216 Excavation of the South Lodge Camp, Rtishmore Park. 



pottery, from which he concludes that they were originally con- 

 structed in late Neolithic times. I confess that I am myself very 

 ignorant of Neolithic pottery in connection with camps, and I 

 cannot help suspecting that some of the pottery supposed to be 

 Neolithic may turn out to be of the Bronze Age ; but it is, never- 

 theless, a paper that is full of interest, in connection with the future 

 study of camps, and it is to be hoped that it will be followed by 

 similar excavations in our own country. This, and the exploration 

 of the Pfahlgraben by the German Government are examples not 

 to be lost sight of by our own archseologists ; not that I believe in 

 anything of this sort done by Government, but it shows that those 

 countries are able to squeeze out of their Governments some juices 

 that are free from the bitterness of political strife, whereas it is 

 impossible to approach our Government in any way, without being 

 bitten by political bugs and fleas. 



We have seen that the evidence derived from the fragments of 

 pottery, tallies with the evidence of the Bronze Age implements 

 discovered in the ditch, in proving this camp to have been originally 

 constructed in the Bronze Age, and to have been followed, either by 

 Roman occupation, or by a time in which the more numei'ous 

 population of the Roman period frequented the place. Can we 

 form any estimate of the proximity of these two periods to one 

 another ? I am much averse to generalizing upon insufficient data, 

 and fully admit that the examination of a single camp, or indeed 

 several camps, is not enough to warrant any definite opinion upon 

 so large a subject. One large piece of a Roman mortarium, studded 

 with large grains of quartz and other hard substances on the inner 

 side for the trituration of vegetables, of a kind universally recognised 

 as Roman, was found at a depth of 3ft. on the top of the chalk 

 rubble beneath the mould, in the ditch. Two pieces of pottery of a 

 quality recognised at a glance as being Roman hard New Forest ware, 

 with fluted sides, were found at the same depth. Above, Samiau 

 ware was found, both on the surface and 1ft. in the silting of the 

 ditch. At the same level, viz., 3ft., we have seen that a bronze 

 razor, a bronze bracelet, a bunch of bronze wire, and a bone awl, 

 were found, whilst still higher, if we are to assume that it was in 



