The Copper Age cemetery in Varna, Bulgaria, is famous for the earliest known, massive deposition of exquisite golden artefacts. Radiocarbon dating of the Varna i cemetery, excavated in the period 1972–91, places it in the mid-fifth millennium bc and suggests a duration of c 225 years from c 4550 to c 4325 cal bc. Construction work in the adjacent area (2.5 km to the east of Varna i cemetery) in December 2017 led to the discovery of sixteen new graves, whose characteristics are identical to the burials in the cemetery investigated in the last century. This article discusses the AMS dates of ten newly discovered inhumations. The results match well the existing cemetery chronology, showing that the new graves start slightly later and end earlier than Varna i and have a shorter duration of probably no more than a few decades. It is demonstrated for the first time that some areas of burial on the terrace were in continuous use for one or two generations only, suggesting multi-focal depositional activities as opposed to expedient and opportunistic spatial utilisation.

This paper describes the results of the surveys carried out along Ras Muari (Cape Monze, Karachi, Sindh) by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Lower Sindh and Las Bela in 2013 and 2014. The surveyed area coincides with part of the mythical land of the Ichthyophagoi, mentioned by the classical chroniclers. Many archaeological sites, mainly scatters and spots of fragmented marine and mangrove shells, were discovered and AMS dated along the northern part of the cape facing the Hab River mouth. The surveys have shown that fisher and shell gatherer communities temporarily settled in different parts of the headland. They began to exploit the sea resources during the Neolithic. However, the most important discovery consists of a unique fishers’ settlement with rectangular stone-walled structures located on a limestone terrace near Sonari (SNR-1), the first ever found along the northern coast of the Arabian Sea. The AMS dates show that it was settled mainly during the first half of the third millennium cal bc when the Indus Civilisation flourished in the area. Considering the importance of the discovery, all the material culture remains from the Sonari sites have been described and analysed in detail and, whenever possible, framed into the different phases of environmental changes and human adaptation to the coastal environment that have been interpreted thanks to a good series of AMS dates from marine and mangrove shells.

The unique gold pendant found at Chrysolakkos, Malia, Crete, in 1930 has been variously interpreted, and usually is said to represent a pair of bees. This vague interpretation is discussed, and it is pointed out that the three discs that are suspended from the pendant closely resemble the fruits of a native Cretan herb, Tordylium apulum. Megascolia maculata, a member of the order Hymenoptera, is proposed as the model for the insects. Like a gold toggle pin, also from Chrysolakkos, the pendant demonstrates that Cretan goldsmiths were capable of creating aesthetically pleasing work by paying close attention to the local flora and fauna and used examples as the models for their unique jewellery

Traditionally, Roman temples and shrines in Britain have been contextualised in relation to wider ‘Roman’ religious practices. Until recently, considerations of architectural form and named deities have dominated discussions. The wider turn in archaeological discourse recognising ritual in everyday contexts has highlighted the importance of lived experience and landscape practice in shaping belief. Here we reflect on the implications of such ideas when approaching ritual practice at Roman temples, using a recently excavated example from Wiltshire, southern Britain, as a case study. The exceptional artefactual assemblages from the site demonstrate the importance of local and regional landscape practices and belief in shaping ritual practice in a sacred space. In addition, geophysical survey and analysis of Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS) finds suggests that those occupying the landscape had long-term access to wealth. Deposition in the temple itself indicates the continuing importance attached to prehistoric objects in the Roman period, but also to the adoption of new votive practices of miniaturisation, mutilation and sacrifice. These rituals, although part of wider grammars of religious behaviour, had their roots in specific local contexts. Our detailed analyses provide a picture of a temple dedicated to a previously unknown local god, Bregneus, framed against that of an active community involved in farming, iron processing, quarrying, hunting and woodland management.

Between 1998 and 2008, 450 inhumation burials of the fifth to eighth centuries ad were excavated in four separate but adjacent burial grounds within RAF Lakenheath airbase in Suffolk. Study of the evidence has been based on the typology of the national chronological framework of sixth- and seventh-century graves and grave goods published in 2013, and correlated also with a related East Anglian regional scheme. Fifty high-precision radiocarbon dates allow for thorough evaluation of the scope for applying the phase-structure and estimated date-boundaries of the national framework to this one large site. The results can be held to reproduce the core sequence of the national framework, albeit with necessary modifications that provide greater insights into the processes used to generate models of the data, besides significant modifications to the perceived date-ranges of certain artefact-types. The results have also been markedly influenced (and apparently improved) by a new standard calibration curve, IntCal20, launched in August 2020. This study thus suggests key agenda for further productive research into this contextually vital body of information.

Garnet-inlaid metalwork was an emblem of elite culture in the early medieval North Sea world. This study compares three Anglo-Saxon garnet-inlaid brooches that are exceptionally similar in design and appearance. All three date to the seventh century, a period that saw the emergence of leading families that used such deluxe dress items to enhance their political position. The central hypothesis explored here is that the brooches were produced by the same, or by closely linked, goldsmiths working under the patronage of such a family. Integrated analysis was conducted using microscopy, CT scans, XRF and XRD, in part to establish whether the garnets used came from the same or different sources.

The seventh-century ship burial at Sutton Hoo Mound 1, excavated in 1939, contained an impressive display of gold, silver and bronze objects, weapons and other offerings. Organic materials such as wood, textiles and leather were also present. The leather items were studied, and the results published in 1983, when two pairs of shoes were identified from the extremely fragmented remains that survived. Recently, a reassessment of the leather fragments revised the identification to two bags and a single pair of shoes. Multiple reconstruction techniques, developed over the last twenty years, were used to examine the leather fragments and associated metal fittings to provide a new understanding of the leather items and how they had been placed in the burial.

The rising popularity of hobbyist metal detecting has provided early medieval scholars with various important new datasets, not least the concentrations of metalwork commonly known as ‘productive sites’. Awareness of these foci derives almost exclusively from archaeological evidence, yet they continue to be interpreted through a documentary lens, and are frequently labelled ‘monasteries’. Using the recently discovered site of Little Carlton, Lincolnshire, as a case study, it is argued that comprehension of metal-rich sites is significantly furthered by turning to archaeologically-orientated research agendas and terminologies. As a consequence, seventh- to ninth-century Little Carlton can be understood as one element of a high-status ‘meshwork’ within early medieval East Lindsey, in which elite power was articulated in the landscape through a number of contemporary centres. On site, archaeology indicates the presence of occupation, burial and craft working, but shows that highly symbolic indigenous practices were taking place too, including intentional deposition into a naturally-occurring pond. Evidence for activity either side of the seventh to ninth centuries also stresses the importance of long-term trajectories in shaping the character of places previously celebrated for their finds-rich phases alone.

The object described and discussed in this paper is a recently found Anglo-Saxon strap-end. Although incomplete, the strap-end is of interest in view of its rarity in being made of silver, of its decoration and of it containing an inscribed text. One part of the decoration is a depiction of the agnus dei. In the discussion, the decoration on the strap-end, and its significance, is set in the context of other instances of the agnus dei, both on artefacts and in manuscripts, from late Anglo-Saxon England.

Within the Romanesque abbey church at St Albans (Hertfordshire), the vestiges of an earlier structure have been identified for the first time. A hitherto unrecorded feature in the transept, noted by the author in 2017, indicates that, at some stage, the nave lacked its existing arcade piers and instead had solid walls. The implications of this are considerable, calling for a thorough reassessment of the building’s history. For now, it is important to record the primary evidence, so as to make it available for further research. This article aims to provide a concise account of the evidence and a summary of what it might mean.

According to the thirteenth-century chronicler, Matthew Paris, the existing church was begun in 1077 and completed in 1088. New evidence indicates, however, that the Romanesque building, with its aisled nave and presbytery, was preceded by a cruciform structure without aisles. The inference is that the existing building contains the fabric of this unaisled predecessor. The obvious conclusion – that it therefore represents the lost Anglo-Saxon abbey church – does not follow without question; as yet, excavation has yielded no conclusive evidence of an earlier church on the site.

The critical diagnostic feature presented here for the first time adds substance to the view that the remodelling of unaisled buildings was not uncommon in the post-Conquest period, including large as well as minor churches, as identified long ago at York Minster and, more recently, at Worksop Priory.

The Temple Church, founded as the chapel of the motherhouse of the English Templars around 1160, is among the most intriguing medieval churches in London. Utilising a wide range of textual, archaeological and architectural evidence, this paper provides a new account of the evolution of the ecclesiastical complex from the mid-twelfth century to the mid-thirteenth century, focusing in particular on the form and the function of a series of now largely obliterated auxiliary structures. It argues that one of the driving forces for the construction of these buildings was a competition for both patrons and prestige that existed between the two preeminent military orders of the period: the Templars and the Hospitallers.

The V&A is home to a painted crucifix that has been attributed to the Sicilian master, Antonio de Saliba (c 1466/7–c 1535), who was active in Venice and eastern Sicily during the Renaissance. This paper takes a fresh look at the documentary sources that were published before the devastating earthquake that struck Messina, in the north west of Sicily, in 1908. In re-examining these sources, this paper reveals new insights into Antonio de Saliba’s oeuvre and enables a possible identification of the V&A’s painted crucifix with a specific contractual agreement that links this crucifix’s commission to the artist – specifically with a commission de Saliba received in 1508 from Limina, a small town in the province of Messina. The roots of this provincial commission would explain the persistence of a retardataire production visible in this early sixteenth-century painted crucifix. This paper also challenges the preconceived idea that such painted crucifixes were destined to be displayed high up in a church, on a tramezzo or beam.

Tattershall Castle (Lincolnshire, UK) was built for the Lord Treasurer of England, Ralph Cromwell, in the mid-fifteenth century. Cromwell was a skilled politician who rose from relative obscurity via royal service; however, he never attained high social rank and made significant enemies in the royal council. He is noted to have been a prickly and self-righteous individual who wore his new-found status in society with towering pride. The architecture of Cromwell’s major building project at Tattershall offers clues towards his personality. Architectural details – grouped and repeated motifs such as ancient family armorials, the Treasurer’s purse and the truculent motto ‘Have I not right?’ – may reveal fault lines and anxieties about Ralph’s relative place in society as he struggled for political survival.

An outstanding cultural promoter, collector and patron of the arts in his native Spain, Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán (1629–87), 7th Marquess del Carpio, left his mark as ambassador in Rome (1677–82) and as viceroy in Naples (1682–7). In Italy, Carpio assembled forty-three volumes of drawings, of which only four, including SAL ms 879, have been spared dismemberment. Yet, lumping the ‘Carpio Album’ together with the nobleman’s collection of original drawings completely misses the point. Unlike the others, which were assembled to boost Carpio’s connoisseurship of Italian art, the Album was commissioned to showcase the collection of (largely antique) sculpture he had acquired in Rome and the series of modern fountains he commissioned, also in Rome. Like Vincenzo Giustiniani’s epoch-making Galleria Giustiniana of 1636–7, the Album was to be printed. The marquess’s departure for Naples cut short an ambitious publication project, the theoretical background and pedagogic scope of which have been largely overlooked. The attribution of drawings to artists Philipp Schor and Paolo De Matteis, amongst others, underlines the complex cultural agenda underpinning an Album conceived to reinstate the Roma antica myth by linking it to its Roma moderna counterpart. A new understanding of De Matteis’s artistry and objectives in configuring the Album is complemented with findings regarding Carpio’s commissioning or acquisition of antique, pseudo-antique and modern sculpture. The collection’s fateful dispersal helps unravel the Album’s most likely provenance.

Presenting research conducted by the ‘St Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster’ project at the University of York, this article focuses on the Great Seal devised in 1649 and re-issued in 1651 to enable the Commonwealth to function following the execution of Charles i. As a familiar and ancient image of monarchy, the Great Seal posed an obvious challenge to the authority of the Rump Parliament. A radical new design, authorised by parliamentary committee and executed by engraver Thomas Simon, replaced royal iconography with images of popular sovereignty and nationhood: a map of England and Ireland on the obverse of the Seal, and the interior of the House of Commons chamber (formerly St Stephen’s Chapel) on the reverse. The result was a striking evocation of political authority located in the House of Commons and deriving from the English people. Engravings of the Commons chamber, in circulation since the 1620s, are identified as a probable source for Simon’s work. The Great Seal also re-asserted England’s dominion over Ireland and the waters surrounding the British Isles. Overall, this article argues for continuity as well as alteration in the iconography of the Great Seal of England, at a time of revolutionary political change.

After spending seven years practising as a doctor in Boston, William Stukeley moved to London in 1717. The following years were his most fertile, but by 1725 he had become disillusioned with Town and decided to move to Grantham in his home county of Lincolnshire. During his brief stay, 1726–9, he modernised his seventeenth-century yeoman’s house, and simultaneously developed ideas on the religion of the Druids and garden design that were unique and interacted with each other. Both were greatly influenced by the archaeological discoveries he had made at Stonehenge and Avebury (1719–24). At the same time he gradually changed his ideas on Christianity, which led to ordination in 1729 and a great change in his life.