In 1932 Professor Christopher Hawkes, in collaboration with the late Sir Thomas Kendrick, produced Archaeology in England and Wales 1914-1931, a book for many years the standard and much-loved textbook for all students of ancient Britain. Here, more than half a century later he reviews Archaeology in Britain since 1945,* edited by Ian Longworth and John Cherry, published by the British Museum in conjunction with, and as a supplement to, its current exhibition, ‘Archaeology in Britain: New Views of the Past’ (Editorial, p. 169).

The interaction between man and his environment, which is the basic principle of the science of Geography, is well-illustrated in a study of house-types in Wales. A detailed survey of Welsh house-types is being carried out by the Department of Folk Culture of the National Museum of Wales. It is felt that a study of the traditional types will not only throw much light on the history of culture but will also clarify some issues in the anthropological and archaeological field. This paper may be considered as a brief interim report of part of the survey, supplemented by some material already recorded.

The September Editorial (68: 477–9) noticed how the Normandy invasions of D-Day 1944 are, and are not, archaeologically visible. The author of the pioneering book on the pillbox defences of Britain in the Second World War explains what little there is surviving in southern England. Static defences, we see, leave traces in a way a mobile attack does not.

The earliest names of Britain known are Celtic. We know that the islands were inhabited before the coming of the Celts, but nothing about the language of the earlier inhabitants or the names by which they designated the islands.