The eighth season of the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania started at Ur on 1st November 1929, and ended on 19th March 1930. The staff consisted of my wife, who as usual was responsible for the type-drawings of objects, the planning of the cemetery, and for a share in the field-work; Mr. M. E. L. Mallowan, general archaeological assistant; the Rev.E. Burrows, S.J., epigraphist; and Mr. A. S. Whitburn, architect. Hamoudi was, as always, head foreman, with his sons, Yahia, Ibrahim, and Alawi acting under him; owing to the fact that work was always going on in at least two spots fairly far apart, greater responsibility than usual was thrown on the younger foremen, who answered admirably to the demands on them; Yahia combined this work with that of staff photographer. The number of men employed varied slightly at different times, but was always over 200 and for most of the season kept at about 240, anumber well in excess of the average of past seasons; the amount of work done wascorrespondingly great. I have to thank the Royal Air Force in Iraq for help of many sorts and not least for an air photograph of the site (pl. XXVIII) taken at the close of the season and of much value for purposes of comparison with earlier photographs; Lt.-Colonel Tainsh, Director of the Iraq Railways, for facilities enabling me to undertake a short experimental dig at Meraijib, a prehistoric site some ten miles south of Ur; and the Director of Antiquities, Iraq, for his help in this Meraijib work and to the Expedition in general. I must also acknowledge my indebtedness to the staff of the British Museum Laboratory, where the work of restoring and cleaning was as usual carried out, and in particular to Mr. E. C. Padgham for his success with the silver objects; Mr. Evan Watkin of the Department of Egyptian Antiquities undertook the mending of the stone vases, and for the mending of the pottery the services of Mrs. F. W. Bard were secured.

The object of the accompanying Paper is to draw attention to a series of financial transactions which, although intimately connected with our early history, and essential to its faithful development, have hitherto found no place in its pages. Political economy was the science most remote from the speculations of our chroniclers; nor had they, commonly, such an acquaintance with the affairs of the Exchequer as qualified them to transmit to us a correct exposition of the wealth and resources of the country. We are not surprised therefore to find their statements with regard to the revenue inaccurate and meagre; but we are at a loss to account for their silence respecting the Italian money-lenders who, as it will appear, were the main supporters of the King in periods of financial embarrassment, and who, everywhere dispersed throughout the kingdom, must have very beneficially influenced the commercial and even the political condition of the country, by an example of superior enterprise and intelligence, by their connexions with foreign governments, and by the immense capital which they introduced and circulated. This deficiency is supplied by the Public Records; and consequently the evidence which they yield becomes of interest and value. We find in them a vein of history, as it were, hitherto unexplored; and all that I have now attempted, is to present a sample of its produce.

Considering how characteristic of this century are the development of invention and the application of discoveries in pure science to every-day uses, the history of invention, and the comparison of recent advances with those in the past, ought to be interesting and instructive. For the materials for such a narrative and such a comparison the historian has to depend on what remains of the practical works of former times, on allusions to their uses by contemporary writers, on early descriptions of the arts, on collections of technical receipts, and especially on the labours of previous historians, who—perhaps under great disadvantages—have already laboriously brought together some of the needed material and have begun the record. Among the most distinguished pioneers of such historical inquiry stands Polydore Vergil.

Some bronze weapons and implements, which have come into my possession, appear to be of so much interest in respect of novelty and peculiarities of form, manufacture, and ornamentation, as to make it desirable to bring them under the notice of the Society, with the object of placing them on permanent record in Archaeologia.

A total of 268 sites within a region of c 2,000 square kilometres in northern Bulgaria, extending north from the Stara Planina (Haemus) to the Danube, offers a unique opportunity to study the character and extent of economic and social change which separates the Roman Empire from Late Antiquity. The method involves excavations within the Roman city of Nicopolis, along the course of a remarkable Roman aqueduct, and at the ‘type site’ of Gradishte, a Late Roman and early Byzantine fort where one of the primary goals is to reconstruct its palaeoenvironmental history. This is accompanied by site-specific field survey, using geophysics and intensive surface collection, to date and identify different categories of nucleated settlements. Running concurrently, the collection and dating of pottery samples from other sites should help to establish whether there was continuity or dislocation of settlement on the lower Danube in the period of transition between the second and the sixth centuries AD.

The origin of the Game of Chess, like the origin of Romance, has been the subject of frequent discussion, and for a long period seemed to be enveloped in nearly equal obscurity. But, in tracing the former, we possess one considerable advantage over those who have discussed the source of fiction in the middle ages—the acknowledged fact, that the game of Chess could not have been produced by more minds than one, although it may subsequently have been modified, improved, or altered, according to the genius and habits of the people by whom it was adopted. It is sufficient, therefore, at present to assume, on the authorities produced by the learned Dr. Hyde and Sir William Jones, that for the invention and earliest form of this game we mustlook to India, from whence, through the medium of the Persians and Arabs (as demonstratively proved by the names of the chessmen), it was afterwards transmitted to the nations of Europe.

After two short seasons spent in investigating the high terrace of the lower Thames, it was considered desirable to examine the gravel of a tributary, in order to equate if possible the various deposits in the two valleys, and to confirm or correct the sequence deduced from former excavatións at home and abroad. Two sites near Rickmansworth, at and just below the junction of the Gade and Colne rivers, have been known for years as productive of palaeoliths, and every facility was readily afforded for examining the gravel in pits at Croxley Green and Mill End by the respective owners, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and Lord Rendlesham, and the lessees, the RickmansworthGravel Co., Ltd., and Messrs. Horwood Bros. Leave of absence was granted by the Trustees of the British Museum, and nine days were devoted to the work in October, the means being provided from a fund under the control of our Vice-President, Sir Hercules Read, Keeper of the Department concerned. Assistance from the geological side was given unofficially by Mr. Dewey, of H.M. Geological Survey, who has read through the paper in manuscript, and contributes an appendix dealing with some of the geological problems involved.

The fittings from the military belt—heavy semicircular buckles with inturned scrolls and rectangular mounts with relief or niello decoration—are common finds at Colchester, Hod Hill, Richborough and other early Roman sites in Britain. Identical pieces have been recovered in even greater numbers from the contemporary forts and fortresses along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Although well known (Ritterling 1913, 148–55; Webster 1969, 122–3), they have yet to be studied and published as a group, a process which would yield valuable information about their spatial distribution, the relative popularity of different decorative schemes and, possibly, about the centres of manufacture. The following is a synthesis and discussion of the British finds only (fig. 1); it is based on a thorough search both of the published literature and of museum collections, particularly those in the south of England and the Midlands.

The Cistercian abbey of St. Mary of Fountains has been the subject of extensive antiquarian and archaeological study for some two centuries, begining with John Martin's excavation of the chapter house in 1790–91. Three major studies in the nineteenth century, starting with the excavations of 1848–54 overseen by J. R. Walbran, who also began the analysis of the extensive documentary archive relating to the house, enhanced by a remarkably complete survey of the ruins begun in 1873 by J. A. Reeve, and culminating with an authoritative summary by Sir William St. John Hope, established the historical and archaeological development of the abbey and demonstrated the importance of the ruins. More recently, a detailed reappraisal by the first writer and limited excavation by Roger Mercer followed the placing of the ruins into the guardianship of what is now the Department of the Environment in 1966, and it was assumed that there was little more to be learned about the historical development of the house.

The burial-mound under discussion appears to have been situated some five miles from Wimborne, by the Blandford road and near the hill-fort of Badbury Rings. Nothing remains of it to-day, and our information as to its structure and contents is due to the Rev. J. H. Austen of Ensbury, who in 1845 found the barrow was being ploughed out and was already two-thirds removed when he excavated and described what remained. The remarkable find of a stone with representations of metal axes and daggers upon it, hitherto unillustrated, renders a republication and discussion of the site desirable.

In 1971 the Winchester Excavations Committee undertook excavations on six sites in the city, a seventh being excavated by the Winchester Schools Archaeological Committee. The final season was also the longest: work began on 29 May and lasted for twenty-two weeks until 1 November. About £25,470 was spent and an average of 200 people took part each working day during the ten weeks of the full season from 21 June to 29 August.

The excavations at Cirencester in the summer of 1963 were the most extensive that have so far taken place, with work continuing at the Amphitheatre and on five new sites inside the town. Also, as so often has happened in past years, yet another rescue dig had to be undertaken in October, after the main season had finished. Apart from the Amphitheatre, a site in the middle of the Forum was most generously made available by Mr. and Mrs. Constable; further information about the buildings in Parsonage Field, close to the earlier excavations of Miss K. M. Richardson, F.S.A., and Miss M. Rennie, was obtained, thanks to permission given by Gloucestershire County Council; extended knowledge of the defences on the south-west side of the town was obtained by the kind permission of the Watermoor Hospital Management Committee; problems relating to the street system were resolved in the front garden of the telephone exchange thanks to the General Post Office, and in the garden of Dyer Court thanks to Cirencester Urban District Council, who, with Lord Bathurst, also gave permission for the continuation of work at the Amphitheatre. Finally a small site in West Way produced information of Roman buildings in a hitherto unexplored area, for which permission was granted by Ardin and Brooks and Partners on behalf of their clients Messrs. Lipton's Ltd. The Excavation Committee's indebtedness to all who took part in the excavations, over ninety in number, and to all who contributed financially towards them, must be gratefully recorded.

The type of cooking-pot considered here is common in northern England, is precisely datable, appears to have been fashionable only for a short period, and has an unmistakable profile. It is thus especially valuable as an index of chronology.

Though there are exceptions, most examples of the type are made in the same kind of fabric. This fabric is hard and coarse, with a smooth but unpolished surface; it is grey, black, or brown in colour. The body of the clay is charged with small fragments of white shell; these have often been dissolved by acids in the soil, leaving the surface pitted with shallow cavities, in the same way that pieces of mineral calcite are dissolved out of similar wares. The fabric thus belongs to the same family of calcite-gritted wares as Knapton ware and as the Huntcliff type of cooking-pot, without being identical with them. Wares of this character, differing from each other markedly in form, but only slightly in fabric, are found in early Iron Age, Roman, and Dark Age horizons, and are widely distributed; they were especially common in the Roman period in what is now Yorkshire, and in the north-east midlands. They did not appear in large numbers on Hadrian's Wall before the fourth century.

This paper explores the background to the publication in 1610 of the first English-language edition of William Camden’s Britannia, translated from the Latin by Philemon Holland. The translation itself is shown to be free, but largely reliable. Camden is found to have played little part in the detailed work of translation, but to have contributed most of the volume’s new content. The translation’s place within the formation of an English and a British national identity is considered.

During the financial year 1916-17 the Tarxien remains were further cleared, the work continuing from the last week of April 1916 to the 12th September of that year (see Plan, fig. 1).

The site of L’anse de la République, Talmont-Saint-Hilaire, Vendée, France, belonging to the Beaker culture, was discovered by Roger Joussaume in the 1960s. It was subsequently investigated during the late 1980s and more recently in 2014. Several items excavated during these operations are clearly linked to metallurgy. This article assesses the results of new analyses (XRF, petrographic analysis, metallographic microscope observation, SEM and EDS microprobe analysis) undertaken on the different artefacts (copper residue, slags, smelting-crucible sherds), which allow the authors to assert that copper ore was smelted on the site. Radiocarbon dating of organic residue preserved on a ceramic sherd confirms the dating of the site to the earliest phase of the Beaker culture (2500 bc). The metallic copper produced here is characterised by two main impurities: arsenic and nickel. This provides an opportunity to review the extremely rare vestiges of Beaker metallurgy in France, which contrast with the numerous metal objects recovered. This article also considers the use of domestic smelting vessels for smelting ore; this technique may have been more widespread than previously thought in the Beaker culture on the Atlantic coast of Europe.

In 1923, in consequence of a change in the ownership of the land, a large part of the area within the Roman walls at Caerwent came into the market, including certain sites not explored during the excavations of 1899–1913. Among the latter was the orchard adjoining the main road immediately to the north of St. Stephen's Church. This orchard was acquired for building purposes, and, in order to recover something of the history of the site before the work of destruction began, the National Museum of Wales secured the permission of the new owner, Mr. Moses Adams, to cut trenches across it. The excavations were carried out by the writer in consultation with Dr. R. E. M. Wheeler, F.S.A. A generous grant towards the cost was made by the Haverfield Bequest Committee, and thanks are also due to the owner of the site, to the vicar of Caerwent (the Rev. W. Coleman Williams), and to the churchwardens for courteous assistance during the work.

In August 1930 the Victoria and Albert Museum was enabled to purchase a fragment of a tall cross of the well-known Northumbrian type, of which the best-known examples are perhaps the Bewcastle and Ruthwell crosses. This fragment, which had been for a long time in private possession at Easby in Yorkshire, has frequently been illustrated as one of the finer examples of the carving of the period. It shows on the one broad face Christ Enthroned in Majesty between two angels (pi. xxv, fig. 1); on the other, magnificently designed vine scrolls with a bird, probably an eagle or a falcon, and a beast (I would rather not specify the breed) in the convolutions (pi. xxv, fig. 3). On the two narrow sides are panels of interlaced ornament and vine scrolls, separated by bands of pearled ornament (pi. xxv, fig. 2). Mr. W. G. Collingwood, both in his contribution on Anglo-Saxon sculpture in the Victoria County History of Yorkshire and in his later work on the Northumbrian crosses,2 noted two other fragments built into the fabric of the parish church at Easby, which, though only one narrow face was visible, appeared to him to be of the same date, and to have come from the same or a similar cross. Another small piece 3 with a bust of Christ was also noted by him on the outside of the south wall of the chancel. Last autumn permission was obtained by the authorities of the Victoria and Albert Museum to cut out these stones and to replace them with plain masonry. The carved stones, which were brought to the Museum for cleaning, were found to be covered on three sides to a depth of two or three inches with hard mortar; on cleaning this off the stones were found to show on two of the broad faces busts of eleven of the twelve Apostles, ranged in groups of three or more under arches (pi. xxvi, fig. 1, xxvn, fig. 1), the halo of the twelfth head appearing at the bottom of the fragment already in the possession of the Museum. This shows quite clearly the order of arrangement of the stones–the Christ in Majesty at the top, with the Apostles below. Mr. Collingwood, only having one stone to go upon, had restored them the other way round with the Christ at the bottom. The other faces of these two fragments of the shaft show vine scrolls and interlacing panels similar to the first piece (pi. xxvi, figs. 2 and 3, xxvn, fig. 2). A reconstruction of the three pieces of the shaft is shown on plate XXVIII. The third fragment recorded by Mr. Collingwood as in the church was found to have on the walled-in side a second bust of Christ and to be, as already suggested by him, a part of the head of the cross (pi. XXVII, figs. 3 and 4). Although now in pieces the cross would seem to have been originally composed of a monolithic shaft with the head carved from a separate stone, as in the case of the Bewcastle and other crosses. The Easby cross must have been violently thrown down at some time, probably during the Danish invasions, and then repaired with lead, a piece of which still remains at the base of the middle stone (pi. xxvi, fig. 3). In this connexion it is interesting to note that Symeon of Durham records the fact that when the Viking raiders of Lindisfarne had broken off the head of a stone cross the two pieces were afterwards joined together by being run with lead. The material of the Easby cross, like the other great crosses of Bewcastle and Ruthwell, is a local stone.

The first part of this paper is a discussion of the basic pattern of land use on the South Downs from the Middle Bronze Age to the early Pre-Roman Iron Age. In the second part, the impact upon this pattern of a group of Bronze and Iron Age stock enclosures is considered, and it is argued that these developed directly into a number of small hill forts. A contemporary group of larger, early Iron Age, hill forts is also defined, and it appears that these too grew up upon an economic basis of stock raising. The social and cultural implications of these developments are discussed, and tentative contrasts are drawn with the nature of later hill forts in the region.