Even if the number of bronze bowls which constitute one of the brightest spots in the art of our Dark Age had remained at the respectable figure at which it stood a few years ago, British art could still boast of having furnished a most valuable contribution to the art of the period. But when we find added to this number two splendid examples in the space of three years we may well wonder what fresh revelation of the art may still be in store for future discovery, destined to illumine further the mystery that surrounds them and their origins. In 1931 the archaeological world was delighted by the Winchester bowl, as much on account of its perfect state of preservation as for the intricate workmanship of the scrolled designs on its escutcheons, even though these belonged to a type already familiar from numerous examples discovered in the past. Even so the variety of the patterns offers, as Mr. Kendrick has demonstrated, a most fascinating problem, one which he has gone far to solve, and yet, as he would be the first to admit, there are many points in their history that still remain obscure.

During the summer of 1931 a set of air photographs was taken by Aerofilms, Ltd., under my instructions, covering the Roman walled town of Durobrivae and its surroundings, in the hope that marks in the crops might disclose the street system within the walls, as this had been very clearly visible from the air in the previous year. This expectation was not fully realized, although certain marks in the walled area appear to show some portions of the side streets which no doubt branched from Ermine Street in its straight course through the town, but very clear indications were given by the photographs of other Roman roads which connected with Ermine Street and with each other to the north and east of Durobrivae.

The occurrence of diminutive flint implements in certain industries of the Stone Age has been recognized for many years. Such specimens have been supposed to make their first appearance in the Upper Aurignac (Late Palaeolithic) period; to have extended sparingly through the Solutre and La Madeleine epochs; and to have become very numerous in the transitional industrial stages between the latest palaeolithic and earliest neolithic horizons. This, we think, is a fair statement of the opinion held by the majority of present-day archaeologists. There are, however, on record certain discoveries of diminutive flint implements in deposits older than those of the Upper Aurignac period. Search has been made for notices of previous discoveries, but material available is unfortunately small. In 1908 M. Eugene Pittard announced the discovery, in the valley of the Rebieres, Dordogne, of what he terms a microlithic industry in flint of Lower Le Moustier age. The site is in the open air, and the section exposed contained both Le Moustier and Aurignac levels of occupation. The microlithic industry was found at the base of the deposits, beneath Le Moustier horizons. M. Pittard figures some 40 specimens, and there seems no doubt that these represent very small but definite implements made to fulfil some special purpose. His excellent illustrations show that these resemble a series discovered in a dry valley to the north of Ipswich some years ago. These specimens will be described later, and possibly some of them are contemporary with M. Pittard's implements. The only other reference we can find to the discovery of very small implements before the Upper Aurignac period is in one of the many papers published on the remarkable finds at Chou Kou Tien, near Peking, China. In the limestone caves and fissures at this place have been found numerous fragments of skulls and jawbones of a primitive race of man to which the name of Sinanthropus has been given. Associated with these relics was a large number of stone implements, made of various rocks, of peculiar and somewhat unfamiliar types.

In the Antiquaries Journal for July 1934 (p. 292) the late Mr. P. A. S. Phillips remarked that some of the plate in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, is engraved ‘with the cipher L. D. under a royal coronet between palm leaves’. He assigned the cipher to James, duke of York, afterwards King James II, adding that all the plate engraved with it must have been given by James, not by Charles II, and that any pieces presented by him as sovereign ‘must have still borne the same cipher’. An editorial footnote comments that ‘there are reasons for supposing that this monogram stands for Lennox and Darnley, and was used by Charles, sixth duke of Lennox, 1639–72’.

Illustrating this paper are photographs of a number of pre-Conquest stones, probably fragments of cross-shafts, carved with conventionalized zoomorphic designs of a kind found mainly, though not exclusively, within the confines of the ancient kingdom of Wessex. A few tentative suggestions as to the date and stylistic origins of these carvings are here put forward, and a list is appended of all such stones of whose existence I am aware. The fragments at Glastonbury, Tenbury, and Shaftesbury have not previously been published, and I am indebted to Mr. A. W. Clapham and Dr. R. E. M. Wheeler for bringing them to my notice. The photographs were taken by Mr. Brian C. Clayton, whose death was a serious loss to photographic recording in the service of archaeology.

The site is in the parish of Playden, near Rye, Sussex, about 300 yards south-east of Mockbeggar House, and covers the top of a detached knoll which projects from the watershed between the Tillingham valley and the levels of Romney Marsh. The knoll is about 150 ft. above sea-level. No fewer than five springs rise within a short distance of the site (fig. 1).

The subsoil belongs to one of the geological formations of the Wealden series, viz., the Hastings Beds, represented at Mockbeggar by the Wadhurst Clay which contains extensive patches of sand and, in particular, pockets of a very fine white sand. One of these pockets is quite close to the site. It is of special interest that while the soil of the spur is mostly sand there is one protruding patch of hard yellow clay, and it is precisely on this patch that the prehistoric people formed their settlement.

Under the Wadhurst Clay, which here is only a few feet in thickness, there is over a hundred feet or so of sandstone forming the Ashdown Sands, well exposed at Point Hill in the parish.

The general expansion of interest in prehistoric archaeology has in recent years taken effect in Northern Ireland, where many rich fields await intensive exploration. A new phase of activity both among archaeological societies and independent workers has resulted in much promising research work. For the earliest periods held to be represented in the region Mr. C. Blake Whelan is contributing a series of papers to the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy on the results of his researches on Mesolithic questions, and several key sites were investigated in 1934 by the Harvard Archaeological Mission, working under Mr. H. L. Movius.

About 1540 John Leland wrote of the ruins of Old Sarum: ‘Ther was a paroch of the Holy Rode beside in Old-Saresbyri; and an other over the est gate whereof yet some tokens remayne. I do not perceyve that ther wer any mo gates in Old-Saresbyri than 2: one by est, and an other by west. Withoute eche of these gates was a fair suburbe. And in the est suburbe was a paroch chirch of S. John: and ther yet is a chapelle standinge. … Ther hath bene houses in tyme of mind inhabited in the est suburbe of Old-Saresbyri: but now ther is not one house neither within Old-Saresbyri, nor without it, inhabited.’ Since that date much work has been expended on Old Sarum itself, but it may be said with truth that the suburbs have received but scant, if any, attention.