592 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 



Mr. H. Field. — The Field Museum-Oxford University Excavations at 

 Kish, 1927-28. 



Saturday, September 8. 



Excursion to the Lanarkshire and Peeblesshire Cultivation Terraces 

 described in Prof. T. H. Bryce's paper (Monday, September 10). 



Monday, September 10. 



Presidential Address by Sir George Macdonald on The Archaeology of 

 Scotland. (See p. 142.) 



Dr. Arthur Kaistrick and Miss S. E. Chapman. — The Lynchet Systems of 

 Upper Wharfedale, Yorkshire. 



In the part of the Wharfe Valley from the source of the river to the neighbourhood 

 of Bumsall, about 18 miles, the traces of occupation from early Iron Age to Saxon 

 and Mediaeval times are very complete, but hitherto largely undescribed. A number 

 of caves aSord a full suite of late glacial and post-glacial mammaUan remains, 

 associated in Elbolton, Dowkerbottom and Calf Hole Caves, with NeoHthic and 

 Bronze Age man. In Dowkerbottom Cave an occupation throughout Iron Age and 

 Romano-British times has been proved by Prof. Poulton and other workers, while 

 Dr. Eliot Curwen has recently {Antiquity, June 1928) drawn attention to the Celtic 

 cultivation areas near Grassington. 



On the plateaux of the first limestone scarp above the river and glacial lake flats 

 areas of Celtic lynchets have been examined in seven locahties, while numerous 

 barrows of two principal types (mound and disc barrows) occur in the same area. 

 Roman pottery and coins have been collected from many of these sites. From the 

 second to the eighth or ninth centuries there is a complete break, and from the ninth 

 century onwards the AngUan settlers cultivated the lower land between the first 

 scarp and the river flats, making settlements at most of the now existing villages. 

 In this area the strip lyiichet fields are almost perfectly complete, and have been 

 mapped along with field names, &c., for all the area. The parish of Kilnsey with 

 Conistone is chosen as a complete example of an AngUan village organisation which 

 persisted through the Norman period into the fifteenth century. The completeness 

 of the lynchets over the whole of the north-west Yorkshire dales has enabled some 

 evaluation of the Domesday carucate for this area. 



Prof. T. H. Bryce. — Terrace Cultivation in Scotland. 



The object of this paper was to direct attention to certain groups of terraces in 

 Southern Scotland regarding the nature of which there is difierence of opinion. 

 Examples occur at various sites in Peeblesshire, on Arthur's Seat in Midlothian, at 

 Dunsyre in Lanarkshire, &c. They have been known for long, but archaeologists 

 have not given much attention to them. The most artificial-looking group is that 

 at Romanno, the most striking series that at Dunsyre. The question at issue is 

 whether they are natural formations or cultivation terraces constructed at some 

 unknown period of the past. It is probable that all do not belong to the same category. 

 No excavations adequate to permit of definitive conclusions have been carried out. 

 It is suggested that a commission of archaeological and geological experts should be 

 formed to investigate these terraces thoroughly. It is probable that many examples 

 of the same class remain unknown. An inquiry into their distribution, classification 

 and nature would be of interest, but such an inquiry must be one conducted by a 

 committee quahfied to deal both with archaeological and geological evidence. 



Mr. J. Graham Callander. — Relative Levels of Land and Sea in Scotland 



from an Archaeological Point of View. 



Archaeological evidence suggests that since Azilio-Tardenoisian times there have 

 been two distinct general land movements in Scotland, at least in the western parts. 



