292 Notes on Food-VesseU from Oldhury Will. 



described in Wilis Mag., vol. xxiii.^ Tlie perfect food or cooking- 

 vessel was exhibited by Mr. Plenderleath at the Annual Meeting 

 of the Society, at Devizes, in 1890 {Wilis Mag., xxv. p. 248). The 

 undisturbed condition of its contents raised expectations that some 

 interesting relics might be found in it. Tliis, however, proved to 

 be an antiquaries' disappointment. On removing the chalky soil 

 from the top of the vessel it was found to be three-parts full of a 

 very fine sandy earth, resembling in appearance ordinary Portland 

 cement. This has been analysed by Mr. Powell, of Denmark Hill, 

 and found to consist of fine siliceous sand, some carbonate of lime 

 and alumina, with a small quantity of iron. It may possibly be 

 silt from some brook or river. Mixed throughout this fine earth 

 were many small fragments of bone which had been more or less 

 burnt. Professor C. Stuart, of the Royal College of Surgeons, has 

 kindly examined these remains, and reports that " none of the 

 fragments are of human bone, and the small rounded one is the 

 internal sesamoid of some ungulate — probably red-deer." 



There are three holes, carefully, though not symmetrically, bored 

 in the bottom of this vessel. They are counter-sunk on both sides. 

 When found these holes were covered over with little thin plates of 

 burnt clay, two of which are preserved. The holes themselves were 

 filled with the ordinary chalky earth. 



- Vessels with similar perforations in the bottom have been found 

 by Gen. Pitt-Rivers in some numbers in the Romano-British villages 

 of Rotherley and Woodcuts (see " Excavations ") and a fragment 

 with three holes in it from Cold Kitchen Hill (see above, p. 289) is in 

 the Museum. Such vessels are supposed to have been used for 



' The number of these pit-dwellings within the area of the camp proves that 

 this stronghold must have been much used iu troublous times, by the ancient 

 population. 



The detached entrenched camps which occupy the tops of many of our highest 

 hills were probably not originally intended as parts of a system of defence for 

 the county generally. The inhabitants (who, doubtless, in times of peace oc- 

 cupied the valleys, where food and water were abundant) would avail themselves 

 of the temporary .security afforded by the strong entrenchment, when the neigh- 

 bouring district was overrun or threatened by invading hordes. This view of 

 the subject entirely coincides with the opinions expressed by Gen. Pitt-Rivers, 

 in his v?ork on the Hill Forts of Sussex [Archceolngia, xl., 11). 



