MAM TOR, NEAR CASTLETON. 29 



When we find, as at Mam Tor, the artificial banking carried 

 round the hill, which within the enclosure rises rapidly to a 

 hog-back ridge, we may judge that the work is of earlier date 

 than those more regularly-formed examples where the banking 

 surrounds a flat-topped hill suitable for a " camp '' or military 

 post. The entrance way, at " C " on the plan, is quite in accord 

 with the methods used in early fortifications, and as there is 

 no reason to suppose that the cutting through the protection, 

 at " B '' on the plan, is original, we may assume " C " to have 

 been the only entrance of any importance. 



We have, then, this fortress placed on a hill nearly a thousand 

 feet above the dales, with but one track to its entrance, and 

 that a path of precipitous character, easily obstructed from 

 above; these facts, in addition to the ridged nature of the 

 enclosed land, lead to the conclusion that this, like so many 

 hill forts, was a camp of refuge rather than a continuously 

 occupied oppidmn, for we cannot imagine the tribes who toiled 

 in the vales ascending and descending such a hill in the ordinary 

 course of their daily lives. 



The iiimidi are probably burial barrows, but their presence 

 in no way suggests the occupation of the fortress for the constant 

 dwelling-places of the living, but rather the contrary, for we 

 know the habit of early men was to bury their dead upon lonely 

 heights. 



Often we find hill forts devoid of water supply, suggesting 

 the parallel case of some New Zealand fortresses, formerly used 

 by the Maories, up to which, it was the duty of the women of 

 the tribe, to carry water to cisterns therein, for days before it 

 was anticipated that the refuge would have to be occupied 

 {see vol. xxiii. p. 113). But on Mam Tor, close to the western 

 defence, there is a spring which must have been of extreme 

 value to the refugees and their flocks. No doubt, some method 

 was adopted by which sufficient water could be held back within 

 the ramparts, and the surplus carried off by a culvert, but, 

 in later ages, the water has broken through the ramparts on its 

 way to the Edale Valley, as shown at " D '" on the plan. 



