BARROW-DIGGING AT MARTINSTOWN. 23 



EXCAVATION OF BARROWS ^ AND 3. 



The excavations at Martinstown were resumed on September 

 3rd, 1903, and continued for seven working days till September 

 nth. On this occasion the camp was pitched about a furlong 

 due south of Mr. Hawkins' barn. The spot selected was itself 

 possibly a Bronze Age burial-ground ; the tents were erected in 

 a circular depression which at a first glance might be taken for 

 the site of a formerly-existing pond. We failed to find any 

 evidence of its having been lined with clay. The depression is 

 encompassed by a bank measuring 76 feet in diameter and about 

 3 feet above the surrounding field, the crest of the bank being 

 about 4^ feet above the centre of the shallow, basin-shaped 

 depression. The crow-bar was brought into requisition here, 

 and was found to strike hard substance, probably flints, within a 

 few inches of the surface. We believe that these depressions 

 have been very infrequently observed by archaeologists else- 

 where, although we are unable to say whether any have been 

 excavated. 



BARROW 2. 



Barrow 2 is marked on the Ordnance Sheets, and is situated 

 in an arable field at a distance of i mile to the S.S.E. of 

 Barrow i and only a few feet from the western hedge of the 

 field. Its elevation on the surface was very slight not more 

 than a foot for which the plough, of course, is responsible. In 

 a few years' time all trace of it would have disappeared ; and it 

 was for this particular reason that we turned our attention to it. 

 Being so flattened, it was thought unnecessary to make any sort 

 of plan of the site. 



We started here, in the usual way, by digging a narrow trench 

 north and south, and had only proceeded about a foot below the 

 surface, and the same distance from the end of the trench, when 

 we came on the edge of a grave hewn out of the solid chalk. 

 This edge was traced all round, and in so doing a large quantity 

 of nodular flints, mixed with chalk rubble, was removed, 



