In the West Mediterranean islands before the mid-nineteenth century, discoveries of fossil bones, prehistoric deposits in caves and megalithic monuments stimulated ideas about the remote past, as in other parts of Europe where similar phenomena were observed. Many of these ideas were characteristic of a pre-scientific age and their sources are sometimes obscure. Their inspiration can often be traced to the Bible, classical texts, folklore, as well as to advances in palaeontology and direct observation of antiquities. The study of fossils and prehistoric remains progressed gradually, following a similar pattern elsewhere. Two lines of enquiry emerged, one closely linked with progress in the natural sciences and the other concerned with ancient monuments and the background to the classical world.

Conformably with the order of events adopted at the Society's previous Anniversary Meeting, I invite the Fellows and guests present first of all to salute the recipients of the medals awarded this year for high merit in their services to archaeology.

Since 1985 a team under the direction of the author has been carrying out excavations at the site of St. Veit-Klinglberg, Land Salzburg, Austria (see map, fig. 1). This interim report gives an account of the background to the work and the results so far obtained, and outlines current hypotheses concerning the site's function and significance. One more season of work is planned, but more importantly the analysis of the material from the excavation is still only at a very preliminary stage.

The Introduction to the Institute of Field Archaeologists' Code of Conduct states that: ‘Archaeology is the study of the nature and the past behaviour of Man in his environmental setting’. One of the principal environments Man has used is the maritime one, and for convenience of exposition the term ‘maritime’ is taken here to include inland waters, lakes, rivers and estuaries, as well as the seas and oceans. This usage is not only for convenience but also because there is continuity between the sea and inland waters: they are physically connected, and often the same vessels and the same men use them.

The Anglo-Saxon see of Worcester was probably not established until 679 or 680, over eighty years after the arrival of the Augustinian mission. It has usually been taken for granted that the Hwicce, for whom the new see was set up, had until then been subject to the see of the Mercians, but there is no evidence to show this. The latter see, moreover, had itself not been created until c. 656. Are we, therefore, to assume that the Hwicce remained non-Christian until the later seventh century? If they did, we have signally failed in our efforts to find their burials; and our historical sources are strangely silent about the eventual conversion to Christianity of a people who held out against it for so long.

The importance of professional affiliations in the history of archaeology has tended to be underplayed. There have been a number of histories of individual professional societies and especially of museums, both of which had significant roles in the institutional development and acceptance of the field during the nineteenth century (e.g. Clark 1925; Evans 1949a, 1949b, 1956; Hawkes 1962; Hinsley 1981). Also, both museums and professional organizations have been generally touched upon in the course of biographies of individual archaeologists—primarily as background information (e.g. Evans 1943; Woodbury 1973; Green 1981; Hawkes 1982). What has not been considered sufficiently is the pervasive character of professional connections and the institutions or societies that made them possible (Trigger 1985; cf. Levine 1986). Organizations, together with accompanying journals, charters, meetings, statements of policy, special committees and so on, form the very basis of a discipline. This was particularly true in the nineteenth century when many sciences or other fields of interest—including archaeology—had yet to find a place in the academic world (Woodruff 1923).

The Fitzwarin Psalter (Paris, B.N. MS lat. 765) is one of the most striking English manuscripts of the fourteenth century. Its miniatures are characterized by bold compositional experiment and a mannered figure style of extreme emotional intensity. The conventional name of the manuscript derives from the presence of two shields in the lower border of the Beatus page (fol. 23), which were identified by Francis Wormald as those of the families of Fitzwarin and Clevedon. But he was unable to find any evidence connecting the two families by marriage. He dated the Psalter to the third quarter of the century, and in this has been followed by Lucy Sandler. However, in an important study of the Fitzwarin Psalter and related manuscripts, Lynda Dennison demonstrated that, for stylistic reasons, the Psalter (with the exception of a bifolium, fols. 21-22) must be dated to the mid-1340s. This redating prompts a re-examination of the question of the identity of the original owner.

In 1868, during the British military expedition to Magdala in Abyssinia (Ethiopia), an archaeological excavation was undertaken, under the auspices of R. Holmes, a representative of the British Museum, at the ancient port-city of Adulis a few kilometres from the Red Sea coast. The excavation, of which some details were reported in a War Office Publication of 1870, was one of the earliest undertaken in Africa south of the Sahara. As a result an ancient church was discovered and cleared. Among the finds were a number of items of ecclesiastical furniture, some apparently imported in a prefabricated state from the Roman eastern Mediterranean. Some of these pieces, now lodged in the British Museum, are here published for the first time.

In 1983 a fisherman in the Thames estuary at Pan Sand trawled up a Roman amphora filled with olives which had been preserved in defrutum syrup. The jar is dated c. AD 70 ± 15. An attempt is made to relate the olive varieties at Pan Sand to those described in the ancient documentary sources. The Pan Sand jar exemplifies a new category of amphora, called London 555. They were produced in the province of Baetica in Roman Spain; claims that the form was made in the Rhône valley are regarded as unproven. Stratified finds from Britain show the form was current from c. AD 50/55 until c. AD 125/150. London 555 develops from Haltern 70 and continues the trade represented by that form. The last London 555 amphoras explain part of the Dressel 17 phenomenon. London 555 was not the only category of amphora used to export preserved olives from Baetica after Haltern 70; the trade continued until the late Empire and helps explain finds of olives from late contexts in Roman Britain.

At some time during the years 1497/9, Leonardo da Vinci wrote a little memorandum in one of the notebooks now preserved at the Institut de France in Paris. Evidently he had been puzzling over certain problems concerning the trajectory of javelins, for he sketched what appears to be a technique for hurling spears by means of a sort of sling, and he noted: ‘Parla con Pietro Monti di questi tali modi di trarre i dardi’. And so we meet the man who taught Leonardo darts.

Excavations in the New Palace Yard at the Palace of Westminster, between 1972–4, have illuminated the development of this historic site on the northern periphery of the medieval palace. The Yard was first laid out in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century over previously marshy land at the edge of Thorney Island. In the central area of the Yard, part of the foundation of a magnificent fountain, known historically as the Great Conduit was found. Built in the mid-fifteenth century, the conduit formed a major landmark until its demolition some two hundred years later. Preserved within its foundation were the fragmentary redeposited remains of a high quality fountain of polished Purbeck marble, dated to the late twelfth century. Due to the enormous scale of the building works significant environmental evidence was recovered allowing elucidation of the topographical development of this important site, from the prehistoric period to the creation of the Yard in the late thirteenth century.

This paper is published with the aid of a grant from the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England.

Since 1983 a multi-disciplinary survey of buildings of the manor-house type in the historic duchy of Brittany has been undertaken. The present paper presents provisional results, chiefly based on work up to the 1987 season in two of the five modern départements of the province: Côtes-du-Nord and Ille-et-Vilaine. After a brief historical introduction discussing the political and social context of the manoirs, their relationship to earlier seigneurial dwellings such as motte-and-bailey castles or maisons-fortes, their origins and numbers are considered. Then the different forms of the manorial ensemble and existing types of building are surveyed, highlighting those where detailed archival, archaeological and dendrochronological studies have been carried out. The survey has brought to light a small number of standard forms originating in the Middle Ages. Their main features and variants are described and the general architectural evolution of this class of building down to the Renaissance is traced, concluding with a limited commentary on the broader historical context.

Horns were often preserved not for their aesthetic qualities but for their significance as symbols of either office or tenure. This article discusses horns associated with forests and shows how their symbolic interest led to their preservation and study by antiquaries.

Excavation and observations from 1984–6 on the Leadenhall Court site in the City of London revealed elements of the fifteenth-century market building known as ‘The Leadenhall’. The truncated foundations were located in various areas of the site; 177 medieval moulded stones were found reused in later cellar walls; and a fragment of the west wall survived to its full height of 11.17m encased between Victorian buildings. The recording and subsequent study of these features, together with a reassessment of such plans and drawings of the building as have survived, established the ground plan of the quadrangle and chapel, and made possible a complete reconstruction of the north range of this important civic building. The methodology used in the reconstructions is described with particular emphasis upon the analysis of the moulded stones. In conclusion, both the design of the structure and the documentary sources are studied to show how it may have been intended to function.

The arcaded ground floor functioned as part of a common market, while the upper floors were intended to be a granary. For convenience, however, this dual-purpose building is referred to as the ‘garner’ throughout the text.