Welsh Journals

REVIEWS THE IRON AGE IN THE IRISH SEA PROVINCE. Edited by Charles Thomas. Council for British Archaeology Research Report 9, London, 1972. Pp. vi, 112. £ 1.50. This book originates in a C.B.A. conference, held in Cardiff in 1969; the editor and contributors are to be congratulated on the rapidity with which the proceedings have been published. As in all books of this type, the contributions are selective and uneven: major topics, such as decorated metalwork and tribalism, are only discussed incidentally. We have studies of the Welsh hill-forts from Mr. A. H. A. Hogg and Mr. S. C. Stanford, and a survey of their Irish counterparts from Mr. B. Raftery. Professor Greene studies the chariot, as described in Irish literature, Professor Thomas contributes a brief note on souter- rains, and Mr. E. Rynne discusses Celtic stone idols in Ireland. Authoritative introductory and concluding chapers are provided by Dr. J. Raftery and Mr. L. Alcock. Some points made by the contributors are especially noteworthy. Dr Raftery, in directing our attention to the platinum content of some goldwork of Irish provenance, underlines the need to reconsider the origins and manufacture of these objects. Mr. Hogg's discussion of hill-forts, by picking on small, selected areas, ignores abrupt regional variations which can sometimes be detected (e.g. in the Vale of Clwyd) and are surely attributable to chronological and/or tribal differences. He also overlooks the occurrence in coastal areas of north-west Wales and penetrating inland, up the river valleys, of relatively weak, small, bank- and ditch-forts, at least one of which (Pen Dinas I) must be early. Mr. Stanford's discussion of the border hill-forts and their culture is comprehensive, but the native element, particularly in the Bromfield pottery, is insufficiently stressed. Mr. Raftery's survey of Irish hill-forts shows how much we have learnt about this topic in the past twenty years, while Professor Greene's paper is authoritative and stimulating. Mr. Alcock rounds off a masterly survey with a stout defence of the invasion hypothesis. The whole conference was clearly worthwhile and the published proceedings are a notable contribution to scholarship. R. G. LIVENS Bangor. THE CELTIC CHURCH IN BRITAIN. By Leslie Hardinge. S.P.C.K., 1972. Pp. xx, 265. £ 3.50. It would be charitable to suppose that the index to this book was compiled not by the author but by an assistant of some kind, for how otherwise are we to understand 'Kentingern', 'Lanfrance', and 'Lavrentius', not to mention David, 'King of Wales' (what would Giraldus Cambrensis not have given for that!) and Malachy O'Morgair, 'bishop of Rome'?