The Neolithic long barrow whose excavation is described in this report is one of a pair known as Giants' Hills, situated in the parish of Skendleby, Lincolnshire (NGR: TF(53)429709; Lat. 53° 12′ 40″ N., Long. 0° 8′ 30″ E.). The general geographical location is an outlier of the chalk at the southern extremity of the Lincolnshire Wolds (fig. 1). The site lay at between 56 and 58m O.D. along the gentle south-facing slope of a small river valley (fig. 2). The maximum slope is 7 degrees. Orientation was approximately south-east/north-west with what can be considered the more important end of the barrow (the front) towards the south-east. The dimensions of the preserved mound were 65 × 13m (maximum) (originally 77 × 19m), and of the entire site from the original outer edges of the ditch, 89 × 29m (maximum).

The other barrow of the pair, Giants' Hills 1, was excavated by C. W. Phillips (1936). To the south-east beyond a low chalk ridge and in a topographical position similar to that of the Giants' Hills barrows lies another pair of long barrows, the Deadmen's Graves (fig. 2). On a broader geographical scale, both pairs belong to a group of about fifteen long barrows situated on the Lincolnshire Wolds (fig. 1).

Excavation took place under the direction of the authors at the instigation of the Department of the Environment (now the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) because of damage sustained by ploughing. As well as being a rescue operation, the work can be seen as an integral part of research into prehistoric chalkland environments and Neolithic burial practices. Thus, financial support was provided not only by the DoE, but also by University College Cardiff and the University of Leicester. There were three field seasons. In the first two, from 4–28 September 1975 and 27 March to 10 April 1976, the western end of the site (west of line AL, fig. 4) was excavated totally. The main excavation took place between 14 August and 25 September 1976.

In a paper describing the discovery and partial excavation of an Early Iron Age settlement on Park Brow Hill near Cissbury, published in the Antiquaries Journal, vol. iv, mention was made of the location of two other habitation sites on the hill—one Roman, and another probably occupied during the Bronze Age of Britain. It was to this latter site that I decided to attend in 1924, the object being to examine the relation between this settlement and that attributed to the Hallstatt–La Tène I period found on the top of the hill (see fig. a). The new site consists of a series of disturbed areas roughly circular, and lying on the slope of the hill facing south-west, about a furlong from the Hallstatt settlement (see fig. b).

The visible monument comprised two periods of construction. First, a small megalithic chamber, characterized by a pair of projecting portal-stones flanking a high closing slab, had been built, and surrounded by a small oval cairn. The chamber had been rifled, but a pit in front of the portal, and sealed beneath the cairn, contained portions of several Neolithic pottery vessels of a fine, undecorated, ware. The second structure consisted of a large megalithic burial chamber built to the east of the first monument. The cairn of this, eastern, chamber was roughly rectangular in plan, and extended westward so as to incorporate the whole of the earlier monument. Pottery from the eastern chamber, and its forecourt, represented several Neolithic, and Bronze Age, wares. The elaborate system of blocking in this forecourt was found virtually intact.

The report is subdivided:

I. Introduction

II. Topography

III. Method of Excavation

IV. Description of the Monument as Excavated

V. Artefacts

VI. Discussion

Conservation in 1980 of the wall-paintings in the upper chamber of the south porch at Breamore church, where the notable Anglo-Saxon stone rood is sited, led to an archaeological study of the associated parts of the building. It was established that the rood is not in its primary location over the south door, but was only erected there in the fifteenth century. It is argued that the rood originally occupied a position over the western arch into the nave of the Saxon church, being enclosed within a chamber, now demolished. The Norman south doorway and added porch appear to be a refurbishment of an original entrance to the nave, although probably not the principal one, which, it is argued, lay at the west end. In the fifteenth century the church was repaired piecemeal, and this involved the demolition of the Saxon north porticus and western chamber, the partial reconstruction of the south porch and a lowering of its roof pitch, and the resiting of the displaced rood sculptures in the south wall of the nave above the porch. In the early sixteenth century the walls of the porch were raised, creating an upper storey which functioned as a chapel, probably dedicated in honour of St. Mary the Virgin. The rood then became a devotional object within the porch chapel, and an elaborate scheme of landscape painting was applied as a background, and was continued on the west wall of the chapel. The remaining areas of wall plaster in the chapel were painted with guttée-de-sang and sacred monograms. Later in the sixteenth century the Anglo-Saxon sculptures were deliberately defaced and their remains hidden by a layer of plaster. The re-exposure of the rood and paintings took place at an unrecorded date in the nineteenth century; the upper floor of the porch was removed in 1897, revealing the chapel to view from below.

‘Soleo eniin et in aliena castra transire, non tamquam transfuga, sed tamquam explorator.’ Seneca, Epistul. Mor. I., Ep. II.

Some years ago it occurred to the author that certain submerged ruins in the Bay of Naples were sufficiently well preserved to repay investigation with a view to supplementing the history of the post-Roman land-movements, as recorded upon the columns of the Macellum of Puteoli, commonly known as the “Temple of Serapis.”

The monument to be described lies in the parish of Llanddaniel Fab in Anglesey, the latitude being 53° 12′ 26″, and the longitude 4° 14′ 6.″ It is a large circular single-chambered cairn, originally about 160 ft. in diameter, and at least 12 to 14 ft. high. The site is at the end of a low ridge of glacial moraine 500 ft. from a small stream known as the Braint, a mile distant from the Menai Straits and 100 ft. above sea-level. Closely adjoining the cairn is the base of a second (see p. 212).

At the end of the third season of work by the British team participating in the UNESCO Save Carthage project, a summary is given of present knowledge of the occupation sequence on the Ilôt de l'Amirauté from c. 400 B.C. to A.D. 700. New information or reinterpretation since 1975 covers the relationship between the Punic and Roman planning of the island and the nature of its possible Augustan, Severan, and Justinianic rebuildings. The structures which have been excavated since 1974 between two Roman streets on the north side of the circular harbour are interpreted as a series of shops or small commercial premises of Roman and Byzantine date. Here, as on the island, a large-scale redevelopment of early Byzantine date is indicated. On the Avenue Habib Bourguiba the city wall now has archaeological dating consistent with the historical evidence that it was constructed c.A.D. 425 and it appears to be associated with a major defensive ditch. Burials were made between the wall and possible ditch shortly after, and perhaps during, the wall's construction. There is also archaeological confirmation of the historical evidence for the neglect of the defences under the Vandal occupation and for their repair following Belisarius' capture of Carthage in 533. By the end of the sixth century the defences were again being neglected and in the early seventh century there was a building on the site of the presumed Belisarian ditch. There is a suggestion of further defensive activity at the time of the Arab invasion. Within the wall, the sequence has been taken back to the destruction of a Roman building in the fifth century and a summary is made of the sequence for the whole site from the early fifth to the late seventh or early eighth century A.D. Field-work has now finished on this site while a further two seasons are anticipated on the two harbour sites.

In 1964 the Winchester Excavations Committee was joined by the University of North Carolina and Duke University in excavations on seven sites in the city. The work lasted thirteen weeks from the end of June to the end of September and an average of 160 people were employed for the greater part of this period, slightly under £10,000 being spent. A special debt of thanks is owed to Professor U. T. Holmes of the University of North Carolina who was responsible for the initial contacts with the American universities which have resulted in the notable contributions of the universities in finance and personnel to the 1964 and future excavation seasons. Work on this scale involved a great deal of administrative work, the brunt of which was borne by the City of Winchester and the Hampshire County Council, to whose officers and staff warmest thanks are due. We are most grateful to the Army and to the Ministry of Public Building and Works for the quarters provided at Bushfield Camp, and to the many officers who helped in these arrangements.

The hill-fort of Cissbury, situated on a ridge of the Sussex Downs four miles north of Worthing, is one of the best known examples of its kind, though in regard to the strength of its defences it can scarcely be compared with such Wessex forts as Maiden Castle (Dorchester), Hambledon, Yarnbury, or Battlesbury.

The first year's campaign of rescue excavations by York Archaeological Trust is described. A sewer and part of a substantial building, perhaps the baths, were located within the Roman legionary fortress, and the sequence of defensive ditches on the south-west front was examined. Extra-mural settlement near the fortress was also examined in two places. Four small trenches in the heart of Anglo-Scandinavian York revealed 10 m of deposits including a post-Roman sequence giving a stratified series of timber buildings with C14 dates, ceramics, and artefacts. Well-preserved biological materials revealed in detail the palaeoecology of the buildings and immediate area. The development of riverside properties in Skeldergate was investigated: the land between Skeldergate and the Ouse proved to have been a late medieval reclamation. Part of the medieval suburb of Newbiggin was examined outside Monk Bar. The Hospital of St. Mary in the Horsefair was found at Union Terrace, where a twelfth- or early thirteenth-century building was traced through various phases of alteration and addition for use as a Carmelite church, as a hospital, and finally as a school which survived until the seventeenth century.

On behalf of Mr. Newall and myself I am making the 6th Report on the work carried out at Stonehenge which covers the season of 1924. The excavations were continued in a similar way to those of the previous year by making a succession of trenches between the rampart and the standing stones, beginning this time near no. 12 Aubrey hole and continuing towards the west. In the previous year a quadrant from north-east to south-east was searched, and it was determined to complete another quadrant from the south-east to the south-west.

When I presented my Report last year, work was about to begin upon some stones on the north-east of the outer circle of Stonehenge. These formed a group of four monoliths, numbered from west to east, 29, 30, 1, and 2. They carried lintels, survivors of the series which once capped the stones of the outer circle. Nos. 1 and 2 had moved out of position, leaning badly outwards, and had drawn with them the three lintels from their seatings to the danger of these and themselves. They would have fallen long ago had they not been supported by props which were beginning to decay, so it was necessary to attend to them at once.

Circumstances of discovery. In August 1959 workmen laying a drain on the north side of the cattle-market (the Smithfield) at Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, discovered a number of Roman objects. The most striking were taken home, and the rest were left on the trench-side, where they served as targets for children throwing stones. That the find ever came to notice is due entirely to Mr. G. H. Shepherd, a tutor at Kingston-upon-Hull, whose home is near Oswestry. On being shown one of the articles, Mr. Shepherd immediately went to Welshpool, persuaded the workmen to hand over to him what they had, and searched through the filling of the trench, since completed, discovering some massive ironwork in situ. After furnishing the local authority (as land-owner) with a list of the articles, Mr. Shepherd then took all the portable items into his custody, and later showed one of them to Mr. J. Bartlett, F.S.A., Director of the Hull Museums, who kindly informed the Department of Archaeology of the National Museum of Wales. Finally, after representations had been made by the Museum, the Borough Council most generously agreed in March 1960 to deposit the material in the National Museum of Wales for three years.

Papers have been written on the orientation of churches, but most of them deal with the origin of orientation. In only two that I have come across are there any data of actual orientations, namely, ‘The Orientation of Scottish Churches’ by F. C. Eeles, and ‘Orientation of Churches in Hampshire’ by T. W. Shore.

I have measured the orientation of 642 churches. I had originally planned to measure many more, but the war and its aftermath have prevented it, and I feel it is better to publish what I have done rather than to wait indefinitely.

The following account of the recent discovery near Woodbridge, Suffolk, requires a word of preliminary explanation. The work was brought to an unhurried close on 26th August 1939, and all the finds and records were removed to London and Cambridge. It had comprised not only the finding and removal of the burial but also the complete excavation and study of the ship in which the burial was placed. The latter part was under the direction of Lieut.-Commander J. K. D. Hutchison of the Science Museum, who, within a few days of the close, had taken his place in the service of the Royal Navy. The finds had, for the most part, only been in the laboratory of the British Museum for a matter of days when they had to be packed up and taken to a place of safety. Under these circumstances it is not possible to give a complete account of the discovery in all its aspects, since much new information is bound to come from the examination of many objects now packed away after only a cursory inspection. The writer therefore aims at giving an objective report of what has come within his experience. With Lieut.-Commander Hutchison's consent he is also offering a layman's account of the ship, the full technical description and discussion of which is a work of the future.

One of the first questions likely to be asked by someone confronted for the first time by the great Oceanus plate (missorium) from Mildenhall (I, pl. VII a)** is, What was it used for? The answer is that neither it nor any of its fellow flat, decorated plates of silver, whether round or rectangular, to be surveyed in this paper, was ever used for practical, domestic purposes to serve as table-ware. It is hard to imagine the highly sophisticated and often elaborate relief- or incised-work that they carry being concealed beneath piles of fruit, vegetables, cakes, or portions of meat or fish greasy with gravy or sauce. These reliefs or engravings, whether covering the whole surface of a plate or confined to its central medallion or to its central medallion and flange, were essentially pictures for display in their owners' houses, or in temples or churches, probably mounted on brackets or shelves fixed to walls or to cupboards or chests (some are pierced by one or more holes as though for suspension on a wall), where they could be studied and admired for their beauty as works of art and/or their political, cultic or mythological implications.

This second interim report on a multi-period settlement palimpsest being rescued from annihilation by quarrying for gravel demonstrates that crop-marks are site indicators, not site plans. A sample area even as large as 650 × 500 feet square, containing Belgic, Romano-British, and early Saxon settlement features and parts of two cemeteries cannot be understood out of context. Extensive plans emphasize that successive landscapes share a preference for strategic siting on this gravel terrace at the head of the Thames estuary. The validity of presupposing a wholesale transfer of continental settlement types from the known ‘invasion’ of the Migration period is questioned. The archaeological evidence for the two main house types at Mucking—round and sunken—is described.

This paper summarizes the typology and petrology of the products of three amphora kilns in the Province of Cadiz, Spain, which were supplying the Baetican fish industry. Petrological study demonstrates that the products were reaching Britain, during the first and perhaps the second centuries A.D. They may well have been distributed throughout the western Empire and beyond, but the difficulty of attributing amphorae to these kilns without proper consideration of fabric is emphasized.

A British team has been working since 1978 upon a programme of documentation and analysis in the Insula of the Menander at Pompeii, one of the irregular city-blocks situated immediately to the west of the old part of the city in an area which was developed from the early fourth century B.C onwards. Study of the structural techniques, of wall-abutments, and of anomalies in plan can be used in conjunction with the evidence of painted wall-plaster to identify five main phases in the building-history: Phase I (fourth-third centuries B.C), Phase 2 (second and early first centuries B.C), Phase 3 (c. 80-c. 15 B.C), Phase 4 (c. 15 B.C.-C. A.D. 50), Phase 5 (c. A.D. 50-79). These illustrate a complex pattern of changing property-boundaries, but underline the general trend towards increasing commercialization and greater pressure upon living-space in this area of the city. There is also interesting evidence of the economic basis of life in the individual houses during the years immediately before 79.

The hoard, one of the most important finds of metal work and coins of the Christian Saxon period, was discovered in 1774 by tin-workers in a streamwork, 17 feet under the surface of the ground, at Trewhiddle, St. Austell, Cornwall. It was hidden in a heap of loose stones which Philip Rashleigh in his original publication ascribes to an old mine working. The collection of the hoard was haphazard and it seems likely that a certain number of coins, and possibly some other articles, were lost before Rashleigh could collect them together at Menabilly. It is possible, for instance, that the chalice was intact when found and, if this is so, many fragments have disappeared subsequently. When they were found it is recorded that certain objects were covered with copper from a vein in the neighbourhood.