SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 365 



dolmens at Druid Stoke, Broadfield Down and other places, and the stone circles at 

 Stanton Drew. Bronze Age barrows abound on the high ground, and the well-known 

 Wick tumulus which has yielded beaker pottery, lies on the flat land near the Severn 

 channel to the north-west of Bridgwater. Pottery from the barrows may be seen in 

 the museums, and bronze implements are numerous. 



The Early Iron Age is represented by the Hallstatt or early La Tene settlement 

 on Little Solisburj' Hill, near Bath, by the later La Tene villages of Glastonbury and 

 Meare, together with the cave sites of Wookey Hole and Reads Cavern, and the 

 contemporary camps of Worlebury, Dolebury and Stoke Leigh. 



Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler. — A pre-historic, Roman, and post-Roman 

 Site in Gloucestershire ; the Excavaiions at Lyclney. 



Mr. R. W. M. Wright. — Celtic and Saxon Bath. 



History and legend are inextricably intermixed in the origin of Bath, and the 

 pages of medijeval romance ascribe Bladud as the eponymous hero and Celtic founder 

 of the 'Waters of the Sun.' The treasure of. Bath's medicinal springs was known 

 throughout the Bronze and Iron Ages, and successive waves of Celtic colonisation 

 brought Aquae Calidae into parallel importance with the lake villages of Glastonbury 

 and Meare. Extensive territorial settlements existed on the surrounding hills, and 

 well-defined trackways across the Avon valley led to the ancient site of the Hot 

 Springs. These springs were presided over by a divine tribal patroness, Sul Minerva, 

 accompanied by the practised rites of heliolatry. Without doubt the Avon valley 

 was first occupied by the Romans in a.d. 54-68, and for a period of three hundred 

 years the city of Aquse Sulis gradually developed as a spa. Evidence from extant 

 monuments reveals several assaults on the town by Goidelic tribal hordes, and early 

 in the fifth century the Romano-British inhabitants were scattered to the surrounding 

 hills after a raid on the district by the Scots. A century later Gildas presents in quasi- 

 legendary form the battle of Mons Badonious about a.d. 516, when the series of 

 sporadic Saxon invasions were checked. In a.d. 577, however, the City of the Waters 

 (Akemancester) fell to the sword and firebrand of the Saxon, its destruction being 

 lamented in a ninth-century poem ' The Ruin ' in the Codex Exoniensis. Bath 

 soon rose from the vale of desolation with a canton population, and early in the 

 seventh century Christianity became firmly established in this district. St. Gregory, 

 Maeldruib, St. Aldhelm and others visited this Saxon city, and in a.d. 676 Osric 

 founded the first monastery on the lower slopes of Lansdown. Offa in the following 

 century established a Collegium on the site of the present Abbej', which became the 

 most celebrated monastery in the province of Wiccia. The Saxon burgh with its 

 Abbey was adopted into the province of Wessex by Alfred the Great, its transportation 

 being signalised by a meeting of the Witan within its newly-built walls in a.d. 901. 

 Here Edward the Elder estabhshed a Mint, which continued until the reign of Henry I. 

 The golden age of Saxon Bath was reached in a.d. 973, when Edgar was crowned 

 in the small Saxon Abbey in proximity to the ever-rising hot springs. 



Mrs. B. Clifford. — Report on the Barnwood Discoveries. 



About thirty j^ears ago a gravel pit was opened in a 40-acre field 2 miles N. of 

 Gloucester on the Roman highway known as Irmin Street, which leads from GJloucester 

 (Glevum) to Cirencester (Corinium) and on to Silchester and London. In the lower 

 levels of these Jurassic debris gravels occur numerous teeth, tusks and bones of 

 Rhinoceros tichorinus and Elephas primigcnius. About ten years ago an implement 

 of late Acheulian or early Mousterian date was found. The brick earth has j-ielded 

 a fine Mousterian point and other implements of upper Palaeolithic date. In 

 these levels Tardenoisian implements have also been found. On the surface Neobths 

 have turned up in large quantities. A beaker burial was found in 1928, a La Tene II 

 burial in 1927, and near by two groups of cremation burials of pre-Roman date. 



In 1918 a cutting was made from the road, and it was quickly seen that a Roman 

 cemeterj' had been found, enclosed by trenches. The portion excavated (modern 

 buildings prevented complete investigation) contained over 100 skeletons and between 

 60 and 70 cremation graves, many of which were accompanied by cooldng pots and 

 water bottles; brooches, a mirror, scale armour, beads, &c., occurred in small 

 quantities. So far as can be ascertained from the pottery, &c., the cemetery ceased 

 to be used after 200 a.d. 



