At the end of this first full year of my office as your President I wish to thank every Fellow of the Society for the kindness and support that they have shown me and naturally above all I must thank my fellow officers whose patience and counsel have been unbounded. 1967 is an important year for the Society, for in it we celebrate our two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. The Council has considered what should be done to mark this occasion and it has been decided that this will take the form of an Anniversary Party to beheld from 5.30 to 8.30 p.m. on Thursday, the 12th of October. There will be some guests, but Fellows will be asked to subscribe towards their own entertainment. Two hundred and fifty years is half five hundred years, yet I still feel that the Old Lady of Burlington House is quite young for her age. Long may she remain so, and it is right and proper to salute the young as well as the not so young who make up our membership and to beg them to keep her ever in her pristine freshness and enterprise.

Archaeological and engineering work that took place in Westminster Hall in 2005–6 led to the discovery of further remains of the King's High Table, to add to those discovered in 1960. The Purbeck marble table stood at the south end of the hall from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth century and was the focus and symbol of English monarchy, serving particular roles in coronation feasts and in the development of the law courts. This paper suggests a reconstruction of the original table and its later extensions from the recovered fragments, and reviews the evidence for the construction, usage and destruction of the table in the context of the evolution of the hall and the palace, tracing its history through to its recent rediscovery and exhibition.

This paper focuses on the material study (radiocarbon dating, wood identification and strontium isotope analyses) of four large ‘India occidentali’ clubs, part of the founding collections of the Ashmolean Museum, in Oxford, and originally part of John Tradescant’s ‘Ark’, in Lambeth (1656). During the seventeenth century, the term ‘India occidentali/occidentales’ referred not only to the ‘West Indies’ (its literal translation), but to the Americas as a whole; hence, the Ashmolean clubs and, indeed, the c forty examples of similarly large, decorated clubs known in international museum collections had no firm provenance and lacked even the most basic information. Previous attempts at attribution, based on stylistic comparisons with nineteenth- to twentieth-century Brazilian and Guyanese clubs, have proved inconclusive given the unique features of this club style, raising the intriguing possibility that these may be exceptionally rare examples of ‘Island Carib’ (Kalinago) material culture, particularly as images of such clubs appear in seventeenth-century ethnographic accounts from the Lesser Antilles. This paper provides new data for these poorly known objects from early collections, revealing not only the type of wood from which they were carved (Platymiscium sp. and Brosimum cf guianense) and their probable dates of manufacture (c AD 1300–1640), but also their possible provenance (strontium results are consistent with a possible range from Trinidad south to French Guiana).

This paper describes the rediscovery of the exact location for the Isleham hoard (tl 63197253) and presents the results of related fieldwork; it briefly reviews the metallurgical significance of the hoard, and discusses its local environmental and social context, as well as the distribution of founder's hoards within the Fenland region.

The hoard was found to have been placed in a pit dug into a filled-in Bronze Age boundary ditch, next to a rectangular building, and adjacent to the edge of low-lying wetland bordering a palaeochannel which revealed an environmental sequence stretching from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. This area is also in proximity to a possible ringwork. Mesolithic and Neolithic activity is evidenced by residual flint tools and pottery. By the Bronze Age the tongue of fen next to the hoard had begun to be invaded by ferns and terrestrial vegetation and its latest peat phase was radiocarbon dated to 4045 ± 62 bp. Molluscs within the boundary ditch show an open landscape with a mixture of dryland and wetland taxa, and the presence of Vertigo angustior, a rare British species no longer known from Cambridgeshire, and one indicative of transitional habitats between wet and dry land. This landscape was probably contemporary with the deposition of the hoard.

Current typological and radiocarbon analysis for Wilburton metalwork would suggest a date within the period 1150 to 1000 bc for the hoard, whilst a typological assessment of the pot in which the hoard was found suggests an affinity with Post-Deverel-Rimbury (PDR) Plainware dated currently from around 1150 to 800 bc. OSL dating of a sample of the pot containing the hoard yielded a date of 1460 ± 230 bc at 1 sigma.

The locations of other founder's hoards within the region suggest a clustering in the southern fens and South Cambridgeshire, apparently related to ancient routeways.

The Copper Age cemetery in Varna, Bulgaria, is famous for the earliest known, massive deposition of exquisite golden artefacts. Radiocarbon dating of the Varna i cemetery, excavated in the period 1972–91, places it in the mid-fifth millennium bc and suggests a duration of c 225 years from c 4550 to c 4325 cal bc. Construction work in the adjacent area (2.5 km to the east of Varna i cemetery) in December 2017 led to the discovery of sixteen new graves, whose characteristics are identical to the burials in the cemetery investigated in the last century. This article discusses the AMS dates of ten newly discovered inhumations. The results match well the existing cemetery chronology, showing that the new graves start slightly later and end earlier than Varna i and have a shorter duration of probably no more than a few decades. It is demonstrated for the first time that some areas of burial on the terrace were in continuous use for one or two generations only, suggesting multi-focal depositional activities as opposed to expedient and opportunistic spatial utilisation.

This paper is a continuation of one that appeared in this journal in 2010.1 That earlier paper explored the house built by Lord Henry Howard, first Earl of Northampton, between 1605 and his death in 1614. This one investigates the Suffolk ownership in the years between Howard’s death and 1642, as well as the subsequent acquisition and transformation of the house by Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, between 1642 and 1668. The first period has never been studied with the benefit of archival research and, if architecturally uneventful, offers interesting insights into the political and patrimonial affairs of the time. The second was analysed by Jeremy Wood in 1993 within an essay dealing with the whole of Algernon’s building activity,2 and not therefore in relation to the architectural development of Northumberland House specifically. It is argued here that Northumberland’s work is of crucial importance, as he turned this predominantly urban palace, with its public rooms overlooking the Strand, into a rus in urbe, an aspect that was to be a decisive influence on its many later refurbishments. In addition, investigating Algernon’s work through a close analysis of the primary sources sheds new light on the debate about the development of architecture during the English Civil War.

This paper uses evidence from a previously unresearched ecclesiastical textile associated with Archbishop John Morton (c 1420−1500) to generate new insights into the material culture of the Roman Catholic faith before, during and after the penal period in England (c 1558−1829). This composite textile was initially thought to be made up of fragments of a late 1400s cope bearing Morton’s rebus, reconfigured as an altar frontal, which had survived in the house of an important Roman Catholic family. The embroidered motifs include a unique Lily Crucifix. The textile’s complex biography is ‘unpicked’ using physical and textual evidence to understand its changing forms, roles and significance. Analysis of the material and construction, combined with evidence gained through X-radiography, showed the frontal to be composed of parts of a cope and at least one other vestment, with a now missing image of the Annunciation. Mapping the stages of fragmentation, removal and re-modelling demonstrates the transformation of significant mainstream vestments into other forms. The paper illuminates aspects of Morton’s faith and provides new insights into the practices of recusant Roman Catholics.

This note identifies illuminations by the hand responsible for the initial to the French text at the start of the Douce Apocalypse; the artist appears to have worked on commissions linked to Oxford. It is suggested that the internal evidence of the Douce manuscript points to a change of patron in the course of its production after the illustrated Latin text was largely completed, and that it may have been begun for King Henry III and then given to the Lord Edward or Eleanor of Castile, who are shown in the opening initial, before about 1270.

There are many extant examples of late medieval vestments in private and public collections in Europe and North America. Little is known, however, about the people who created them and the production methods used. A copy of a formal agreement between Sir Robert Clere and William Morton, included in the Townshend family papers, offers a rare insight into the making of a set of late fifteenth-century vestments. The document specifies the materials and the motifs to be used in making the vestments and the delivery deadline. This paper investigates the individuals mentioned in the agreement, the significance of the symbols and images chosen, and the possible motives behind the contract phraseology. Although these particular vestments no longer exist, parallels for the designs and techniques among extant examples have been used to re-create their possible appearance. Also considered is the relationship between embroiderer and mercer and the ways in which they collaborated to produce garments for royalty, the nobility and an increasing number of wealthy citizens.

This short note is intended as a response to the paper by Dr Hilary Turner published in Vol 88 of the Antiquaries Journal, entitled: ‘Tapestries once at Chastleton and their influence on the image of tapestries called Sheldon: a reassessment’. It seeks to give an alternative account to that given by Dr Turner of the role of the Sheldon family in establishing the tapestry-weaving workshops associated with their name during the reign of Elizabeth i.

The surviving fabric of the house at Moor Park, near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, built in 1679–84 for the Duke and Duchess of Monmouth on the site of an older house, is hidden inside the present stone casing by James Thornhill of c 1725. Its design is attributed to Hugh May, and it was constructed by a team of Office of Works craftsmen, many of whom were working with May at Windsor Castle, Berkshire. Analysis of the remaining structure, together with new research into the documentary evidence, has permitted a reconstruction of the roof along with partly conjectural reconstructions of the elevations and of some interior features. The study throws light on the process of commissioning, building and interior finishing of the house, the materials used, the close-knit circle of architects and craftsmen involved and the possible intervention of the clients. It illustrates the originality of the designs and is compared to May’s other works and other houses of the period.

This paper draws attention to an unrecognised group of six pin-hinged, clamped, early medieval chests with gothic arcading in East Kent, England. It provides dendrochronological dates for four of the chests and systematic evidence concerning their construction, decoration and ironwork, including the specific type of lock originally fitted. Comparisons are made with pin-hinged, clamped chests made in some other counties and abroad at roughly the same time. The carved façades contrast with the plain façades of the thirteenth-century chests in Westminster Abbey. The group has the earliest dendro-dated examples thus far of gothic arcading on English clamped chests as well as other distinctive features, suggesting that the chests are the product of a workshop that developed with a degree of independence from other workshops. Their likely origin in Canterbury and a hypothesis about their use are discussed, and topics are identified for future research. This paper aims to provide a solid one-county base for the comparative study of pin-hinged, clamped chests elsewhere in England.

Every schoolboy knows the name of Clarendon in connexion with the Constitutions of Clarendon 1164; but as regards the importance, historically as well as archaeologically, of Clarendon Palace, as regards its gradual growth to great splendour and magnificence in Plantagenet days, and as regards its subsequent vicissitudes—on all these points I think it may be said without exaggeration that the world at large knows next to nothing; nor have such inquiries as have sporadically taken place into the history and archaeology of Clarendon Palace ever penetrated very deeply into the subject. Having through a variety of circumstances come to give a good deal of thought to these questions, I have developed the conviction that Clarendon Palace offers a field of study which is of prime importance, and indeed, from certain points of view, of unique importance for the medieval archaeology not only of England but of the whole of Europe. I venture to hope that the present paper, though necessarily in the nature of a preliminary summary, may afford grounds for conceding that this is not too large a claim to make.

A Viking-Age hogback, recently discovered in the Wirral, is the smallest known example of this type of stone monument and forms part of a marked concentration of tenth- and eleventh-century carvings around the beach market at Meols. Its elaborate decoration is not only allusively Christian but visually asserts an identity with Hiberno-Norse groups in north Yorkshire.

During the winter season of 1927-8 the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania was engaged upon two distinct pieces of work; at the beginning of the season, for about nine weeks, we continued the excavation of the early cemetery discovered in the previous year, while for the rest of the time the whole gang was employed on the clearing of the interior of the great courtyard building which lies in front of the north-east face of the Ziggurat. Field work started on October 17 and continued until February 18, the average number of men on the pay-roll being 130 for the first half of the time, and 170 for the second half. This year there was no architect with the expedition, for the reason that the plan of the courtyard building had already been made out and for the digging of the cemetery the services of an architect would not be required: otherwise the staff was the same as last year, my wife being responsible for the drawings, the Rev. E. Burrows, S.J., for the inscriptional material, and Mr. M. E. L. Mallowan acting as general archaeological assistant. The extraordinary richness of the discoveries meant even harder work than usual, and it was at times difficult to keep pace with them, but by occasional shifting of the gang from the graves to the courtyard this was made possible, the respite so gained enabling us to catch up temporary arrears: but I owe it to my assistants to express my gratitude for their whole-hearted co-operation. As usual, Hamoudi of jerablus was foreman, and was invaluable; his two sons, Yahia and Ibrahim, served under him as junior foremen, and the former did all the photographic work also.

In England, crosses on commemorative carvings are unusual in the two centuries after the Reformation. In south-east Wales, however, there are numerous examples, in a range of styles, suggesting the work of several groups of stonemasons. A number have the IHS trigram, in the square capitals format popularised by Ignatius Loyola as the emblem of the Jesuits. Some of these memorials commemorate known recusants, but most seem to exemplify the characteristic Welsh combination of traditionalism and loyalism. There is plenty of other evidence for Welsh communities in the early modern period continuing with traditional ‘Catholic’ practices (pilgrimage, veneration of relics and wells) while still regarding themselves as members of the Established Church. Some similar stones are found over the border into Herefordshire, but there are very few in north and west Wales, suggesting that this was a purely local fashion.

The three copper-gilt and enamel plaques from Warden Abbey are the most important examples of late medieval metalwork from an English Cistercian abbey. They are currently exhibited at the British Museum and dated to the mid-fifteenth century. A reinterpretation of the monograms decorating the plaques allows their patron to be identified as Abbot Walter Clifton (c 1377–97). An analysis of the plaques’ style and iconography also suggests a late fourteenth-century date. Clifton's personal devotions and an unusual aspect of the plaques’ iconography can be explained by reference to the spirituality of the Cistercian Order. The plaques’ closest parallel is a roundel decorated with the badge of Richard ii. Evidence from inventories and comparison with Continental material suggests that the Warden plaques were, in all probability, morses, used to fasten a cope.