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Philip Rahtz, one of Britain’s finest excavators and first Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, offers his perception of the development of theory, practice – and, especially, of medieval archaeology.

This paper discusses the significance of Glastonbury Tor in its Somerset landscape. The Tor is stepped in a series of terraces. Several suggestions have been made concerning the origins of these, from the differential erosion of geological strata to sacral pathways. The explanation most widely accepted is that they are lynchets of medieval date. Those on the upper part of the Tor are on very steep slopes, which would make cultivation difficult. If they are nevertheless lynchets, they imply an origin at a time of extreme land-hunger. A possible alternative explanation is that the terraces are at least in part of prehistoric origin, possibly of Neolithic date. It is proposed here that they represent some modification of the appearance of the Tor by stepping or sculpting its sides, thus enhancing the significance of what, even in its natural state, formed a major landscape feature of great importance in the mindsets of prehistoric people: a monument comparable to wholly humanly-made features such as ...

We are pleased to present this assessment of a recent seminar on West Heslerton, one of the key sites of Anglo-Saxon northern England, as a prelude to the impact of its publication.

THE FRAGMENTARY REMAINS of a lead plate have recently ban found in excauations near St Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale. North Yorkshire. An inscripton on it appears to refer to a reliquary, ossuary or ...

(1997). Thursday, 10 July 1997 All Saints' Church, Hovingham. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 154, New light on sites of old: Scarborough and the surrounding area. Proceedings of the 143rd Summer Meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute, 1997, pp. 282-289.

Small-scale excavations in 1976 demonstrated that the hillfort of Liddington Castle was first defended in the Late Bronze Age/Earliest Iron Age, though there had been earlier use of the hilltop. The initial defences were of timber and turf, later enlarged to a more massive dump rampart; there was evidence of at least two or three phases in these works. In the interior of the fort, a shaft of uncertain date was located, and a small pit or emplacement of the Early or Middle Iron Age. Test pits in the entrance area suggested a possible refurbishment. Finds include a useful group of pottery of the seventh—fifth centuries B.C., a group of probably associated flints, iron and copper alloy objects, human and animal bone, and mollusca. There were also a few Roman and later sherds; the discovery of the former was germane to the principal aim of the excavation, to test the hypothesis that the site might be identified as that of the Battle of Mount Badon. In pursuance of this aim, the report includes an extensive di...

The literature on watermills is extensive, and includes many papers on what is usually called the ‘horizontal’ mill, that is to say mills with a horizontal wheel and a vertical shaft, as against those with a vertical wheel and a horizontal shaft. It is here proposed that the type under discussion in this paper, sometimes called the ‘Norse’ or ‘Greek’ mill, should be called the ‘horizontal-wheeled’ mill, and the other the ‘vertical-wheeled’ mill.

A segment of earlier Bronze Age arable landscape incorporating isolated round barrows on the high chalk spur of Hog Cliff Hill became the chosen location for a later Bronze Age earthwork of considerable dimensions. The area excavated within the bank and ditch was densely occupied by two major phases of buildings of timber construction, lasting into the earliest Iron Age. Sometime during the early Iron Age the oval enclosure was replaced by a more substantial one which partly followed its line and contained a series of unusual structures comprising dry-stone flint banks or wall-footings. The site was subsequently abandoned, the land probably being returned to agricultural use, until the Roman period when the agger of the Roman road from Dorchester to Ilchester was constructed across the earthwork.

Excavators have been starting to use video as a recording tool. Here is a report on some experiences so far.

This report reviews and updates the evidence from the Roman temple site of Pagans Hill, Chew Stoke, North Somerset, which was partly excavated between 1949 and 1953. This includes a revised terminus post quem for the initial building of the temple complex of c. A.D. 262 and an emphasis of the importance of the location of the well on the axis of a planned layout. This is accompanied by a resume of a reassessment by George Boon of the sculpture of the torso of a dog found in the well in 1951; this was formerly dated to the sixteenth century, but is now redated to the Roman period, and assigned to a group of temple sculpture. This has also stimulated discussion about the dedication of the temple, possibly to Apollo Cunomaglus. There is also a new review by Professor Vera Evison of the Anglo-Saxon glass jar from the temple well and other comparable vessels.A further excavation in 1986 clarified certain ambiguous points in the earlier work, and added some new data, notably of prehistoric (Neolithic/Early Bron...

An account is given of the first stages of the concerted application of archaeological, architectural, and historical methods to the investigation of the church and its surroundings in the village of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. It is the intention of the investigators to record, and as far as possible to interpret, all stages of development of the building, from its earliest days down to the present, and to link those developments as closely as possible to the life and history of the surrounding district.

(1975). Western British, Irish and Later Anglo-Saxon. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 132, No. 1, pp. 349-361.

SummaryThis report describes the excavation of a small complex of earthworks on the Dorset chalk upland (fig. 1) associated with fields and droveways. Several banked and ditched enclosures were present, the main one of which contained two sub-circular houses. The lay-out of these houses may be ascribed largely to the Deverel-Rimbury occupation of the site, but the main earthworks of the farmstead are dated on the evidence of the pottery to the early Middle Bronze Age, if not to the Wessex Bronze Age. From the plans of similar settlements with fields and droveways, then thought to belong to the Late Bronze Age (but now assigned to the Middle Bronze Age), Curwen (1938) deduced the existence of settled cultivation with the two-oxplough. The use of some form of plough during the Bronze Age has since received confirmation from the discovery of marks of cultivation in the fossil soil beneath barrows and other monuments. The placing of the houses in hollows cut into the slope recalls the Itford Hill settlement (Hollyman and Burstow, 1958) and the enclosing ditches, the Cranborne Chase sites mapped by Mrs Piggott (1951). The round houses seem to be the universal type in the Middle Bronze Age of southern England and the farmstead with 2–3 houses is comparable with Thorny Down, Plumpton Plain, Trevisker (St. Eval) and Trewey, to quote only the better known examples. It is uncertain how far we should distinguish these from what appear to be villages with up to 20-30 houses, such as occur on Dartmoor (Radford 1951).

SummaryThis report describes sections cut through the Roman wall of Caistor, and includes a new survey of the outline of the walled area, as surmised from the evidence given by these sections and by field-work.

Archaeology in the West Midlands is a comparatively new subject. The great archaeologists of the 17th to the 19th centuries concentrated their efforts on the superficially richer areas of Wessex, Kent, East Anglia and the Westand North. This was especially true of the prehistoric and Roman periods. Indeed, the prevalent concept of the West Midlands as an area of continuous damp clay, where only heavy oak forests grew and which man, especially early man, tended to shun, was questioned only as recently as 1948. In that year, extensive evidence of settled occupation was advanced and the suggestion made that more work might change the prevailing picture. The medieval period was rather better served by the traditional art-historical studies of Midland castles, abbeys and churches, which used to comprise the study of medieval archaeology.

SUMMARYApart from a scatter of prehistoric and Roman finds, the first occupation of the Tor was in the 6th century A.D. There were traces of timber buildings of this date, with evidence of metal-working and considerable meat-eating. In the late Saxon or early medieval period there was a small monastic settlement, with cells cut in the rock, and possibly a timber church. Finally, in the late Saxon or early medieval period a stone church dedicated to St Michael was built on the summit: this was rebuilt at least once, and there was a priest's house lower down the slope. Notable finds include sherds of imported Dark Age amphorae, a small bronze head of similar date, and a wheel-headed cross of the 10th or 11th century.

(1961). An Excavation on Bokerly Dyke, 1958. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 118, No. 1, pp. 65-99.

(1965). Third-Century Counterfeiting at Whitchurch, Somerset. Archaeological Journal: Vol. 122, No. 1, pp. 13-51.