250 Recent Explorations at Silbury Hill. 
and it would be a matter of much interest to ascertain whether the 
base of the Marlborough mound had been originally surrounded by 
a deep trench, in depth so far below the level of the Kennet as to 
have always contained water. This could be ascertained by sinking 
some shafts there. 
In the course of these explorations an unexpected and interesting 
discovery was made, which throws light on the date of the erection 
of the mound. In shaft No. 5, after passing through 9ft. of white 
alluvial clay, the men came to a distinct blackish layer about a foot 
in thickness, consisting of the usual tenacious clay, with a large 
admixture of charcoal, fractured flints, bones, and small burnt sarsen 
stones, all evident indications of human occupation. _ The whole of 
this layer I had carefully set aside, and then washed it in water 
through a sieve. By this means all the clay was separated, and the 
residue was then carefully examined for traces of human workman- 
ship. Besides many other flints, one well-worked flint implement 
rewarded this search (see plate). Also in another shaft (No. 6) 
flint flakes were found in the alluvium. These flints I sent to the 
great authority upon flint implements—Mr. John Evans, D.C.L., 
P.S.A., who kindly examined them, and wrote as follows :—* The 
flints from No. 5 shaft are, | think, ad/ artificial. One, which is 
very well wrought, may be either an unfinished arrow-head, as you 
suggest, or a small knife such as is sometimes found in the inter- 
ments in barrows. The flakes are probably the waste pieces from 
chipping out some large tools, though some of them have been used 
as instruments for cutting and scraping. The evidence you have 
obtained shows that flint has been in use, since Silbury Hill was 
formed, for cutting instruments, for I think that the knife or arrow- 
head from shaft No. 5 must be accepted as probably not later than 
the Bronze Period, to which most of our flint arrow-heads belong ” ; 
and further :—“I think that any doubt that may have existed as 
to the mound being pre-Roman may now be dispelled.” 
These finds reveal the important fact, that long after Silbury Hill 
had been erected, the neighbourhood was inhabited or visited by a 
people who made and used flint weapons. The date was so long 
after the formation of this mound that not less thrn 5ft. of alluvium 
