Society of Antiquaries of London Occasional Papers

('Early' here means 4th to 12th centuries AD.) Wooden foundation rafts (from Roman forts to minster apses at Winchester and York) and intra-mural ties, often jointed into floor-joists (Bridgnorth castle, Lewes priory) decayed so slowly that the masonry was not weakened. The considerable use of visible collars to resist either tension or compression across arches, domes and vaults in early churches is studied. Timber's flexibility (particularly in compression) and lack of corrosion products made it preferable to iron, except on aesthetic grounds. D F R

Contains: Introduction and concluding remarks, P-R Giot (pp 1-2, 108); Barry Cunliffe (3-23), Relations between Britain and Gaul in the 1st century BC and early 1st century AD, Patrick Galliou (24-36), Days of wine and roses? Early Armorica and the Atlantic wine trade; D P S Peacock (37-42), Amphorae in Iron Age Britain: a reassessment [olive oil imports pre-Conquest?]; I M Stead (43-66), Some notes on imported metalwork in Iron Age Britain [some British-made? some more recent 'imports'?]; Loïc Langouët (67-77), Alet and cross-Channel trade; Alain Duval (78-91), Regional groups in western France; Daphne Nash (92-107), The basis of contact between Britain and Gaul in the late Pre-Roman Iron Age.

British contributions are: Roger Mercer (pp 8-24), A view of British archaeological field survey [stresses urgent need for development of skills of analytical field survey; 'type' of monument as straitjacket; case studies on multiphase long cairns]; David Hall (25-44), Survey work in eastern England [techniques used in Cambs, Northants, Yorks; early prehistoric settlement in Northants as example]; Brian Simmons (45-50), Fieldwork techniques in the Lincolnshire Fens 1968-78 [eg how to choose fields to survey]; Nicholas Johnson (51-66), Archaeological field survey: a Cornish perspective [sites and monuments record, data storage and retrieval, research strategy; Bodmin Moor and W Penwith examples]; Vince Gaffney & Martin Tingle (67-73), The Maddle Farm (Berks) project and micro-regional analysis [RB villa complex at Upper Lambourn; stresses need to examine artefact discard patterns off-site, etc].

In the volume `Introduction' Kenneth </ze> Painter (vii-viii) explains that the book is a result of a conference held in 1987 in honour of Dr Donald B Harden, who has worked on glass for many years. A full bibliography of his publications from 1926-88 is presented in `The works of Dr Donald B Harden' compiled by Martine S </ze> Newby (xi-xxix).The papers concentrate on glass tablewares of the first century BC and the first century AD, as a subsequent seminar held in Cologne dealt with the second to sixth centuries AD (published in Kölner Jahrbuch für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, 22, 1989, 1-203). The first paper covers `Early Imperial Roman cast glass: the translucent coloured and colourless fine wares' by David F </ze> Grose (1-18) who describes the vessels which are characterised by angular, lathe-turned forms, novel use of colour and the highest standards of craftsmanship. The coloured class, which was probably made in Italy, is found in Italy and the northern Roman provinces, including Colchester in England. Under the Flavians there was a shift towards colourless tablewares which are found throughout the western and eastern Empires, including Fishbourne villa and St Albans in England.`Cameo glass' is discussed by David </ze> Whitehouse (19-32). The production of cameo glass was limited in the Roman period and this paper describes the characteristics of early Roman cameo glass and suggests how it was made. One of the best known examples of cameo glass is described in `The Portland Vase' (33-45). Kenneth Painter & David B Whitehouse consider the interpretation of the scenes on the vase and the questions of who may have made it and who it was made for.`The invention of blowing' is considered by Yael </ze> Israeli (46-55), who suggests that it took place around the middle of the first century BC, somewhere in the eastern littoral of the Mediterranean. He then goes on to present a possible reconstruction of how small glass bottles were formed by blowing glass tubes which suggests how the idea for glass-blowing was conceived. Jennifer </ze> Price contributes `Decorated mould-blown glass tablewares in the first century AD' (56-75) in which the chronology, manufacturing traditions and distribution of this type of vessel are detailed. `Syrian elements among the glass from Pompeii and Herculaneum' are described by Lucia A Scatozza </ze> Höricht (76-85), and Friederike </ze> Naumann-Steckner writes on `Depictions of glass in Roman wall paintings' (86-98).`First-century cantharoi with a stemmed foot: their distribution and social context', which include fragments found at Colchester, are reviewed by Sophia M E </ze> van Lith (99-110). In `Roman glass with decoration cut in high-relief' Axel </ze> von Saldern (111-21) emphasises that practically all glass up to Roman Imperial times imitates more expensive stone and metalware, but as many of these objects have now perished this is not often appreciated. The shapes, motifs of decoration, application techniques, distribution and date of `Early enamelled glass' are summarised by Beat </ze> Rütti (122-36). The production of enamelled bowls and amphorisks reached its height in the mid first century AD, but seems to have ceased by c AD 70.`The contribution of Masada to the history of early Roman glass' is described by Dan P </ze> Barag (137-40). In `Early exports beyond the Empire' (141-54) E Marianne </ze> Stern concentrates on glass from Arikamedu in India, making a distinction between imported objects and objects made on the spot. MH