Found in 1897, the important collection of Late Antique silverware known as the first Lambousa treasure (to distinguish it from a second find of Lambousa treasure made in 1902) was acquired in part by the British Museum in 1899. This paper reconstructs the history of the discovery of the first Lambousa treasure and the circumstances of its removal from Cyprus. Research for the paper has brought to light hitherto unknown documents, and throws new light on the collection of antiquities in the early modern era and the politics, attitudes and personalities involved.

Explorations made in the interior of Tripolitania during the last fifty years, and intensified since 1946, have brought to light a series of inscriptions which promise to yield much useful information relating to the language and life of the indigenous population of Libya during the Roman period. These inscriptions, which are best described as ‘Latino-Libyan’, are inscribed in Latin characters in a language which, although still largely unknown, must have been in common use between the Fezzan and the Tripolitanian coast during the first four centuries A.D. Basically, this language may be a great deal older than the Roman period and related to the equally obscure language of the Libyan inscriptions of French North Africa. Similarly, it must in many areas have survived the Arab invasions, and may be the origin of the Berber language still spoken in the western Gebel of Tripolitania.

A late-Roman silver ingot from Kent has recently come to light. It weighs one Roman pound and is stamped EX OFF CVRMISSI. All such ingots seem likely to have been distributed as imperial donatives to troops in the fourth century. They are related to presentation silver plate and other gifts of this type, and more than forty silver ingots are now known from the European Roman provinces. The only other known stamp by Curmissus—or perhaps the curator missionum—is on a broken ingot in the hoard from Coleraine, Co. Londonderry.

The late A. W. G. Lowther had for long collected information on Romano-British ‘chimney-pots’ and in his final years concluded that this was the true function of his Group B, except where a closed base indicated use as ornamental roof-finials. New discoveries have enlarged his originally small Group A, wheel-made pottery vessels with side-openings, which may possibly have had a ritual function. His notes are now presented in a published form, with comments on dating, distribution, and continental parallels; the opportunity has also been taken of adding a short excursus on Romano-British stone finials.

The work of the French mission under Ghirshman, at Tepe Sialk near Kashan, on the Iranian plateau, has now given us a picture of the use of copper from the earliest times up to 3000 B.C., when the copper industry became firmly established. The present paper is an attempt to trace the development of the metallurgy of prehistoric copper in the light of the new evidence which is now available.

A limited excavation was undertaken in the Roman reservoir beneath the medieval King's Bath which lies in the centre of Bath. The reservoir had been partially cleaned in 1878 but the lower filling remained in position. Structural details were recovered, sufficient to show the different stages in the reservoir's construction: part of its vaulted roof, added later, was also found. The finds included coins, pewter curses, silver and pewter vessels and other trinkets dedicated to the goddess Sulis Minerva. The subsequent development of the site from the medieval period to the nineteenth century is briefly noted. Future work on the temple precinct beneath the Pump Room is outlined.

Glass is, in many respects, one of the most remarkable substances in the world. No known substance combines such varied uses with such matchless beauties. For innumerable domestic purposes it has for centuries been considered a necessity of daily life. Without glass innumerable paths in science and the arts would never have been explored; and in these paths progress has been made in proportion as the methods of making glass have been improved. On the other hand the peculiar beauties inherent in or incident to this material are so great that at no period in history has man been able to grasp completely more than one of them at once. The Venetians realized above all others the marvellous capacity of glass for being wrought into all kinds of beautiful forms; our Gothic forefathers developed beyond all others its capabilities in respect of colour; the Phoenicians and Romans did wonders both in form and colour, but were nevertheless inferior to the Venetians in the former, and to our Gothic forefathers in the latter; we, in our day, excel in developing to the utmost (wonderful talent that it is!) the crystalline transparency and brilliancy of glass, but it is in this direction only that we have any true art or artists—in form and colour we do comparatively nothing. Thus, in each instance, the full realization of a period has been but as it were a passing glimpse—it has never been found possible to retain it, so as to carry it into the full realization of another period; even as the highest natural beauty is but for a moment—it increases until maturity, and then immediately begins to fade.

Caister Castle (see air view, pi. xvi, a) stands on the low ground about half a mile north-west of the little village of West Caister, one and a half miles from the rapidly encroaching sea, and some four miles from Great Yarmouth. Interest has always attached to the castle owing to the facts that it was built by the famous Sir John Fastolf, and that it played a part in the chequered fortunes of the Paston family, so brilliantly illuminated by their correspondence. The ruins, with their tall, slender tower, have also attracted attention as an early and splendid example of the use of brick; and we hope to show that the affinities of the castle lie in a quarter hitherto unsuspected, and that it is an important architectural document in the history of the cultural relationships of England during the first half of the fifteenth century.

It is common knowledge that in the reliefs on Trajan's Column the technical skill and achievements of the Roman Army received as much attention and space as did its military prowess and successes. It is clear that emphasis laid upon military engineering was felt to be one of the most effective means of conveying the triumphal concept attached to this marble volumen. Since both Trajan, to whom the reliefs were dedicated, and Apollodorus, his architect, who is likely to have drawn the cartoons for them, were inclined to regard craftsmanship and power as equivalent expressions of Roman glory, one would expect to find in the commemorative sculpture some allusion to specific technical achievements or, at least, to the most important of these.

This article contains a report of excavations conducted in 196J and ig68 at the ruined church (or chapel) of Stone-by-Faversham, Kent. They were designed to establish whether or not the central part of the building (subsequently the western part of a medieval chancel) was an original Roman structure. The evidence, derived from the type of construction, an opus signinum floor, from the coins, burials, and pottery found in association with the building, all indicate that in origin it was either a mausoleum, or possibly a martyrium, probably datingfrom thefourth century A.D.

A Roman structure subsequently incorporated into a Christian church is unique in this country. The question as to when and how this transformation occurred is discussed in the context ofthepossible survival of Christianity in Sub-Roman Kent, and of St. Augustine's mission. Further excavation revealed foundations of a pre-Conquest wooden nave, and throws fresh light on the methods used by the Anglo-Saxons in building wooden churches.

The Isle of Man situate in the midst of the Irish Sea as an intermediate station between Ireland and Cumbria, North Wales and Galloway, has naturally played a considerable part in various phases of western British life in which coastwise maritime movements have had significance. The phase or phases of megalithic construction included, as is generally agreed, a considerable amount of maritime movement along the coasts of western Britain, and monuments of various types were set up. It may be stated at the outset that, since developments even as late as the introduction of Christianity show relations with megaliths, we are not justified, without special local evidence, in ascribing particular megaliths necessarily to an early period, though there is widespread agreement that some must have been in existence at about 2000 B.C., and even possibly earlier.

It is now almost exactly twelve years since I first introduced this subject to the notice of the Society in connexion with a then recent deposit of medieval Exchequer Tallies at the Public Record Office; and though I subsequently communicated two further notes upon it, I may plead that even since those were made ten years have elapsed. During that “time there has been a great change in our knowledge of Exchequer procedure. Two or three notable books have appeared and a considerable amount of work has been done, though not all of it has yet been printed, upon the neglected Exchequer Records. Already we begin to look with quite different eyes at medieval financial problems, even though our knowledge of the great mass of the Memoranda Rolls, Receipt and Issue Rolls, Wardrobe Accounts and subsidiary documents still owes practically nothing to any publication of texts from those Records. I have accordingly thought it worth while to submit to the Society a further stage in our knowledge of the financial system, public, semi-public and private, of which Tallies formed so important a part. I have fortunately little to retract from what I said in my previous papers, but there are a few new points to note, some remarks to be extended, and a selection to be offered from a considerable accumulation of further illustrations.

When I had the honour of laying before you in 1832 a Plan of the Barrows called the Bartlow Hills, in the parish of Ashdon, with an account of Roman sepulchral relics then lately discovered in the lesser Barrows, I informed you that the greater remained to be explored, and that I was not without expectation Lord Maynard on some future occasion would make further excavations on the spot. I have now the gratification of announcing to you the success which has attended a recent excavation made by his Lordship in the largest of these tumuli.

During the three centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire the repertoire of the glass blowers in the north-west of Europe was mainly confined to simple shapes of drinking vessels, without the embellishment of handles and appliqués such as had adorned the more expensive Roman products. The only exception to this simplicity in production was the claw-beaker (Rüsselbecher), and this has therefore received a great deal of attention from archaeologists who were intrigued to discover when, where, and also why they were made. As a result of these studies a general system of typology and chronology has gradually been established, but there are now reasons for re-opening the subject. First, new claw-beakers have come to light in recent excavations which add considerably to the facts so far assembled as to typology and chronology; secondly, only a small proportion of the work done on these glasses has appeared in English publications, and, thirdly, the claw-beakers found in Anglo-Saxon England have not been subjected to an examination focused on them as an insular group (rather than as a peripheral phenomenon of the continental series) with particular attention to dating by association. It is hoped that each of the aspects of the subject developed here will produce fresh evidence of vital interest.

This paper combines a study of the typological, technological and constructional attributes of a sample of fifteen dress-hooks and cap-hooks, reported between 1998 and 2000 under the terms of the Treasure Act (1996), with a survey of contemporary pictorial sources, probate inventories and associated wills along with a trawl of ‘small wares’ in the records of the Goldsmiths' Company in order to assess the role of these accessories in vernacular dress of sixteenth-century England.

Of particular interest are questions of manufacture and design, followed by the questions of how these objects functioned in relation to the closure and decoration of dress, their noteworthiness in contemporary accounts, their social status, their ranking in the output of contemporary goldsmiths and whether there was a gender bias in terms of their ownership. This cross-examination of excavated finds with contemporary iconographie and documentary sources represents an interdisciplinary case study in historical archaeology.

We have the honour to bring before the meeting to-night the record of the third year's excavations on the site of the Roman city at Silchester.

Two shrines of circular and polygonal shape, probably part of a larger group, were erected early in the second half of the third century A.D., and occupied until late in the fourth century. The shrines occur in an area of widespread settlement dating from the late Iron Age until the end of the fourth century. Many objects of bronze and iron of ritual significance, together with a large number of votive deposits and coins, were recovered from the circular shrine. Miss M. V. Taylor's discussion of the principal objects appears on pp. 264–8.

Roman, Saxon, and medieval levels were examined in 1968. At Castle Yard the north end of the Norman andlater castle was uncovered. At Lankhills fifty fourth-century graves were excavated. In Lower Brook Street open-area excavation was continued into mid thirteenth-century levels on four house-plots and on St. Mary's Church, where twelve phases can now be recognized between c. 1250 and c. 1470. St. Pancras Church was located. On the Cathedral site no Belgic occupation was found. A late second- to early third-century addition to the forum was excavated, and much of its painted wall-plaster recovered. The structure was abandoned c. A.D. 300. A laterally apsed tenth-century crossing was found in the Old Minster linking two earlier buildings. After his translation in gjl from outside the church, St. Swithun's shrine appears to have stood within this link-building. At Wolvesey Roman buildings were excavated, and additions were made to the plan of the Norman palace. A second halljchamber-block of c. 1129–35 has been planned. In an appendix D. M. Wilson considers an important decorated bronze strap-end of c. A.D. 1000 found on the Old Minster site.

The Bursledon Brick Company's works are situated on rising ground north-east of the Southern Railway's branch line from Southampton to Fareham, and some 600 yards east of the tidal river Hamble, as shown on the plan (fig. 1). The geological formation is London clay; the beds have been exposed here to a depth of 40 ft, the section showing 1½ ft. of humus on an upper stratum of brownish-red clay resting on a bed of grey clay. The country immediately around supports oak, hazel, and alder.