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.

Two lots of tablets have been found, one during the 1937 season and one in 1938, the total number of tablets and parts of tablets, excluding inconsiderable fragments, being about three hundred. The 1937 lot falls into two classes, here called A and B, the 1938 lot into three, here called B, C, and D.

Among the places which Count Roger I conquered during his campaign in Southern Sicily in 1086, Gaufredus Malaterra mentions the Arab town of Narû, the present Naro, in the province of Agrigento. Naro, like nearly all towns in inner Sicily, is dominated by a castle and a church which stand some hundred yards distant from one another on two rocky heights at the top of the mountain on which the town is situated. The church stands, as is shown by recent excavations, on the site of a pagan temple and an Arab mosque. Here Roger I had erected the first Christian church after the Norman conquest. A century later this building was renovated and extended. The Englishman Walter of the Mill, from 1169 archbishop of Palermo and before that dean of Agrigento, whose diocese also included Naro, is said to have been the builder. The new building was started in 1174, when Bartholomew of the Mill, Walter's brother, was bishop of Agrigento, and it was consecrated in May 1263 by Rudolf, cardinal bishop of Albano, attended by two archbishops and four bishops. Since 1867 the church has not been used and has become a sad ruin. The ceiling has fallen in, weeds grow on the floor, all its interior ornaments have been destroyed and have disappeared. There is, however, one exception: on the west wall of the north transept, opposite the apse, still stands one large sarcophagus. This sarcophagus is made of yellowish-white marble. Its lower part rests on four seated lions, and is shaped like a bath, round the top of which run two mouldings. In vertical section the lid is pentagonal, the upper point forming the ridge of the saddle-roof. This ridge is not strictly horizontal, but is raised a little towards the middle. From both the side-mouldings one member is left out, having perhaps been reserved for an inscribed ribbon, probably inlaid in metal. On each of the slopes are three round medallions worked in relief. The outer ones contain the symbols of the four Evangelists, the inner ones the half-length figures of Christ, with sceptre and orb, and the Holy Virgin.

Roman roads are frequently described as having ditches beside them, but these are usually large hollows of varying depth and width from which material has been scooped to form the agger of the roadway. The ditches discussed here are of quite a different type, and so far only four instances of them are known, though it is very probable that others exist. They are quite small, usually 3–7 ft. wide and a few inches deep; are cut in accurately straight lines parallel with the road and distant from it on each side by a space roughly equal to the width of the actual roadway; and are apparently found only in places where the road is crossing high and fairly level ground.

The braids which form the subject of this study were found with a stole and maniple on the body of St. Cuthbert when the tomb was opened in 1827. The vestments are embroidered in coloured silks and gold thread: the stole with figures of prophets, and the maniple with those of saints. Both have an inscription embroidered on the ends, with the names of the donor, Ælflæda, and the ‘pious Bishop Fridestan’ for whom they were worked. Fridestan became the Bishop of Winchester in A.D. 905 and Ælflæda, second wife of Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great, died in A.D. 916, so that the gift must have been made between these dates. It is further probable that this stole and maniple are identical with those recorded as having been presented to the shrine of St. Cuthbert (then at Chester-le-Street) by King Athelstan, stepson of Queen Ælflæda, in A.D. 934. Fridestan had died in 931, and this circumstance, together with the close connexion of the king's family with Winchester, supports the story.