The excavation conducted by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1936 and 1937 at the site near al Mina, at the mouth of the Orontes, produced material of interest not only for archaeological study but also for Oriental history. The eighth to the fourth centuries of the pre-Christian era, to which the material remains belong, are also represented at other sites in Syria and Palestine that have been excavated by scientific expeditions. But the Phoenician cities, Byblos and Sidon, the north Syrian cities, Carchemish and Sinčirli, the sites on the plain of Aleppo reported on by the Syrian expedition of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, and Palestinian sites, have not yielded the same material of one special kind as al Mina, or only stray examples of it. There Cycladic and proto-Corinthian sherds and later developments of early Greek vases show conclusively that there was trade between the little Syrian port on the one side and the Aegean islands and the Greek mainland on the other, between the beginning of the eighth century and the end of the seventh. Similarly Attic pottery and coins are a proof of the encouragement given to Athenian trade at the same port from the time of Darius I to that of Artaxerxes III. In this respect new knowledge is to be gained from the finds at al Mina as to the history of the north Syrian coast during five centuries. The conclusions that may be drawn form an interesting footnote to what is known, and to some of the assumptions, about general Oriental history.

The two gauntlets which were exhibited to the Society by kind permission of the Archdeacon of Richmond, on 26th November 1941, form part of the funeral achievement of Sir Edward Blackett (died 1718), hanging above his monument in the north transept of Ripon Cathedral. The achievement consists of a close-helmet of the sixteenth century with a wooden funeral crest of a falcon (for Blackett); a tabard; a cruciform sword in its scabbard, of the heraldic pattern of the early eighteenth century; and two iron gauntlets. The wooden escutcheon and pair of spurs which must once have completed the group are now missing.

The site here to be described was discovered in November 1940, when the writer was examining mechanical excavations near Longdown Lane, Epsom, for archaeological material; and it consists of a shallow pit containing remains attributable to the Iron Age. The site (fig. 1) lies about 330 ft. above O.D. on a northward sloping spur of the North Downs. Thus the subsoil is Upper Chalk (Marsupites Zone); but in places this is capped with Tertiary clay, and occasionally there are deep flaws in the rock, also filled with clay. The modern plough-soil hereabouts is 1 ft. thick, and below it is a layer of old plough-soil visible as brown clay with small chalk particles, on an average 6 in. deep. In the edge of the mechanical excavation above mentioned there was seen (fig. 2) a pit sunk through the brown plough-soil into the natural clay pocket, and its top had of course been removed by modern ploughing. The pit was filled with dark soil; its floor was flat and lay 2 ft. from the surface and was 2 ft. 2 in. wide. The dark filling contained small potsherds, tiny particles of charcoal, bone burnt and unburnt, and the lower stone of a saddlequern.

The writer salvaged as much as was practicable on the spot, and later obtained permission to empty the whole pit; but it was not possible to clear any large area and search for post-holes. When cleared, the pit was seen to have a level floor and to be roughly circular with a diameter of 3 ft. The walls were not undercut, but sloped steeply down to the flat floor (fig. 2).