The recent identification of whale baleen from a medieval archaeological context in Perth raises the issue of what uses were made of baleen in the medieval period. This note investigates the military uses to which this unusual material was put.

The late twelfth-century aisled hall at Oakham Castle, Rutland, is well known as the earliest and most complete building of its type in England. This study, based on detailed fabric analysis and little-known excavations of the 1950s, puts forward a new theory for the building's development. It is proposed that the original hall had attached lean-to buildings at both gable ends, probably built of timber, housing services and other lesser rooms. Like other early halls, the principal chamber at Oakham took the form of a free-standing chamber block, some of whose features have been later incorporated in the surviving hall, including its great east window. Tree-ring dating has shown that, although the roof was rebuilt around 1737, many original timbers survive from the 1180s. A comparative study of other early halls is made, to set Oakham into its wider Anglo-Norman context.

We have the honour to bring before the meeting to-night the record of the third year's excavations on the site of the Roman city at Silchester.

In the first modern excavation of an Arras Culture cemetery 189 burials have been excavated so far and most had been at the centre of barrows with square-plan ditches. Two distinctive burial rites produced mutually exclusive ranges of grave-goods. There are at least 800 square barrows in the immediate vicinity arranged in large cemeteries, in smaller groups, and as isolated examples, and aerial photography has revealed a wealth of settlements as well.

The Joint Expedition of the British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania restarted its excavations at Ur on 1st November 1924 and closed down on 28th February 1925 after a most successful season. For the epigraphical side of the work I had associated with me this year Dr. L. Legrain, of the University Museum, to whose help I owe much more than I can express: even in this preliminary report it will be clear how greatly our discoveries gained in interest and value from his study of the inscriptions. Mr. J. Linnell, who was in the field for the first time, assisted on the general archaeological side and kept the card index of objects. Unfortunately there was no architect on the staff, and we had to make what shift we could without, in a campaign peculiarly rich in architectural results; all the time I had reason to regret the loss of Mr. F. G. Newton, whose skill and experience had proved invaluable in former years. The main reason for the lack of an architect was shortness of funds: the British Museum was unable to provide from its own resources its due half of the cost of the Expedition, and we could not have taken the field at all but for the generous help given by friends in London; and even so I should have been obliged to bring the season to a premature end in January had not the British residents in Iraq come forward with subscriptions for the British Museum's side of the work which, met by Philadelphia with an equal sum, enabled me to carry on for another month. To all these I wish to acknowledge my gratitude.

This paper combines a study of the typological, technological and constructional attributes of a sample of fifteen dress-hooks and cap-hooks, reported between 1998 and 2000 under the terms of the Treasure Act (1996), with a survey of contemporary pictorial sources, probate inventories and associated wills along with a trawl of ‘small wares’ in the records of the Goldsmiths' Company in order to assess the role of these accessories in vernacular dress of sixteenth-century England.

Of particular interest are questions of manufacture and design, followed by the questions of how these objects functioned in relation to the closure and decoration of dress, their noteworthiness in contemporary accounts, their social status, their ranking in the output of contemporary goldsmiths and whether there was a gender bias in terms of their ownership. This cross-examination of excavated finds with contemporary iconographie and documentary sources represents an interdisciplinary case study in historical archaeology.

When I had the honour of laying before you in 1832 a Plan of the Barrows called the Bartlow Hills, in the parish of Ashdon, with an account of Roman sepulchral relics then lately discovered in the lesser Barrows, I informed you that the greater remained to be explored, and that I was not without expectation Lord Maynard on some future occasion would make further excavations on the spot. I have now the gratification of announcing to you the success which has attended a recent excavation made by his Lordship in the largest of these tumuli.

Two shrines of circular and polygonal shape, probably part of a larger group, were erected early in the second half of the third century A.D., and occupied until late in the fourth century. The shrines occur in an area of widespread settlement dating from the late Iron Age until the end of the fourth century. Many objects of bronze and iron of ritual significance, together with a large number of votive deposits and coins, were recovered from the circular shrine. Miss M. V. Taylor's discussion of the principal objects appears on pp. 264–8.

During the three centuries following the fall of the Roman Empire the repertoire of the glass blowers in the north-west of Europe was mainly confined to simple shapes of drinking vessels, without the embellishment of handles and appliqués such as had adorned the more expensive Roman products. The only exception to this simplicity in production was the claw-beaker (Rüsselbecher), and this has therefore received a great deal of attention from archaeologists who were intrigued to discover when, where, and also why they were made. As a result of these studies a general system of typology and chronology has gradually been established, but there are now reasons for re-opening the subject. First, new claw-beakers have come to light in recent excavations which add considerably to the facts so far assembled as to typology and chronology; secondly, only a small proportion of the work done on these glasses has appeared in English publications, and, thirdly, the claw-beakers found in Anglo-Saxon England have not been subjected to an examination focused on them as an insular group (rather than as a peripheral phenomenon of the continental series) with particular attention to dating by association. It is hoped that each of the aspects of the subject developed here will produce fresh evidence of vital interest.

The Bursledon Brick Company's works are situated on rising ground north-east of the Southern Railway's branch line from Southampton to Fareham, and some 600 yards east of the tidal river Hamble, as shown on the plan (fig. 1). The geological formation is London clay; the beds have been exposed here to a depth of 40 ft, the section showing 1½ ft. of humus on an upper stratum of brownish-red clay resting on a bed of grey clay. The country immediately around supports oak, hazel, and alder.

In the summer of 1932 two young geologists, Messrs. C. W. and E. V. Wright, while examining the low cliffs of the Humber Bank, near North Ferriby, noticed dark patches of black earth containing bones and sherds (Y.A.J. xxxi, 199). The material collected by them from these pits at various times since then forms the principal subject of this paper.

Roman, Saxon, and medieval levels were examined in 1968. At Castle Yard the north end of the Norman andlater castle was uncovered. At Lankhills fifty fourth-century graves were excavated. In Lower Brook Street open-area excavation was continued into mid thirteenth-century levels on four house-plots and on St. Mary's Church, where twelve phases can now be recognized between c. 1250 and c. 1470. St. Pancras Church was located. On the Cathedral site no Belgic occupation was found. A late second- to early third-century addition to the forum was excavated, and much of its painted wall-plaster recovered. The structure was abandoned c. A.D. 300. A laterally apsed tenth-century crossing was found in the Old Minster linking two earlier buildings. After his translation in gjl from outside the church, St. Swithun's shrine appears to have stood within this link-building. At Wolvesey Roman buildings were excavated, and additions were made to the plan of the Norman palace. A second halljchamber-block of c. 1129–35 has been planned. In an appendix D. M. Wilson considers an important decorated bronze strap-end of c. A.D. 1000 found on the Old Minster site.

An inspection of the Old Deanery in 1948 failed, for some reason unknown, to disclose the early date of the building. Neither the medieval form of the plan nor the antiquity of the Hall roof were recognized. In default of any clear case for preservation on archaeological grounds, and though the case on scenic grounds was very strong, the decision was made to demolish the building to make way sooner or later for the development of a Ladies' Training College, despite pleas for preservation from the Local Planning Authority and from Mr. H. de S. Shortt, Curator of the Salisbury Museum.

The paper begins by considering the importance of springs as a focus for votive deposits in Bronze Age Britain. This is not a new idea, but nowhere has this association been examined through the excavation of one of these features. The point is illustrated by excavation at the findspot of a famous group of Late Bronze Age weapons, the Broadward hoard, discovered in 1867. Little was known about the site, where it was found or the character of the original deposit, but a study of contemporary accounts of the hoard, combined with geophysical and topographical surveys, led to small-scale excavation in 2010, which showed that the deposit had most probably been buried in a pit on the edge of a spring. Other finds associated with the spring included an Early Bronze Age macehead, a Roman pot and various Saxon and medieval animal bones. The latest deposit, with a post-medieval carbon date, included a wooden knife or dagger. An adjacent palaeochannel provided an important environmental sequence for this part of the English–Welsh borderland and suggests that the Late Bronze Age hoard had been deposited not far from a settlement. A nearby earthwork enclosure was associated with a clay weight, which may be of similar date. Despite the limited scale of the fieldwork, it illustrates the potential for treating springs associated with artefact finds on the same terms as other archaeological deposits.

The name of Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) is well known in scientific and exploration circles – he is undeservedly much less well known as an antiquary. This study considers his roles in relation to the premier antiquarian society of the time, the Society of Antiquaries of London. Using the Society’s records, Sir Joseph Banks is considered as an ordinary Fellow, as a member of Council, as an auditor of the finances and as a scrutator at elections. The relations between the Royal and Antiquarian Societies on first moving into Somerset House and the contemporary question of whether they might have merged is also examined. Joseph Banks’s role in the circumstances of the three contested presidential elections of 1785, 1799 and 1812 is especially considered, and these are seen not just to represent internal squabbling amongst the Fellows, but to reflect the wider social and political strains of the time. In producing the narrative of these elections, significant past mistakes are corrected. Lastly the relationship between George iii and the Society of Antiquaries is touched upon.

The great eighth-century earthwork on the frontier of Wales and England has been known for at least eleven hundred years as Offa's Dyke. Research into this work has been dominated by the need to find, or explain, the ‘missing’ stretches of the Dyke. The interpretation presented here is based on the known earthwork and does not involve the need to explain away any perceived gaps.

The manuscript volume which, by the kind permission of Lord Hastings, I am enabled to exhibit this evening, is one of great value and interest. Those great antiquaries Sir F. Palgrave and Albert Way saw the volume, and while the former made a rough note of its contents, the latter contributed to the fourth volume of the Archæological Journal a valuable paper on one part. The notes of these two gentlemen have been compared with the original MS., and I have ventured, whilst giving transcripts of some portions of the volume, to add a few notes and descriptions. The manuscript, which is written on vellum, consists of fifteenth-century copies, with some illuminations, of various treatises dealing with chivalry, state, etc. These have been bound in one thick volume, which from external evidence we may suppose to have at one time belonged to that distinguished Prince, Henry, son of James I.

On 16th January 1540 the abbot and twenty-four monks assembled in the Chapter House at Westminster in order to sign the deed of surrender of the monastery. To some in that gathering it must have seemed the end, but to others it was but the prelude, as perhaps they already knew, to a new life amid the old familiar surroundings.

Mr. Thomas Layton died on 4th September 1911 at the advanced age of ninety-two years, having been a Fellow of this Society since 1868. He had contributed to the Bronze Age Exhibition at Somerset House in 1872, and in 1883 gave a remarkable Roman sword and sheath (fig. 25) to the British Museum; but otherwise his energies were devoted to collecting, unhappily with little method or discretion, and the task of carrying out the terms of his will was anything but a formality. Most of his antiquities came to light during dredging operations in the Thames at Kew, where he resided, and these were left to the Brentford Public Library as the nucleus of a Layton museum. The Librarian, Mr. F. A. Turner, has cleaned, sorted, and exhibited the specimens with infinite pains and considerable success; and it is to him and the Brentford Library Committee that we are indebted for the present exhibition and for permission to examine and describe the principal items of the collection.