Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphiets, and Articles. 147 
when the skeleton was interred in the silting—as has been found so often 
to be the case. The chipped celt he regards as being of the Bronze Age. 
The General next describes the extensive excavations on Handley Hill and 
Down, Dorset, begun by him in 1893. The entrenchment here was a small 
rectangular earthwork, of very low relief, which could never have been a 
work of any importance—resembling a number of similar square-shaped 
earthworks on the downs to the north of the Wansdyke and elsewhere in 
Wilts and Dorset. After a careful survey of the entrenchment as it existed, 
the whole work, ditch, rampart, and interior space was trenched over down 
to the original undisturbed chalk. The evidence as to its age was not 
conclusive. A silver denarius of Trajan was found on the original surface 
line wnder the.bank—but the bank itself was of such very slight elevation, 
less than 1 foot, that the coin might have worked down subsequently from 
the surface. In the body of the rampart and silting of the ditch, again, a 
considerable number of fragments of Romano-British ware were found, 
whilst in the area of the camp the pottery was British, and not Romano- 
- British: On the whole the evidence points, perhaps, to the construction of 
the camp in late Celtic or early Roman days. 
; A pit near the entrenchment was next excavated, and was found to be 
» Aft. deep and 8ft. in diameter, with a step cut in the chalk on one side. 
_ The bones of a skeleton, which must either have been placed here as bones, 
or the body must have been cut up-before burial, were found in the pit. 
The same fact was noticed in other interments described in this volume. 
The General considers that these pits are commonly of late Celtic or early 
‘Roman date. Five smaller pits on the down close by were also excavated. 
General Pitt Rivers calls attention to a fact worth knowing—that, even 
when there is no trace on the grass-grown surface of the down of the 
existence of a previous excavation, it may be discovered by hammering 
the turf with a pick or other instrument—the sound given out by ground 
once disturbed being much deeper than that of undisturbed chalk. In 
this manner the ‘Angle Ditch” on Handley Down was found, and 
excavated. The General regards this ditch, originally 63ft. deep, as having 
been dug to protect, or drain—perhaps both—the inhabited area inside it. 
Bronze Age pottery, with a palstave, razor, and awl, proved the ditch to 
be of that period. A considerable area in the neighbourhood of this 
_ ditch was trenched carefully, and much pottery, both British and Romano- 
_ British, was found. 
Close by is the great Wor Barrow—now proved to be a Long Barrow 
of the Stone Age people—and two smaller Round Barrows, opened without 
_ success by Sir R. C. Hoare. * These Round Barrows were again opened 
_ by General Pitt Rivers, who once more proved the very superficial character 
_ of his predecessor’s excavations—finding in one of them portions of two 
crouched skeletons of the Bronze Age with a shale “slider” near the hip 
of one of them, and a secondary interment of the Roman Age, with iron 
coffin nails, in the ditch of the other barrow. This ditch, varying from 
- 2ft. to 4ft. in depth, was very irregular and had evidently been dug merely 
_ to obtain material for the heaping up of the barrow. 
_ The most important excavation, however, recorded in this volume is that 
OL. XXX. NO. XC. K 
