208 Uxcavation of the Souih Lodge Camp, Rushmore ParJc. 



Roman camp would probably have them. It was of very low relief, 

 and the ditch almost entirely filled up by silting- ; and although one 

 corner of it touched the carriage road, it had been but little observed 

 by passers, owing to its having been thickly covered with nut-wood. 



The first measure was to cut down the nut-wood, and grub up 

 the roots, and it is remarkable that nothing — not even a single 

 fragment of pottery — was found during this process, showing that 

 surface mould must have accumulated to a certain depth, sufficient 

 to cover over all the relics beneath. The camp was then surveyed, and 

 the features of the ground recorded in contours of 4 inches vertical 

 height (not shown on this plan, model exhibited). Six sections, 10ft. 

 wide, were then dug, across the ditch and rampart, in different parts 

 of the camp, and it is worthy of observation that in the first three 

 sections little or nothing was found, which shows what very false 

 conceptions are liable to be formed by merely digging one or two 

 sections in a camp. In the fourth section, on the east side, part of 

 a large British urn was found at the bottom of the silting of the 

 ditch, which was Oft. deep here, A., Pis. I. II., and III. The uru 

 was lying on its side, evidently thrown in as rubbish, and it had 

 on the inside of the bottom, an ornament of eight raised spokes 

 like a wheel, z, PI. III., somewhat similar to one that Sir Richard 

 Hoare found in a barrow near Woodyates.^ Similar ornaments 

 on the same part of urns have been found in Ireland and elsewhere. 



The question has often been discussed, as to whether the urns 

 found in barrows of this period were mortuary urns made especially 

 for this purpose, or vessels for ordinary use, employed to contain 

 the ashes of the dead. The present discovery favours the supposition 

 that they were in common use, as it is more probable that an object 

 of this kind should have found its way into the ditch of a camp if 

 it were in common use, than if it were constructed for ceremonial 

 purposes only; and the large quantities of pottery of the same 

 quality. Column 1., Plate II., afterwards found in different parts of 

 the camp, confirms this opinion, as it could not all have been used 

 for funeral urns. The urn was of coarse quality, having large grains 



' Hoare's "Ancient Wiltshire," vol. i., p. 243. 



