36 SURVEYS OF VALLEY ENTRENCHMENTS. 



resorted to as temporary places of refuge in times of 

 alarm." (2) 



So far as one's observations go, this description is equally 

 applicable to similar entrenchments in Wilts and Dorset. 

 It is also of interest from the fact that the valley works are 

 considered as a class apart from the square-shaped entrench- 

 ments on higher ground. The mention that their number 

 was very great is worthy of note ; for, presuming the roughly 

 rectangular cultivation terraces were not mistaken for en- 

 trenchments a failing not unknown even now, it seems 

 evident, judging by their present number, that many quad- 

 rilateral earthworks have been swept away by cultivation 

 during the last 80 years. 



EXCAVATION OF THE SQUARE-SHAPED CAMPS. 



The prehistoric origin of the square-shaped hill-entrench- 

 ments was maintained by the late General Pitt Rivers in his 

 monograph on <: The Hill Forts of Sussex." (3) In this 

 work, published in 1869, the entrenchments of the valleys 

 receive no mention, either because they were unknown to the 

 author, or that they were not considered by him to be works 

 of defence. In both the hill and the valley type, however, 

 he ultimately became especially interested, and, by extensive 

 excavations in the neighbourhood of Rushmore, he proved 

 that some of them belong to the Bronze Age. (4) In North- 

 east Dorset and South Wilts " the people of the Bronze Age 

 certainly did live in enclosures of squarish shape and slight 

 relief. They were probably strengthened by stockades on 

 the banks, without which they could hardly have served for 



2. " The History and Antiquities of Lewes and its Vicinity," 

 pp. 151-2, by the Rev. T. W. Horsfield, F.S.A. 



3. " The Hill Forts of Sussex," by Col. A. Lane Fox, " Archceo- 

 logia," Vol. XLII. (1869). 



4. " Excavations in Cranborne Chase," Vol. IV. 



