EXCAVATIONS AT MAUMBURY RINGS. 



99 



The Roman settlers at Dorchester, feeling the need of an 

 amphitheatre outside their walls, and finding prehistoric 

 Maumbury in a suitable position, appear to have adapted this 

 site to their requirements, lowering the central area to convert 

 it into an arena and leaving the virgin chalk in situ for the 

 core of the boundary-wall. There can be no doubt that 

 they found the prehistoric trench open, or rather only partly 

 silted up, and in some cases the upper part of the mouths of 

 the shafts would still be open. This is proved by the fact 

 that in the rammed chalk in the opening of the shafts, and 

 below the level of the arena-floor, we have constantly found 

 Roman remains mixed with broken antler picks and flint 

 implements of Neolithic type. The Romans had not only to 

 cut out their arena-floor, but to make good the surrounding 

 ground excavated by the former race by means of rammed 

 and puddled chalk, which in places, as would be expected 

 and as we found, had sunk over the position of the 

 shafts below the level of the solid chalk arena. As yet 

 there is no proof that the Romans increased the height 

 of the Great Bank, which has, no doubt, from natural 

 causes, somewhat shrunk during the many centuries of its 

 existence. 



The Civil War terraces, which were placed against the 

 prehistoric bank and on the Roman deposits, have been 

 described elsewhere. 



