The connexion between Maps and Archaeology is of a very obvious and straightforward nature. All distributional problems must, for instance, be studied on maps. If we want to find out about the distribution of the beaker folk, we must plot on a map the finds of the beakers; or if we desire to learn the area covered by examples of the ‘lanternes des morts’, a map of France is essential; the same applies to the study of long barrows and to a very great variety of archaeological studies. Moreover, in a more restricted sense, maps of sites are of the essence of the study of antiquity; we cannot understand the strength of the defences of the ancient Jebusite city unless we pore over the map of the excavations on the spur of Ophel. The excavations of every site are unintelligible without an accompanying map. In a still more restricted sense, each ‘find’ requires to have its position stated by the three co-ordinates of map-making: namely, its distance north or south, east or west, from—and above or below—some datum point in the excavations. Further, the maps themselves may furnish the only record left of some relicof antiquity. And,lastly ,ancient maps—and our present-day maps will one day be ancient—are valuable records of the past, of the culture of the age they represent, of population, human distribution and settlement, and, to some extent, of the science and art of the times. It is much to be regretted that so little mapmaking was done in ancient days. We should give a good deal for accurate contemporary plans of Rome of the time of Nero or of the battle of Hastings. And how much more for a contemporary map of Jerusalem and its surrounding country, before the destruction of the Holy City by Titus !

Quite a long time ago the Editor received an article on certain liner earthworks in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. The author, Mr M.W. Hughes, developed a reasoned hypothesis to account for the facts, basing his argument on the assumption that the course of the ditches marked on the Ordnance Maps was as correct and complete as possible. It seemed desirable, however, to test this in the field, and the Editor therefore applied to the Archaeology Officer of the Ordnance Survey, with very satisfactory results. The course of each ditch was followed on foot, and its characteristic features recorded on the 6-inch map. The investigation thus initiated was carried on until nearly all the Grim’s ditches of Wessex, and some others as well, had been traced. The information thus obtained proved to be of considerable value ; many miles of new entrenchment were discovered, and these will be incorporated on the new (5th) edition of the one-inch Ordnance Map now being prepared, and will also appear in due course on the Ordnance Map of Anglo-Saxon Britain, now in preparation. It also became evident that the name Grim was attached to at least two quite distinct types of entrenchment. The date of each can, as a rule, only be determined by means of excavation; some of these examined are probably prehistoric ; others fall probably within the extreme limits of the years A.D. 350-700. Those dealt with in the present article are almost certainly either late Roman or Saxon.

Few of the standard Peruvian histories—much less those politicofantastic tracts which hasty study of the Ancient Peruvian scene has evoked in such number—give any adequate idea of the tremendous cultural background against which the Inka civilization was built up, or of the fact that from that background emerge those archaeological exceptions which constantly question the theories of modern Americanists.

While engaged in field work near Llanbister in Radnorshire, the writer saw by the roadside, near a country wheelwright’s shop, a remarkable vehicle the like of which he had never imagined. On being questioned, the wheelwright said that it was a ‘wheel-car ’ and was of a standard type used throughout the Radnor forest area (and indeed, as was afterwards learned, throughout the central moorland of Wales). It had been made entirely by himself and his smith. He drew attention to a second example, half completed, in the shop. This was purchased for the Welsh Folk Collection of the National Museum of Wales.

A Series of Egyptian objects found in foreign lands has been used to date archaeological groups in those lands, especially for periods the dating of which was unknown. In connexion with a study of Egyptian stone vessels I have taken occasion to examine the material reported from other lands, and it appears to me that some of the material used by scholars can be more accurately dated.

During the last two years the newspapers have more than once announced with a flourish of headlines that undoubted evidences of the Great Flood had been discovered in Mesopotamia.

The average reader felt quite excited. Noah’s Ark had been his earliest Sunday toy, and he had always felt vaguely aggrieved in later years on being told that nowadays learned people considered the Story of the Flood to be merely a myth. Consequently a good many readers eagerly read the articles, which held out a promise of restoring a cherished tale of childhood, only to find themselves involved in technical details of excavations in buried cities belonging to remote civilizations with unpronounceable names of which they had never heard.

These brief notes, written shortly after our return from a first season’s work on the prehistory and geology of the Kharga Oasis under the aegis of the Royal Anthropological Institute, are no more than a background for the illustrations (figs. I-II), due to our good fortune in being the first expedition in Egypt to have the use, for a whole fortnight, of an aeroplane placed without restriction for scientific service in field-work.