I was first led to question the soundness of ‘the Iron Currency Bar’ theory when investigating the early history of iron-making in the Forest of Dean—the district from which it is generally accepted that these bars emanated. If the ‘Currency Bar’ theory is wellfounded, the inference is unavoidable that the Celtic tribes who used this form of currency were a race endowed with a very low mentalitybut this inference is not supported by recent archaeological research.

Ancient Mexico in the popular mind remains synonymous with Montezuma, treasure, and the late Rider Haggard. Even those who have passed beyond the naiveties of this horizonculture have seldom progressed further than Prescott, and still envisage his genteel Aztecs as the fons et ongo of all things Mexican. The latter view, so far as the Americanist is concerned, is roughly sixty years and three research stages out of date. By 1899 Mr W. J. Payne was thus summing up the common opinion of his generation of historians, who had arrived at the second stage :—‘ To the Toltecs, among the early peoples of the New World, the first place no less indisputably belongs than to the Greeks in the Old’.

The Caucasus is by no means a homogeneous region. It consists of a very high mountain-chain, the main parts of which reach to a height of over 5000 metres, with others of 1000–1600 metres. Forming an isthmus between two seas, the Asiatic Caspian and the Mediterranean Black Sea, it is open to both eastern and western influence. There is no distinct boundary between its northern part and the endless Eurasiatic grasslands, and in the south it is connected with the Armenian and Anatolian highlands. South of the mountain-chain the Caucasus has a Mediterranean climate: vines, rice and tea are cultivated and it is rich in metals. North of the mountain-range also the soil is very fertile, especially in the valley of the Kuban river. There, in the northeast corner of the Euxine, prehistoric culture flourished very early and reached a high level. I shall here give an outline sketch of its character, and especially of the so-called Kuban culture of the Early Bronze Age, which takes its name from the Kuban river. This river flows into the Black Sea, but its upper course lies in the high mountains not far from the Elbruz. It has many tributaries, especially on the left, the Caucasian, side. Among these the Laba, the Belaya and the Abin may be mentioned.

The remarkable garnet-inlaid jewellery from Teutonic graves of the Pagan Period in Kent can be safely recommended as one of the most promising subjects for a research-student that English archaeology has to offer. It is to be hoped that this short introductory study will attract attention to it.

Most developments of civilization demand a settled system of agriculture, and are not compatible with nomadic life. The exact connexion between the rise of civilization and the rise of agriculture is possibly uncertain. The cultivation of different plants developed in different places: rice in the East and wheat in the West, for example. The cultivators may have attained only a low level of culture, and thousands of years may have elapsed before they produced a civilization of which the marks have endured. But to know where the different species of cultivated plants originated must help to trace the origins and diffusion of civilizations.

In 1930, during the course of a survey of the coastal region of Eastern Macedonia and its immediate hinterland, I was able to make detailed observations upon a small site which I had previously visited in 1925. Since my first visit the site has been seriously damaged and it has become a matter of some urgency to publish all available material concerning it before the site as a whole has been completely destroyed. Unfortunately the full control of ancient sites in Greece is not so effective in the remoter Macedonian provinces as in Old Greece, and much damage is done to them by the large increase of inhabited areas made necessary by the vast influx of refugees from Thrace and Anatolia in 1922.

Few people know of this, possibly the most primitive dance in Europe. We find scanty records therefore, the earliest dating only from the 17th century. Robert Plot, in his Natural History of Staffordshire, 1686, p. 434, says:–

Why Plot says ‘within memory’ it is difficult to understand, unless there was a temporary cessation of the rite. He might easily have learnt whether the sport still lived or no, but from this and various internal points I suspect the Doctor never went to see for himself. Like too great a number of folklorists he preferred keeping his nose in a book to embarking on ‘field work’. The pot into which they put the feast has now disappeared, and so far from repairing the church and keeping the poor, the few shillings gained hardly pay the dancers for the loss of a day's work.

Iona is a small island off the west coast of Scotland. It is famous throughout the world as the adopted home of Columba, the virtual founder of the Church of Scotland. It was in this island that he founded his monastery in 563 ; and it was from here that Aidan, the founder of Lindisfarne, came in 635 to christianize Northumbria. Thousands of tourists visit Iona every year, and are duly conducted round the ruins during the short hour or two allowed by the steamer’s call ; yet how many realize that, of the remains they see, not even the oldest came into existence until about 500 years after the death of Columba?

The publication of this map is an event of importance. It is no exaggeration to say that it marks a definite advance in the geographical study of history, There may be other historical maps of a like completeness and accuracy, but if there be, ‘ this deponent knoweth them not ’. It is for this reason that a contribution to local history is deemed to deserve an extended notice in the pages of ANTIQUITY. The map is the result of nearly twenty years of research. The results of that research might have been presented to the public in the form of a bulky volume ; it is an event without precedent that they should appear in the form of a map.