An occasion such as this is an opportunity for looking both backwards and forwards. I propose first to speak about the activities of our Society during the past year, and then, looking forwards, to throw out a few suggestions. In the second part of my Address I shall not confine myself to the work of our society, but shall review the present position and future prospects of archaeological air-photography. To do so implies an optimistic outlook that I am very far from possessing. Let us leave it at that.

It is usual and proper for a President either to eulogize his predecessor or else to say that he is too distinguished to need any such eulogy. There is no harm in combining both methods. It is now generally recognized that Professor Mahr, working in happy and enviable co-operation with the Government of Eire, and also with his scientific colleagues in Northern Ireland, has built up a thoroughly sound administration and that he has even found time for personal research as well. His Presidential Address, delivered last year, which you will now have had time to read in the pages of our Proceedings, gives proof of that.

Megalithic monuments take an important place amongst the relics of early civilization in Ireland, and within recent years efforts have been made to collect the much-needed information about their distribution and typology. Pride of place in this work must be given to Estyn Evans and others who have made important discoveries in the northern highlands, and have published a distribution map of the Segmented Gallery Graves (Horned Cairns) which they found in that area. The present paper endeavours to give a brief account of some recent work on Irish Passage Graves and to summarise the information available about this type of Irish chambered tombs, which includes such famous sites as New Grange and Dowth.

It is clear from the accompanying distribution map (fig. 1) that the primary settlement area of the Passage Grave builders was on the east coast, and here four foci as well as a number of scattered sites can be distinguished. These foci and the inland tombs derived from them may for convenience be called the Dublin, Boyne, Armagh, and North Antrim groups. A list of the tombs, together with map and bibliographical references, will be found in the Appendix to this paper (p. 247).

During recent excavations on Stockbridge Down a large sherd of Middle Bronze Age ware was found lying on a rabbit scrape on the open downland. The actual site of the find and of the excavation to be described is marked as X on the sketch map which accompanies this report (fig. 1), and which is based upon the excellent aerial photograph of the site published and described by O. G. S. Crawford and A. Keiller.

Little description of this ridge of the downs is needed. It is a very well known landmark for miles around, and consists of some four or five gorse and scrub covered knolls on elevated downland stretching from the Stockbridge-Winchester road to Woolbury Ring Camp. These knolls are capped with clay, but this does not extend to the saddlebacks connecting them where the short springy turf lies directly upon the chalk, and is separated from it by only some 8 inches of mould.

The site lies on the very top of one of these saddlebacks, and in the middle of a smooth area of downland bounded on the N.E. and s.w. by two of the scrub-capped knolls and on the N.w. and S.E. by ancient lynchets. From the number of scattered Romano-British potsherds in the immediate vicinity it would appear that it lies almost in the middle of one of the ancient fields, the lynchets of which are such prominent features on Stockbridge Down.

There are half a dozen barrows, now restored, on the heath called ‘Rechte Heide’ belonging to the municipality of the village of Goirle in the province of North Brabant, Holland, about 5 km. south-west of the town of Tilburg (fig. 1). The barrows stand on the east bank of the brook called ‘Oude Lei’ a little north of the ‘Rielsch Hoefke’ farm. Although their popular name is ‘De Vijfberg’ (The Five Mounds) in reality they number seven; six of these form a curve with the open side looking east, the seventh one lying a little further south. The height of the surrounding heath is about 20 m. above sea-level. It consists of Rhine-Meuse diluvium, belonging to the so-called high terrace, and it is fairly level.

Although more than once disturbed in the past the importance of this group was only perceived by W. J. A. and J. Willems during an excursion in 1935, when they observed that one of them (fig. 1, no. 1) was surrounded by a bank and ditch. The peculiar-form, recognisable at once from the outside (pl. XLIXa), is in my opinion that of a typical bell-barrow which made it at that time unique in Holland and, as far as I know, in the whole of the European Continent.

It is intended in this paper to describe briefly the occurrence and, to a limited extent, the variety of ornamented metal axes belonging to the earlier part of the British and Irish Bronze Age, rather than to publish the results of an exhaustive study, such as the present writers have had no opportunity of making. The present aim is to indicate in a general way the importance of these axes in the material culture of our Bronze Age, and that of Western and Northern Europe. The objects themselves have been well discussed up to a point by Wilde (51) and Evans (23), but without special consideration of the significance of their distribution and associations.

These ornamented axes, which are of the ‘flat’ or ‘flanged’ type, are apparently all of bronze. Some analyses have been made (3, 27, 42), but without spectrographic examination (48) it is difficult to draw any definite conclusions as to the source of the ores used or the place of manufacture. Open moulds for casting axes of the ‘flat’ form (e.g. pl. LIII, c, d) have been found in various parts of the British Isles, and their distribution is discussed on page 287.

The existence of two prehistoric sites close on the south-west side of Salisbury was first demonstrated by Mr O. G. S. Crawford, F.S.A., from a chance air-photograph taken by Pilot-Officer Jonas, R.A.F. (Antiquity, III, 452). They are now called Woodbury I and II from a field name. The smaller of the two sites, Woodbury II, was selected for excavation by the Prehistoric Society because its size (diameter 150 m.) made its complete examination financially feasible and its clear markings promised good results. The site lies in the parish of Britford on high ground overlooking the Avon valley from the south-west, one mile west-south-west of Britford parish church. The ground is flat about 280 feet above sea level, and the site is set well back from the edge of the descent into the water meadows of the valley.

It was tested in March 1938 by Mr C. W. Phillips, F.S.A., who proved that the dark band of the enclosure revealed by the air-photograph (pl. LVII) was a ditch of V-shaped section. His discovery of Iron Age ‘A’ pottery in the silting suggested that the site belonged to this culture.

The aim of the Prehistoric Society in undertaking the investigation of this site has been to excavate it in its entirety. Such a work might be expected to fulfil two objects:

(a) by excavating the site completely many problems raised by the numerous partial excavations of analogous sites might be solved. In particular, profiting by previous experience in Germany, it was hoped to reveal something of the nature of such settlements and of the social organisation which they imply.

(b) the investigation might be expected to throw some fresh light on the interpretation of markings on air-photographs.

The restricted area of the site and the shallowness of the surface soil revealed by Mr Phillips's test made it particularly favourable for this kind of work, while the strong probability of building development in the near future lent urgency to the task.

The authors of these notes acknowledge the ready co-operation of the numerous excavators who have contributed information concerning their work carried out during the present year.