The last twelve years have seen a new impetus given to prehistoric studies by the multiplication of researches outside Europe. Excavations in Africa, the Near East, Asiatic Russia and China have opened up a new field for speculation, and at the same time have revealed the unsuspected complexity of many problems which to De Mortillet and other pioneers seemed relatively simple. Gone for ever is the straightforward succession of Palaeolithic cultures from Chellian to Magdalenian as laid down in the Musée Préhistorique. Even as early as 1912, when Breuil produced his classic paper on the subdivisions of the Upper Palaeolithic its foundations were sapped, and the discoveries of the last decade have merely completed its demolition as a system of world-wide application.

I need not insist that De Mortillet's scheme, as corrected by Breuil, who first pointed out the true position of the Aurignacian in western Europe, was the best that could be devised given the very incomplete information, relating to a very limited area, possessed by workers at that date. The fault of De Mortillet's disciples lay in their canonisation of a system which could only be applied locally, and which in any case contained enormous gaps.

The discovery of agriculture marks the greatest advance in the history of mankind— comparable only to that which has followed the discovery of electricity and the invention of steam and internal combustion engines. It is now well recognised that without agriculture man was a food-gatherer, dependent on nature's supplies in hunting, fishing and gathering wild plants, whereas with agriculture he has become a food -producer, able to augment nature's fitful supply in both animal and vegetable kingdoms.

In modern speech the term ‘agriculture’ is often used to cover stock-raising as well as corn-growing; in the present paper, however, it will be used in its literal sense of the tilling of fields, and more particularly the cultivation of corn. This art appears to have been developed before that of stock-raising, and though both the cultivation of corn and the domestication of certain animals are among the elements that led to the first rise of civilization in the Near East, yet there may have existed at first a certain antipathy between the nomad herdsman and the settled farmer. This line of cleavage is well exemplified in the story of Cain and Abel, and the continuation of the story shows very well how it was the settled farmers, represented by Cain's descendants, who built the first cities and developed the working of metal and the arts of music, while the herdsman remained nomadic.

The work on which this study is based was originally undertaken with a view to examining the cultures of the geographical area usually comprised in the term ‘Wessex’ in the period immediately following the Beaker phase. For a great many years a remarkable series of grave-groups have been known, incorporating elements (often spectacular in their implication of material wealth) which were peculiar to the area under discussion, and loosely assigned to the Middle Bronze Age. It was clear from the outset that a study of these groups would throw a great deal of light on trade relations, both internal and overseas, and it also seemed likely that in them might be found a culture equivalent chronologically to the Food Vessel phase of northern England, intervening (in a ceramic sense) between the beakers and the cinerary urns and forming a final phase of the Early Bronze Age—a phase which had already been postulated in the typological series of bronze implements, but which had not reached the dignity of a definite culture.

The evidence examined in this paper supports the existence of such a culture in Wessex in the final phases of the Early Bronze Age. It is a highly individual culture whose origin lies in an actual ethnic movement from N. France. The nature of the evidence,—finds from the richly-furnished graves of chieftains—presents us with a view of the material equipment of an aristocratic minority. The basic folk culture appears, from the slight evidence available, to have been similar to the food-vessel culture of the greater part of Britain north of the Thames at this time, but it becomes clear that in Wessex there was; superimposed on this somewhat uninteresting and unenterprising substratum, an intrusive ruling class whose delight in barbaric finery led them to open trade connections not only with their Breton homeland, but with central Europe and Scandinavia, and whose imports of bronze tools and almost certainly of actual craftsmen laid the foundations of the peculiarly individual metallurgical achievements of the British Middle Bronze Age.

The Vale of Glamorgan (fig. 1, 1) is the middle part of the coastal plain of South Wales. An undulating belt of country much dissected by river systems, its highest parts consisting of knolls and ridges which rarely achieve a height of more than 400 ft. above sea-level, it was occupied fairly intensively throughout prehistoric times. Round barrows are found scattered throughout its length. But they are particularly concentrated in one area in the middle portion of the Vale, where, between the ancient towns of Llantwit Major on the coast, and Cowbridge, about six miles inland, between 20 and 30 have been recognised. None of these barrows has hitherto been scientifically examined, nor do they appear to have suffered damage apart from ploughing. The excavation here described was undertaken by the Archaeological Section of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society in the hope that from it might be derived definite information bearing upon the intensive Bronze Age occupation of this part of the coastal plain which the barrows clearly attest.

The Lanhill Barrow stands on the south side of the Chippenham–Marshfield road about 2½ miles west-north-west of the former place. It stands on level ground with a gentle slope to the south down to a small spring a few yards away on that side. The water runs east and at the bottom a dam has been carried across the field thus at one time forming a small lake, this is probably later in date than the barrow itself. The direction of the barrow is slightly south of east and north of west with the larger end to the former point. It is about 185 ft. long by 90 ft. wide at the east end, gradually tapering to a point at the west.

The Iron Age Site at Crayford, Kent, was discovered in 1936 during the development of the Glebe Building Estate. This Estate lies to the west of St. Paulinus' Church, between Watling Street Old Road and Manor Road, and Nos. 103, 105, 107 and 109 Watling Street Old Road now mark the site. The circumstances of the discovery did not permit of scientific excavation, but the finds were reported to Mr S. Priest, F.G.S., curator of the Dartford Public Museum, and thanks to him and to the facilities most generously afforded by Mr Roys ton Phillips, the owner of the Glebe Estate, a large quantity of pottery and other objects was preserved and is now in the possession of the Dartford Public Museum. To Mr Priest the writer is particularly indebted for the opportunity to examine and report upon the discoveries, and for help in the preparation of that report. It was Mr G. C. Dunning, F.s.A., who first drew attention to the largely unpublished comparative material, and a number of his drawings are here used. The writer is also indebted to Dr R. E. M. Wheeler, V.P.S.A., for much help and criticism.

Latch farm is situated on the gravel in the fork of the rivers Stour and Avon, and within a mile of their outlet into the sea at Christchurch.

The barrow under discussion was suspected to be such by Mr J. H. Taylor, the owner of the land, in about 1934. It appeared then as a low flat mound, not more than 18 inches or so in elevation, and with no signs of a surrounding ditch. In 1936 gravel digging was started in a large quarry near the barrow, and when its destruction became imminent, Mr J. B. Calkin asked me to excavate the site and save as much material as possible from loss. Accordingly in July and again in September, 1937, with the very ready co-operation of the owner, this was undertaken. Although the contractor was extremely considerate and helped us in many ways it was not possible to keep back the work for many weeks; so in just over three weeks, with two paid men and three voluntary helpers the barrow was excavated as fully as circumstances demanded and time allowed.

The Nympsfield long barrow is situated in the parish of Frocester, but is less than a mile to the north-west of Nympsfield village. The boundaries of the Parish, the Rural District and the Union, run from north to south down the centre of the field, called ‘Buckholt End,’ in which it lies. The position of the barrow is latitude 51° 42′ 35″ and longitude 2° 17′ 54″ (six-inch O.S., Gloucs. XLIX S.W.) and its height 750 feet above sea level. Ninety yards to the east of the barrow there is a road, marked by Grundy as a ‘ridgeway,’ which now runs from Selsley Hill to Uley (fig. 1). The underlying rock is the Inferior Oolite, a formation separable into numerous sub-divisions, here including, in descending order, Clypeus Grit, Upper Trigonia Grit and Upper Freestone. The greater part of the barrow, if not the whole of it rests on Clypeus Grit.