456 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1940 



earthworks of prehistoric times in this country. The custom of 

 digging a circular ditch round a barrow or stone circle was not 

 unusual, and it has been suggested that the Ditch and Bank were 

 symbolical of a barrier beyond which it was tabu to pass. One 

 peculiarity in the case of Stonehenge is that the Bank is on the 

 inside, and not outside the Ditch. 



The Ditch has suffered very greatly in the flux of time from the 

 natural falling in of the sides, known as silting. AVhen freshly dug 

 it would have been 6 or 7 feet wide at the bottom and between 4 and 

 5 feet deep. Its dimensions vary between the above limits, and it 

 would appear from this that it was the Bank rather than the Ditch 

 which was the main object of the builders. It was in fact to gain 

 material for the Bank that the Ditch was dug. A glance at the plan 

 (omitted from this reprint) will also reveal two causeways where 

 the Ditch ceases, one on the northeast and the other on the south. 

 It will also be noticed that the Northeast Causeway does not lie in 

 the center of the line of the Avenue. 



Inside the circumference of the Ditch and Bank will be found a 

 series of roughly circular patches of white chalk, marking the posi- 

 tions of the Aubrey Holes, which were first scientifically recorded in 

 1920. The discovery was not absolutely a new one, for when Aubrey, 

 the antiquary, made his plan of Stonehenge in 1666, now preserved 

 in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, he indicated upon it certain 

 depressions at regular intervals inside the earthwork. Time had 

 obliterated these depressions when Colonel Hawley and R. S. Newall 

 began to investigate after consulting Aubrey's map at Oxford. In 

 all, 56 holes were located in the complete circle, and 32 of these were 

 excavated. They occur roughly at intervals of 16 feet and vary 

 little either in size or shape, being rather over 3 feet deep and 5 

 feet in diameter, all more or less circular. The solid chalk which 

 lies very close to the surface at Stonehenge, has in many cases been 

 crushed on the lip of these holes, which suggests that the uprights 

 which may formerly have stood in them have been pulled down. 

 Whether these uprights were of wood or stone is still a matter of 

 debate. That the holes contained uprights is beyond question. 



Nearly every one of the 32 holes examined contained cremated 

 human remains, and in three cases the cremation had taken place 

 in situ. It does not follow, however, that the cremations are of the 

 same period as the erection of the uprights ; there is, indeed, evidence 

 in one case that the remains were deposited after the removal of the 

 upright fi'om its chalk socket. 



A very interesting suggestion has been made that the Prescelly 

 stones originally formed this simple circle of unwrought stones, which 

 later on were removed and dressed, to be erected m their present 

 position within the circle and horseshoe of Sarsen Trilithons, 



