I have the honour to report to the Society of Antiquaries the result of renewed researches during the present autumn in the Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Brighthampton. The reliques on the table are evidence that on the former occasion this ancient burialplace was but partially explored. I have now the gratification of exhibiting a series of ancient remains inferior in interest to none that research or accident has brought to light in this country.

During 1970–2 three sites on the western defences of the lower Roman and medieval town were examined. The earliest defences, which consisted of a rampart fronted by a stone wall 5 feet (1·5 m.) wide, and a ditch-system, were built in the late second or early third century. At some later date, interval-towers were added to the back of the wall: that at The Park was replaced by a new gateway which was rebuilt in the later fourth century. There was slight evidence that the other gate presumed to lie on the west side of the lower town at West Parade was rebuilt at the same time. North of this, on Mother by Hill, the third-century interval-tower was partially demolished in the fourth century and replaced by an internal platform. There was contemporary thickening or rebuilding of the wall at various other points, including either side of the gate at The Park. At some time in the late Roman period a new wider ditch was dug.

The Roman defences continued substantially in use throughout the medieval period, although the gateway at The Park was no longer functioning. In the thirteenth century the line of the western defences was extended southwards to the Brayford Pool, terminating in the circular Lucy Tower. North of the tower, the new defences comprised a stone wall 7 feet (2·1 m.) wide and a ditch whose size could not be determined.

The excavations also revealed interesting but fragmentary information about occupation within the defences. There were Roman buildings as far south as The Park from the Flavian period.

The figurative and schematic designs on two pieces of decorated bone from Creswell, Derbyshire are related to motifs used in later Magdalenian portable art in south-western and northern France, and are assigned to a period between 11,000–12,000 years ago on grounds of design and environmental evidence. One piece, that from Robin Hood's Cave, which is carefully engraved with complex motifs on both sides, shows handling traces indicating carriage over a period of time by one or more individuals. As the late Glacial Hunters at Creswell are thought to be nomadic, and the cave to have been inhabited only in the Summer months, the piece may have been made elsewhere and carried to Derbyshire, possibly from the continent.

Christian IV, King of Denmark and Norway, was appointed to the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 1603, after his brother-in-law, James VI of Scotland, had succeeded to the English throne. A copy of a warrant dated 28 September 1603 lists the work of the tailor, John Danson, and the embroiderers John Parr and William Broderick (fig. 1), preparing a set of Garter robes for him. John Danson made a purple velvet mantle (fig. 2), a crimson velvet kirtle, or surcoat (fig. 3), and a crimson velvet tippet and hood, all lined with white taffeta.

The demeanour of the figure represented on the Greek metrological relief in the Ashmolean Museum indicates that it must have been made before the Athenian decree regulating weights and measures, variously dated between 449 and 420 B.C. All the dimensions of the slab imply the use of a cubit of 52·3 cm, the length of the Egyptian royal cubit which in a Greek context suggests a provenance on Samos. Finally, the slab was not used for the practical purpose of comparing or checking measures. The width and the angle of the surface point to its being set over a door, perhaps the entrance to a room devoted to the control of weights and measures.

In conjunction with a survey of Roman sword finds, an attempt is made to classify the varying types and dimensions of blades into categories indicative of their function within the Imperial Army. In particular, a category is defined as being that most likely to represent examples of the standard gladius as issued to the legionary infantryman.

The Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania began its fourth campaign at Ur on 1st November 1925, and closed down in the field on 13th March 1926. The season was the longest we have yet had, and at its height as many as three hundred men were employed.

In Archaeologia, vol. lxxvi, a number of rock-cut tombs in Mallorca, dating from the Bronze Age, were described by the present writer, and attention was called to the general resemblance of their plans to those of the megalithic tombs known as navetas. These buildings occur both in Mallorca and in Menorca, but the better known and better preserved examples are to be found in the smaller and less highly cultivated island. In 1892, M. Émile Cartailhac published excellent photographs, and less satisfactory plans, of some of the Menorcan examples in Monuments Primitifs des Îies Baléares, and a recent examination suggested that certain additional details were worth placing on record, as they serve to link the built-up structures more closely with the rock-cut tombs, and indicate a definite relation of both to the long barrows of Britain.

The existence on Selsey Bill in West Sussex of sites belonging to the Early Iron Age was recognized in 1909, but recent finds of pottery at one of these, the gravel pit in Golf Links Lane, has made a closer study of the question necessary.

The development of domestic architecture in Oxford during the late medieval and sub-medieval periods, that is to say, from the fourteenth century to the eighteenth century, will be discussed in the following paper, with a double purpose in view. The first purpose is to report on a certain amount of research work done on old Oxford houses during the last ten years, in which a good many people have taken part. The second purpose is to sketch a plan of campaign, or to indicate certain lines of investigation and classification, which might, I think, mutatis mutandis, be applied to other towns. We badly need a systematic survey of the old houses in various towns in England, with plans, elevations, sections, and analyses. This is particularly needed at a time when so much is in danger of destruction, and it is a work which one hopes the Society of Antiquaries may encourage.

Ring-brooches, which probably were a Celtic invention, started as very simple objects. They consisted of an open ring and a pin ending in a loop which could move along the ring. As ornaments they were not very showy, as their only decoration lay in the shape of their terminals, but as dress-fasteners they were no doubt practical. They seem, however, to have had one drawback: when the ring was too thin or made of poor metal the terminals could be wrenched apart and the brooch could be twisted out of shape when roughly handled. That this possibility existed can be concluded from one of its subsequent developments: the penannular brooch was sometimes turned into an annular one.

The presence of a Saxon settlement at Selsey (other than that of St. Wilfrid, which is generally supposed to have been in the eastern half of the Peninsula) has recently been revealed by coastal erosion west of the remains of Medmerry Farm, (O.S. 6 in. LXXXI, N.W.). The site is on low ground, only a few feet above the marshy land which lies behind, and the Saltings on the east.

Two skeletons recently discovered at Sonning, Berks., were found with a sword, pin, knife, and arrowheads. The burial is considered in connection with other Viking burials known from the south of England at Santon Downham, Norfolk, Walthamstow, Essex, Reading, Berks., and Saffron Walden, Essex.

The kiln was first brought to the notice of the Archaeological Research Committee by Mr. F. W. Brookes, who had observed wasters and kiln debris in the rabbit scrapes. The excavation was included in the Committee's first year's programme as it was felt that the pottery would provide a useful dating guide for the upper levels of the Roman city and at the same time give excellent training to the small but enthusiastic band of volunteers at that time being brought together.

It is a commonplace that before the Romans conquered Britain, its inhabitants had reached a high level of achievement in decorative art, and that one result of the conquest was the destruction of this art and the imposition of an inartistic though materially comfortable culture. With this view I do not propose to quarrel; but in certain ways I think it may with advantage be qualified. My present concern is with one such qualification.

A fascinating example of early sixteenth-century carving is preserved in the church of the Hospital of St Cross, near Winchester, in the form of three sections of wooden frieze. The frieze is carved with a profusion of Renaissance imagery that has until now received little attention. The carved imagery of the frieze will be examined here in detail for the first time, along with its association with Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester 1501–28. The relationship between the imagery of the frieze and the decorative detail in other works associated with Fox will be discussed and its similarities to French models. A traditional dating of the frieze to 1525 or thereabouts will be challenged in favour of an earlier date and its likely association with stallwork discussed.

In volume 81 of the Antiquaries Journal, AH and Cunich presented new evidence in respect of the orientation of eleventh- and twelfth-century churches. The object of their research was to test whether the important churches of the early second millennium in England might have been aligned using a magnetic compass. Their data, meticulously collected, led them to conclude that only in a very small number of instances could the use of a magnetic compass have been possible and that solar observation was, in a significant number of instances, the determinant of orientation. More particularly, the rising of the sun above the horizon and possibly, though less frequently, the setting sun, provided the alignment. It was possible to show a close correlation with sunrise or sunset at patronal feast days, that is, the day on which the venerated saint was believed to have died, at Easter and on true east, determined by equinoctial sunrise.