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.

To the appreciation of the Society I submit an exhibit which seems to me well worthy of some further study and discussion. I have not brought over the original, because it is a ponderous mass of gold, worth almost £300, and because masses of gold are unfit to travel without an escort; but the workshop attached to the Saint-Germain Museum has made an excellent electrotype to be circulated with a developed drawing. The facsimile will be gilded and exhibited in the Museum, the original remaining confined to my safe, an appropriate location for heavy jewels which have a dangerous tendency to find their way, through improper hands, to the melting-pot. This extraordinary gorget—let us call it thus without prejudging its use—is in massive gold, at the standard of 800, and weighs 2,300 grammes, or nearly 74 oz. troy (fig. 1). It is said to have been unearthed in or about 1883 in Portugal, province of Alemtejo, not far from Evora, by a peasant who was digging at the foot of a tree. His spade must have been energetically handled, as it has chipped pieces of the metal in six neighbouring places. I do not think that the injury was done purposely by the finder in order to ascertain if it were truly gold. I have been told that he found three similar gorgets and that the two smaller ones were at once melted down, which I have some reason to disbelieve. The biggest gorget was first acquired by a Portuguese lady called Mattos, who bequeathed it to her daughter; the latter sold it to the father of M. Joaquim Arantes Ferreira da Silva, who, after having failed to sell it in turn to the Museum in Lisbon (then lacking funds), parted with it in favour of our Museum (June 1920), where it has been registered as number 67071, but as yet neither exhibited nor published.

Livy has recorded that on the farm of a notary called Lucius Petillius at the foot of the Janiculum, two stone chests were unearthed, which according to their inscriptions should have been respectively the coffin of Numa Pompilius and the receptacle for his books. The remains of the king had disappeared, but in the second chest there were two bundles, each containing seven books, not only entire but apparently quite fresh: seven in Latin about the Pontifical Law, seven in Greek about Philosophy. Valerius Antias said that they contained the doctrines of Pythagoras, supporting by this plausible fiction (mendacio probabili) the credit of the vulgar opinion (vulgata opinio) that Numa had been a disciple of Pythagoras. As this undermined the established system of religion, the books were burned, the fire being made by the public servants whose duty it was to assist at sacrifices.

I have already described (Antiquaries Journal, iv, 329–46) the work carried out at Tell el Obeid during the winter of 1923–4 by the Joint Expedition of the British Museum and the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania: here I shall deal with what was really the major operation of the season, the clearing of the Ziggurat at Ur itself. Upon this site from 120 to 200 workmen were employed continuously for four and a half months, first under the supervision of Messrs. Gadd and Fitz-Gerald, later under that of the whole staff. Khalil of Jerablus was native foreman at Ur while the Tell el Obeid excavations were in progress, and after they were shut down Hamoudi took over the head control of the entire gang; Yahia, Hamoudi's son, acted as clerk on the work and is responsible for a great deal of the photographic work. All the plans and drawings are by Mr. F. G. Newton.

The subject of early Wall-Papers has not been much investigated in England. Of the various forms of hanging or wall-decoration which preceded them–designs painted, stencilled, or incised on the walls; and hangings of plain material, of tapestry, of embroidery, of cloth stained or painted, and even of painted paper–and of the wall-papers of the eighteenth century–painted or printed importations from China and the printed products of our own country, from simple floral designs to the Gothics of Horace Walpole or the elaborate ‘scenes’, one set of which sufficed to decorate a whole room –of all these something is known; though we still wait for an authoritative and comprehensive work. But little attempt has been made so far to bridge the gap between medieval and modern, the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries.

The discovery of several coin-hoards including the first issue of King Alfred points to widespread disturbance and consequent insecurity which are easily explained by the Danish menace; and the exploration of Beeston Tor cave by the Rev. G. H. Wilson, of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, confirms this surmise, and at the same time gives a precise date to some jewellery which would otherwise remain conjectural. Incidentally it throws light on a discovery recorded in 1705, and enables an estimate to be made of the stylistic changes of two centuries in English craftsmanship.

Gabriel Goodman, Doctor of Divinity, Dean of the Collegiate Church of Westminster, ‘a sad grave man’ according to Archbishop Parker, was born at Ruthin in Denbighshire about 1529, being the second son of Edward Goodman, burgess and mercer of that town, by his wife ‘Ciselye’, daughter of Edward Thelwall of Plas y Ward. Although a Welsh origin has been claimed for the Ruthin Goodmans, it is probable that like the Thelwalls they were descended from English settlers in the Vale of Clwyd.

In presenting my Fifth Report on the work carried out at Stonehenge in the season of last year, it will be well to make a short review of the work from 1919 onwards. The first two years were spent upon rectifying the positions of stones nos. 6 and 7 and of nos. 1, 2, and 30. During this work, the contents of the pits in which they stood were examined as well as the soil around them, and the features presented by the ancient working and fitting of the stones were noted. A little work undertaken in spare time led to the discovery of the Aubrey holes, and of a large hole in which the Slaughter Stone probably stood. In the third season about 40 yards of the main ditch were excavated on the south side, and an examination made of a spot which had been previously considered a barrow. In the fourth season another portion of the ditch on the north-east was opened, which led to the discovery of the causeway and entrance to Stonehenge through the earthwork, also of a great number of post-holes which appeared to be the remains of a palisade in the entrance. Another stone-hole near the Slaughter Stone was found, and dwelling-pits on both sides of the causeway.

The two objects here illustrated are the first recorded examples from Wales of the bronze tool variously called the ‘celt with trunnions’, ‘chisel with lugs at the sides’, ‘flat axe with lateral pegs’, or ‘lug adze’. Trunnion Celt is a convenient name to adopt, as it will cover most varieties of a class of tool which may have served more than one purpose.

The gold ornament here described was found over a hundred years ago at the north end of the hamlet of Galhampton and just within the parish of Castle Cary, but it has never been recorded before. It was recently presented to the Somerset Museum at Taunton Castle by Dr. R. E. H. Woodforde (who now resides in Hertfordshire). It had been handed down in his family, and was dug up by his great-grandfather, Colonel William Woodforde (1758–1844) in his garden on the west side and close to the main road from Castle Cary to Ilchester.

The two objects shown in the illustrations, a bronze mirror and a platter of tinned bronze, were found together at Pant Fadog, on the farm of Llechwedd Du Bach, near the road from Talsarnau to Harlech, in Merioneth, about sixty-five years ago. The farm was in the occupation of the late owner of the mirror and platter, Mr. John Lloyd; and these have been presented to the National Museum of Wales in memory of his family, the Lloyds of Cwmbychan.

Among the collections of the Rev. C. H. Drinkwater, who died in 1923 after holding the living of St. George's, Shrewsbury, since 1872, were two looped palstaves and a trunnion celt (fig. 1), labelled as ‘3 Primitive Weapons found in the clay (15 ft.) in a brickfield, Hanwood Road, May 1900’. These were all in rather a rough condition, the surfaces being much chipped and in parts worn down to a grey-brown core with purple stains; they are encrusted with powdery blue-green metal, covered with a fairly glossy yellow-brown patina, of which considerable portions remain with traces of soil adhering. The chisel is in two pieces, broken about 10 mm. above the lugs; it is 156 mm. long, 24 mm. wide at the cutting edge and 35 mm. across the trunnions, with an average thickness of 8 mm.: unlike the specimen from Broxton and the two Welsh examples figured and described by Mr. Hemp, the ends do not seem to have been sharpened to a fine edge (though possibly the bluntness of the three implements under consideration may be due in part to the disintegrating effect of the soil on the metal): the section is roughly oblong, and the trunnions are squarish with rounded angles: the weight is 4⅜ oz. This implement is so far unique in Shropshire, but small broad-edged tanged chisels have been found, one at Brogyntyn, near Oswestry, with a leaf-shaped sword (type G) and a gouge, another (broken) in the late Broadward Hoard, from the extreme south of the county on the Herefordshire border.

The University Museum of Archaeology and of Ethnology at Cambridge, of which I was appointed Curator in 1922, is comparatively little known.

That it is not known as well as its contents deserve by the Fellows of this Society is not surprising when it is even less appreciated by the University to which it belongs. Whilst a very large number of classical students take a great interest in the Museum of Classical Casts, there is great difficulty to get them to take an interest in the Museum of Archaeology and of Ethnology. Half of the teachers of Classics in the University have never been in the Museum, and many do not know where it is.

Le sol de l'ancienne civitas Elusatium, aujourd'hui Eauze dans le département du Gers, a à plusieurs reprises rendu au jour des objets antiques. Il y a deux ans y a été recueilli notamment l'anneau de bronze émaillé, de forme ovoïde, reproduit ci-dessous, de 3 centimètres et demi environ de diamètre maximum, dont la décoration se détache en rouge sur fond champlevé.

The following account of some unusual examples of English alabasters in German museums, together with short references to others in Germany, is intended to serve as a basis for a complete list of such carvings preserved in that country. The desirability of such a list is indicated by the importance, for the study of the history of the alabaster industry in England, of certain examples, seemingly of comparatively early dates, still (or until lately) in German churches, and by the number of products of that industry now in German museums. When Braun wrote, in 1910, he believed that Germany was poor in English alabasters, because her native art of wood-sculpture was in full flower during the period when they were made, so that she had no need to import relief-carvings. Furthermore, he thought that probably most of the examples at that time in Germany had been brought there by dealers in antiquities. The list given below, although only preliminary in character, suggests that his opinions in these respects were not well founded. It records various pieces, carved, presumably, at the period when English alabasters were being made for export, which are still in the districts or situations for which they might well have been ordered. There seems, therefore, no reason to think that any of the examples now in German museums are recent importations.

The bronze crowns and the ornament of chains and discs which are the subject of this paper, were found a few years ago at Cavenham Heath, Suffolk, lying close together at a depth of about 1½ ft. from the surface. Later they came into the possession of Mr. Ashley, landlord of the Crown Hotel, Mundford, from whom I purchased them.

It was probably before the Claudian invasion of A. D. 43 that the following objects found at Folkestone were either produced in or imported into Britain.

In 1918 (February and December) Mr. C. H. Stevens found in an allotment, a little west-south-west of Radnor Park, three burial urns, a flagon, and a Samian cup (fig. 1). The first found (25th February)—A on photograph—contained human bones and earth, and was much broken, but was skilfully restored by the finder.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century Flanders had for a hundred years or more been the art centre of western Europe. Thence, and from the Rhenish provinces, most of the art movements sprang; and it was there that new ideas of technique and craftsmanship and new ways of looking at things had their birth. Henry VII, who since the age of five had lived abroad, favoured foreigners, especially Flemings, and encouraged trade with the Netherlands in every possible way. At his coronation he had the ‘trappour’ of his horse covered with stars made by ‘Hanche Dutchmen’; and he presented to Antwerp Cathedral a window with portraits of himself and his wife, Elizabeth of York.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the Roman buildings excavated last year at Folkestone is the construction of the early walls of calcareous tufa blocks. These walls underlay later buildings which were erected certainly not later than A. D. 100. The tufa walls then were probably built, not necessarily for Romans but perhaps in Roman style for a British noble, roughly between A. D. 1 and 100.

An interesting finger-ring, presumably of Phoenician origin, was brought to my notice as having been found in a rock-cut tomb in Malta. The owner was unable or unwilling to give any details as to the conditions under which the ring was found, but he is positive that it was given to him by a farmer who found the ring himself. The ring appears to have such exceptional features that I thought it my duty to describe it for the benefit of those who may be interested in this branch of archaeology.