Medieval Antiquities Research Articles

M. C. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine And Early Medieval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Vol. 2

M. C. Ross, Catalogue of the Byzantine And Early Medieval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Vol. 2

Department of British and Medieval Antiquities British Mmuseum, W.C.I. Officers and Council

"Department of British and Medieval Antiquities British Mmuseum, W.C.I. Officers and Council." Journal of the British Archaeological Association, 30(1), p. 164

Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection. I. Metalwork, Ceramic, Glass, Glyptics, Painting. II. Jewelry, Enamels and Art of the Migration Period. By Marvin C. Ross.

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsCatalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection. I. Metalwork, Ceramic, Glass, Glyptics, Painting. II. Jewelry, Enamels and Art of the Migration Period. By Marvin C. Ross.Philippe VerdierPhilippe Verdier Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Archaeology Volume 71, Number 2April 1967 The journal of the Archaeological Institute of America Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2307/502015 Copyright © 1967 by the Archaeological Institute of America. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Marvin C. Ross: Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Vol. II: Jewelry, Enamels, and Art of the Migration Period. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1965. 144 pp., 107 pls. (8 in colour). $10.

Marvin C. Ross: Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, Vol. II: Jewelry, Enamels, and Art of the Migration Period. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1965. 144 pp., 107 pls. (8 in colour). $10.

Dumbarton Oaks Collection. Catalogue of the Byzantine and early mediaeval antiquities. I. Metalwork, ceramics, glass, glyptics, painting. By M. C. Ross. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. 1962. Pp. xv + 115. 65 plates + 1 in colour. $10.00.

Dumbarton Oaks Collection. Catalogue of the Byzantine and early mediaeval antiquities. I. Metalwork, ceramics, glass, glyptics, painting. By M. C. Ross. Washington: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. 1962. Pp. xv + 115. 65 plates + 1 in colour. $10.00.

Some Byzantine Churches from the Pontus

The Byzantine antiquities of the Pontus have received little more than a passing glance from either travellers or archaeologists. With the exception of the town of Trebizond, the monuments of which have now been subject to study in some detail, and the monastery of Sumela which has always attracted the attention of travellers, the only published works on the subject are the article by Professor Talbot Rice containing the results of his survey journey in 1929, and the book which he wrote in co-operation with Millet. The “Studia Pontica” of Cumont and Anderson is concerned primarily with classical antiquities although Cumont in his section makes frequent reference to medieval antiquities; and the “Church of Trebizond” by the last Metropolitan of the town, Chrysanthos, is concerned more with history than with descriptions of the monuments. The not inconsiderable body of travellers to Trebizond and eastern Turkey went there, for the most part, by sea and followed one or other of the branches of the caravan road running south-eastwards to Erzurum, and on into Persia and Central Asia. It may, however, be of use to bring these accounts up to date in so far as we have followed in the footsteps of earlier travellers.

Note on an early Anglo-Saxon square-headed brooch from Canterbury

In 1942 the generosity of the Trustees of Henry Christy enabled the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities at the British Museum to acquire an Anglo-Saxon square-headed brooch of considerable interest (pl. VII a and fig. 1), said to come from the Martyrs' Field, Canterbury. It is of silver-gilt and 8–5 cm. long, with decoration first cast and then touched up by the chisel.

Two plates from a late Saxon casket

Two unique pieces of Late Anglo-Saxon silverwork of outstanding interest have recently been purchased by the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum. The pieces are plates from a house-shaped casket, or shrine, of a well-known British type. They formed part of the collection of a Sussex doctor and were purchased from him by the dealer who sold them to the Museum: they are unfortunately unprovenanced, but from external evidence it seems likely that they formed part of a Victorian collection. One of the pieces is rectangular and measures 12.6×5.2 cm., the other is rhomboid and measures along its longest side 12.1 cm., they differ also in their ornamentation which is carried out in a shallow carving, or graving, technique. (pl. v a).

British and Medieval Antiquities, 1753-1953

British and Medieval Antiquities, 1753-1953

Department of British and Medieval Antiquities

Department of British and Medieval Antiquities

Four Keepers of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities

Four Keepers of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities

Prehistoric Sites on the North Cornish Coast between Newquay and Perranporth

The following paper is to record certain prehistoric remains in an area already famous for the seventh-century oratory of St. Pieran. Several years ago I commenced a rough survey of the whole district and discovered (within an approximately twelve-mile radius) occupation sites yielding relics of Mesolithic facies and Iron Age and Medieval antiquities. Most of the remains are associated with the extensive tracts of blown sands that lie behind and on either side of the bays of Holywell and Perran. It was the widespread surface occurrence of potsherds and kitchen-midden material within the area that pointed to the possible existence of the habitational sites lying beneath them. Accordingly I dug trial trenches at several widely separated positions, and nearly all these exposed remains of shallow shell-middens.

Mr. R. A. Smith

WE regret to record the death, at the age of sixty-six years, of Mr. Reginald A. Smith, formerly keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum, which took place at Colchester on January 13.

Mr. T. A. Joyce, O.B.E.

THE approaching retirement, to take effect early in August, is announced of Thomas Athol Joyce, deputy keeper in charge of the Sub-Department of Ethnography of the British Museum (Bloomsbury). Mr. Joyce was educated at Dulwich and Hertford College, Oxford. He was appointed in 1902 to the staff of the British Museum in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography, of which Mr. (later Sir) Charles Hercules Read was then keeper. Mr. Joyce during the Great War was attached to the War Office on the General Staff (Intelligence), attaining the honorary rank of captain, and being awarded the O.B.E. in 1918. In 1921, he was appointed deputy keeper of his department, and on its reorganization was placed in charge of the Sub-Department of Ethnography in 1932. In his departmental work, he had specialized in the ethnography of the peoples of Africa and the antiquities of America. His three books on the archæology of South America, Mexico and Central America, appearing between 1912 and 1916, in which the evidence available up to that time was analysed critically, secured his position as an authority among scholars in both the Old World and the New. Consequently Mr. Joyce was inevitably chosen to lead the expeditions sent by the British Museum to British Honduras in 1925 and succeeding years up to 1931, to excavate the ruined Mayan cities of that region. In addition to a large number of contributions to the publications of learned societies and the more serious of the journals devoted to the arts, such as the Connoisseur, Mr. Joyce was the author, in collaboration with Mr. E. Torday, of “Les Bushongo”(1910), of a valuable little book on Mayan Art (1927), and of the official guide to the ethnographical collections of the British Museum (1910). He held office as honorary secretary of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 1903-13, for two terms as vice-president, and as president (1931-33), and was president of the Anthropological Section of the British Association in 1934.

R. L. Hobson, C. B

MR. ROBERT LOCKHART HOBSON, keeper of the Department of Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography of the. British Museum (Bloomsbury), will retire on July 20. Mr. Hobson, who was educated at St. John's, Leatherhead, and Trinity College, Cambridge, taking a first class in the Classical Tripos in 1893, joined the staff of the British Museum in 1897, when he was attached to the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography. Specializing in the study of ceramics, his early published work dealt with English pottery and porcelain, but later he directed his attention to the ceramics of the Far East, on which he became one of the first authorities in Great Britain, especially in the broader cultural aspects of the subject. His "Chinese Pottery and Porcelain"(1915) was followed by a number of volumes of both special and general interest, such as "The Wares of the Ming Dynasty"(1923), "The Art of the Chinese Potter"(1923) and "The Later Ceramic Wares of China"(1925); but his most considerable production was his authoritative "Catalogue of the Eumorfopoulos Collection"(1925-28). He was also the author of the official guide to the collections of Far Eastern pottery in the British Museum (1924). Mr. Hobson became deputy keeper of his Department in 1921, and on its reorganization some years later as the Department of Oriental Antiquities and Ethnography, was appointed keeper. He received the honour of C.B. in 1931.

<italic>Viking Settlers in Greenland and their Descendants during Five Hundred Years.</italic> By P<sc>oul</sc> N<sc>örlund</sc>, Keeper of Mediaeval Antiquities at the Danish National Museum, with a Foreword by Ellis H. Minns Disney Professor of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge. Translated from the Danish by W. E. Calvert. (Cambridge: University Press; New York: Macmillan Company. 1936. Pp. 160. $4.25.)

Journal Article Viking Settlers in Greenland and their Descendants during Five Hundred Years. By Poul Nörlund, Keeper of Mediaeval Antiquities at the Danish National Museum, with a Foreword by Ellis H. Minns Disney Professor of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge. Translated from the Danish by W. E. Calvert. (Cambridge: University Press; New York: Macmillan Company. 1936. Pp. 160. $4.25.) Get access Viking Settlers in Greenland and their Descendants during Five Hundred Years. By Nörlund Poul, Keeper of Mediaeval Antiquities at the Danish National Museum, with a Foreword by Minns Ellis H.Disney Professor of Archaeology in the University of Cambridge. Translated from the Danish by W. E. Calvert. (Cambridge: University Press; New York: Macmillan Company. 1936. Pp. 160. $4.25.) Halldór Hermannsson Halldór Hermannsson Cornell University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 43, Issue 3, April 1938, Pages 591–593, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/43.3.591 Published: 01 April 1938

Mr. T. D. Kendrick

MR. THOMAS DOWNING KENDBICK, who will succeed Mr. R. A. Smith as keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum, has been an assistant keeper in that department for some years. Since the publication of his first book “The Axe Age”, Mr. Kendrick has been recognized as an archaeologist whose views are original, but at the same time carefully observant of the limitations of the evidence. Of recent years Mr. Kendrick has made a special study of the form and technique of the Celtic or British decorative art of the Iron Age and the British and Scandinavian art forms of the early historic period, on which he has contributed a number of papers to archaeological publications. Among his more important published works are “The Archaeology of the Channel Islands”, of which one volume only has as yet appeared, “The Druids”, “ History of the Vikings” and “Archaeology of England and Wales, 1914-1931”, the last-named in collaboration with Mr. C. F. C. Hawkes. He is also the editor of that valuable and scholarly series, “The County Archaeologies”.

Mr. R. A. Smith

MR. REGINALD ALLENDER SMITH, who retires from the office of keeper of the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities of the British Museum (Blooms-bury) on January 4, has held that appointment since 1928. Mr. Smith had had a long period of previous service in the Department as assistant keeper, entering it when, under the late Mr. (afterwards Sir) Charles Hercules Read, it still included the exhibits in ethnography. Although the whole field of British prehistoric archæology lies within the range of Mr. Smith's expert knowledge, it is more particularly on the palæolithic period and the Iron Age that he is regarded as of the highest authority, and that on certain classes of disputed questions his judgment has been in a sense a court of final appeal. Of the official guides and other publications of the British Museum, of which Mr. Smith is sole or part author, the catalogue of the Sturge collection of stone implements is perhaps of the most enduring value to the student. Mr. Smith is not only the author of a large number of the archaeological chapters in the various volumes of the "Victorian History of the Counties of England", but he has also made numerous valuable and authoritative contributions to the literature of archaeology in the pages of learned and scientific publications dealing with the subject, more especially those published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, of which society he has acted as secretary and for some years past has been the director.

Derbyshire Caves Exhibition

ON behalf of the Derbyshire Caves Exploration Committee appointed by the British Association, Mr. Leslie Armstrong has excavated Pin Hole, a cave in Creswell Crags inhabited in Upper Palaeolithic times and exceptionally rich in prehistoric remains. A preliminary report was published in the Transactions of the Hunter Archaeological Society, 4, part 2, with av diagram showing the brick-earth, red above and yellow below, which underlay the present stalagmitic floor, with layers of slabs fallen from the roof marking periods of exceptional cold. The palaeolithic cultures ‘represented are Le Moustier and Aurignac, the latter persisting through the glaciation associated elsewhere with La Madeleine; and the fauna shows severe and temperate conditions alternating. There are chipped pebbles of quartzite, and flint implements of excellent workmanship, nearly all with white patina; also slight engravings on bone, a bone blade regarded as a bull-roarer, as well as a cowrie shell and piece of mother-of-pearl. Mr. Armstrong has also excavated Mother Grundy's Parlour in the same valley, and published an account in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 55, Jan.-June 1925, with eight pages of careful drawings of the stone implements mostly of Aurignac types, but with a micro -lithic industry in the uppermost layer, and chipped quartzite at the base. The cave-earth of the Parlour has large stones from the roof incorporated throughout, not at intervals, and shows the same difference in colour as Pin Hole. Engravings of animals on bone in the Aurignac style and the best of the finds from both sites are now exhibited in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities at the British Museum, near the top of the main staircase, and will, by the kindness of Mr. Armstrong, remain there for the rest of the year.

Palæolithic Gravels of Farnham

FOLLOWING the exhibition of Miss Garrod's finds on Mount Carmel, a series of flint implements has been arranged at the British Museum to illustrate the sequence of industries in the terrace-gravels south of Farnham, Surrey. Two cases at the head of the main staircase, in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities, contain not only a number of accurately located specimens in the Sturge collection as presented by Major A. G. Wade, but also maps and diagrams showing the terraces of the Wey and the Pleistocene history of the Farnham branch of that river. The area has been recently surveyed by the Geological Survey (“The Geology of the Country around Alder-shot and Guildford, 1929”), and Mr. Henry Bury's papers in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society and Proceedings of the Geologists' Association have been freely drawn on in order to explain the importance of this area for the dating of terrace-deposits and the classification of implements. It may be eventually possible to identify these four levels with the recognised sequence of terraces in the middle and lower Thames; and the local river-captures should explain the presence of some typea and the absence of others in the Blackwater and Wey valleys. This exhibition will remain open until the middle of July.