ON THE 



PRE-SAXON OCCUPATION OF THE 

 MIDDLE COTTESWOLDS 



BY 



JOHN SAWYER 



In hroad outlines, the natuie and extent ot" the 

 occupation of the Middle Cotteswold area before the 

 coming of the English are well known. Camps and 

 implements and burial mounds tell of tribal dwellers in 

 pre-historic times ; roads and villas and divers remains 

 reveal a complete and prolonged colonization in the palmy 

 days of Rome. During the last few years the outlines 

 have bit by bit been filled in, and a fairly good picture is 

 now presented of what manner of men they were whose 

 records we trace before and at the dawn of Cotteswold 

 history. 



Ethnologists are now agreed in dividing the primitive 

 races of mankind into tw^o ages, for w^hich Sir William 

 Dawson suggests the names Palanthropic and Neanthropic* 

 and Mr Horace B. Woodward the terms Palaanthropic 

 and Mesanthropic,t as being more scientific than the terms 



""The terms 'Paleolithic' and 'Neolithic' are objectionable, as implying tluit 

 these ages can be best distinguished by the use of certain stone implements, which is 

 not the fact." — " The Meeting-Place of Geology and History," p. 17. 



J Congres Geologique Intern.itionale Compte rendu de la 4""^ Session, Londres, 

 1888. Appendix B, p. 29. In Mesanthropic Mr Woodward includes the Neolithic, 

 Bronze and Iron ages. 



