The compilation of the Ravenna Cosmography, as we have it, belongs to the late seventh century. It was done by a cleric of Ravenna, for one Odo, whom he describes as ‘dearset brother’ and ‘friend’, and the object of the work is to furnish a list of the countries, towns, and rivers of the known world, compiled from Greek, Roman, and Gothic authors. The author, who nowhere states his name, observes that a list was chosen as the form for the work, for brevity's sake (i, 18), in preference to a map or an itinerary; and its composition was governed by the Judaic version of the division of the world, as prescribed in the tenth chapter of Genesis, in order to harmonize with contemporary Christian belief. The authorities cited are divided (i, 5) into sancti patres and huius mundi philosophi, in an attitude of humane tolerance expressed by the phrase, adiuvante Christo cum munimine philosophorum.

In 2009, a metal-detector find of a rare garnet-inlaid composite disc brooch at West Hanney, Oxfordshire, led to the excavation of an apparently isolated female burial sited in a prominent position overlooking the Ock valley. The burial dates to the middle decades of the seventh century, a period of rapid socio-political development in the region, which formed the early heartland of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex. The de luxe brooch links the wearer to two other burials furnished with very similar brooches at Milton, some 10km to the east and only c 1km from the Anglo-Saxon great hall complex at Sutton Courtenay / Drayton, just south of Abingdon. All three women must have been members of the region’s politically dominant group, known as the Gewisse. The burial’s grave goods and setting add a new dimension to our understanding of the richly furnished female burials that are such a prominent feature of the funerary record of seventh-century England.

For some time past Mr. J. E. Sainty, of Norwich, has subjected the cliffs and the foreshore of the north-east coast of Norfolk to examination, with a view to finding there examples of flint implements. His researches, conducted with much care, have resulted in the finding of many interesting specimens, and, at his request, I now place on record a discovery of considerable importance.

This study traces the career of a single illuminator (the Ancient 6 Master) who was active in England from c. 1310 to 1335. For much of this time it can be shown that he worked in collaboration with the artist of Queen Mary's Psalter, one of the most profusely illustrated English manuscripts in existence Although a large number of books have been grouped under the heading of the ‘Queen Mary’ style, they have never received a proper classification, nor has any detailed attention been given to the problem dating. This paper attempts both to isolate the works in which the two artists participated and to propose a sequence ofproduction. Since most of these manuscripts are devoid of internal documentary evidence for dating, a chronology has been devised on the basis of the Ancient 6 Master's artistic development; this has involved an investigation of minor aspects of style. As a result, it has been possible to learn about the career of the Queen Mary Artist, and by virtue of the few firmly datable manuscripts, viewed in the light of the chronology proposed, dates have been suggested for the others within this group.

In 1962, an important hoard of Christian late Roman silver was found at Canterbury and declared Treasure Trove. The assemblage, which dates to the end of the fourth century A.D. or the first decade of the fifth, and includes ingots and inscribed spoons, was published in 1965. In 1982, a spoon appeared on the London antiquities market which on investigation proved to be one of five objects (with two stamped ingots and two siliquae) that had formed part of the 1962 discovery, but had not been declared; they were pronounced Treasure Trove in 1983. This paper is an illustrated catalogue and discussion of all the items now known to constitute the Canterbury treasure. Two further sets of late Roman silver spoons are also catalogued, an unprovenanced group in private hands which displays marked links with the Canterbury treasure, and the Dorchester-on-Thames hoard, found in the late nineteenth century and typologically and chronologically closely related to Canterbury. X-ray fluorescence analyses of all the items have been carried out in the British Museum Research Laboratory, and the results are discussed.

The results of the first systematic excavation of a cane sugar factory attached to the Lusignan Manor of Covocle (Kouklia), combined with a comparative study of similar installations in the western part of the island, demonstrate the importance of the cane sugar industry in the economy of late medieval Cyprus. Of interest in a wider historical context is the new evidence recovered for contemporary technology and mechanical devices. At the same time, a first comprehensive analysis of the characteristic industrial pottery from the site contributes to a better understanding of the process and the organization of cane sugar production.

In August 1951 skeletons were found during the building operations of the Buckland Estate, Dover, Kent, and were brought to the notice of the late W. P. D. Stebbing, who visited the site and supervised the excavation of one grave. The contents of this grave were sent to the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments, and the writer supervised the remainder of the excavation under the auspices of the Inspectorate.

Recent evidence for fallow deer at the first-century AD Roman palace at Fishbourne, Sussex, is supported by place-names identifying a nearby deer park and testifying to the presence of fallow deer in Anglo-Saxon Sussex.

This paper is an expanded version of two lectures presented at meetings of the Society held on 12 October 2006 and 11 January 2007. It considers the changing contexts within which industrial archaeology in Britain has evolved and continues to develop, some of the issues affecting its wider realization and the challenges of conserving such physical evidence as will allow future generations to gain an understanding of the great age of industry as it affected British society, the economy and landscape.

The Staffordshire Hoard was found by a metal detectorist on arable land in the parish of Ogley Hay in south Staffordshire in July 2009, and was recovered by archaeologists from Staffordshire County Council and Birmingham Archaeology. More than 3,940 pieces were retrieved, mostly of gold or silver alloy and mostly representing what appear to be martial battle goods. The date of the material has yet to be ascertained but the artefacts appear to range from the late sixth to the early eighth centuries AD. The reasons for burial remain, as yet, largely unknown. The choice of location, on the north-western spur of a prominent ridge, could have been intended to facilitate its rediscovery, unless the locale held a symbolic significance within the wider landscape. The second stage of fieldwork, in March 2010, identified a number of undated field boundaries and undated palisade trenches perhaps associated with a small farmstead of pre- or post-Roman date, unlikely to be associated with the hoard.

Every visitor to the temple of Luxor is familiar with the central hall that is described by all the leading authorities as a Christian church, adapted from a Pharaonic building of the time of Amenophis III. The date of the original building is given by the magnificent series of bas-reliefs on the walls, most of which have been revealed from beneath a thick coating of plaster, on the remaining parts of which can still be seen traces of late antique paintings. It is, in the main, these paintings that have attracted the attention of scholars, both of those who saw them immediately after excavation and of those who, since then, have deplored their almost total destruction at the hands of the Egyptologists, who stripped off the greater part of the stucco to reveal the underlying Egyptian sculpture. Somers Clarke had good reason to protest: ‘We may admit that for the purposes of a complete study of the excellent wall sculptures it was necessary to remove these paintings: but it was a piece of unscientific barbarism to break them up without even procuring careful copies.’

Pieces of six limestone moulds for the casting of pewter vessels, found on the Forum site at Silchester, are described and illustrated. Five were for casting three types of dish or plate. Two were moulded on both sides to form part of nests of moulds. The sixth piece was the inner mould for a cup or flagon. The techniques of manufacture are considered. The grooves for casting the rims and feet appear to be compass-drawn, but it is argued that there is no evidence that the moulds were lathe-turned.

The surviving wooden fabric of the nave at Greensted has no direct analogues in standing buildings either in England or on the Continent; but excavations have shown evidence for the former existence in both places of buildings with walls of upright logs, some set on sills and some fixed directly in the ground without any sill. Excavation at Greensted in 1960 indicated that the original chancel (and therefore probably also the nave) was of the earth-fast type, for which analogues have been found by excavation in Scandinavia.

Engaging with both typological and contextual approaches, this paper endeavours to take a fresh look at one of the most emblematic groups of Atlantic Late Bronze Age metalwork depositions. Taking a revised typo-chronology for carp's-tongue swords as a starting point, we compare single-piece deposition of these items with their occurrence in hoards of mixed composition. Clear regional trends emerge as a result. We also contrast the composition of carp's-tongue hoards on both sides of the English Channel, highlighting the impact that poorly defined key types can have on our perception of an entire complex of metalwork assemblages. Overall, the composition of carp's-tongue hoards proves rather uniform across this geographical divide. Some noteworthy differences, however, can be discerned between British and French assemblages.

The Long Barrow lies one mile north-west of the village close to the northern boundary and near the north-west corner of the parish of Notgrove, Gloucestershire. It is situated in a field called ‘Poors' lot’, or ‘Poors' allotment’, by the road from Cheltenham to Bourton-on-the-Water, and is about a quarter of a mile east from Notgrove G.W.R. Station. It is one of the Cotswold long barrows of which there are two others about two miles away, while the Swell group is only four and a half miles distant. It is marked as the remains of a long barrow on the 6-in. Ordnance Survey, Gloucestershire XXVIII. 10, latitude 51° 53′ 20″, longitude 1° 51′ 40″.

At the north-eastern extremity of the parish of Ashdon, in Essex, are certain artificial mounds, a plan of which I have the honour to lay before you. They consist, as you will observe, of a line of four greater Barrows, and of a line of three smaller Barrows, at the distance of between seventy and eighty feet in front of the others. The situation of these mounds is remarkable; they stand on a gentle acclivity in face of Bartlow church, the country gradually rising round them like an extended amphitheatre. Between the hills and the church, is a hollow to the north, down which runs a little brook that divides the parishes of Ashdon and Bartlow, forming the boundary of the counties of Essex and Cambridge. Though the hills do not belong to the parish of Bartlow, which is in Cambridgeshire, nor to the hamlet of Bartlow, which is in Essex, still, from the received interpretation of the Saxon word Low a Barrow, it is clear that they give name to the place, a proof of their antiquity. Ashdon church stands considerably more than a mile distant, and is not visible from the hills.

In 1915 Professor Baldwin Brown drew attention to a class of metalwork, found in Anglo-Saxon graves in the south of England, and decorated with examples of a distinctive animal style, more naturalistic than Anglo-Saxon style I. This style he considered to be a direct descendant of late Roman art forms, although produced, not in the years immediately following the Anglo-Saxon settlement, but after a considerable time lapse, towards the middle of the sixth century. A similar view was expressed in 1923 by Reginald Smith. Nils Åberg, writing in 1926, was noncommittal about dates, but saw the inspiration for the style in a blend of late Roman and Eastern Mediterranean tradition. It was not until 1936, however, that a more detailed critical estimate of the objects was published, this time by E. T. Leeds in his Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology. Leeds compared their decoration with that of examples of Gallo-Roman art in the late fourth and early fifth centuries and concluded that they came from the same style milieu. He wrote:

All the pieces here noticed clearly belong to a cultural phase, presenting indeed many affinities to the Germanic style of the settlement period; but, in reality, they represent a continental style antecedent to that development in southern England. … There is every reason to believe that they are objects ante-dating the invasion, and, if it is desired to know what native women were wearing before or at the time of Hengist’s landing, this group supplies the information.

The famous monastery of Debra Damo in Tigrai, known to be of great importance in Northern Ethiopia over a very long period of history, preserves in its church one of the few examples still extant of an ancient style of Ethiopian architecture.

In the autumn of 1926 an urn-field (fig. 1) was discovered on the site of the war-time allotment gardens on the southern edge of Little Down Common, and about 500 yards NNE. of Pokesdown Station, lat. 50° 44·5′, long. 1° 49·13′. Its discovery was due to the finding of urns when a new road was driven through a long strip that had been sold for building plots. About nine cinerary urns, mostly of the globular type, were found within a small area by the roadmakers, and these have been preserved by Mr. Homewood, the borough surveyor. Several more were discovered on the adjoining plots when the overlying gravel was cleared away. Unfortunately many of these were destroyed, but two went to the Russell-Coates Art Gallery, one to the Bournemouth Natural Science Institute, and some fragments into private hands (figs. 2, 3, and 4).