When the first lake-dwellings were discovered in 1856, people at once began to explore every site above or below water where the presence of stakes indicated a pile-settlement. These investigations, however, were carried out with no regard for system or stratification ; had it been otherwise the problem under discussion would have been solved then. Unfortunately the collection of masses of objects was the main consideration ; digging was conducted quite haphazard, and was concentrated on those spots where finds were expected. Thus has it come about that the surface of our Swiss lake-dwellings is so riddled with pits that too often it no longer exists at all save as a memory. But when surface-digging proved barren it often happened that excavations were simply discontinued, with the result that the upper layers or those below remained intact. It was this fact which moved the Neuchatel Committee for Archaeological Research to undertake a series of systematic excavations, by means of which a limited number of sites would be uncovered layer by layer, with the least possible disturbance. After several fruitless attempts we have at last found, amongst the most important of our Stone Age sites, some which are virgin and have never been dug into ; and these have enabled us to determine the succession of the different neolithic cultures.

Cists are often met with on the open moors of Britain, and a brief account of them may therefore be of interest.

First, a few words about terminology. Our predecessors used also the words ‘Kist’ and ‘Kist-vaen’, and indeed the latter word still survives in some of our remoter western districts. ‘Kist-vaen’ is however an impossible word ; it was invented by antiquaries to whom all prehistoric monuments were ‘Celtic’, requiring therefore a Celtic name. Since the original name was unknown, new ones had to be invented. In the days when the words of Authority were heard with undue respect and awkward questions were seldom put, those spurious terms obtained wide currency. The word ‘cist’ has long been used by Scottish archaeologists, and it is the one adopted by the British Ordnance Survey.

Hallstatt and La Tène are the names given to the first and second phases of the pre-Roman Iron Age. They are derived from the sites where objects characteristic of the respective cultures were first identified, neither Hallstatt nor La Tène having any claim to be considered as the cradles of the cultures named after them. The former lies in Upper Austria. La Tène (‘the shallows’) is situated in Switzerland at the eastern end of the lake of Neuchatel.

The upper limit for the chronology of the Hallstatt Period is a vexed point. If by Hallstatt we mean a period when iron was in general use, it can hardly have said to have begun before the ninth century B.C. ; if we regard it as denoting the time when Villanovan and other contemporary influences first made themselves felt in Central Europe, it can hardly have begun later than c. 1000 B.C. Reinecke would even put it back as far as c. 1200 B.C. The lower limit is somewhat easier to define. Generally speaking it came to an end c. 550-500 B.C. ; but in some districts it persisted until c. 400, while in north-east Germany and other remote areas, the La Tène culture cannot be said to have succeeded it until c. 150 B.C., or even later.

The peninsula of Athos, home of monks, resort of pilgrims and the sole surviving example of the life of the Middle Ages which exists in Europe, is the only spot in these days of hooting motor cars, roaring machinery and rushing, busy people, in which it is possible to lead a completely altered life. There only in Europe can one meet an entirely original mental outlook. Even in the remotest European village everyday life is of this age and it is only by exercising the imagination that one can transfer oneself to the past. But on arrival on Athos this earth is left behind and one begins to experience the life of a pilgrim of the Middle Ages. One sees from actual experience what that life really was, and one continues to live it until the discomforts of the thirteenth century finally persuade one that the evils of this age are amply repaid by its merits and that the romance of the Middle Ages is even excelled by the adventurous spirit of today. The medieval life is something that one likes to remember as a curiosity, something to be experienced occasionally only. But the claims of its art are more lasting and in these days of ease and luxury we can appreciate them the more fully.

One of the most interesting problems of antiquity is the origin of metallurgy. The metals first used seem to have been gold and copper, and it has been felt that if we could ascertain where the earliest civilized people obtained their ores we should be on the way to finding out which group first made the momentous discovery that copper could be melted and cast in a mould.

With a view to solving some part of this problem, the Anthropological Section of the British Association, at the Toronto meeting in 1924, appointed a Research Committee to report on the probable sources of the supply of copper used by the Sumerians. The present writer was appointed chairman of this committee, and this is his only excuse for making public the results of the labours of others, and the secretary from the beginning has been Mr G. A. Garfitt, to whose untiring energy is due the work that has been accomplished. Several leading archaeologists, with experience in excavations in the Near East, were added to the committee, as well as Dr Cecil Desch, F.R.S., Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Sheffield, and, at a later date, Professor C. O. Bannister of the University of Liverpool. The examination and analysis of the specimens have been carried out by these professors and their assistants.

It has often been discussed where the ford was which gave its name to Oxford. As far as is known, it is mentioned in two documents only which are of the Middle Ages, and the second of them is so obscure that it would not be intelligible by itself. The first is a charter, which will soon be printed in the Oseney cartulary, dated 27 June 1352, by which Roger Brekebeke grants to John de Sancta Frideswida a messuage in St. Aldate’s, a plot of land in St. Michael’s parish, an acre of meadow and a ham : the two last are described in these words ‘ acra vero prati iacet retro pandoxinam abbathie de Oseney inter pratum domini Ricardi Dammory quod tenet de domino rege ad feodifirmam ex parte australi et pratum quod quondam fuit Ricardi le Spicer ex parte boriali ; dicta vero hamma iacet in eodem suburbio inter pratum priorisse et conventus de Stodleghe ex parte boriali et vadum vocatum Oxenforde iuxta pontem ducentem versus Northhengseye ex parte australi ’.