bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Iron Age of ‘Loughey’ and Meare: Some Inferences from Glass Analysis
Authors: Henderson Julian
Published: April 2011

The archaeology of two Iron Age sites, ‘Loughey’ in County Down, Northern Ireland, and Meare Lake Village, Somerset, is discussed. Changes in the archaeological interpretation of the sites are considered in the light of recent research into Iron Age sites in Britain and Ireland. Consideration of the chemical composition of the glass from ‘Loughey’ and Meare helps to add weight to the existence of suspected links between Ireland and the Continent in the first century B.C., and not, as has regularly been assumed, specific links with south England. The compositional characteristics of the glass from Meare are found to be totally different from those of the ‘Loughey’ glass and it is suggested that glass raw materials were imported to Ireland for the manufacture of Iron Age glass beads there. We can not now be as confident that the person buried at ‘Loughey’ was of ‘foreign’ origin.
An Assemblage of Palaeolithic Hand-Axes from the Roman Religious Complex at Ivy Chimneys, Witham, Essex
Authors: Turner Robin , Wymer J. J.
Published: April 2011

This paper describes the context and nature of an assemblage of forty-four Palaeolithic hand-axes from a Roman religious site at Witham, Essex. The hand-axes are considered to have been derived from several sources, and it is suggested that the Romano-British occupants of the site deliberately selected them for their shape and placed them in the bottom of two large man-made depressions. In the light of stone axe finds on continental temple sites, and of classical Roman texts and traditions, the possibility arises that the Witham finds may have represented ‘thunderbolts’ in the worship of Jupiter or a local Celtic equivalent.
The Boxted Bombard
Authors: Blackmore Howard L.
Published: April 2011

In 1792 the Society published in Archaeologia an engraving of ‘An antient Mortar at Eridge Green’, with the claim that it was the first gun made in England. Subsequent writers on the history of artillery, while noting the gun's importance as one of the first examples of a wrought-iron cannon or bombard (to give it its correct name), believed that it had been destroyed. In fact, by the date of its publication, the bombard had been removed to Boxted Hall, Suffolk, where it remained unrecognized until its transfer to the Royal Armouries, H. M. Tower of London, in 1979. This article traces the history of the bombard, the method of its construction and concludes that it was probably made in England, in the Weald, during the fifteenth century.
Chyndonax to Galgacus: New Letters of William Stukeley to Alexander Gordon
Authors: Brown Iain Gordon
Published: April 2011

Previously unpublished letters of William Stukeley (1687-1765) to Alexander Gordon (?1692-?1754) are printed with a commentary to commemorate the tercentenary of Stukeley's birth. The letters are important as being the only correspondence extant between Stukeley and Gordon, and because they sum up many aspects ofStukeley's personality and shed light on his early preoccupation with the Druids.
The Canterbury Late Roman Treasure
Authors: Johns C. M. , Potter T. W.
Published: April 2011

In 1962, an important hoard of Christian late Roman silver was found at Canterbury and declared Treasure Trove. The assemblage, which dates to the end of the fourth century A.D. or the first decade of the fifth, and includes ingots and inscribed spoons, was published in 1965. In 1982, a spoon appeared on the London antiquities market which on investigation proved to be one of five objects (with two stamped ingots and two siliquae) that had formed part of the 1962 discovery, but had not been declared; they were pronounced Treasure Trove in 1983. This paper is an illustrated catalogue and discussion of all the items now known to constitute the Canterbury treasure. Two further sets of late Roman silver spoons are also catalogued, an unprovenanced group in private hands which displays marked links with the Canterbury treasure, and the Dorchester-on-Thames hoard, found in the late nineteenth century and typologically and chronologically closely related to Canterbury. X-ray fluorescence analyses of all the items have been carried out in the British Museum Research Laboratory, and the results are discussed.
Precision, Purpose and Priorities in Wetland Archaeology
Authors: Coles J. M.
Published: April 2011

Wetlands preserve evidence which no other landscape in western Europe can provide. The variety of wetlands is great and conditions for the survival of evidence and for archaeological work are equally varied. The quantity and quality of organic, and inorganic, evidence from wetland sites is now well documented by work in Denmark, Switzerland and Italy in particular, but most European countries have such special sites, where the abundance of evidence can enormously augment our knowledge of the past. The purpose of wetland archaeology must be to expand our very restricted data base into new areas of research, both cultural and environmental. A scheme for the development of priorities for wetland sites and areas may help to direct resources, but the threats to wetlands by current agricultural and other policies are particularly severe, and only concerted efforts will retain these areas in suitable condition for future preservation or examination.
The Iron Age Hillfort of Oldbury, Kent: Excavations 1983–4
Authors: Thompson F. H.
Published: April 2011

Renewed excavation at the Iron Age hillfort of Oldbury, near Sevenoaks, Kent, in 1983 and 1984 was designed to effect a comparison with earlier excavation in 1938 and to relate the hillfort itself to others on the Greensand of Surrey and Kent. Re-examination of the defences suggests construction in the first half of the first century B.C. and questions the supposed refortification against the Roman invasion of A.D. 43; activity at this time and later in the Roman period is thought to reflect quarrying for stone. Some evidence for internal activity was recovered, but the scale was too slight to indicate permanent occupation.
Anniversary Address
Authors: Robbins R. M.
Published: April 2011

Conformably with the order of events adopted at the Society's previous Anniversary Meeting, I invite the Fellows and guests present first of all to salute the recipients of the medals awarded this year for high merit in their services to archaeology.
A Historiography of the Irish Crannog: The Discovery of Lagore as Prologue to Wood-Martin'sLake Dwellings of Irelandof 1886
Authors: Briggs C Stephen
Published: April 2011

The nineteenth century development of Irish crannog studies, attitudes to archaeological research and traits in public and private artefact collecting are examined through the parts played by several leading antiquaries and institutions in the 1839 discovery and later exploitation of Lagore, near Dunshaughlin, County Meath. Connections between Irish and Swiss antiquaries are noted, and contemporary attitudes to their respective ‘lake dwelling’ discoveries contrasted.
A William IV Chalice
Authors: Taylor Brian
Published: April 2011

One of the pastoral consequences of the English Reformation was a change in the way that the viaticum was administered. For many centuries the sacrament had been reserved in churches, and this had been compulsory since the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. Holy communion was taken to the sick and dying, often accompanied with much ceremonial, but now this was brought to an end. Every edition of the Book of Common Prayer had contained a form for ‘the communion of the sick’, a celebration of the eucharist in ‘a convenient place in the sick man's house’. The 1549 book also had provision for what we should now call ‘communion by extension’, taking the consecrated elements to the sick after a celebration in church, but that disappeared in 1552, and is disallowed by a strict following of the rubric in 1662. William Kennedy long ago argued that communion by extension had probably been legal after 1552, but that he had found no mention of it in the visitation papers of the period. ‘With infrequent communions provided in the year – three or four, or twelve at the most – the opportunities for ‘carrying the communion’ to the sick were very few, and communion by means of a private celebration became the regular method.’
Excavations at the Viking Barrow Cemetery at Heath Wood, Ingleby, Derbyshire
Authors: Richards Julian D , Beswick Pauline , Bond Julie , Jecock Marcus , McKinley Jacqueline , Rowland Stephen , Worley Fay
Published: April 2011

The cemetery at Heath Wood, Ingleby, Derbyshire, is the only known Scandinavian cremation cemetery in the British Isles. It comprises fifty-nine barrows, of which about one-third have been excavated on previous occasions, although earlier excavators concluded that some were empty cenotaph mounds. From 1998 to 2000 three barrows were examined. Our investigations have suggested that each of the barrows contained a burial, although not all contain evidence of a pyre. A full report of the 1998–2000 excavations is provided, alongside a summary of the earlier finds. The relationship of Heath Wood to the neighbouring site at Repton is examined, in order to understand its significance for the Scandinavian settlement of the Danelaw. It is concluded that Heath Wood may have been a war cemetery of the Viking Great Army of AD 873–8.
A Survey of Romanesque Vaulting in Great Britain and Ireland
Authors: Hoey Lawrence R , Thurlby Malcolm
Published: April 2011

This paper examines the use of vaults in ecclesiastical and secular architecture in Great Britain and Ireland from 1066 to around nyo. We commence with an investigation of the distribution of vaults in various types of buildings. Local workshop traditions are explored and aspects of architectural iconography are considered. The gazetteer provides full references to one-word place names in the text, along with descriptions of the vaults and bibliographical references.
Egyptian ‘Funerary Cones’ from El-Moghraqa, Gaza
Authors: Steel L , Manley W P , Clarke J , Sadeq M
Published: April 2011

In 1996 the Palestinian Department of Antiquities, Gaza, identified a previously unknown site dating to the second millennium BC, in the area of el-Moghraqa, some joom north of the Wadi Gaza. The cultural remains recovered from the surface included a series of terracotta cones stamped with the cartouches of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut. These artefacts are unique amongst the cultural assemblages of the Levant and are most closely paralleled by Egyptian funerary cones of the Eighteenth Dynasty from Thebes. Fieldwork conducted by the Gaza Research Project (GRP) in 1999 and 2000 examined the archaeological context of the cones, with the purpose of identifying their function and assessing the symbolic significance of this Egyptianizing material within a Levantine context.
New Scientific Dating of the Later Bronze Age Wells at Swalecliffe, Kent
Authors: Masefield Robert , Bayliss Alex , McCormac Gerry
Published: April 2011

The Swalecliffe later Bronze Age well complex was reported in detail in volume 83 of the Antiquaries Journal. The site comprised seventeen wells cut into the base of a previously reduced hollow. Groundwater could thus have been more readily accessed within the subsequently cut well pits. The depth of the base of the wells, at up to 2.5m below ground level, and their consequent waterlogged nature, allowed exceptional preservation of wooden linings and plank steps. Application of dendrochronological and radiocarbon dating suggested that the individual wells were used in sequence over a period of around 500 years, from an origin probably in the late thirteenth century BC to abandonment probably within the seventh century BC. The earlier phases (1–4) were dated mainly by dendrochronology, a 348-year sequence known as SWALECLF 1, whilst the later phases (5–7) were dated by a series of five radiocarbon dates.
A Roman Inscribed Tablet from Red Hill, Ratcliffe-on-Soar (Nottinghamshire)
Authors: Tomlin R S O
Published: April 2011

This annotated transcript and translation of a Roman curse tablet found on the site of a rural Roman temple in 1963 shows that the curse was prompted by the theft of woodcutting tools and protective clothing.
On the Witham Bowl
Authors: Graham-Campbell James
Published: April 2011

The only known illustrations of the lost Anglo-Saxon silver hanging-bowl from the River Witham, Lincolnshire, are those in the Society's collections, including a hitherto unknown sketch, published here for the first time. Further information concerning the bowl's pedigree, since its discovery in 1816, has also come to light, together with evidence for its survival into the twentieth century. Attention is also drawn to three recent finds of ornamental metalwork from southern Scandinavia of stylistic relevance to the bowl's internal decoration in the form of a free-standing animal.
Joseph Sim Earle, FSA, and his Bequest to the Society
Authors: McHardy George
Published: April 2011

The cataloguing of the Earle Collection of prints and drawings in 2001–2 prompted an enquiry into Earle himself. This paper sets out the results of that enquiry, outlines what was done in cataloguing the collection and seeks to draw wider attention to the nature and content of the bequest.
The ‘Armada Service’: a Set of Late Tudor Dining Silver
Authors: Thornton Dora , Cowell Michael
Published: April 2011

Discovered in a potato barn in a small Devonshire village in 1827 (fig. I), the ‘Armada Service’ is one of the most important groups of English silver to have been found in England. It consists of a set of twenty-six parcel-gilt dishes, engraved with the arms of Sir Christopher Harris of Radford, Devon (c. 1553–1625), and those of his wife, Mary Sydenham (fig. 2). The dishes form part of the dining silver accumulated by Sir Christopher between 1581 and 1602, whenever cash or metal was available to be converted by London goldsmiths into this recognized, tangible evidence of wealth and social status. The ‘Armada Service’ is the unique survival of a type of utilitarian plate which is listed in the inventories of the gentry and aristocracy of the late Tudor and early Stuart periods. Undecorated plate of this sort would have been particularly vulnerable in times of financial need, since its bullion value far outweighed its decorative appeal.
James Theobald's ‘Missing’ MS: History of the Society of Arts and his ‘Chronological Register’ of ‘the Present Age’
Authors: Allan D. G. C. , Appleby J. H.
Published: April 2011

The discovery in the Society's library of James Theobald's manuscript history of the foundation of the Society of Arts is a satisfying conclusion to a search which has been pursued since the early years of the twentieth century. This search had been stimulated by a statement in a rare eighteenth-century tract entitled: A Concise Account of the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Society For the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce Instituted at London, Anno. MDCCLIV. Compiled from the Original Papers of the first Promoters of the plan; and from other authentic records. By a Member of the said Society. London: Printed for the AUTHOR, and sold by S Hooper, at Caesar's Head, the corner of the New Church in the Strand. MDCCLXIII. The author, who has been identified as Thomas Mortimer, wrote in his introduction:

Several particulars relative to the origin of this Society having been lost to the public for many years, it may not be improper to mention, least the authenticity of the following narrative should be disputed, that the substance of it was drawn up by the late James Theobald, Esq; one of the first Vice Presidents of the Society, from a verbal relation given him by Mr Shipley; and that the same gentleman afterwards presented a copy of that relation to the Antiquarian Society.
Anniversary Address 2000
Authors: Jervis Simon Swynfen
Published: April 2011

In 1750 our President, the Duke of Somerset, who had been elected in 1724 when the Marquis of Hertford died. We elected in his place the Duke of Richmond whose portrait, given by our Fellow Richard Hatchwell in 1995, hangs on our stairs: Richmond attended the St George's Day dinner in 1750 but did little more for the Society until his death in November of the same year. Our Vice-President Martin Folkes, who had been President of the Royal Society since 1741 in succession to Sir Hans Sloane, was elected in Richmond's place. Folkes successfully steered the Society towards the Royal Charter granted by King George II, our ‘Founder and Patron’, on 2 November 1751, whose 250th anniversary we shall be celebrating next year, although by that time Folkes, who had suffered a paralytic stroke on 26 September, was incapable. A Fellow since 1720, Folkes's main interests were Roman antiquities and English coins. He was not universally beloved: Stukeley called him ‘an arrant infidel and loud scoffer’ who ‘believes nothing of a future state, of the Scriptures of revelation.’ On 2 June 1858 what was said to be Folkes's cocked hat was presented to the Cocked Hat Club. Late last year the Society was able to purchase at Christie's a more reliable relic in the form of Folkes's portrait painted by Jonathan Richardson in 1718, which now hangs behind the President's Chair, 250 years after Folkes's election to that office. Richardson, the painter, although not a Fellow, is worthy of respect in antiquarian circles: An Account of the Statues and Bas-reliefs, Drawings and Pictures in Italy, France etc, with Remarks, edited from his son's Grand Tour notes, and first published in London in 1722, was valued by our Honorary Fellow, the Abbé Winckelmann, and a French edition was issued at Amsterdam in 1728. Our Library has the first edition, left to the Society by our Fellow Arthur Ashpitel in 1869. The 1754 second London edition and the 1728 Amsterdam edition are surely desiderata.
The Society of Antiquaries' Sabbath Lamp
Authors: Emanuel Raphael Ralph
Published: April 2011

It is not surprising that the bronze oil lamp presented to the Society of Antiquaries by Sir Hans Sloane on 28 July 1736 (but ‘dug up at St Leonard's Hill, near Windsor’ in 1717 and published in 1718, fig 1) was considered to be Roman as it resembles oil lamps discovered in Herculaneum and Pompeii. However, the Roman lamps have a footring on their base, and not a drip pan, which is missing from the Society's lamp. It has since been identified as medieval. It resembles the thirteenth-century bronze sabbath lamp (fig 2) discovered in Bristol in 1976 on the site of New Jewry (1266–90) in Peter Street. The Bristol lamp has three spouts and the drip pan is also missing.
South Wales Plateways 1788–1860
Authors: van Laun John , Bick David
Published: April 2011

In 1787 John Curr (1756–1823) started using the L-shaped rail underground at Sheffield. This, as far as we know, was the first use of this type of rail. Benjamin Outram (1764–1805) is generally thought to have been the major influence in the development of the surface plateway in South Wales but, from the recent evidence gathered, it appears that the tramroad or plateway arrived in South Wales from a different source. In February 1788 Plymouth Ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil cast 176 ‘Dram Plates’ for James Cockshutt of Cyfarthfa each weighing 441bs (19.96kg). Cockshutt hailed from Wortley Forge near Sheffield. Wortley lay only a few miles from where Curr used plateways for the first time. It was therefore Cockshutt who brought the plateway to South Wales.
Quem Aspicientes Viverent: Symbolism in the Early Medieval Church Door and its Ironwork
Authors: Bradley S. A. J.
Published: April 2011

Symbolic perception of the church door in early English exegetical writings and in medieval liturgical practice is illustrated and discussed as the wider context of a proposal that the arched iron strip at the top of the twelfth-century church door at Stillingfleet, North Yorkshire, represents the rainbow of Noah's Flood, perceived as a reminder ofjudgement past and of judgement still to come, and as a symbol of the covenant between God and humanity. The possibility is considered that on other surviving early medieval church-doors too, the rainbow shape, even if primarily functional or dictated by the shape of the door-opening, and notwithstanding the absence of other figural imagery, may have been recognized as an emblem of the covenant, basis of all church-sanctioned contracts, aptly dislayed on the threshold—where various liturgical or other formal actions had their setting—of the sacred spaces of the domus dei.
How to Win at Tournaments: the Technique of Chivalric Combat
Authors: Anglo Sydney
Published: April 2011

Although it has generally been maintained that chivalric combat depended solely on strength and endurance, there is ample evidence that skill, dexterity, speed and control were also required. This paper attempts to reconstruct the techniques used in foot combats, tourneying on horseback and jousting (especially tilting)—in England, France, Italy and the Iberian Peninsula—on the basis of narratives and technical treatises, concerning sword and lance play, written between the late fourteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Stoneleigh After The Grand Tour
Authors: Gomme Andor
Published: April 2011

Examination of the account books and other papers, now chiefly deposited in the Record Office of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon, has enabled a chronology to be prepared of the long-drawn-out construction and decoration of the eighteenth-century west range of Stoneleigh Abbey. The contributions of the four architects principally involved—Francis and William Smith, William Hiorn and Timothy Lightoler—have been assessed, together with those of the more prominent craftsmen. In particular, the process by which the hall (or saloon) achieved its final form in 1763-5 is explored and suggestions made about the authorship of its remarkable stucco decoration.
A Decorated Late Iron Age Torc from Dinnington, South Yorkshire
Authors: Beswick Pauline , Megaw M. Ruth , Megaw J. V. S. , Northover Peter
Published: April 2011

In August 1984 Mr James Rickett, using a metal detector adjacent to a public footpath in a wood near Dinnington, South Yorkshire, found a bronze torc. Recognizing it as an important find he promptly took it into Sheffield City Museum, Weston Park. Subsequently the landowners, Mr and Mrs J. H. Morrell, generously donated the torc to the Museum (Accession no. SHEFM:1984.515). Later a careful survey was made of the wood by staff of Sheffield City Museums and the South Yorkshire Archaeology Unit.
Rolls of Arms of Kings: Some Recent Discoveries in the British Library
Authors: Goodall John A.
Published: April 2011

As the intensive study of the medieval rolls of arms continues it is becoming ever more clear that, even in the thirteenth century, the general rolls were drawing material from existing collections—often in blocks of entries. One of the features of many of the general rolls, both in England and on the continent, is a section devoted to the arms of emperors and kings; sometimes with a selection of oriental and African potentates (Appendix I). Such series were also used in decoration; as in the windows formerly in the great hall of the Bishop's Palace at Lincoln, in wood carvings at St Mary's, Barton on Humber, and the early fifteenth-century painted ceiling in St Alban's Abbey. These appear, in most of the rolls, as self-contained units, and vary in number and content. There was, therefore, no single source from which the compilers drew their material. In the present study the author proposes to examine some of the problems and to introduce two newly discovered English medieval rolls of arms relevant to the subject.
An Unknown Late Anglo-Saxon Text About old St Peter's in Rome
Authors: Ortenberg Veronica
Published: April 2011

Ms Royal 2. B.V. in the British Library, London, is a tenth-century Psalter from Winchester, possibly from Nunnaminster. On the last folios of this MS (189-190) were added in the late tenth century, miscellaneous computistical entries, which include the years ofChrist, the ages of the world, the ages and generations, the numbering and reckoning of years and the number of years from the Creation to the foundation of Rome. Two texts, the ‘De longitudine mundi’ (fol. 189) and ‘Longitudo, latitudo et altitudo templi et tabernaculum (sic)’ (fols. 189randv) precede, and another, ‘De area Noe’ (fol. 189v) follows a short text entitled ‘De aedificatio (sic) ecclesie sancti Petri apostoli’ at folio 189v.With the exception of this last, all these texts are also found in a ninth-century MS, British Library, Cotton Vespasian B.VI (fols. 106-70). To the best of my knowledge, the ‘De aedificatio[ne]’ does not exist in any other manuscript, and there is no known source for it. The present note aims solely at bringing this text to light and providing an edition of it; an examination of its implications for English history and architecture will be provided elsewhere.
An Account of his Excellence Roger Earl of Castlemaine's Embassy, from his Sacred Majesty James the IID. King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland &. To His Holiness Innocent XI.
Authors: Corbett Margery
Published: April 2011

The historical circumstances of Lord Castlemaine's embassy are well known. James II, as the Roman Catholic monarch of Britain, wished to pay his respects to the Pope, Innocent XI, and to secure a papal ambassadorial representative to his kingdom. There must have been further urgent requests of a political nature. He sent Lord Castlemaine as ambassador, the husband of Barbara Villiers. The Pope was made anxious by the close ties of James with Louis XIV and was not eager to receive him; a private audience at the Vatican was granted on 19 April 1686 not long after his arrival. The public entry, postponed owing to the indisposition of the Pope, did not take place until 8 January 1687.
Middle Bronze Age Ceremonial Weapons: New Finds from Oxborough, Norfolk and Essex/Kent
Authors: Needham Stuart
Published: April 2011

Two new finds (see Exhibits at Ballots, p. 461) of Middle Bronze Age weapons help document a tradition of ceremonial weapons in Britain and neighbouring parts of the Continent. Two distinct though small groups are represented, one—the Caistor St Edmunds-Melle series—being named for the first time. It is suggested that both series emerged during the Acton Park stage (1500–1350 BC), the Plougrescant-Ommerschans type having been elaborated from the already deviant Kimberley-type dirks, whilst the Caistor St Edmunds-Melle series were merely modifications of standard dirk and rapier types. Reasons for the emergence of explicit ceremonial forms are seen to lie in changing ritual needs and these are presented against a longer history of the ceremonial and ritual uses of metalwork. The ceremonial types under detailed consideration ceased during the Taunton stage (1350–1200), a late example of the phenomenon being represented by an exaggerated spearhead.
The First Church of San Marco in Venice
Authors: Warren John
Published: April 2011

In the past century there have been a number of proposed reconstructions of the First Church built in Venice to house the relics of Saint Mark, the Apostle. The proposal which follows differs from its predecessors in identifying the survival of the very large bulk of the original church. It holds that the ancient structure stands encapsulated within the surviving fabric (fig. 1) and thereby rediscovers, largely extant, the greatest Byzantine church of the Middle Ages, completed some time between 832 and 836 for Doge Giovanni Participacio (fig. 2). That church was generally held to have been destroyed by fire in 976, but rebuilt on similar lines by 978 only to have been taken down and rebuilt in its present form between 1063 and 1071 under Doge Domenico Contarini, the work continuing under Doge Vitale Falier. In the following account the Participaci church is described as the First and the Contarini-Falier church the Second. The intermediate reconstruction (976–8) is herein taken to have been a repair rather than a rebuilding. Finding that this first building still exists hidden within the second this paper suggests social reasons for its supposed loss.
Tobias Rustat and his Monument in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge
Authors: Renfrew Jane M. , Robbins Michael
Published: April 2011

The marble monument of Tobias Rustat in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, has never been attributed to a designer or sculptor on documentary evidence. From a review of Rustat's career and connections, it can be concluded that Grinling Gibbons and his studio were responsible for it, with parts carved by Arnold Quellin and possibly John Nost.
Le Câtel de Rozel, Jersey: The Excavations of 1988–90
Authors: Cunliffe Barry
Published: April 2011

The site of Le Câtel lies in the parish of Trinity in the north-east corner of Jersey, close to the village and harbour of Rozel (figs. 1 and 2). The defensive characteristics of the promontory are best appreciated from the contour plan (fig. 3). The archaeological site is located at the end of a long narrow plateau bounded on the north and east by cliffs plunging steeply to the sea and on the south by a deep valley cut by a stream flowing into Rozel bay. A subsidiary valley bites deeply into the south flank of the promontory leaving only a narrow neck of land, some 200m across, between its head and the sea cliffs on the north. This approach is barred by a massive earthwork which gives the site its name—Le Câtel.
A Late Iron Age Cast Bronze Head Probably from Chepstow
Authors: Megaw J. V. S. , Megaw M. Ruth , Trett Robert
Published: April 2011

In November 1987 a bronze highly stylized animal head was shown to me in my capacity as Curator of Newport Museum (figs. 1–3). The head which appeared to be of late Iron Age date is described below. The owner agreed to lend the piece to the Museum for conservation. The investigations included two separate metal analyses, carried out independently by Dr J. P. Northover at the University of Oxford and by R. Jones at the University of Wales, Cardiff. A black bituminous substance from horn cores on the head was analysed by C. Heron also at Cardiff; these analyses are reported below (Appendices 1–3). Additional advice was given by Dr H. N. Savory F.S.A., formerly Keeper of Archaeology at the National Museum of Wales, and by Dr I. M. Stead F.S.A. at the British Museum. Replicas were made for Newport Museum and the British Museum before the head was returned to the owner in August 1988. In July 1989, the head was purchased at auction by the Newport Museum and Art Gallery for £5,800 (Sotheby's: Antiquities,Monday 10 July and Tuesday 11 July 1989, Lot 403).
The Alloys of a Sample of Anglo-Saxon Great Square-Headed Brooches
Authors: Brownsword Roger , Hines John
Published: April 2011

The Potential Importance of the detailed measurement and study of the proportions of different elements in metal alloys used for early Anglo-Saxon artefacts has been appreciated for several years now. Such analyses add, for instance, to the direct observations of early Anglo-Saxon metalworking practice that can be made, and have a contribution to make to attempts to construct absolute and relative chronologies. Two ranges of alloys in particular have been profitably studied: alloys predominantly of gold, of the late sixth and seventh centuries, in which a progressive decline in the gold content allows dating estimates to be made on the strength of the results of metallurgical analysis (Hawkes, Merrick and Metcalf 1966; cf. Brown and Schweizer 1973 for the application of such results), and the predominantly copper alloys that are characteristic of the diverse and plentiful range of artefacts—particularly dress-jewellery—found in Anglo-Saxon graves of the Migration Period, dating from the fifth century to some point in the second half of the sixth. Study of these copper alloys has been organized in terms of particular artefact-types—for instance studies by Peter Northover and Tania Dickinson of saucer brooches and by Catherine Mortimer of cruciform brooches (Mortimer 1990: the unpublished results of Northover and Dickinson's earlier work are reported in this thesis)—and in the form of comprehensive surveys of the material recovered from individual cemeteries, such as Spong Hill, Norfolk (Wardley in Hills, Penn and Rickett 1984, 38–40), Watchfield, Oxfordshire, and Lechlade, Gloucestershire (Mortimer, Pollard and Scull 1986; Mortimer 1988).
Gadebridge Revisited: Excavations on the Roman Villa 2000
Authors: Neal David S
Published: April 2011

For a number of years the writer has harboured doubts over the correct interpretation of a number of features found in the 1960s. The millennium year presented an opportunity to reinvestigate part of the site to test whether these doubts were justified. What was once believed to have been an external chalk floor proved to be the floor of a timber roundhouse and what was once believed to have been a stone cottage proved to be a porticus linking the villa with the baths. Several phases of timber structures were found but the most remarkable discovery of all was evidence for a possible bathing pool predating the example discovered earlier.
The Chantry Chapel of John Oxenbridge in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle
Authors: Begent Peter J
Published: April 2011

In many ancient churches the establishment of chantries and chantry chapels provides a fascinating appendix to the archaeology and history of the building. This paper is a short study of a chantry founded in St George's Chapel, Windsor not long before the Henrician and Edwardian reforms which were to undermine the theological principles upon which such establishments were erected. It refers to the life and the achievements of the founder and seeks to highlight, through the examination of architectural and heraldic evidence the difficulties of tracing the history of the building and decoration of the chantry chapel for which the Foundation Deed and the will of the founder are lost.
The Lady Chapel of Glastonbury Abbey
Authors: Thurlby Malcolm
Published: April 2011

After the devastating fire of 1184, the Lady Chapel of Glastonbury Abbey was constructed on the site of the Old Church (Vetusta Ecclesia), the wattle church traditionally associated with Joseph of Arimathea. The lavish decoration of the chapel is frequently mentioned in the literature. In many cases authors emphasize the old-fashioned, Romanesque character of much of the ornament in contrast to the seemingly more progressive contemporary early Gothic mouldings of nearby Wells Cathedral. Nevertheless, it is generally recognized that the designer of Glastonbury Lady Chapel knew of the latest developments in French Gothic architecture as witnessed in his use of crocket capitals and sharply pointed arches in the vault. This juxtaposition of Romanesque and Gothic motifs has led to the categorization of the Lady Chapel as Transitional. Convenient as such a label may be as a term of reference in charting a purely typological evolution, it does little for our understanding of the use of some distinctly different elements in contemporary structures located in the same region. Is it the case that the patron and/or master mason of Glastonbury Lady Chapel are simply more conservative than at Wells Cathedral? Could Glastonbury Lady Chapel be consciously archaizing in an effort to emphasize the antiquity of the site? Should we perhaps think in terms of a traditional Benedictine monastic style at Glastonbury as opposed to an innovative style for the secular canons of Wells? Or is the rich decoration at Glastonbury Lady Chapel to be explained in a more general sense as an imitation of the art of church treasures? To address these questions the first part of this essay will examine the stylistic sources of the Lady Chapel. The meaning of the style of the Lady Chapel in the context of the beginnings of Gothic architecture in Britain will be discussed. Attention will then be turned to the sculpture of the Lady Chapel (Thurlby 1976a).
The Town and Castle of Conwy: Preservation and Interpretation
Authors: Taylor A. J.
Published: April 2011

This note summarizes and expands one of the short papers communicated to the Society on 23rd February 1995 under the title of ‘New Thoughts on Some Castles in Wales’.

The paper's purpose was twofold. First, it sought to present, through a series of ‘before and after’ photographs (figs. 1-8), an up-to-date picture of the transformation effected at Conwy in the course of the last forty years, not only by the careful and conservative repair of the fabric of both components of the monument, i.e. town walls as well as castle, but also by the systematic clearance wherever possible of every kind of built disfigurement from the forefront of the medieval enceinte, so as to reveal and display anew the whole circuit of towers and curtains in an ambience worthy of Britain's most outstanding example of medieval town fortification. Closely related to the process of gradually re-establishing awareness of the monument's unity, with the walls receiving the same respect, in financial as in other terms, as the castle and the work of repair proceeding simultaneously on both, was the defeat, likewise a long and complex process, of the Welsh Office's proposal effectively to destroy the natural setting and amenity of the whole southward aspect of castle and walls alike by driving a dual-carriageway ‘express-way’ through the Gyffin valley (brazenly promoted as the Minister's ‘preferred route’) and erecting a monster new suspension bridge whose ‘goalposts’ would have overtopped even the turrets of the castle towers. The abandonment of this disastrous plan, in favour of the submerged tube tunnel under the river opened by H.M. the Queen in October 1991, was of incalculable benefit in preserving Conwy's unique character into the future. As such, it has its proper place in the present record (figs. 9-12).
The Travels and Travails of Francis Grose, F.S.A.
Authors: Farrant John H.
Published: April 2011

Francis Grose (1731-91) initiated the eighteenth-century's most extensive series of published illustrations of ancient monuments. A thousand plates with accompanying descriptions, based on his and others ‘views and researches, appeared in The Antiquities of England and Wales (1772-6, Supplement, 1777-87), of Scotland (1789-91) and of Ireland (1791-5). He combined the role of popularizer with original contributions to the study of folklore, slang and military antiquities, but has received little scholarly attention for several reasons. His own drawings are indifferent artistically, so he scarcely features in art history. His books and pictures were sold on his death, and no archive of his papers is known to survive. The largest collection—about 380 pictures given to the publisher and now in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries—are his reductions of views for the engraver to copy for The Antiquities of England and Wales. They yield little information on the circumstances of the original drawings. He did not sign his pictures, so many may survive without, or with wrong, attributions. Dudley Snelgrove, F.S.A. (1906-92) amassed much material by and on Grose, but published nothing and the pictures are now dispersed though his notes, lately presented to the Antiquaries, are a valuable quarry. For a century the Dictionary of National Biography has provided the authoritative biography, which relied on obituaries, contemporaries’ fond recollections and a few letters printed by John Nichols.
Some Aspects of Heraldry and the Role of Heralds in Relation to the Ceremonies of the Late Medieval and Early Tudor Court
Authors: Goodall John A
Published: April 2011

The present study arose from the need to provide the background for understanding theheraldry mentioned in the post-mortem inventories of Henry VIII, and while it seems unlikely that this commentary will appear in the foreseeable future it fills agap in the heraldic literature. The role of the ‘British History’ in English royal propaganda and state ceremonials antedated the accession of Henry VII as is evidenced by the material prepared in relation to Edward IV's supersession of Henry VI in 1461. The role of heralds and kings of arms in rationalizing the arms and beasts required for the pageants etc is examined with the ways in which it was organized for entries and other ceremonials. The period also witnessed the introduction of new decorations f ortournaments – ciphers and impresses. The appendices provide editions of some hitherto unpublished texts which were devised for these purposes.
DoesCorieltaviMean ‘Army of Many Rivers’?
Authors: Breeze Andrew
Published: April 2011

The British people formerly known to scholars asCoritani, but now commonly referred to asCorieltauvi, lived in the region of Leicester, Nottingham and Lincoln, with their capital atRatae, or Leicester. Their name was recovered as follows. They appear in Ptolemy asCoritani(variantContavi) and the Ravenna Cosmography asRate Corion(taken as an abbreviated form).CoritaniandCorionresisted every attempt to extract a meaning from them.
Orientation within Early Medieval Cemeteries: Some Data from North-West Wales
Authors: Longley David
Published: April 2011

In volume 81 of the Antiquaries Journal, AH and Cunich presented new evidence in respect of the orientation of eleventh- and twelfth-century churches. The object of their research was to test whether the important churches of the early second millennium in England might have been aligned using a magnetic compass. Their data, meticulously collected, led them to conclude that only in a very small number of instances could the use of a magnetic compass have been possible and that solar observation was, in a significant number of instances, the determinant of orientation. More particularly, the rising of the sun above the horizon and possibly, though less frequently, the setting sun, provided the alignment. It was possible to show a close correlation with sunrise or sunset at patronal feast days, that is, the day on which the venerated saint was believed to have died, at Easter and on true east, determined by equinoctial sunrise.
Three English Romanesque Lecterns
Authors: Pearson Geoffrey L , Prentice John E , Pearson Alastair W
Published: April 2011

Three surviving stone lecterns are described and analysed in terms of their petrography and sculptural style. The similarity between their petrography strongly suggests that they share a common origin, traceable to a quarry or quarries in the immediate vicinity of Much Wenlock, and that the similarity of sculptural style and dimensions points to them being a product of a single workshop. Furthermore, the authors suggest that the petrographie and stylistic characteristics show striking similarities to the Much Wenlock lavabo, thus adding support to the notion of a Much Wenlock workshop.
Richard II, Henry Yevele and a New Royal Mansion on the Thames
Authors: Bennett Michael
Published: April 2011

A payment to a mason sent to Richard II in Ireland in December 1394 provides evidence of a proposal to build a new or substantially new royal residence at Isleworth, Surrey. The mansion was presumably intended as a replacement for the palace of Sheen, shortly to be demolished on the king's orders. The mason carried with him a model prepared by Henry Yevele and Hugh Herland. This entry in the issue rolls of the Exchequer thus offers an interesting perspective on Richard's domestic plans following Queen Anne's death at Sheen, and rare documentation of the use of architectural models in late medieval England. Further, it offers some support for the view that Yevele was actively involved in design work in the 1390s, and that Richard took a close interest in royal building projects.
The English Cemetery at Surat: Pre-Colonial Cultural Encounters in Western India
Authors: Scarre Chris , Roberts Judith
Published: April 2011

During the seventeenth century East India Company merchants settled in several cities of western India under the control of the Mughal Empire. The most important of these was Surat in Gujarat, where an English cemetery of impressive brick and stucco tombs was established. The style and nature of these monuments provide an insight into the cultural interactions that took place between the English merchants and the local population, as well as indicating the political aspirations of the East India Company officials. A description of these tombs, the earliest dating to 1649, is followed by a discussion of the origins of the cemetery, the chronology of the tombs and the identity and status of the dead. It is shown how the adoption of Indo-Islamic architectural styles for the earliest tombs was modified during the eighteenth century by the increasing use of Western architectural features, in line with growing British political power in India during this period. Changing architectural styles are paralleled by the changing attitudes of British visitors to the tombs from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries.
Heraldry in the Decoration of English Medieval Manuscripts
Authors: Goodall John A.
Published: April 2011

The use of heraldic decoration in medieval books has been somewhat neglected, only a few have been the subject of detailed studies and some of these are less than satisfactory. The Tickhill Psalter group had the advantage of having been the first to use the medieval rolls for comparanda, although the importance of the background decoration and line fillers as part of the overall pattern was not realised, accordingly a re-examination of all of these books is desirable. Unfortunately the book also gave renewed currency to the erroneous identification of the heraldry in the so-called Grey–FitzPayne hours at Cambridge which has long been regarded as closely dated to 1308 and hence a key manuscript for the chronology of the early fourteenth century books.
Anniversary Address 2003
Authors: Cramp Rosemary
Published: April 2011

This year the Anniversary is not celebrated on St George's Day because of the difficulties of the date of Easter and other public holidays, but this is not as late as the Anniversary Address has sometimes been delivered – as one discovers by consulting the dates in the Proceedings of the Society. In those historic volumes, the changing fortunes of the Society, as well as the preoccupations of the Presidents, are vividly – often sonorously – recorded. It strikes me, though, that in reviewing the year past, it is often not prudent to envisage the year ahead in similarly explicit terms. In the year of 1914, just before the outbreak of the First World War, our President Sir Charles Hercules Read began his Anniversary Address with noteworthy complacency: ‘I am happy in meeting you again … to record a prosperous year. Although it has not been marked by any outstanding events, we have pursued our even course usefully, I think, and may regard our present position with a fair amount of satisfaction’ (Proceedings, XXVI, 165).
A Later Bronze Age Well Complex at Swalecliffe, Kent
Authors: Masefield Robert , Branch Nicholas , Couldrey Peter , Goodburn Damian , Tyers Ian
Published: April 2011

This paper examines the significance of seventeen later Bronze Age wells found during construction at Swalecliffe, in north-east Kent. The unusual depth of the features made for exceptional preservation of wooden structural elements, including steps and revetments, demonstrating rare evidence for woodworking and woodmanship. Extensive biological remains facilitated environmental reconstruction, and a lengthy dendrochronological sequence corroborates the internationally important Flag Fen chronology. Dendrochronological and radiocarbon dates demonstrate around 500 years of seemingly continuous use and replacement of wells. Votive deposits and apparatus used for water collection provide glimpses of small-scale ritual and domestic activities. The highly unusual concentration of wells is compared to contemporary sites regionally and elsewhere.