The following paper is the first published account of an excavation that took place at Stonehenge during April 2008. As this was the first excavation to take place within the stone circle for some forty years, the excavation has attracted an uncommon degree of interest, hence its publication in the Antiquaries Journal as an interim account of work in progress, in the form of an edited transcript of a paper first given at the Ordinary Meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 9 October 2008. The paper explains that the 2008 excavation set out to date the construction of the Double Bluestone Circle at Stonehenge and to chart the subsequent history of the bluestones and their use at the monument. Evidence is presented for a provisional working date of around 2300 bc for the construction of the Double Bluestone Circle, while it is argued that the history of the site is far more complex than has been allowed for in existing interpretations, with a multiplicity of overlapping and intercutting (though not continuous) events, including substantial late Roman, medieval and early modern activity. The excavated material, and the evidence from the surviving stones, supports the suggestion that bluestones were brought to the site because of their perceived special qualities, perhaps for their supposed healing properties, and that some knowledge of those qualities remained current in later times with the result that in excess of two-thirds of the original bluestone volume has now disappeared.

According to the latest collation of the Nabonidus Chronicle, a reference is made to Cyrus the Great wearing an ‘Elamite’ garment during the investiture ceremony of Cambyses. This study examines the likely characteristics of this garment in the light of a recent study of seventh- and sixth-century bc Elamite elite garments. Within this context it is suggested that the Chronicle may have done no more than state the obvious. In 538 bc, Cyrus went to Babylon clad in (traditional) Elamite (style) attire. This ceremonial garment is to be identified with a fine (perhaps cotton-made) fringed robe decorated with bands, including golden bracteates.

The chance discovery in 2007 at Pentire, on the outskirts of Newquay, Cornwall, of a leaded bronze neck-ring offers an opportunity to update our knowledge of other neck-rings of the ‘Wraxall’ class, predominantly from south-western Britain. The shared metallurgy and stylistic similarities of the neck-rings confirm previous opinion that the ‘Wraxall’ class belongs to a period when indigenous communities were being influenced by provincial Roman technology, while maintaining elements of indigenous art forms.

The decorative motifs of palmettes and interlocking S-patterns on the Battersea Shield have a clear place in a well-understood tradition of Celtic art, while the plan of the shield – its schema – has not had such a place. Its essential form is a deliberately constructed configuration crafted specifically by a constructional geometry, within a tradition which persisted and later pervaded Insular art.

A figurine unique for Roman Britain is described and analysed, showing that its attributes conflate those of several classical deities, all of whom might have been associated in the mind of the donor with the Romano-Celtic goddess, Senuna.

Gough’s second edition of Camden’s Britannia contains a description of a gold Roman coin-ring from Benniworth, Lincolnshire, identified as a counterfeit of Probus. Re-examination of the evidence suggests the coin may have been an aureus of Geta.

The Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia has a Celtic name, sometimes explained as ‘land of dwellers in mountain passes’. But this analysis suggests a fiercer interpretation: ‘land of piercers of battle-lines, territory of those making gaps between enemy warriors’.

This paper reports on the excavation of a small, but high-status, later seventh-century Anglo-Saxon cemetery in Ely. Of fifteen graves, two were particularly well furnished, one of which was buried with a gold and silver necklace that included a cross pendant, as well as two complete glass palm cups and a composite comb, placed within a wooden padlocked casket. The paper reports on the skeletal and artefactual material (including isotopic analysis of the burials), and seeks to set the site in its wider social and historical context, arguing that this cemetery may well have been associated with the first monastery in Ely, founded by Etheldreda in ad 673.

The Pillar of Eliseg, originally an ambitious round-shafted cross, stands on a barrow near the Cistercian abbey of Valle Crucis. It was carved with a lengthy inscription, now illegible, but transcribed in 1696 by Edward Lhuyd. Two copies have survived, enabling a reconsideration of the significance of the inscription. This article reassesses the history of the monument, its archaeological context, form and function. The inscription shows that the cross was erected by Concenn, ruler of Powys (d ad 854), to honour his great-grandfather, Eliseg, who had expelled the Anglo-Saxons from this part of Powys. The inscription also links the rulers of Powys with the Roman usurper Magnus Maximus and the sub-Roman ruler Guarthigirn. It is argued that the inscription was intended to be read out loud and that the monument was an important piece of public propaganda erected at a time when the kingdom of Powys was severely under threat.

In the nineteenth century, a red sandstone figural carving was located in the south-facing chancel wall of the church of St John the Baptist, Upton Bishop, near Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire. In 2005, following the removal of the stone for recording and conservation, the author was invited to examine and report on the sculpture, and particularly to review the proposal that the sculpture, rather than being of Roman date as had traditionally been supposed, was more probably a Romanesque carving of the twelfth century. The characteristics of the Upton Bishop carving are here examined and the various attributions of dating are reviewed, as a consequence of which it is suggested that the sculpture is neither Roman nor Romanesque in date, but rather is of pre-Conquest origin, most probably of around ad 800. It is thus suggested that the Upton Bishop sculpture represents a significant addition to the corpus of Anglo-Saxon figural sculpture in Herefordshire and the western Midlands, that the characteristics of the sculpture suggest well-established traits forming part of a local style and that these were taken forward into the Romanesque period, thus contributing to the distinctive character of the Herefordshire School of sculpture.

The three-storey rotunda at Dijon, built by William of Volpiano and consecrated in 1018, has been reduced to its crypt, but an impressive pair of capitals survive adjacent to the burial place of St Bénigne. In modern times these capitals have repeatedly been described as full of monsters, and their significance for Romanesque sculpture has consequently been neglected. Enough remains of their dense, three-dimensional sculpture for them to be identified as representing, in fact, a lesson commonly read in masses for the dead. Numerous saints and martyrs were marked by burials in the crypt or by altars in the rotunda. All Saints’ Day was celebrated on 1 November, so that the main feast day of St Bénigne was transferred to 2 November. About 998, the commemoration of All Souls, also on 2 November, had been introduced by Odilo, Abbot of Cluny, and is likely to have been adopted by Abbot William. The text from 1 Thessalonians suggests the imaginative use of the rotunda’s vertical dimension, at this particular season and others.

Kenilworth, though a castle in name, was converted by Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, into the first great Elizabethan progress house. This article aims to provide the first thorough account and assessment of his architectural works at Kenilworth. It is based primarily on the author’s long acquaintance with the castle’s building fabric, supplemented by the opportunities afforded by the recent programme of works undertaken by English Heritage and by new documentary information. Among the discoveries are several works (previously attributed to Leicester) which can be assigned to his father, the duke of Northumberland (c 1553) and also evidence for an early phase of work for Leicester himself (c 1568–9).

His most important architectural achievement, Leicester’s Building, is shown to have been built specifically to accommodate Queen Elizabeth, and the functions of its rooms are reconstructed. Evidence is assembled to show that Leicester’s Building was erected between 1570 and 1572, in anticipation of her 1572 visit. Archaeological analysis of its standing fabric shows that it underwent considerable modification subsequently, presumably in readiness for the 1575 progress. The physical evidence for Leicester’s other architectural works at the castle is assessed, including the remodelling of the great tower and the south and east ranges of the inner court.

The reasons for Leicester’s grand scheme are considered, as well as the importance of his architecture in the period and the roles of his architects and craftsmen, particularly William Spicer. It is argued that Leicester’s Building was the prototype for the midlands ‘high house’ (of which Hardwick New Hall is the best-known exemplar) and was probably the most significant model for the eclectic, linear style which came to dominate great houses in the second half of Elizabeth’s reign.

Copyhold tenure for a number of lives, regulated by manorial custom, was by far the most common form of landholding throughout much of the West Country during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and was only gradually replaced by leaseholds for a term of years during the eighteenth century. Manorial custom, the body of local law and traditional usage, hallowed by long use and enforced in the manorial court, governed all aspects of farming practice, transfer of holdings, entry fines, rents, heriots, rules of cultivation, access to common grazing, wood, stone, fuel and the rights of widows. This paper uses examples from Wiltshire and Dorset to show the great variety of manorial customs, the effect these had on the lives of copyhold tenants and the problems which some long-established customs could cause for landowners.

The genesis of this paper lay in the 2007 Tercentenary celebrations of the Society of Antiquaries and the challenge of compiling a tour of the premises used by the Society for its meetings prior to the Society’s move into a permanent home at Somerset House in 1780. The first part of the paper deals with the competing claims of the Bear in the Strand and the Young Devil taverns as the location for the foundation meeting of the Society of Antiquaries in 1707. The second part examines the evidence for the precise locations of these two taverns, a subject curiously neglected by antiquaries, together with an attempt to determine the character of the taverns. The paper then considers the demise of the 1707 Society and examines the evidence for the claim that 1707 marks the foundation year of the present Society of Antiquaries. Reference is also made to the other known meeting places of the Society up to 1718.

The name of Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) is well known in scientific and exploration circles – he is undeservedly much less well known as an antiquary. This study considers his roles in relation to the premier antiquarian society of the time, the Society of Antiquaries of London. Using the Society’s records, Sir Joseph Banks is considered as an ordinary Fellow, as a member of Council, as an auditor of the finances and as a scrutator at elections. The relations between the Royal and Antiquarian Societies on first moving into Somerset House and the contemporary question of whether they might have merged is also examined. Joseph Banks’s role in the circumstances of the three contested presidential elections of 1785, 1799 and 1812 is especially considered, and these are seen not just to represent internal squabbling amongst the Fellows, but to reflect the wider social and political strains of the time. In producing the narrative of these elections, significant past mistakes are corrected. Lastly the relationship between George iii and the Society of Antiquaries is touched upon.

The medieval history of the celebrated tomb of King John at Worcester is now well known. The works of Charles Alfred Stothard at the beginning of the nineteenth century, of William St John Hope in the early years of the twentieth century, and that of Jane Martindale at the end of that century, are highlights along the road of our understanding of the royal effigy in its medieval context. But all the while this work of comprehension was going on, those who had a duty of care over the tomb were engaged in a battle to offload that responsibility. The authorities at Worcester were not alone in wondering who should carry the burden of caring for royal monuments in English cathedrals. As early as 1841, the question of the care of royal tombs in Westminster Abbey had come under Parliamentary scrutiny. The deans and chapters at Canterbury and at Gloucester also sought government subvention for the care of the royal tombs in their cathedrals. The history of this debate about the care of royal sepulchral monuments forms the wider framework for the main theme of this article, which is an examination in detail of the ways in which King John’s tomb at Worcester was treated between 1872 and 1930. It reveals a remarkable story in which a catalogue of disastrous decisions came to give us the tomb and effigy as we have them today. The article concludes with a short discussion of the introduction of the 1990 Care of Cathedrals Measure which established the structures that currently exist (with subsequent amendments) for the preservation of Anglican cathedral churches in use.

Found in 1897, the important collection of Late Antique silverware known as the first Lambousa treasure (to distinguish it from a second find of Lambousa treasure made in 1902) was acquired in part by the British Museum in 1899. This paper reconstructs the history of the discovery of the first Lambousa treasure and the circumstances of its removal from Cyprus. Research for the paper has brought to light hitherto unknown documents, and throws new light on the collection of antiquities in the early modern era and the politics, attitudes and personalities involved.

This paper reviews the contribution of Professor Christopher Hawkes, FSA, to the development of Bronze and Iron Age studies in the decades before and – more especially – after World War ii. It also provides an overview and analysis of the Hawkes Papers, kept in the Bodleian Library, and particularly of the general correspondence section, with a view to assessing the potential of this documentation for the study of the development of British prehistoric archaeology within its European context. Examination of the first thirty-one boxes of the archive situates Hawkes at the interface between several networks of individuals and communities of interest, including amateurs, professional archaeologists and his own students.