Dr Wells is an anthropologist who at present is working on the extensive series of skeletal remains from Thetford and from Caister, in Norfolk, which will shortly be published in two volumes of the Ministry of Works Archaeological Series. He is making a fresh study of the types, and relationships of all forms of early human remains in the British Isles, and it was during the course of this investigation that his interest in the neglected subject of cremations was aroused.LMOST nothing is known about early cremations and as a result of this our problem A (I) To try to find out something about the population with which we are dealing, the sex ratio, age at death, individual pathology and similar matters.(2) To throw some light on the techniques and rituals of the actual cremation. To illustrate the degree of our ignorance on this it is worth noting that there seems to be no clear account of any evidence to show whether a funeral pyre was built and the body placed on top of it, or whether the ritual required that the corpse was laid on the ground and the pyre heaped over it.This study is based on the examination of some cremated human bones of Early Saxon date (5th to early 7th century) found in an urn-field at Illington, Norfolk (Map Reference: O.S. I" Sheet 136-TL/949898) in 1950. The material was excavated for the Ministry oE Works in that year by Group Captain Guy Knocker and is now in the Castle Museum,, Nonvich (Accession Number 220.950). Of 212 urns recovered only 104 contained cremated remains and it may be said at the outset that for various reasons this material proved very difficult to interpret. In the first place there is the nature of the material. In most urns the bones were broken into very tiny fragments and this alone would have made identification a major problem. Many of the urns contain no single fragment more than a centimetre or two in length. Few contained anything more than 6 7 cm. long. Secondly, the majority of the pieces were distorted and often extremely so. Thirdly, the amount of surviving material varied greatly from one burial to another. Urn 153 contained only a single fragment; urn 126 contained 2863 and others perhaps even more. Fourthly, the absence of any adequate study of cremated remains with which our present material could be compared was keenly felt. And, lastly, the difficulty of making any controlled experiments on human cremations has proved a major handicap.The limitations imposed by the first three of these reasons were absolute and had to be accepted as the governing conditions of the investigation. The fourth was only relatively true. Cremations have been briefly noted and commented upon in the records of many excavations, but seldom have these comments consisted of anything more than an attempt to assign sex and age to an occasional urn full of remains. Only three studies were found to 29 resolves itself into two main divisions:

MATERIALTwo EGYPTIAN skeletons of the Dynastic Period are described: each shows anomalies compatible with the diagnosis of the basal cell naevus syndrome. They are in the Egyptian osteological collection of the Istituto di Antropologia, University of Turin (Cat. Nos. E225 and E 235), where one of us (M.I.S.) was carrying out research on an Italian Government scholarship in 1967.A curious and perhaps somewhat mystical coincidence is noted.

Partial myoepithelial differentiation is common in simple epithelial hyperplasia (epitheliosis) of the breast but functional myoepithelial differentiation with basement membrane production is exceedingly rare. A peculiar change of hyaline globules within benign epithelial hyperplasia has been recognised before as "collagenous spherulosis" and type IV collagen has been shown by immunohistochemistry. Another seven cases are described which show the presence of laminin and collagens IV and III within the proliferation. Electron microscopical examination of two cases using material retrieved from the wax block showed varying degrees of myoepithelial differentiation of the cells immediately surrounding the spherules and basal lamina material, including mature collagen fibrils in one case. The degree of myoepithelial differentiation of the cells surrounding the spherules seemed to correlate with the differing types and amounts of extracellular matrix in the spherule.Histopathologists should be aware of this rare change as it may be misinterpreted as in situ carcinoma. In 1987 Clement, Young, and Azzopardi described a peculiar change within the lumina of breast acini and ductules which they designated "collagenous spherulosis".l This change had been noted in referral material where it had occasionally been confused with malignancy, especially adenoid cystic carcinoma, and in archival material. The authors of this paper were able to show that the hyaline material within the intraluminal space was rich in collagen by conventional histochemistry, and in a subsequent letter they were able to show one component of basement membrane by immunocytochemistry.2 We present a further seven cases with immunohistochemical results showing the varying proportions of basal lamina proteins and interstitial collagens in the spherules. In two cases this was confirmed by ultrastructural examination of tissue taken from the paraffin wax blocks.

SummaryA multiple round barrow with three ditches and a double circle of stakes. The first phase was a bowl barrow with a buried inner ditch and a Beaker primary accompanied by a fine group of grave goods; the second phase was a ditchless refurbishing with a stake revetted mound for a cremation; the third phase was a bell barrow with an outer bank for an unaccompanied inhumation. There were at least twenty-two inhumations and one cremation interred over a time span of the order of 350 years.

The excavation of eighteen round barrows was undertaken by the late Charles Green during summer seasons from 1958 to 1960, in advance of their destruction by ploughing. The excavated barrows are members of two linear groups which occupy adjacent spurs to the east of the village of Shrewton in the modern parish of that name (fig. 1). One of the barrows investigated lies in Winterbourne Stoke parish. This western part of Salisbury Plain is termed the ‘Lower Plain’ comprising those areas having their ‘upper limit… between 400 and 450 feet OD and their lower limit where they overlook the valley trenches … between 250 and 300 feet O.D.’ (Gifford 1957, 6). In such a lower valley lie the modern villages of Shrewton and Rollestone, and through it flows the river Till, the nearest modern open water supply to the barrows. This connects the area to the River Avon via the Wylye and Nadder.