The Research Committee of the Society of Antiquaries of London has set up a sub-committee to encourage co-ordinated research aimed at deciphering the organization of the landscape from the earliest times to the recent past. After a detailed consideration of the evidence, it decided to concentrate its attention, in the first instance, on the chalk lands of central southern England, where the spread of detectable remains is denser and more widespread than anywhere else in the country, and where the archaeological material in the form of artefacts and faunal remains is best preserved in the greatest quantity.

During the time that the excavation of the theatre was being carried out, the investigation of insula XVI, immediately west of it, was begun, and was completed after some three months' work.

The insula, a rectangle measuring 300 ft. by 160 ft. (with its greater length stretching from east to west) is bounded by roads on three sides, and by the metalled space surrounding the theatre on its fourth, or eastern, side. Cross-trenches showed the south road to be 29 ft., and the north road 18 ft., in width; the west road had been at least 29 ft. wide, but, owing to soil having been denuded from this higher part of the site, the exact width of this road was not determined by either of the two trenches dug across it (plan, pl. xxv).

The principal authority for the early history of the church of Worcester is the famous Cartulary compiled about the end of the eleventh century by the Worcester monk, Hemming. Written partly in Latin, and partly in Anglo-Saxon, the volume contains for the most part transcripts of the various privileges and charters by which the monastery proved its title to the vast estates which it held at that time in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Oxfordshire. It is not known with certainty when the cartulary passed out of the possession of the cathedral, but it is probable that it was amongst the many manuscripts dispersed after the dissolution of the monastery in 1540.

It is to the ancient practice of suspending the funeral insignia of the deceased over his tomb that we owe the survival of our few existing English helms. Foreign visitors to our country churches often express their surprise at finding these relics still in situ. The practice also obtained on the Continent, but surviving instances there are very much rarer than here. Despite our innate conservatism, many church helmets must have disappeared through decay, indifference, and, latterly, the avarice of collectors. That they are not yet safe from spoliation was shown by a case which came before the Courts last year.

This report gives a brief account of a field reconnaissance in the Levant during August and September 1955. Seven weeks were spent in ground-checking archaeological sites noticed on air photographs taken by the Royal Air Force over Greece and Rhodes during the Second World War, and later in Cyprus. Assisted by my wife, I was able in these few weeks to locate and to examine in detail a large number of archaeological features, as the consequence of having these photographs as a guide. I shall reserve for a future occasion the description of the results and discoveries from our work in Cyprus, which was based on (i) my study of some thousands of photographs which the Department of Lands and Surveys in Nicosia kindly made available, and (ii) ground-checks on foot in various parts of the island. A very helpful grant of £50 given by the Craven Committee in the University of Oxford contributed towards the cost of this short campaign in 1955. The work was in direct continuation of my field research in Mediterranean lands since 1945, with the emphasis extended for the moment to the eastern end. This was a planned sequel to discoveries which I had made years ago, and an opportunity to complete them with fieldwork on the ground had been long awaited.

The resurfacing of a late medieval hearth-blower, first brought to public notice by Robert Plot in 1686 but subsequently seen only infrequently, provides the opportunity for a review of the type. Examples of these anthropomorphic aeolipiles from England, all late medieval in date, are placed in context, both in time – stretching back to the Classical period – and in space. They prove to have been widely distributed in Continental Europe, while related types are known from as far east as the Himalayas. Although latterly limited in application to fanning the flames of a fire, earlier references show an awareness of a range of potential uses in domestic and industrial contexts.

Previously unpublished correspondence and a re-analysis of events call into question William Buckland's description of his excavation of Paviland Cave in 1823, and illustrate why his interpretation of it changed prior to publication in Reliquiae Diluvianae. Buckland appears to have manipulated the archaeological evidence from Paviland in order to support his ‘Diluvial’ theory. A synthesis of the documentary evidence also illustrates the unrecognized contribution made by John Traherne, FSA and others to the development of Buckland's Paviland story. This paper suggests that modern descriptions and interpretations of Paviland continue to be incorrectly influenced by a reliance on Reliquiae Diluvianae and that the reinterpretation of early archaeological excavations might benefit as much from the application of critical historiographical analyses as from the application of new scientific or theoretical methodologies.

The mound of Kilindir (fig. 1) lies about one kilometre south-west of the station of that name on the railway that runs from Salonika to Constantinople via Seres, Dedeagatch and Adrianople. A small stream called Gyol Ayak issues from the south side of Lake Doiran exactly at the modern village at Doiran station. This stream, after passing through nine kilometres of broken and ravined country, issues into more open ground just by the modern Chiflik which represents the pre-war site of the village of Kilindir.

When Birtsmorton Church, Worcestershire, was rebuilt in the fourteenth century, a number of its windows were filled with painted glass of the period. The only portions now in situ are the arms of the Ruyhales, the lords of the manor, in the tracery lights of some of the windows in the nave, and of one in the north transept. What remained of the contents of the main lights, together with various fragments in the style of the fifteenth century, had been collected, perhaps early in the last century, in the east window of the chancel, where facsimile drawings, partly coloured, were made of them for Dr. Prattinton, whose Worcestershire collections are in our library. When the church was restored in 1877, the east window was rebuilt on a new pattern, but the glass was not replaced in it, and ultimately found its way into the adjoining ‘Birtsmorton Court’, where the present owner Mr. F. B. Bradley-Birt discovered it lying loose, and had the fragments releaded so as to form two panels. When I first saw the latter, I recognized that they contained the principal elements of the drawings in the Prattinton collection with which I had recently made acquaintance.

Recent discoveries of pebble mosaics in various settlements in southern Spain from the seventh to the fourth centuries B.C. reveal an early tradition in floor-making. These discoveries have thrown new light on the origins of the most commonly used floors in Roman times, opus signinum and opus tessellatum. The first technique, thought to be Italian in origin, was probably developed in Italy from previous experiments in other Mediterranean sites which were of Punic origin. The origin of tessellated floors has been widely discussed and, although they were being produced on a large scale in Italy towards the first century A.D., we can assume that there existed a long experimental stage prior to the Roman period in which two general types of mosaic floors were developed—those with a uniform surface and those formed with small elements.

The subject of early Wall-Papers has not been much investigated in England. Of the various forms of hanging or wall-decoration which preceded them–designs painted, stencilled, or incised on the walls; and hangings of plain material, of tapestry, of embroidery, of cloth stained or painted, and even of painted paper–and of the wall-papers of the eighteenth century–painted or printed importations from China and the printed products of our own country, from simple floral designs to the Gothics of Horace Walpole or the elaborate ‘scenes’, one set of which sufficed to decorate a whole room –of all these something is known; though we still wait for an authoritative and comprehensive work. But little attempt has been made so far to bridge the gap between medieval and modern, the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.

In the year 1919 it became necessary to excavate to a depth of 2 ft. over a given area on Worthy Down, near Winchester. At the north-east corner of the excavation a number of iron currency-bars were uncovered. None of the excavators knew what they were at the time and they were thrown aside, but one of the party, Mr. C. H. Blenkinsop, eighteen months after, on visiting the British Museum, noticed similar objects labelled ‘Iron Currency-bars’. He returned to the site, collected several bars, and brought them to me. A few days afterwards I examined the ground in his company. The excavation was oblong, with its long axis east and west, and the section exposed showed 6 in. of soil and 1 ft. 6 in. of chalk. At the north-east angle was seen what appeared to be the section of one of the sides of a shallow trench filled with earth, chalk-rubble, and burnt flints. On digging to remove the turf on the surface contiguous to this section, the spade was checked by several iron currency-bars, which lay hidden by the grass that had grown over them since they were cast out. At 1 ft. 6 in. below the surface I found the end of a bar 8⅗ in. long, which fitted on to one of the bars already in my possession. The exact position and level of the original discovery were thus known. At a depth of 2 ft. the chalk was reached. The digging was then directed eastwards, and it was found that the soil deepened. A seam of flint ‘pot-boilers’ and charcoal was met with at 2 ft. 6 in. A fragment of a human cranium, bones and teeth of (?) horse, ox, pig, and sheep, with pieces of pottery were also found. These discoveries occurred on the 13th August 1920. Further excavations were made on various dates.

The following notes relate to one of a number of ancient occupation and other sites examined by the writers between 1925 and 1939, in the district between St. Keverne and Coverack in the Lizard peninsula, and of which a record will appear in due course in the Journal of the Royal Institute of Cornwall. Meanwhile as the pottery found on the site in question may be of importance in helping to date Dark Ages ceramics discovered elsewhere, it has been thought advisable to publish the present account in the Antiquaries Journal.