Antiq J 84

An unusual group of gold jewellery was discovered by a metal detectorist near Winchester in southern England in 2000. The hoard included two possibly unique massive necklaces made in a clearly classical style, but different from typical classical necklaces and from the torcs and collars of Iron Age Europe. The hoard also contained extremely rare gold versions of types of brooches commonly made in bronze and iron in north-west Europe during the first century BC, the end of the pre-Roman Iron Age. This paper describes these unique objects and the results of an archaeological investigation of their find spot. Detailed scientific analysis of the objects' technology has proven crucial for interpreting their origins and broader significance. Finally, the broader consequences of the find for interpreting the significant changes that took place in southern Britain in the century before the Roman conquest are discussed.

The origins of the Herefordshire School of Sculpture have traditionally been associated with Shobdon Priory, although both Leominster Priory and Kilpeck Church have also been suggested. This paper proposes that the origins of the Herefordshire School should be sought elsewhere, most probably in Hereford Cathedral. Recent studies tend to date the activity of the Herefordshire School earlier than was previously supposed, but it is here argued that these principal monuments of the School are actually later in date than the revisions suggest and that the Herefordshire School of Sculpture was active for around thirty years, into the early 1160s. The importance of lay patronage is confirmed, but scope for the influence of churchmen in the promotion of the School is also proposed. Some of the schemes adopted may have served to convey messages intended to help the church protect itself and its possessions in the turbulent times of the Anarchy.

The Swalecliffe Later Bronze Age well complex was reported in detail in volume 83 of the Antiquaries Journal (biab ref 2004/374). Application of dendrochronological dating and radiocarbon dating suggested that the individual wells were used in sequence over a period of around 500 years, from an origin probably in the late-thirteenth century BC to abandonment probably within the seventh century BC. The earlier phases (1--4) were dated mainly by dendrochronology, a 348-year sequence known as SWALECLF 1, whilst the later phases (5--7) were dated by a series of five radiocarbon dates. A second, undated 163-year dendrochronological sequence, SWALECLF 2, was considered to have been broadly tagged by a radiocarbon determination from phase 6 well 5033 to 1000-820 BC. English Heritage has commissioned and interpreted high-resolution radiocarbon dating of the SWALECLF 2 tree-ring sequence. The results of the `wiggle-match dating' of this sequence now confirm that the dated wood within well 5033 was intrusive. The new information has also provided accurate dating for well 5015 and its pottery well bucket, and therefore a modification of the site phasing is required.

Annotated transcript and translation of a Roman curse tablet found on the site of a rural Roman temple in 1963, which shows that the curse was prompted by the theft of woodcutting tools and protective clothing.

The only known illustrations of the lost Anglo-Saxon silver hanging-bowl from the River Witham, Lincolnshire, are those in the Society's collections, including a hitherto unknown sketch, published here for the first time. Further information concerning the bowl's pedigree, since its discovery in 1816, has also come to light, together with evidence for its survival into the twentieth century. Attention is also drawn to three recent finds of ornamental metalwork from southern Scandinavia of stylistic relevance to the bowl's internal decoration in the form of a free-standing animal.

The paper discusses the ceremony of the Loving Cup that follows the dinners of many City of London livery companies. It concludes that, far from being of Saxon origin, as has been widely believed, it was a Romantic revival of the late eighteenth century derived, almost certainly, from the medieval use of grace cups.