Late in 1954 it became known that plans existed for a new road across the site of Verulamium. This new highway is to enter the Roman city along the line of Bluehouse Hill, and from the angle at the entrance to the Gorhambury Drive will strike across the fields to the A.5 road at Batchwood Drive. Its line thus bisects the city, and the work will involve the destruction or sealing of important Roman sites including the northern edge of the Forum.

The situation of the Neolithic Causewayed camp at Abingdon, discovered by the Rev. Charles Overy and made famous by the late Mr. E. T. Leeds, is well known and only requires summarizing. It lies on a spur bounded by the valleys of two brooks at the south edge of an expanse of Summertown-Radley terrace gravel, three-quarters of a mile north of the Thames. The two concentric ditches, to which reference is made below, lay between the brooks; a third similar ditch, of which pit A was possibly a section, may have lain to the south. The site was at its highest (about 202 ft. O.D.) at about the centre of arc of the outer ditch, whence there was a gentle southerly slope. The expanses of Summertown-Radley gravel in the Oxford region have been found rich in prehistoric finds, that between Radley and Abingdon being no exception.

Two unique pieces of Late Anglo-Saxon silverwork of outstanding interest have recently been purchased by the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum. The pieces are plates from a house-shaped casket, or shrine, of a well-known British type. They formed part of the collection of a Sussex doctor and were purchased from him by the dealer who sold them to the Museum: they are unfortunately unprovenanced, but from external evidence it seems likely that they formed part of a Victorian collection. One of the pieces is rectangular and measures 12.6×5.2 cm., the other is rhomboid and measures along its longest side 12.1 cm., they differ also in their ornamentation which is carried out in a shallow carving, or graving, technique. (pl. v a).

In December 1952, while employed in levelling the ground prior to the construction of the approach to the new Cattle Market site at St. Stephen's Road, Canterbury, the driver of the mechanical excavator, Mr. Claude Jarvis, noticed a few pieces of Roman pottery and immediately informed the writer of the discovery. From then on a close watch was kept on the site for any structural remains. After a few days an extensive area of burnt brick-earth was encountered, followed soon afterwards by the tops of two walls lying parallel to each other. It was then arranged for the site to be excavated under the auspices of the Canterbury Excavation Committee, the present writer undertaking the direction of the work. The results of this investigation form the subject of this report.

This report gives a brief account of a field reconnaissance in the Levant during August and September 1955. Seven weeks were spent in ground-checking archaeological sites noticed on air photographs taken by the Royal Air Force over Greece and Rhodes during the Second World War, and later in Cyprus. Assisted by my wife, I was able in these few weeks to locate and to examine in detail a large number of archaeological features, as the consequence of having these photographs as a guide. I shall reserve for a future occasion the description of the results and discoveries from our work in Cyprus, which was based on (i) my study of some thousands of photographs which the Department of Lands and Surveys in Nicosia kindly made available, and (ii) ground-checks on foot in various parts of the island. A very helpful grant of £50 given by the Craven Committee in the University of Oxford contributed towards the cost of this short campaign in 1955. The work was in direct continuation of my field research in Mediterranean lands since 1945, with the emphasis extended for the moment to the eastern end. This was a planned sequel to discoveries which I had made years ago, and an opportunity to complete them with fieldwork on the ground had been long awaited.