Dunmisk fort (Co. Tyrone), in Northern Ireland, has produced the first evidence recognized in early medieval Europe for the making/modification of glass using primary raw materials. Going beyond the evidence for glass-working – the softening of glass to form and decorate artefacts – a series of sophisticated industrial processes can be identified, and shows that not all glass was imported to Early Christian Ireland.

Dykes have been described as travelling, running or linear earthworks. All these terms express their essential character, that of a bank, usually of earth but occasionally of loose stone, extending for a considerable distance across country. The existence of a bank presupposes an adjacent ditch from which its material was derived, and the descriptive term Ditch is as common as Dyke in the nomenclature of linear earthworks. Both terms have indeed a common origin.

The Romano-British settlement at Grandford lies northwest of the town of March, in the heart of the Fens of eastern England. It straddles the ‘Fen Causeway’, a Roman road that ran west—east across the Fens, and which probably originated at the legionary vexillation fortress at Longthorpe, near Peterborough, held between c. AD 48 and 61/62. Small-scale excavations between 1958 and 1968 demonstrated occupation for much of the Roman period, down to the later 4th century, beginning at least as early as c. AD 65 (Potter & Potter 1982). It was suggested on various grounds that the settlement niay have started life as a Roman fort, constructed in the aftermath of the great rebellion of AD 60-61, led by Boudicca, Queen of the Iceni (Potter 1981: 85-7).

In 1931 Vera Collum excavated the megalithic tomb at Tressé in Brittany, claiming that it had been built during the Roman period and was associated with the cult of the mother goddess. This article traces the course of her excavation and suggests a context for the reuse of Neolithic monuments in that area.

The archaeological record is dominated by the repeated object and the repeated event, so we search for patterns that explain the regular in general terms. But human societies are not like that; the mass is actually made up of individuals, and the engine of change more often at the margin than at the centre.

The end of the Cold War in 1989 prompted the opening of central European skies that had been closed to archaeological air photography for decades. The occasion of a summer school in 1996 provided the opportunity to record some results from Hungary.

One of the most spectacular of all the theories recently advanced in archaeoastronomy concerns the standing stones of Carnac in southern Brittany. The possibility that the famous prehistoric megaliths or ‘menhirs’ in this region represent the remains of an extensive, highly accurate lunar observatory has excited much interest in both academic and popular literature. In the company of two experienced archaeologists I recently set out to re-examine and record the field evidence on which the lunar observatory theory is based. The result of this work is to cast serious doubt on the theory, and to illustrate the difficulties of assessing the astronomy of the megalith builders.

That do we inherit from our Roman conquerors ? To this question some reply, ‘Little or nothing’, and some, ‘The seeds of culture and religion’. The point has been debated endlessly, because it is an important one, with Apractical bearings. It is difficult to reach a decision because the decisive period, between 400 and 600 A.D., is one of the darkest in our history. Was there a ‘break with Rome’ more or less abrupt and complete, or did the traditions of Roman culture survive? By a strange irony, the protagonist of the complete hiatus was the late Professor Haverfield, whose life's work—Roman Britain—still lives in our midst; whereas the writer of today who is most vociferous in support of continuity is Mr Hilaire Belloc; and Mr Belloc is associated in the minds of us a11 rather with the Dark Ages and their tumultuous wars than with the Pax Romana.