Antiq J 82

Reports on some of the activities which have been undertaken by Society of Antiquaries of London during the previous year. Also relates some of the of the Society's history.

Studies British personal seals which depict Christological designs. Attempts to integrate the seals into the broader area of study of late medieval Christocentric devotion.

Largely historical. Reports five illustrations of the feretory which appear in the margins of Cambridge Trinity College MS R 5 16, put forward as a unique visual record of a major monument of English Gothic metalwork.

Relates the history and architecture of Sizergh Hall, near Kendal, Cumbria. Although the building has a medieval core, the house that exists today is substantially the work of Walter Strickland (1516--69). Suggests that the enlarged house reflects the concern for privacy and segregation that characterised the age. Parts of the house were altered during the eighteenth and nineteenth-centuries, but much of the integrity of the mid-sixteenth-century building still survives.

Reconsiders excavations at the Roman town of Silchester, Hampshire, undertaken by the Society of Antiquaries between 1890 and 1909 in the light of recent re-excavation of insula IX. Discusses the excavation methodology of trial-trenching followed by area excavation of masonry buildings. Estimates that c. 95% of the archaeological resource survives for future research. Includes separately authored reports on:

Largely historical. Suggests that the name of the British people in the Leicester region could be interpreted as `host of (the region of) many rivers'.

Reports on a decorated copper-alloy example, discovered in 1993 and one of only two such finds on the British Isles.

An excavation in 1985 adjacent to the church in Kinghorn Street, Smithfield, Greater London, resulted in the discovery of two pieces of a medieval painted stone. The stone originally formed part of a wall painting depicting a figure on a pedestal. It was later re-used in the construction of a sixteenth- or seventeenth-century well. The fragment is now in the Museum of London where the two halves have been rejoined and other conservation work undertaken.

Discusses two monographs which focus on Cadbury Castle, in the light of a third which considers emerging user needs in archaeological publication. The author contrasts the two approaches to reporting archaeological work at Cadbury, suggesting that Alcock's account is essentially a traditional fieldwork report while Barrett's seeks to address, if pre-emptively, some of the issues raised by Jones et al. Reviews: From the ground up: the publication of archaeological projects. A user needs survey, 2001, by S Jones, A MacSween, S Jeffrey, R Morris & M Heyworth; Cadbury Castle, Somerset. The early medieval archaeology, 1995, by L Alcock, S J Stevenson & C R Musson; and Cadbury Castle, Somerset. The later prehistoric and early historic archaeology, 2000, by J C Barrett, P W M Freeman & A Woodward. See also 2001/916 & 96/515.