (pl. XLIII, 1). In 1925, when the site was scheduled as an Ancient Monument, these oak posts had almost completely rotted and the site had become covered with dense undergrowth. Since it was suspected that the published plans were not strictly accurate, and as it was known that the whole of the site had not been excavated, it was decided to combine re-excavation with an attempt at preservation of what was left of the circle. A ‘Bleasdale Preservation Committee’ was formed, and with funds raised by public subscription the work of re-excavation was carried out under the direction of the author in the Easters of 1933–5, by kind permission of the owner, Mr. W. J. Sharp, the tenant, Mr. Edward Kelsall (son of the original discoverer), and H.M. Office of Works.
Four Flint Implements
Authors: Moir J. Reid
Published: January 2012

It is now some years since I first drew attention to the discovery of certain very perfect leaf-shaped blades, of Early Solutré type, at Ipswich. These specimens were found during the putting in of deep foundations for a chimney-shaft at the Ipswich Corporation's Power Station in Constantine Road. The blades, which are unabraded, came from below a considerable thickness of gravel, where, it may be supposed, there at one time existed a land surface inhabited by Early Solutré man. This land surface is now buried beneath the Flood Plain terrace of the River Gipping, and is well below the water-table of the locality. It is clear, therefore, that since Early Solutré man lived in the Gipping Valley, a marked sinking of the East Anglian area has taken place. Following the appearance of my paper upon the blades found at Constantine Road, Ipswich, other specimens which, by their forms and manner of flaking, are also referable to Early Solutré times have been recovered. These examples have come to light about a mile farther up the valley. The site is situated on the south-west of the Bramford Road where the Flood Plain gravel is being exploited by Messrs. Warren Livingstone, Ltd. The gravel is raised by means of a powerful suction-pump, and, from my observations at Bramford Road, I entertain little doubt that, as at Constantine Road, the Flood Plain Early Solutré land-surface is present there below the Flood Plain gravel.
Belgic and other early pottery found at North Ferriby, Yorks. With comments on pre-Claudian Romano-Gaulish influence in Britain
Authors: Corder Philip , Pryce T. Davies
Published: January 2012

In the summer of 1932 two young geologists, Messrs. C. W. and E. V. Wright, while examining the low cliffs of the Humber Bank, near North Ferriby, noticed dark patches of black earth containing bones and sherds (Y.A.J. xxxi, 199). The material collected by them from these pits at various times since then forms the principal subject of this paper.
Excavations at Atchana-Alalakh, 1938
Authors: Woolley Leonard
Published: January 2012

The excavation of the harbour site at al Mina having been finished in 1937, the whole of the 1938 season was devoted to the inland mound of Atchana, now identified by the help of the inscribed tablets as the ancient city of Alalakh. Work started at the beginning of March and was carried on until the end of May. Throughout the greater part of the season the number of men employed averaged about three hundred. Even with the invaluable assistance of our foremen, Hamoudi and his two sons Yahia and Alawi (the former of whom as usual was responsible for the photography), this entailed very heavy work on our limited staff, and for the success of the season I am deeply indebted to its members: my wife, who besides doing the drawings of the painted pottery and metal objects helped in the field in every way; Mr. Ralph Lavers, to whom are due the excellent plans and reconstructions of the buildings; and Mr. P. W. Murray-Threipland, who again acted as general archaeological assistant and undertook practically the whole of the work on the catalogue of objects. I have further to express my gratitude to Mr. Sidney Smith for his work upon the tablets, to Mr. R. D. Barnett for information regarding the Hittite inscriptions, to M. Henri Seyrig, Director of the Service des Antiquités for Syria, and to M. Merlat, Inspector of Antiquities for the Sandjak of Alexandretta, for help, both official and personal, ever readily given; lastly, I would thank the Trustees of the British Museum, the Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, and the many generous friends who have financed the Expedition and made its work possible, and will, I hope, feel that their help has been rewarded by its success.
Brasses to the Arundell Family at Mawgan-in-Pyder, Cornwall
Authors: Stephenson Mill , Pearson R. H.
Published: January 2012

The brasses in Mawgan church suffered severely at the restoration in 1860–1. All were taken from their slabs and the slabs destroyed. Some were removed to Lanherne Nunnery, but subsequently transferred to Wardour Castle, where they still remain.

The following account is mainly derived from old rubbings in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries; from E. H. W. Dunkin's Monumental Brasses of Cornwall, 1882; C. S. Gilbert's Historical Survey and Heraldry of Cornwall, 2 vols., 1817–20; H. Haines's Manual of Monumental Brasses, 1861; The Roman Catholic Families of England—Arundell, by J. J. Howard and H. S. Hughes, no date; and M. Stephenson's List of Brasses in the British Isles, 1926.
Two Portraits of Sir John of Hartshill
Authors: Steinberg S. H.
Published: January 2012

The National Gallery at Melbourne, Australia, purchased in 1922 a fine example of English painted glass of the middle of the fourteenth century. The panel shows the portraits of Sir John of Hardreshull and his wife Margaret, daughter and coheir to Sir James Stafford of Sandon. The figures are all in white glass, of an ivory tint, and the outer narrow margin is also white. The diapered background is of a rich blue colour, the plain border is ruby glass poudrée with yellow roses (pl. LXXXV, 1).
Excavations at Tal Atchana, 1937
Authors: Woolley Leonard
Published: January 2012

In the spring of 1936 the Expedition cleared a large part of the al Mina site at the mouth of the Orontes and cut trial trenches on the inland tell of Atchana. Having regard to the importance of the results obtained the Trustees of the British Museum made a large grant towards the cost of the Atchana excavation; the Ashmolean Museum continued its support of the previous year, and the generous help given by private supporters in 1936 was again forthcoming; my sincere thanks are due to those who thus made our work possible.
A Levallois Side-scraper from the Brickearth at Yiewsley, Middlesex
Authors: Lacaille A. D.
Published: January 2012

Of late the Levallois industries of the Thames valley have attracted notice, and an endeavour has been made to show analogies with artifacts of this culture from northern France. In describing implements recovered from the deposits north of and slightly above the 100-ft. contour near Iver the present author drew particular attention to Levallois relics found in the red and grey brickearth overlying solifluxion gravel, with stratified gravel below. The difference between palaeoliths from the last named and those from the brickearth at Iver was commented on, and at the same time parallels were drawn with the specimens found near Yiewsley.
Three bronze implements from the Edgebold Brickyard, Meole Brace, Shropshire
Authors: Chitty Lily F.
Published: January 2012

Among the collections of the Rev. C. H. Drinkwater, who died in 1923 after holding the living of St. George's, Shrewsbury, since 1872, were two looped palstaves and a trunnion celt (fig. 1), labelled as ‘3 Primitive Weapons found in the clay (15 ft.) in a brickfield, Hanwood Road, May 1900’. These were all in rather a rough condition, the surfaces being much chipped and in parts worn down to a grey-brown core with purple stains; they are encrusted with powdery blue-green metal, covered with a fairly glossy yellow-brown patina, of which considerable portions remain with traces of soil adhering. The chisel is in two pieces, broken about 10 mm. above the lugs; it is 156 mm. long, 24 mm. wide at the cutting edge and 35 mm. across the trunnions, with an average thickness of 8 mm.: unlike the specimen from Broxton and the two Welsh examples figured and described by Mr. Hemp, the ends do not seem to have been sharpened to a fine edge (though possibly the bluntness of the three implements under consideration may be due in part to the disintegrating effect of the soil on the metal): the section is roughly oblong, and the trunnions are squarish with rounded angles: the weight is 4⅜ oz. This implement is so far unique in Shropshire, but small broad-edged tanged chisels have been found, one at Brogyntyn, near Oswestry, with a leaf-shaped sword (type G) and a gouge, another (broken) in the late Broadward Hoard, from the extreme south of the county on the Herefordshire border.
Some Notes on Pottery from Ur
Authors: Frankfort H.
Published: January 2012

While the astounding work in the cemetery of Ur continues, Mr. Woolley has embarked on yet another investigation which, though less spectacular, is nevertheless of great scientific importance. An attempt has been made to obtain direct stratigra-phical evidence as to the succession of early civilizations in Mesopotamia and of their connexion with the earliest remains which are definitely Sumerian. Till now these problems have only found provisional solutions in a co-ordination of the discoveries made on several sites by means of more or less complicated cross-datings. Whether the new attempt will succeed is, of course, dependent on factors beyond the excavator's control, for the work has only just begun. But I comply gladly with Mr. Woolley's request to add now some remarks on the pottery recovered in the pits, because these discoveries illustrate once more the necessity of a change in method in discussing this kind of material. It is not only that the time of comfortable generalizations is past; the fact has to be faced that the rapid increase of our material during recent years makes terminology as well as theories obsolete almost as soon as they are put forward. The result threatens to be chaos; but the cure is not a merely sceptical attitude, such as that adopted in some recent histories, where the possibility of deriving anything from ceramic evidence at all seems to be doubted.
A Roman Villa at Newport, Isle of Wight, Part II: The Pottery
Authors: Sherwin G. A.
Published: January 2012

From a chronological point of view the pottery may be divided into three sections:

A 1: The ditch under E. hypocaust and corridor.

A 2: The deposit S. of the bath.

B: The corridor below the pavement level.

C: The corridor above the pavement level and Rooms V, VIII, IX, X, XI.
An Engraved Stone Pillar from the Isle of Man
Authors: Kermode P. M. C.
Published: January 2012

In August 1928 Mr. W. Cubbon and Mr. J. R. Bruce, at the request of the Manx Museum, examined a mound about a mile west-north-west of the town of Ramsey. This had been raised on a gravel bank at the eastern end of what was formerly Loch Mallow. Though inconspicuous, it had long been known, and as early as the thirteenth century was noted as a landmark between the Lord's lands and the Abbey lands in the parish of Lezayre, being referred to by name as Leabba AuKonalhay, i. e. grave of O'Conoly.
The Excavation of the Sutton Hoo Ship-burial
Authors: Phillips C. W.
Published: January 2012

The following account of the recent discovery near Woodbridge, Suffolk, requires a word of preliminary explanation. The work was brought to an unhurried close on 26th August 1939, and all the finds and records were removed to London and Cambridge. It had comprised not only the finding and removal of the burial but also the complete excavation and study of the ship in which the burial was placed. The latter part was under the direction of Lieut.-Commander J. K. D. Hutchison of the Science Museum, who, within a few days of the close, had taken his place in the service of the Royal Navy. The finds had, for the most part, only been in the laboratory of the British Museum for a matter of days when they had to be packed up and taken to a place of safety. Under these circumstances it is not possible to give a complete account of the discovery in all its aspects, since much new information is bound to come from the examination of many objects now packed away after only a cursory inspection. The writer therefore aims at giving an objective report of what has come within his experience. With Lieut.-Commander Hutchison's consent he is also offering a layman's account of the ship, the full technical description and discussion of which is a work of the future.
Some Presumably Datable Fragments of an English Alabaster Retable, and some Assembled Notes on English Alabaster Carvings in Spain
Authors: Hildburgh W. L.
Published: January 2012

In view of the very number—possibly more than three thousand—of English alabaster devotional (as distinct from those made as parts of monuments) carvings which have survived, it is somewhat astonishing how extraordinarily small a proportion of them have hitherto been datable otherwise than on intrinsic grounds. We have, indeed, many references to such carvings in dated or datable documents, but in extremely few cases have we been able to identify the particular objects with which those references are concerned. So far as I know, the only ones which have as yet been connected definitely with a dated document are the ones in the reredos, depicting events in the story of St. James, preserved intact in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. Almost invariably an English alabaster carving is datable only within somewhat wide limits, the criteria most usually applied being those laid down ’provisionally’ (but now commonly accepted as practically correct) by Prof. Prior nearly thirty years ago, and in accordance with the inherent characters of the sculpture and the applied coloration. Any discovery of data relating to a particular alabaster carving is, consequently, of considerable moment to us, not merely in relation with the object with which the data are immediately concerned, but much more importantly as giving us means for dating other similar carvings more accurately than within Prior's provisional ‘Periods’ (even though modified by the general terms ‘early’ and ‘late’) of about forty years each. In the case of the Santiago retable there can be no doubt at all as to the direct connexion between it and the existing document relating to it; in the case of the present fragments there is, unfortunately, in the only records I have found associated with them, an element of uncertainty, although there appears to be a very strong presumption that the medieval record to which I shall refer relates to the altar whose retable those fragments adorned.
Small Bronzes from Northern Asia
Authors: Minns Ellis H.
Published: January 2012

Early in 1929 the British Museum acquired a lot of two dozen small bronzes. Mr. Reginald Smith gave a preliminary account of them and illustrated eighteen in the British Museum Quarterly. The Society is indebted to the Trustees of the British Museum for the loan of these plates (our 1 and 11). Mr. Smith was good enough to suggest that I should treat them in greater detail in the Antiquaries Journal.
The Bronze Age Pit at Swanwick, Hants. Further Finds
Authors: Fox Charles F.
Published: January 2012

On July 4, 1928, I had an urgent message to call at the Bursledon Brick Co's. works as the men were again working on the site described in the Journal, which they had abandoned n i October 1927 for another sector of the clay pits, and had found evidence of a deeper shaft.
Further Notes on English Alabaster Carvings
Authors: Hildburgh W. L.
Published: January 2012

The Musée du Louvre has lately received as a gift from the City of Paris–in whose historical museum, the Carnavalet, they had been preserved–five English alabaster reliefs: a ‘Betrayal’, complete, but with a weathered surface; a fine ‘Christ led to Judgement’; a fragmentary ‘Christ before Pilate’; a ‘Naming of St. John’; and a ‘St. Michael and the Blessed Virgin’.
Rostro-carinates and Hand-axes
Authors: Moir J. Reid
Published: January 2012

In a paper published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (Series B, vol. 209, pp. 329–50, 1920) I described the relationship of the rostro-carinate flint implements of the East Anglian Pliocene deposits, to the later palaeolithic hand-axes, and illustrated my remarks by means of several specimens of transitional form found in various parts of this country. Since this paper appeared I have examined a large number of implements which show, in the clearest manner, the above-mentioned relationship, and this is especially the case with the two specimens described in this note.
Anniversary Address
Authors: Clapham A. W.
Published: January 2012

The Society may, I think, congratulate itself that, after the occurrences of a week ago, it is possible to hold its Anniversary Meeting in its own apartments in Burlington House, and this not only from a private point of view, but as some indication of the entire failure of an eight-month long attempt to render our City uninhabitable. Apart from much broken glass and an incendiary bomb, some time ago, which so damaged a cistern on the roof as to render itself innocuous, the actual structure of our apartments is, as yet, unscarred.
Some English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish Arms in Medieval Continental Rolls
Authors: Collins S. M.
Published: January 2012

It is generally prudent to regard foreign coats in any rolls of arms with circumspection: they not infrequently depart widely from the versions accepted at home. Yet it sometimes happens that records of arms are found earlier in foreign than in native documents. Thus the first occurrence so far known anywhere of the arms of a Count of Chalon is in our Fitzwilliam and Camden Rolls. So, too, the lion and battle-axe of the King of Norway in the same two rolls, and also in the Segar Roll, give earlier news of the colours, it is said, than have ever yet been found in that country. And there are other examples of the kind. This is not surprising, seeing that we have more copious resources surviving from earlier times than other countries. The coats now to be spoken of are the more unexpected that they show the converse case: points of heraldry appertaining to these isles have been recorded in several continental rolls, but do not appear in our rolls at all.
Further examples of Claudian ‘terra sigillata’ from London
Authors: Stanfield J. A.
Published: January 2012

This paper is mainly intended to be read as supplementary to ‘Roman London; Its Initial Occupation as evidenced by early types of Terra Sigillata’, by Mr. T. Davies Pryce and Dr. Felix Oswald (Archaeologia, lxxviii), and as emphasizing the conclusions reached in that paper by furnishing some additional examples of the Tiberio-Claudian and Claudian styles of decoration found in London. Mr. Davies Pryce has very kindly read the proofs, and suggestions made by him have been incorporated.
A round metal object from Boston, Lincs.
Authors: Griffin Ralph
Published: January 2012

In the course of the restoration in 1853 of the great church of St. Botolph at Boston in Lincolnshire the floor of the nave was removed and excavation took place with a view to determining the site of a more ancient church thought to have existed before the great nave was built. In the course of these works certain small objects were discovered in the ground, and a list of them is given in the History of Boston by Pishey Thompson, Boston, 1856. One of them, which is preserved in the library over the south-west porch, is a copper disc with Limoges champlevé enamel. It was exhibited before the Society at its ordinary meeting on the 30th January 1930 by the vicar of Boston, the Rev. Canon Hutchinson, at my invitation, as it had attracted my attention when I visited the library in June 1929. It is represented on pl. XIII, and Mr. Thompson, who considered it not of much interest, describes it as the foot of a candlestick of latten with shields of arms and foliage of the fourteenth century. It is possible to differ with him as to the interest of the object, for that appears to be quite considerable. As to its date, it is probably quite early in the fourteenth century, if not at the end of the thirteenth. As to its use, that must in any case be quite doubtful.
A note on certain agate beads
Authors: Beck H. C.
Published: January 2012

Early in this century, probably between 1908 and 1912, an Austrian walked into the shop of a London dealer carrying a hamper which contained from 500 to 1,000 roughly-made agate beads. They were all made from the same sort of agate. This was pale grey to pale brown in colour and banded in narrow straight layers, some of which are nearly colourless and transparent. The Austrian said that he had bought them in Somerset, and either he or the dealer suggested that they might have come from the sale of the belongings of an old sea captain. I have not been able to get any confirmation of this. The dealer put a considerable number of these into Stevens's sale room. Some are shown in fig. 1.
Report on Excavations at Verulamium in 1934
Authors: Lowther A. W. G.
Published: January 2012

During the time that the excavation of the theatre was being carried out, the investigation of insula XVI, immediately west of it, was begun, and was completed after some three months' work.

The insula, a rectangle measuring 300 ft. by 160 ft. (with its greater length stretching from east to west) is bounded by roads on three sides, and by the metalled space surrounding the theatre on its fourth, or eastern, side. Cross-trenches showed the south road to be 29 ft., and the north road 18 ft., in width; the west road had been at least 29 ft. wide, but, owing to soil having been denuded from this higher part of the site, the exact width of this road was not determined by either of the two trenches dug across it (plan, pl. xxv).
Lochaneilean Castle, Inverness-shire
Authors: Simpson W. Douglas
Published: January 2012

This survey of Lochaneilean Castle was conducted in April 1935 on behalf of the Inverness Field Club, by which the expenses were defrayed. I gratefully acknowledge the warm interest shown in the undertaking by the Council of the Club, and the assistance which I received, in making the survey, from Dr. John Craig, F.S.A.Scot., and Mrs. Craig. The laird of Rothiemurchus, Lieut.-Col. John P. Grant, M.C., T.D., D.L., M.A., LL.B., Sheriff-substitute of Inverness, Elgin, and Nairn, kindly placed a boat and boatman and ladders at our disposal, and had the overgrowth removed from the ruins before our visit.
Further Excavation of La Cotte de St. Brelade, Jersey
Authors: Marett R. R.
Published: January 2012

The Island of Jersey being now (August 1940) in the occupation of the enemy, I should like to put on record the present state of the thus interrupted excavation of the Palaeolithic site known as La Cotte de St. Brelade. Here, as is well known, important finds have been made in the past, notably during the years 1910–16. There was every reason to believe, when operations were suspended in the course of the last Great War, that more remained to be discovered near by; but the far greater bulk of the ‘head’ covering the untouched parts long deterred us from so laborious and expensive an undertaking. At length in 1936 we were moved to make a fresh start, thanks largely to the generosity of the Royal Society, which made us grants of £50 for two successive years, followed by three more of £25 per annum, the last of which could not be used. This money has been entirely spent in securing the expert assistance of quarrymen in charge of Mr. W. Bichard; tools and other material aids being provided at the expense of the Société Jersiaise.
Excavations at Rams Hill, Uffington, Berks.
Authors: Piggott Stuart , Piggott C. M.
Published: January 2012

Rams Hill is an inconspicuous knoll of the Berkshire Downs (Berks. O.S. 6 in. XIX, NW. and NE.) on the ridge overlooking the Vale of the White Horse. It lies within the 700-ft. contour, with the ground sloping gently to the south and falling steeply to 400 ft. on the northern escarpment. To the west, a mile away, the land rises to White Horse Hill, a bluff over 800 ft. high, crowned by the hill-fort of Uffington Castle and with the eponymous turf-cut Horse on the westward slope slightly below.

The Ridgeway runs along the crest of the downs, south of Uffington Castle but on the north edge of Rams Hill, while along the bottom of the escarpment the Ickneild Way winds in and out of the coombes between the 400- and 500-ft. contours.