A search for early antiquarian records of Irish finds has revealed much fresh information in the Minute-books and other archives of this Society, giving excellent records of hitherto unpublished material, and adding new information on already known objects. The material discussed was found mainly in the half-century from 1720 to 1770. Prominent Irish antiquaries and antiquarian societies of the period are mentioned, and a discussion of their views on this material is included.

Two spectacular gold objects, a fibula with wreathed bow found in Co. Galway, and a Melfort-type armlet found in a burial-cist at Whitfield, near Waterford city, are illustrated, and the valuable associative and contextual evidence from the Society's archives is cited and discussed. Drawings and descriptions of several other objects, mainly of gold and bronze, are also given.

The active investigation of this rather neglected avenue of discovery has yielded good results, and is a potentially valuable source of new archaeological material and information.

The paper pleads for an end to persistent misuse of the traditional ‘Three Age’ terminology which still governs the Irish British Bronze Age, and for acceptance of work of the past decade which has either been ignored or misunderstood. Uniform terms of reference are needed, fitted to the new attitudes. Hawkes's Scheme of 1960 provides a framework for this, and is summarized. The Early, Middle, and Late divisions now have a techno-typological, rather than cultural, basis.

Traditional cultural and ceramic concepts, based on typology, have resisted changes demanded by a new emphasis on the evidence of associated finds. The various Urn forms and the Deverel—Rimbury complex are particularly relevant here. Associations of Urns, and the few available C14 dates, are examined to demonstrate their existence in the Early Bronze Age, but, because of a remarkable ritual break at c. 1400, not in the Middle Bronze Age, let alone the Late Bronze Age. Similarly, Deverel—Rimbury is now Middle Bronze Age, not Late Bronze Age, its position after c. 1000 uncertain. Since much in our Iron Age is now thought indigenous, already apparent in Deverel—Rimbury, an awkward Late Bronze Age gap is opened up, apparently devoid of settlements and pottery. But much nominally Iron Age material may prove to be Late Bronze Age. There is a need for many more C14 dates to clarify these problems.

Continued excavations at South Cadbury in July-August 1968 discovered Early Neolithic pottery and flints beneath the Iron Age ramparts and thereby hinted at a 20-acre embanked settlement. Four or five structural phases were revealed in the Iron Age ramparts themselves, the first a timber-revetted bank, the second a stone-faced wall, and the later ones more indeterminate. Within the defences storage-pits, circular houses, and a possible shrine were explored. Wall-trenches for a prefabricated rectangular building may mark a brief Roman military occupation, and the trench for one wall of a probable fifth—sixth century A.D. building was also discovered. Examination of the later phases of the south-west gate showed that a well-built Æthelredan entrance had been savagely slighted, probably under Cnut, and had then been overlaid by a crude drystone gate. Finally, on the summit was found a rock-cut foundation trench of the twelfth or thirteenth century, apparently for a projected castle.

A petrological study of the rock inclusions present in Early Iron Age Glastonbury ware suggests that the raw materials for pottery making were not usually obtained on or near the find-sites, but from specific localities throughout south-western England. Since each of the petrological groups has its own range of typological traits there is reason to believe that the completed pots, rather than the materials, were transported, suggesting the activity of specialist potters working from production centres. The relevance of the new evidence to the origin of the decorative styles and the cultural interpretation of the pottery is briefly discussed.

The area-excavation towards the centre of the fort has shown that well-defined traces of occupation exist, ranging from the Roman period to the early nineteenth century. The nature of the Roman occupation, though still uncertain in many aspects, is becoming much clearer and can now be divided into phases tentatively linked to a broad historical framework. Early in the fifth century settlement of Germanic type appeared, with which was associated a gilded bronze disc of apparently sub-Roman form. Then followed more regular Saxon occupation, beginning in the late fifth or early sixth century and probably continuing to the eighth or ninth century. The late Saxon period provides a very detailed picture of a hall with its ancillary buildings, land boundaries, and rubbish-tipping area, all of considerable potential significance on more than a local scale. The later periods are more sporadically represented, but interesting correlations can be made between the archaeological evidence and contemporary documentary and graphic accounts.

To understand the internal landscape of the fort more clearly it is evident that much more of the central area will have to be fully excavated and this will occupy most of the effort throughout the next five seasons' work. At the same time it is planned to continue with the investigations of the Priory and the Castle, and to devote some time to the outstanding problem of the defences.

Intensive recent field-work in the Upper Nene valley has located many new kiln sites. Twenty, in an area about eight miles by six, are surveyed in this paper, and their products studied and illustrated; distribution of the products is shown, provisionally, to be purely local. A group of kilns excavated in 1962 at Ecton is reported on in full. Four updraught kilns of varying forms fired the work of at least two potters in the second and third centuries A.D. ; this included flagons and mortaria. The industry locally dates from the mid first century A.D. and flourished into the second; a recession in the third century was apparently followed by complete breakdown in the fourth. This perhaps reflects competition from potteries of the Lower Nene around Castor, as occupation of domestic sites continued unabated.

Circular soil marks were shown by excavation to mark the line of the ditches of two ploughed-out barrows one of Early Bronze Age Wessex II date, the other Saxon. The grave of the Bronze Age barrow contained a cremation with a pair of bone tweezers. The ditch of the Saxon barrow was interrupted by a causeway and evidence is adduced for an external bank and a small internal mound similar to that of prehistoric disc barrows. The grave was very large and contained the skeleton of a male individual equipped with a hanging bowl containing onions and crab-apples, seax, a shield with sugar-loaf boss, two spears, a buckle, and a bone comb. The burial is of seventh-century date and the seax is of special significance because of the elaborate nature of its scabbard fittings.

The bronze horse figurine found at Birkwood, Lanarkshire, Scotland, is described, and found to compare closely with horse figurines from Hallstatt, Upper Austria. These in turn relate to figurines decorating bronze vessels in Etruria, and in Greece, especially at Olympia in late Geometric contexts. Considerations bearing on horse-trading along the Adriatic, and the dissemination of ideas about racing trophies, are discussed. The occurrence of Hallstatt exotics in Scotland is summarized, but it cannot be established that the Birkwood figurine was an ancient import as it was a stray find.