34 THE HILL-FORTRESS CALLED EGGARDUN. 



When all these facts are considered, the conclusion is irresist- 

 ible that the pit-dwellings were made after the fortress was 

 constructed. 



Five of these pits have been explored ; a solitary one, on May 

 ist and 2nd, 1900 ; a pair that lay towards the east of the camp, 

 on August 2yth ; and a second pair towards the west of the 

 camp, on September i3th. 



The method adopted was to cut a trench two feet wide 

 through the centre of a pit, from rim to rim, right down to 

 the undisturbed earth. It was anticipated that this would 

 be chalk, but it was found that, on the top of the hill, this 

 formation was covered, to an estimated depth of at least 

 10 feet, by a yellow gravel, or that debris of chalk-denudation 

 which consists of " clay-with-flints." During the excavation 

 many erratics were met with, notably some " plateau flints," 

 and a large ragged piece of greensand rock. The pits are 

 not, as are some on Hod Hill and elsewhere, surrounded by a 

 drainage-ditch ; but the dug-out earth seems to have been 

 originally heaped up round their edge, though little trace of it 

 remains. 



On the rim of the first pit selected for exploration, this raised 

 margin was well marked, and was exposed by the section. In 

 this previously disturbed earth and along the pit's rim, just 

 beneath the turf, small flint flakes were found, many of which 

 had bulbs of percussion. Below this was a coarse flint gravel, 

 the remains, no doubt, of that which was originally excavated, 

 since it had lost its proper yellow colour and contained no 

 worked flints. 



The middle of the hollow was occupied by brown mould 

 which was slightly argillaceous, and was traversed by minute 

 rootlets. It evidently consisted of that silting from the surface 

 and of that decay of vegetation that have been going on since 

 the dwelling was abandoned. 



The floor of the pit was a la^er of flints, which itself rested 

 on a loose rubble of larger and coarser flints so incoherent that 

 many of them fell out into the trench. The ancient interspaces 



