The Iron Age hill-fort at Danebury has been subjected to two seasons of excavation concentrating on the defences and the east entrance. The main defences show three phases of construction: (a) a timber-faced rampart of the 4th century B.C. (b) remodelling to a glacis-style rampart in 3rd to 2nd centuries, (c) the re-digging of the ditch in a fiat-bottomed form possibly just before the Roman Conquest. The east gate underwent seven major periods of rebuilding, each showing sub-phases. A development from a simple gate to one defended by massive outworks has been demonstrated.

The ‘middle earthwork’ on the south side of the fort, and the ‘outer earthwork’ which surrounds it are dated to the 3rd to 2nd century and the 1st century respectively. They were probably stock enclosures. The sample excavation of the interior of the fort showed that occupation was dense. Among the cultural material discovered was a hoard of currency bars.

A survey of the structural and contemporary literary evidence for the position of the altar in Anglo-Saxon churches before the Viking invasions of the ninth century indicates that it was not at the east end of the church but in a more central position. This was sometimes near the east end of the nave and sometimes in the eastern compartment. As an indication of how this practice may have arisen in England, references are given to evidence for similar treatment of the altar in Continental and North African churches at somewhat earlier dates.

Continued excavations at South Cadbury in July-August 1968 discovered Early Neolithic pottery and flints beneath the Iron Age ramparts and thereby hinted at a 20-acre embanked settlement. Four or five structural phases were revealed in the Iron Age ramparts themselves, the first a timber-revetted bank, the second a stone-faced wall, and the later ones more indeterminate. Within the defences storage-pits, circular houses, and a possible shrine were explored. Wall-trenches for a prefabricated rectangular building may mark a brief Roman military occupation, and the trench for one wall of a probable fifth—sixth century A.D. building was also discovered. Examination of the later phases of the south-west gate showed that a well-built Æthelredan entrance had been savagely slighted, probably under Cnut, and had then been overlaid by a crude drystone gate. Finally, on the summit was found a rock-cut foundation trench of the twelfth or thirteenth century, apparently for a projected castle.

The study of deserted medieval settlements has led archaeologists to turn interested eyes on the site of the borough of Torksey. The description of it by William Leland, the Tudor antiquary, together with its known history, seemed to promise that here, as nowhere else in the east Midlands at any rate, it would be possible to study by excavation the character of an urban settlement in the early middle ages. Hence the decision of the Adult Education Department of Nottingham University to start in 1960 a programme of annual excavations as the focal activity of summer schools on medieval archaeology.

The Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon site at Upton near Northampton was excavated by Mr. Jackson on behalf of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, July—December 1965. In addition to Iron Age pits and ditches the principal discovery was that of a timber Saxon building which is remarkable for its combination of the structural features of a Grubenhaus with the dimensions and plan of a small timber hall. The building contained more than sixty loom-weights, and is interpreted as a weaving shed rather than a domestic occupation site. It was destroyed by fire, and charred timbers have revealed the position of internal fixed wooden furniture. From pottery and small finds it is suggested that the site was occupied in the late sixth to early seventh centuries A.D.

The fortifications of Berwick-upon-Tweed, begun in 1558, are one of the earliest bastioned systems surviving in Europe. The original design was made by Sir Richard Lee and modified by him during the course of building. The fortifications were left incomplete in 1569; further works were carried on until the eighteenth century.

The formal recognition by the Monaco Congress (1906) of the Aurignac stage of culture marks a distinct advance in the classification of palaeolithic cave-relics. The point has been keenly debated, but most are now agreed that Aurignac, as a typical station, comes between Le Moustier and Solutré, and represents a civilization that extended over a large part of Europe. This stage has in recent years been so thoroughly studied that its distinctive types can be easily recognized, and many cave-deposits readily fall into this division; but so far very little of this sort has been noticed in England, where the industry seems, however, to have had a special and a splendid development.

How far do the pictures in early medieval manuscripts reflect contemporary life? Are the busy and attractive figures which populate many Carolingian or Late Saxon illuminations reflections of their painters and their patrons, or are they ghostly survivors of the Roman Empire, fossilized in a scribal convention? For some archaeologists, of course, the question of authenticity has never arisen, the contemporary relevance of pictures being cheerfully assumed; but it has to be stated at the outset that the odds are generally set against such optimism. That early painted books were usually copied from other painted books is clear from a continuity of image, picturecycle or design, all having roots in the Late Antique period. Thus drawing from life, or even abstract invention, where it occurred, will not be obvious and is probably only detectable at all by a process of elimination

This paper outlines the place-name, archaeological and topographical evidence for a special class of Anglo-Saxon open-air assembly site, which we call a ‘hanging promontory’. Discussion of a series of these sites serves to describe the main characteristics of the class as well as their geographical distribution. Consideration is given to the possible functions and dating of the use of hanging promontories. In conclusion, comparisons are drawn with other forms of open-air assembly site to suggest a possible hierarchy of the administrative territories existing in the early medieval period in England.

The hoard of several hundred thirteenth-century Exchequer tallies, here brought to the notice of the Society, was found by the Office of Works during the recent repairs to the Chapel of the Pyx at Westminster, and transferred to the Public Record Office. A great deal of dust accompanied the tallies, and in this were found portions of some contemporary white leather bags of curious workmanship and a good many fragments of documents. Some of these fragments were of widely different dates and classes, and it seems probable that the whole constituted a collection of the sweepings, as it were, of the many series which at different times found a home in that important repository of records.

On two previous occasions, in the years 1865 and 1867, I have given some accounts of the excavations in the Roman city at Silchester. The work was then in its infancy; an interval of six years elapsed since my second Paper was read; and the period thus embraced will he found fruitful in discoveries of interest and importance.

The volume from which the following lists of arms and armour are taken is a neatly written MS. of 469 folios, presented to the Society in 1775 by Grustavus Brander, Esq. F.S.A.

The volume is complete in itself, but is in fact the larger portion of an inventory of the property of Henry VIII. taken in the first year of Edward VI. 1547. The remainder of the inventory is in the Harleian collection of MSS., and is contained in MSS. 1419 A and B. Of these two latter parts A contains the guardrobes and household stuff in the Tower of London, and at Greenwich, Westminster, Hampton Court, Otelands, Nonsuch, Windsor, and other palaces and houses of the late king. Part B enumerates various deliveries of stuff to different persons during the first four years of Edward VI. and is consequently a partial repetition of part A.

As far back as 1880 the late Mr. W. Whitaker noted signs of several terraces on the left bank of the Thames, down-valley from Maidenhead, but he did not specifically mention the locality east and north-east of Taplow, Buckinghamshire (fig. 1). In this district, which includes the parishes of Burnham and Farnham Royal, terrace features resemble those discernible between Cookham and Bray Wick, Berkshire, where Messrs. Ll. Treacher and N. J. Osborne White believed that the Boyn Hill Terrace consisted of two divisions, the lower separated from the higher by a step of about 20 ft. According to them also, two pre-existing benches were buried by the aggradation.

This article re-examines Helbaek's (1952) conclusion that wheat was the main crop in southern England during the Neolithic and Iron Age, but that barley was the main cultigen in the Bronze Age. It is shown that the grain impressions from Windmill Hill, which form most of our data on Neolithic crop agriculture, represent a mixture of two crop economies which were practised in ecologically dissimilar regions. The suggestion is made that both wheat and barley were staple crops in different areas of southern England from the Neolithic to the Iron Age. There is no evidence that the importance of either cultigen changed over this period.

A search for early antiquarian records of Irish finds has revealed much fresh information in the Minute-books and other archives of this Society, giving excellent records of hitherto unpublished material, and adding new information on already known objects. The material discussed was found mainly in the half-century from 1720 to 1770. Prominent Irish antiquaries and antiquarian societies of the period are mentioned, and a discussion of their views on this material is included.

Two spectacular gold objects, a fibula with wreathed bow found in Co. Galway, and a Melfort-type armlet found in a burial-cist at Whitfield, near Waterford city, are illustrated, and the valuable associative and contextual evidence from the Society's archives is cited and discussed. Drawings and descriptions of several other objects, mainly of gold and bronze, are also given.

The active investigation of this rather neglected avenue of discovery has yielded good results, and is a potentially valuable source of new archaeological material and information.

Mail has been used since very early times and it is therefore surprising that so little is known about the methods and tools used for its construction. As it appeared unlikely that original tools or further information would come to light, recent research has been carried out on new lines. It was hoped that the methods found to be the most practical would produce mail similar in appearance to the medieval riveted mail. These methods would have to be accessible to armourers of the past and as far as possible be methods still in use in the present day, for basic techniques seldom die out. Many of these techniques are so fundamental that it is doubtful if they have changed much in the last 2,000 years. Because so much mail was produced the method would have to be a fast one allowing for division of labour within the workshop. The most skilled task, which is the final linking, would have to be done by the master craftsman, who could be kept supplied with the necessary rings and rivets. The early stages in the production of mail—the simple, laborious tasks—would be left to apprentices and assistants. Such a system is often found in a small workshop.

In 1998 the author published ‘Genetics, linguistics and prehistory: thinking big and thinking straight’, a critique of late twentieth-century attempts to synthesize the disciplines of genetics, linguistics and archaeology. This paper assesses subsequent progress, using examples from various parts of the world, including Britain, Denmark, Finland, France, Frisia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Micronesia, Portugal, Spain and the Canary Islands. The growing importance of mitochondrial DNA and the Y chromosome, rather than classical population genetics, is emphasized. The author argues that ancient DNA and early linguistic data should be used more. Languages mentioned include Aquitanian, Basque, Celtiberian, Etruscan, Finnish, Hungarian, Iberian, Lepontic, Lusitanian, Pictish, Raetic, ‘Tartessian’, Thracian and the Ladin dialect of the Italian Alps. Aspects of the ancient linguistic geography of Scotland and the Iberian peninsula are discussed, as is the difficulty of deciding the direction of spread of Indo-European and non-Indo-European languages. The potential of ancient place and personal names is illustrated from Celtic.

Complete agreement has not yet been reached among students as to the part played by Egypt in the history of Early Christian and Early Byzantine art. There are two problems around which discussion has chiefly centred. The first concerns Alexandria. Some authorities believe that this town remained a stronghold of Hellenistic art throughout the Christian period, and that it maintained the highest classical standard at a time when most of the Mediterraneancountries were already submerged in what are commonly called the Dark Ages. This theory has, however, been contested by other writers who think that Alexandrian art sank as early as the fifth century to the level of provincialism, and that from that time onwards Constantinople was the chief centre in which the classical tradition was preserved.

It would be foreign to the purpose of my paper to enter upon the much debated and still unsolved question as to who were the Iberians and from whence they came, nor, indeed, has that question any direct bearing upon the subject-matter with which I deal. A few words as to the state of the country during the period under review, the organization of the peoples who inhabited it, their physical and moral conditions, and the influence of their surroundings upon their practice and methods in war and in strife may, however, not be out of place.