418 Oliver's Camp, Devizes. 



foot below it at the same spot.^ The deepest find of Roman 

 remains in the silting of any of the ditches, except the great 

 eastern ditch, where the conditions were exceptional, were the two 

 fragments of Samian in the southern ditch at depths respectively 

 of 2ft. Bin. and 2ft. 9in. In the deep eastern ditch, which, as 

 described below, has the appearance of having been purposely 

 filled in, sherds of pottery that are undoubtedly Eoman formed 

 the majority of the relics down to a certain depth in the ditch, but 

 below this depth, marked off by a dark seam, not a fragment of 

 Roman pottery was found, although in the 30ft. section there was 

 a fair average quantity of other pottery. 



Beneath the ramparts, in the deeper silting of the ditches, and 

 at the bottom of one of tlie holes at the entrance, pottery was 

 found which is of a Late Celtic type. It is, of course, very 

 difficult to be sure that pottery of a Late Celtic type was not 

 made in the Roman period, and it is only in the absence of un- 

 doubted Roman relics that it can safely be looked upon as of pre- 

 Roman date. In the ramparts and in the deeper ditches at Oliver's 

 Camp this condition was entirely fulfilled. 



There is certainly nothing in the structure or arrangement of 

 the camp to lend weight to the supposition that it is of purely 

 Roman origin ; and with pottery of a pre-Roman type in the 

 ramparts, and in the lower excavations with Roman pottery above 

 it, the consideration of a post-Roman date may, we think, be safely 

 dismissed. 



It seems, therefore, that there is a reasonable weight of evidence 

 to justify the conclusion that the camp is of pre-Roman date, and 

 to show that the ditches had already become much silted up before 

 that people had arrived upon the scene. 



Having come to the conclusion that the camp is of pre-Roman 

 date, what is there to show to which pre-Roman period it probably 

 belongs ? In addition to evidence of pottery found in the ditches 



' Coins, small pieces of pottery, &c., could easily get into the ground even 

 deeper than these by means of sun cracks. On this soil the ground cracks 

 so much as to be a well-known source of danger to young partridges, &c., 

 which sometimes fall into cracks 2ft. deep and are unable to get out again. 



