Amphitheatres, although not so ubiquitous as, say, bath-buildings, were common enough in the Roman world to attract a set of terms applicable to their very distinctive structural features. It is true that they varied in construction from a simple earth bank to an elaborate masonry building like the Colosseumat Rome. But certain characteristics were constant, and it seems useful to list the technical terms used to describe amphitheatres. Some of these are scarcely applicable to the relatively simple Chester amphitheatre, while others are etymologically rather dubious. This list itself is almost entirely confined to the structural features since there are easily accessible descriptions of the spectacles which took place within amphitheatres. Previous lists have been given by Dyggve in his description of the amphitheatre at Salona and by Heidenreich in his report on the civil amphitheatre of Colonia Traiana at Xanten.

The coast-line of the extremity of Western Cornwall has been so often laid under contribution of late by the artist's pencil, that its general features are familar to many who have never paid the country a personal visit. The fantastic forms which the weather-worn granite assumes as it rears itself in bosses (or “karns” as they are locally termed) between the deeply-cleft gullies down which the streams of red mine-water find their broken way, are the characteristics of that portion of the cliff which, lying between the promontories of the Land's End and Cape Cornwall, are turned most directly towards the setting sun. It is along this line of coast—some six or seven miles in extent—that the stone cairns which formed the burying-places of an early population are found in greater abundance than is the case in any other portion of the district. Along this same strip of sea-board are no less than three of those fortifications known as cliff castles, defended in each case by lines of ramparts crossing the necks of headlands from side to side, terminating at either end in the abrupt precipice of the cliff, and always intended to resist attack from the land side. Within these lines stone cairns are frequently found—a fact which seems to point to the conclusion that the latter are the more recent of the two; since, were it not so, the castle-builders would have availed themselves of the pile of stone already on the spot and ready to their hand.

There is a popular idea that magnifying glasses are a relatively modern invention, and that consequently all antique die-sinking and gem-cutting must have been done by people with very short sight, which is equivalent to having a magnifier permanently attached to one's eyes. This idea is so prevalent that when ancient magnifying glasses are found, scholars go to the trouble of trying to find some other use to which they could be put, the favourite suggestion being that they must have been ornaments.

In Castle Field at Worth—the old name of which is Word— at a distance of two miles south from Sandwich, is a Roman site which is described by William Boys in his well-known History of Sandwich It is situated in a field on the east side of the Sandwich-Deal road (fig. 1). Boys, at the end of the eighteenth century, apparently uncovered the walls of a building at surfacelevel. Since that date, there is no mention of any further disturbance other than that of the plough. Boys states that he found some pottery, but he gives no particulars of it. He suggests that a watch-tower or lighthouse was built here in Roman times, but excavations, undertaken in 1925, clearly demonstrate that the walls represent the remains of a Roman temple, and further that this shrine was erected on an earlier settlement.

The 1969–72 excavations have concentrated on two main areas to be affected by the proposed relief road around Cirencester. In insula XII two houses, apparently constructed in the second half of the third century A.D., have been uncovered and planned. A total of twelve mosaics were found in varying states of preservation. Building XII, I was rectangular with a bath suite to the west, whilst the latest phase of XII, 2 resembled the plan of a winged corridor villa. From this building came evidence of iron working. Both buildings continued to be used in the fourth century and there is slight structural evidence suggesting fifth century occupation.

To the west of Cirencester excavation of a late Roman cemetery has produced 268 burials, not all of which were complete, and a small number of associated finds. All but one were inhumations and two were in stone coffins. The skeletons have been studied by Dr. C. Wells and a short report on his work is included. Work has also been carried out on a road leading towards the amphitheatre. To the north of this road was a boundary(?) wall. Other excavated sites are mentioned in this report. Several interesting pieces of Roman sculpture were found.

Two appendices are included which discuss the mosaics and inscriptions found during the period under review.

In 1953 a bronze prick-spur was found without other remains, at a depth of about 2 ft. on Cleave Hill, in the parish of Longstock, Hants (no. 17, fig. 1, pl. XIV). The finder, Mr. J. Chandler, presented it to the Salisbury Museum (ace. 21/54) and it is recorded and illustrated in the Museum's Annual Report (1955), p. 11 pl. 1a.

It is of extremely delicate manufacture, and the riveted prick appears to be ornamental rather than useful. It is also ornamented with a row of dots in circles round the heel, and these are enclosed in expanding lines all engraved in the bronze. The edges are lightly serrated. The arms are engraved with a spiral line, which seems to imitate the leather binding of some rougher iron prototype. Delicate bronze rings, attached to the loops, have flattened ends which are pressed together and probably once held a light leather strap, though the bronze has broken away leaving only parts of the rivet holes. There are few ornamental features from which to date this spur, but according to Jahn's typology it should fall within the first Century A.D.

As reported in the April 1922 number of the Antiquaries Journal, the ground to the north and north-west of the Roman Villa Museum contains the remains of a large Roman house, some pavements of which were discovered in 1881.

The inscribed stone which is the subject of this article was found in the early spring of 1967 in ploughing just inside the defences of the Roman town at Wroxeter (Viroconium), just west of the ‘Eastern Cemetery’ marked on the V.C.H. plan. As the stone is heavy it is unlikely to have been dragged any distance by the plough. It may be suggested that at a late date interments had spread inside the once-inhabited area. The latest levels at Roman Wroxeter have been totally removed or extensively disturbed by persistent ploughing. Dr. G. Webster can cite no artefacts which can be placed in the fifth century, but chance discoveries may help to fill this lacuna. Precise dating cannot be attained, but it seems possible that Cunorix as an Irish foederatus could have settled at Wroxeter in a decade early in the fifth century, though it should be emphasized that the only firm date we have is c. A.D. 460–75 when the stone was set up, as Professor Jackson estimates on linguistic grounds.

Excavations were carried out on the site by Mr. Akerman in 1864 and 1865 and in the two following years and by Dr. Rolleston, then Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, at various times between 1864 and 1868. The results of the excavations were embodied in papers published by this Society. He appears principally to have assisted at quarrying operations which were then in progress, but also to have searched one or two other small areas. No map of his excavation is extant, and according to his assistant William Hine, who is still alive, no map appears to have been made. The areas probably excavated by him are marked with a cross on figure 1.

Since that time a number of graves have fallen into the quarry, and scattered finds appear to have been made from time to time, some of which were examined by Professor Rolleston and after his death by Professor Moseley.

In the spring of 1920 an undergraduate society, the Oxford University Archaeological Society, was anxious to do some excavating and asked me to find a site and direct the work. By kind permission of Mr. Aldworth, the owner of the property, we were able to start at Frilford in the middle of the Hilary Term, and spent week-ends there during Term, and four days at the ends of both the Hilary and Trinity Terms. The labour was provided chiefly by junior but also by senior members of the University, and honorary members of the Society, especially Sir Arthur Evans, Mr. Balfour, and Mr. Leeds materially assisted the excavations by advice and personal visits. Mr. Leeds has helped me very much in the preparation of this paper. I am indebted to Professor Arthur Thomson both for his keen interest in the work and also for putting the resources of the Anatomical Department at my disposal.

In 1930 Col. C. R. R. Malone, J.P., of Trevaylor, generously placed in the custody of H.M. Office of Works the remains of an extensive Celtic village of the Romano-British period and possibly earlier. The site, commonly called Chysauster, lies upon a gentle south-western slope between the farms of Chysauster and Carnaquidden in the parish of Gulval about three miles north of Penzance and ten and a half miles from Land's End. It is in the granite area that forms the greater part of the Hundred of Pen with. The site is not fortified, but on the summit of the hill above it about 1,400 yards away is a hill-top fort called Castle-an-Dinas. This consists of three stone ramparts, and resembles very closely the neighbouring Chun Castle recently excavated by Mr. E. T. Leeds, F.S.A. Below the site is the valley of the Rosemorran stream which once yielded alluvial tin ore. The name Chysauster, though Cornish, is unfortunately of little value from the archaeological point of view, for its earliest form, which appears in a document of 1313, is Chysalvestre, Sylvester's house.

The investigation of the early history of England is beset with many difficulties and has furnished material for the widest conjectures. Prior to the Roman invasion our knowledge is confined almost entirely to such deductions as can be made by the aid of archaeology. But the difficulties by no means decrease with the period when England makes its first appearance in the pages of written history. Indeed, they might be said rather to increase, and perhaps of no period is this truer than of the times between the decline of the Roman power in Britain and the ultimate establishment of the Anglo-Saxon power. The records are, to say the least of it, of the barest nature, and present many problems of absorbing interest, towards the elucidation of which archaeology has already contributed not a little. In some cases, however, the evidence of archaeology appears to find itself in conflict with the witness of history, and it is one of these incongruities which I have set myself the task of endeavouring to investigate in the course of this paper.

A Colonade, round a square court, not yet cleared from the rubbish of pumice stones, and ashes, B. B. by which the city was overwhelmed. The columns are of coarse stone, coated with plaister or stucco, and coloured. On many of the columns, the soldiers have idly scratched their names, some in Greek, and some in Latin.

The evolution of the bronze spear-head in the United Kingdom is a subject of much importance in the history of the Bronze Culture in the countries which are comprised within that area. It does not appear, however, to have had the attention bestowed upon it which it demands, and the purpose of this essay is to bring together the necessary material for supplying that want, and to attempt a classification of the different forms through which the spear-head passed in Great Britain and Ireland.

The origin of the commoner breeds of cattle is a question of the greatest interest to the antiquary and historian as well as to the agriculturist and naturalist. It is an inquiry into the history of an animal, which, when wild, was always hunted by man, and, when tame, has accompanied him in all his wanderings; which was domesticated in the far-off ages when it is doubtful whether we can rightly say that man was civilized; which was his standard for barter; his chattel, and the original of all pecuniary transactions; an animal whose remains lie buried with him or accidentally covered up wherever man has been.

By this communication to the Society, the author aims at drawing attention to the Palaeolithic archaeology of Boyn Hill, the western and highest part of the Berkshire town of Maidenhead. The name of this area is of course familiar to all geologists and to many antiquaries because it has so long been applied to most significant features of the Thames valley. Curiously enough, although Boyn Hill is held as classic ground, the Pleistocene deposits here have only been broadly studied, and of their archaeological contents little has been made and no specimen ever illustrated. Recently the place has given scope for more intensive researches than before, and if the work in the field, which will be described, has not been very rewarding, it has at least been the means of bringing together several loose threads. In a sense, too, this paper is a record of eleventh-hour rescue operations undertaken for information and for securing specimens to relate with past discoveries.

The discovery of the Roman amphitheatre at Chichester was made by a local resident, Mr. Raymond Carlyon-Britton, to whom the writer is indebted for permission to use that knowledge.

Believing that an amphitheatre would be a normal adjunct of a Roman town of the size and importance of Chichester, Mr. Carlyon-Britton began an examination of the outskirts of the city in 1934, with the result that, early in 1935, the writer was shown the site which has since proved to be that of the amphitheatre. It lies outside the city on the SE. (fig. 1), just over 200 yards from the walls and divided from them by the now covered course of the Lavant stream, and about 250 yards from the East Gate, where Stane Street branches off north-eastwards. The line of approach from the East Gate to the amphitheatre has not been determined; a road may have led to it directly from the East Gate, or branched off, beyond the Lavant stream, from the road which no doubt ran eastwards along the coast.

During 1961 the Cirencester Excavation Committee was faced with three major rescue excavations. Two development sites, for convenience called Leaholme Gardens, lay south of The Avenue, which crosses the heart of the Roman town, while the third lay north of Ashcroft Road, in an area well known for discoveries of mosaic pavements. Excavations were carried out for three weeks at Easter and for nine weeks during the summer. The Committee records its grateful thanks to each of those bodies which gave in all a very large sum of money, about £2,200; to all who in a variety of capacities assisted the excavations, often, as at Easter, in very bad weather; and to the Cirencester Urban District Council and Messrs. Mycalex Ltd. for permission to dig in Leaholme Gardens and on the Ashcroft Road site respectively. At Easter an L-shaped site, east of Leaholme House, was examined, covering the west end of the basilica, first discovered by our Fellow, Mr. Wilfrid Cripps, in 1898, and the corners of Insulae V and VI divided by Ermin Street and lying to the south of the basilica. In the summer the second site in Leaholme Gardens, west of that already described, was examined and proved to include the corner of Insula II, while beneath both sites conclusive structural evidence of an early military occupation was found.

The description Zuckerhut has been used in German publications to distinguish the tall shield bosses of the eighth century which have certain variations in form but remain constant in being unusually tall in proportion to their width. The term is taken from the shape of the clay mould in which, as late as the end of the nineteenth century, sugar was left to drain and set, the walls of the resulting sugar-loaves being usually slightly convex, rising to a point. ‘Sugar-loaf’ is therefore used here as a general term for the whole species of shield boss of tall proportions, but more specifically for the high, curved cone. The straight-sided cone may be more properly referred to as conical. Some of these have been noticed in England, and as they begin at the end of the pagan period when grave goods are sparse, it seemed likely that a study of them with their associated finds and relations overseas might provide a useful contribution to this part of Saxon chronology. It must be remembered that examination of shield bosses of this period is often made difficult by a thick coating of rust with other accretions, but the inside is sometimes less affected and yields more information. Although every effort has been made towards accuracy, it is possible that details may have been missed which might become visible after cleaning, but a number of the bosses are so fragmentary that further treatment would not seem to be advisable.

The group of medieval pottery described in this paper was found at Lesnes Abbey in June 1959, when the smaller of two stone-lined pits added against the west end of the Reredorter was cleared. The pit measured 8 ft. by 5 ft. internally, and was about 10 ft. deep. The greater part of the filling, about 7 ft. in depth, consisted of chalk and stone rubble, fragments of sandy mortar, a few pieces of worked stone, and broken roofing tiles. Below this filling was a layer of dark soil, about 2 ft. in depth, at the bottom of the pit. All the pottery was found in the layer of dark soil; there is thus no doubt that it is contemporary, and was absolutely sealed by several feet of building debris. I am indebted to the officers of the Historic Buildings Section of the London County Council for these details, and for permission to examine the pottery and prepare this report for publication.