PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 19 



ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Owing to the energy and erudition of our Editor we have 

 this year not only got a volume of Proceedings which holds 

 a worthy place in our long series, but have had the life doings 

 of our ancestors in those early times, which it is part of the 

 object of our club to investigate, presented to us in such a 

 realistic form that those who saw the Pageant at Pydeltrent- 

 hide last July will have a new and lively interest in the flint 

 implements and other relics of a bygone age that are so often 

 presented to our notice. Further light has been thrown on 

 the structure and use of Maumbury Amphitheatre by the 

 renewed course of excavations last year, of which a full account 

 by Mr. St. G. Gray will be found in our Proceedings. Other 

 excavations have in Cyprus brought to light what is believed 

 to be a temple of Venus, of much interest ; in Sardis a large 

 temple and other portions of the city as well as statuary and 

 gold ornaments ; at Knossos a great reservoir with a spiral 

 staircase round the sides, a paved way and tombs, one of which 

 was apparently made to resemble a house of the living, 

 with stone benches ; in Pseira, Crete, the remains of a small 

 ancient town, with roads only five feet wide and small houses 

 containing fine art treasures. In Egypt a tomb has been 

 discovered of very early date, said to be the earliest private 

 tomb to which a date can be assigned, containing a granite 

 sarcophagus, the mummy in which had been stripped of its 

 flesh and had every bone wrapped separately in linen, which, 

 it is presumed, was the custom at that period. What are 

 stated to be the earliest British worked flints have been found 

 near Ipswich in gravel of pre-Crag age. They are described 

 as being well chipped, and showing scratches, which 

 may be caused by glacial action ; but whether 

 they will be generally accepted as human work 

 remains to be seen. A cavern in Jersey has yielded remains 

 of human habitation as well as of rhinoceros, reindeer, &c. 

 This seems to be the first discovery of Pleistocene Mammalia 

 in the Channel Islands. From comparative measurements of 



