In September 1943, in the course of repair work made necessary by the air raid of May 1942, certain fragments of wax images were found by one of the cathedral masons on the top of the stone screen which surrounds the quire. They were hidden behind the cresting in a wide open joint of the masonry, loosely packed with broken pieces of glass, slaked lime, oyster-shells, and splinters of stone, and over the tomb of Bishop Edmund Lacey (1420–55) (pl. XIX, a). All the fragments of wax are unpainted and all have been cast in a mould; they vary in colour from a dirty pale yellow to a deep terra-cotta; they are very brittle and dry to the touch, without the soft, silky feel of a wax doll.

It has long been surmised that the vagrant tribes of people called in this country Gypsies, and on parts of the continent of Europe, Cingari, Zingari, and Chingali, were of Eastern origin. The former name has been supposed a corruption of Egyptian, and some learned persons have judged it not improbable that their language might be traced to the Coptic.

In the month of April, 1886, during the excavation of a pit at the Brigg gas-works, a most interesting boat, of a very primitive type, was found. The upper edges of the sides were first bared; and, as these differed from the “car wood” or buried trees which are so often found in the neighbourhood, the workmen fortunately made a further examination, instead of chopping up the timber to remove it piecemeal. It was then seen to be a boat, in a very fair state of preservation.

Ironstone-digging for commercial purposes has resulted in numerous archaeological discoveries over wide areas in Northants and Rutland, as well as in certain parts of adjoining counties, but the conditions of the work render supervision difficult and delay practically impossible. The rescue of antiquities from time to time by the workmen must therefore be considered as a lucky accident, and it is only occasionally that trustworthy information as to the association of objects can be obtained. Still rarer is the preservation of an artistic specimen in a fairly perfect state, and the recent discovery of an Early British bronze mirror at Desborough is therefore notable on more than one account.

It is my privilege to bring before you the results of the recent exploration of the Arbor Low Stone Circle. These excavations, organized by the Anthropological Section of the British Association, and carried out in 1901 and 1902, were conducted with a view of ascertaining the age of Stone Circles, a beginning, possibly, of a series of such explorations. The Committee appointed to control this work consisted of Dr. J. Gf. Grarson (Chairman), Mr. Henry Balfour (Secretary), Sir John Evans, Mr. C. H. Read, Professor R. Meldola, Mr. Arthur J. Evans, Dr. R. Munro, Professor Boyd Dawkins, and Mr. A. L. Lewis. The actual organization and direction of the work in the field was placed in my hands. The ground landlord, the Duke of Rutland, K.GL, the First Commissioner of Works (in whose charge, under the Ancient Monuments Act, the Circle is placed), and the tenant, readily gave their consent for the conducting of the exploration.

The Shapwick Project, Somerset, began in 1989 as a ten-year, multidisciplinary landscape investigation focused upon the evolution of early and late medieval settlement patterns. This interim paper reviews the work carried out to 1996 and summarizes the results of archaeological fieldwork, standing building recording and documentary study. It is argued that the site of the present village and the medieval field system were planned in the late Saxon period and replaced a scatter of dispersed farmsteads, many of which show continuity from the prehistoric and Roman periods. The role of the medieval and post-medieval landscape is emphasized in reflecting and reinforcing social structure.

The silver spoons in the Dorchester Museum, exhibited by Capt. Acland, F.S.A., were discovered in 1898 or 1899 on the Somerleigh Court Estate, in Dorchester, a prolific Roman site. The coins belonging to the find, over fifty in number, are all siliquae, dating from Julian II to Honorius (A. D. 360–400); among them is one coin of Licinius I, A. D. 317, which is probably intrusive. The coins, examined by my colleague, Mr. H. Mattingly, and to be published in the Numismatic Chronicle later in the present year, thus give the second half of the fourth century as the probable date of the find, a period with which the general character of the spoons is in agreement. The silver object figured with the spoons belongs to a small class represented in England and perhaps used as manicure knives. There is a specimen with a long handle and smaller blade in the British Museum.

The excavations of 1971 concluded the eleven-year programme begun in 1961. Eight sites were investigated in a season whose main emphasis was on the Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods down to about A. D. 1000. The Iron Age defences were examined at Assize Courts North and shown to date to the mid first century B.C. The Roman defences were sectioned at Castle Yard. The Roman south gate was discovered and its development followed from c. A.D. 70. Inside the Roman city extensive areas were examined at Lower Brook Street and Wolvesey Palace. At the former a possible military phase of the mid first century A.D. was followed by urban development c. A.D. 70 which continued down into the fifth century and included a Romano-Celtic temple and a large late third- or fourth-century workshop. At Wolvesey one house was entirely excavated and parts of two others examined. At Lankhills the excavation of the late Roman cemetery was concluded with a further season in 1972. A total of about 450 graves, many of them furnished and ranging in date from c. A.D. 310 to the early fifth century, was examined in 1967–72. A small fourth-century cemetery was excavated at Winnall. Information about the defence of the late Roman town was provided by the discovery of a bastion added to the town wall at South Gate, and by the implications of structures and objects from Lower Brook Street, Wolvesey, and Lankhills. Important evidence for the state of Winchester in the fifth to ninth centuries was recovered from South Gate, Lower Brook Street, and Wolvesey. At South Gate the gate was blocked first by a ditch and then by a wall, probably in the eighth century.

The marblers Richard and Henry Lakenham, perhaps father and son, worked in London during the period c. 1355–87. In 1376 Henry contracted to supply a tomb comprising a freestone effigy resting on a plain marble chest with a moulded ledger and brass shields and inscription. This monument (now lost) seems to have resembled the standard tomb-chests of London ‘series B’ brasses. Henry Lakenham's suggested association with this workshop tradition is strengthened by the fact that William West, a known major producer of ‘B’ brasses in the early fifteenth century, was his apprentice.

Three of the four main periods of artillery fortification in England, when construction was undertaken on a national scale, are represented in the Thames: the castles and bulwarks of Henry VIII, the bastioned forts of the late seventeenth century, and the Royal Commission forts of the 1860's. The exception is the rather special case of the Martello Tower system, but its place here is taken by the steady improvements carried out at the end of the eighteenth century and in the 1840's and 1850's. Shornemead, Cliffe Creek, and Slough Forts are ruined and derelict, Coalhouse Fort is used as a store, but Tilbury, now in the guardianship of the Ministry of Works, can show the progress of fortification over the course of 250 years. That they never saw the action for which they were designed is irrelevant, for, as Sidney Herbert said in 1860, ‘the object of the fortifications is not so much to resist as to deter attack’.

The subsequent coastal batteries of the last two wars, the hastily constructed pill-boxes, and even the ‘flak’ towers off the east coast are simply gun positions. They are neither self-contained nor self-defensible fortresses. By these criteria the forts erected as a result of the 1860 Royal Commission can be regarded as the last legitimate successors of the prehistoric hill fort and the medieval castle.

A Natural tendency to regard perforated axe-hammers as belonging to the Neolithic period, the Age of polished stone, is soon corrected by a study of the available evidence, which shows that most of the specimens found in Britain date from the Bronze Age, several having been discovered in association with that metal. If any reliance can be placed on the division of the Bronze Age into two parts, characterized respectively by inhumation and cremation, in that order, then it is clear that axe-hammers cover practically the whole of the period, extending over some fifteen centuries. The lower limit is not at present fixed; but there are primitive examples that from their form and method of boring may well be assigned to the Late Stone Age, and there is reason to believe that at least one type was introduced during the period of transition to Bronze—that is, in the Copper or Aeneolithic period.

Having at the request of his Excellency Sir Henry Bouverie undertaken the superintendance of the excavations near Casel Crendi in this island, he has suggested to me that a short description of them, illustrative of the ground plan, taken for him by Mr. Foulis of the 59th Regiment, might be an acceptable present to the Society of Antiquaries. I have therefore taken the liberty of forwarding it to you, accompanied by a lithograph of the images.

In 1900 I was invited by the University College of London to deliver a series of lectures on prehistoric chronology. I then put forward my chronological system for the Bronze Age in different parts of Europe.

The chronology of the Bronze Age in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the northern part of Germany had been treated by me already in 1885; the first period of the Bronze Age in these countries I examined more especially in 1899.

There used to be exhibited in the Abbey Church of Westminster, distinct from the later and better known “Waxworks,” a remarkable series of figures of deceased royal and noble personages, that came to be known as “the Ragged Regiment,” from the condition to which most of them had been reduced by course of time.

On the 27th February last we had the honour of laying before the Society a communication on the desirability of the complete and systematic excavation of the site of Silchester.

The scheme therein set forth, which had already been sanctioned by the Duke of Wellington, the owner, and by Mr. Cooper, the tenant, met with the cordial support and approval of the Fellows present, and it was unanimously referred to the Council to consider the steps necessary for carrying it out.

Any evidence, however slight, that may throw light upon the age or purpose of many of the mysterious lines and enclosures revealed by air-photography cannot fail to be of service to future research. Some time ago Major G. W. Allen brought to my notice more than one instance of a remarkable type of rectangular enclosure in the valley of the Thames below Oxford, the age of which we were reluctant even to surmise in spite of their proximity to or association with other remains obviously belonging to the Bronze Age. Three at least of these enclosures had been detected; two in Oxfordshire, the one at Dorchester close to the huge circles described by Mr. O. G. S. Crawford, the other at Benson, and a third lying athwart the southern boundary on Drayton East Way between the parishes of Drayton and Sutton Courtenay, Berkshire. Something similar, but smaller (c. 300 yds. long and 10 yds. wide), with less accurately aligned ditches has been observed at North Stoke, Oxfordshire, amid numerous circles, one of which yielded last year a cremation and two interments, all of infants.

In 1965 the Winchester Excavations Committee was again joined by the University of North Carolina and Duke University in excavations on five sites in the city. The work lasted eleven weeks from the latter part of June to the beginning of September and an average of 130 people took part, slightly under £10,000 being spent. Special thanks are due to the U.N.C.—Duke Committee, under the chairmanship of Professor F. T. de Vyver and including Professors Hall, Holcomb, Holmes, and Schnorrenberg, for their efforts which ensured the successful continuation of the Anglo-American co-operation. The heavy burden of administration was again carried by the City of Winchester, to whose Town Clerk, Mr. R. H. McCall, a special debt is owed, and the Hampshire County Council, particularly the Supplies Officer, Mr. R. E. V. Fardell. Through the good offices of the Army, Bushfield Camp was again made available and the Ministry of Public Building and Works gave great help in this connexion. All arrangements concerning volunteers were made by Mrs. J. Gosling, to whom particular thanks are due, and my own administrative work has been handled throughout by Mrs. M. Channer, to whom I am greatly indebted. Financial assistance from the following bodies is most gratefully acknowledged: the University of North Carolina, Duke University, the University of Exeter, the Old Dominion Foundation, the Ministry of Public Building and Works, the Hampshire County Council, the City of Winchester, the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries, the British Museum, and many private donors. Additional funds were received in site collections and from the sale of publications, the whole of which, including guided tours of the sites, was organized by Mr. F. C. Mallett, Assistant Secretary of the Excavations Committee. The many problems of financial administration were again handled by Mr. W. D. Rider, City Treasurer, and his staff, particularly Mr. G. P. Grey.

One of the techniques employed by the Anglo-Saxon jeweller has hitherto been ignored, or at least passed over as being foreign, and the intention here is to bring it to more general notice. The relevant material is more plentiful than has been suspected, and a closer examination of objects already in museums or now being taken from the earth will aid investigations, and perhaps increase the value of the objects themselves as exhibits. Further studies in the subject may provide useful additions to the defective criteria perforce used in dating early Anglo-Saxon objects.

It seems worth drawing attention afresh to the small hoard of Roman silver found in 1872 between Great Horwood and Winslow, about five or six miles south-east of Buckingham. The hoard deserves to be better known than it is, and one of its most interesting components has never been illustrated; there is also another piece which is so likely to have been part of it, though now separated from the rest, that it ought at least to be recorded.

About two hundred and fifty yards west of Harlow railway-station, in the Essex border-parish of Latton (Ordnance Survey 6-in. map, XLI, NW.), a small gravel-capped oval hill known as Stanegrove or Standing Groves rises to a height of some 20 ft. above the marshy banks of the river Stort. In 1764 and again in 1819 ‘very strong walls’ were observed here; and other foundations ‘evidently Roman’, tesserae, many other Roman relics, and a stone coffin are recorded to have been discovered in the fields extending for a mile to the north-east, more particularly during excavations for gravel within 250 yards of the mound itself. Coffins thought to be of Roman date were found also near the station when the railway was built in 1841 and were re-buried in the station-yard. Amongst the finds from the area are specially noted ‘a great number of Roman coins chiefly of Emperors from the first Claudius to Valentinian’, including ‘several silver pieces of Sabina, Faustina the Elder, and Constantinus Junior’, and a few British, of which the following are specified: (1) one with a helmeted head, with CUNOBELINA; reverse, a hog and TASCHOVANIT (sic); (2) another ‘with a head on one side; on the other a man striking upon an anvil; (3) ‘one with a star, between the rays of which are the letters VERLAMIO; reverse, an ox’. The general character of the evidence closely resembles that obtained from similar riverside gravels in many parts of south-eastern Britain, and indicates a fairly extensive and continuous occupation, perhaps not of a very high order, from later prehistoric times to the last quarter of the fourth century.