Two new finds (see Exhibits at Ballots, p. 461) of Middle Bronze Age weapons help document a tradition of ceremonial weapons in Britain and neighbouring parts of the Continent. Two distinct though small groups are represented, one—the Caistor St Edmunds-Melle series—being named for the first time. It is suggested that both series emerged during the Acton Park stage (1500–1350 BC), the Plougrescant-Ommerschans type having been elaborated from the already deviant Kimberley-type dirks, whilst the Caistor St Edmunds-Melle series were merely modifications of standard dirk and rapier types. Reasons for the emergence of explicit ceremonial forms are seen to lie in changing ritual needs and these are presented against a longer history of the ceremonial and ritual uses of metalwork. The ceremonial types under detailed consideration ceased during the Taunton stage (1350–1200), a late example of the phenomenon being represented by an exaggerated spearhead.

Two important new metalwork groups were exhibited at a Society of Antiquaries ballot (4 May 1989, Needham 1989a). They contain both bronze and gold metalwork including some types that are rare, or as yet unique. Consideration of these finds, along with other associations of Penard to Wilburton date (1200–900 BC), leads to the conclusion that the Wallington complex is best subsumed within Penard (1200–1000 BC) and has minimal overlap with Wilburton. It is acknowledged that Wilburton material shows contrasting regional distributions, but this is seen as resulting from the nature of production and social organization during the tenth century BC. Some discussion is given to the character of hoards in the important period of change from Penard to Wilburton.

Maiden Castle, situated 3km south-west of the centre of Dorchester, Dorset, is probably the best known Iron Age hillfort in Britain. Excavations by Sir Mortimer Wheeler were published by the Society of Antiquaries in 1943, and although he may have considered this report as incomplete his vivid interpretations caught the public imagination so that the results have found their way into archaeological texts and children's history books alike. The vast number of well preserved monuments close to Maiden Castle are also well known and have been carefully catalogued (RCHM 1970; Woodward 1991). However, the many excavations undertaken by the Trust for Wessex Archaeology in the area since 1984 have revealed an unprecedented variety of sites which allows a comprehensive picture of prehistoric land use to be created, placing Maiden Castle in a uniquely researched archaeological context (fig. 1).

By the end of the Roman period, and largely as the result of late Romano-British activity, somewhat over one-half of the tidal wetlands of the inner Severn Estuary between Gloucester and Awre had been embanked and drained. Little reclamation occurred during the medieval period, but early modern-modern times witnessed substantial further activity, leaving scant active salt marsh today. The Romano-British reclamations are recognized on the basis of archaeological evidence and, where direct evidence of settlement is lacking, by the degree to which the reclaimed areas are depressed below the level of the contemporary active marshes along the tidal river. Despite the similarity in the amount of available wetland on both banks, most of the Romano-British reclamations are to be found on the left bank of the Severn, and most of these carry a settlement directly on the alluvium. This distribution pattern points to significant differences in the organization and use of land between the two banks of the river and, when combined with other evidence, suggests that wetland reclamation on the left bank was mostly a feature of the development of large villa estates, with the alluvial settlements representing substantial, outlying farmsteads. Iron-making based on rich ores imported from the Forest of Dean occurred at all the wetland and near-wetland settlements on the two banks, and locally may have taken place on an industrial scale. At Awre on the right bank, however, an early iron-making tradition seems to have survived to a late Roman date.

In the past century there have been a number of proposed reconstructions of the First Church built in Venice to house the relics of Saint Mark, the Apostle. The proposal which follows differs from its predecessors in identifying the survival of the very large bulk of the original church. It holds that the ancient structure stands encapsulated within the surviving fabric (fig. 1) and thereby rediscovers, largely extant, the greatest Byzantine church of the Middle Ages, completed some time between 832 and 836 for Doge Giovanni Participacio (fig. 2). That church was generally held to have been destroyed by fire in 976, but rebuilt on similar lines by 978 only to have been taken down and rebuilt in its present form between 1063 and 1071 under Doge Domenico Contarini, the work continuing under Doge Vitale Falier. In the following account the Participaci church is described as the First and the Contarini-Falier church the Second. The intermediate reconstruction (976–8) is herein taken to have been a repair rather than a rebuilding. Finding that this first building still exists hidden within the second this paper suggests social reasons for its supposed loss.

In the Beauchamp Chapel of St Mary's, Warwick, lies the body of Lord Denbigh, son of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and of his wife, Lettice Knollys (pl. XXXVIIa). The tomb, unlike those of his parents, his uncle, Ambrose Dudley, or the original denizen of the chapel, Richard Beauchamp, warrants little mention in guides and histories, and yet the child who was buried there was for the course of his short life one of the greatest heirs in England, and his tomb embodies the contradictions and ambiguities of the English Renaissance attitude to children.

In the story of the survival and revival of glass-painting in post-Reformation England, York and Oxford play a significant part. York was especially important because it supported three important artists who helped to maintain the city as a major glass-painting centre, namely Bernard Dinninckhoff (fl. 1585-c. 1620), Henry Gyles (1645–1709), and William Peckitt (1731–95). Oxford's part lay in its patronage of glass-painters. Various colleges patronized foreign and native artists, in particular Abraham and Bernard van Linge, Henry Gyles, William Price and William Peckitt.

The marble monument of Tobias Rustat in Jesus College Chapel, Cambridge, has never been attributed to a designer or sculptor on documentary evidence. From a review of Rustat's career and connections, it can be concluded that Grinling Gibbons and his studio were responsible for it, with parts carved by Arnold Quellin and possibly John Nost.