38 THE HILL-FORTRESS CALLED EGGARDUN. 



The disproportion between the width of the rim and that of 

 the flint floor is due chiefly to slip ; but partly, no doubt, to an 

 original dishing of the sides of the pit, which were lined with 

 flint. 



In pits II. and III. the drainage rubble was rather more 

 filled in with silt than in the others, and no charcoal and no 

 implements were found. But a number of percussed flakes were 

 met with, and in pit II. a thin flat piece of pottery. This, like 

 the rest, was hand-made, with a matrix full of rounded particles 

 of quartz, interspersed with black grains, suggesting a green- 

 sand derivation. Under the microscope the matrix is seen to 

 effervesce a little with acid, but no shell-fragments can be 

 detected. Minute pieces of charcoal are adherent to both 

 surfaces of this bit of pottery, relics of the baking, which may 

 have been done in the open air since, together with a thicker 

 piece, it is red throughout. On the other hand, two smaller 

 fragments have dark interiors. 



No pottery was found in pits IV. and V., and no charcoal in 

 the former. But in the latter many portions of burnt boughs 

 came to light, and smaller pieces were met with throughout the 

 lower layer of silt. 



On the pit-margins, under the turf, numerous neolithic flakes 

 occurred, and implements in the pits themselves. Thus, in 

 pit V. were found a large core, some smaller cores, a few 

 scrapers, many percussed flakes, of which some were minute, and 

 pieces of slab-chert. One slab has well-rubbed edges, and was, 

 perhaps, used in cleaning skins. In pit IV. were found a flat 

 beach pebble 2f by 2 inches, a white quartz pebble with red 

 veins, several percussed flakes, some used scrapers, and a flint 

 saw. All these stones, together with a fragment of bone, were 

 much more deeply stained with black lichenous spots than was 

 the case with stones from the first three pits, as if they had not 

 been so quickly covered by silt. 



No trace of any metal was detected. Probably to a pre- 

 metallic, certainly to a pre- Roman period, this entrenchment 

 belonged. It was the defence of an indigenous race, perhaps of 



