EARLY MAN IN DORSET. 37 



imposing remains of the Bronze Age are the Hill-top Camps. 

 In the county we have them at Abbotsbury, Badbury 

 Rings, Banbury Hill, Buckland Newton, Buzbury Rings, 

 Cattistock Castle, Cerne Abbas, Coneys Castle, Cranbourne 

 Chase (twelve, in Mr. Sumner's list, which, however, 

 includes some separately mentioned here), The Dungeon, 

 (Middlemarsh), Dudsbury, Eggardon Hill, Flowers Barrow, 

 Gallows Hill, Handley Hill, Hambledon Hill, Hod Hill, 

 Lambert's Castle, Maiden Castle, Minterne Magna, Morden 

 Heath, Nettlecombe Tout, Ower Heath, Pillesdon Pen, 

 Pimperne Down, Poundbury, Poorstock, Rawisbury, Ring's 

 Hill, South Lodge Camp, Spettisbury Rings, Shipton Beacon, 

 Woodbury Hill, Weatherbury, and Woolsbarrow. Here 

 is a fine list, every one of them worth a visit. 



These places were essentially " Camps of Refuge." They 

 tell a tale of ruthless warfare, when it was necessary for men 

 and women to encounter any hardship, such as lack of water 

 and exposure to the bitterest weather, in order to save their 

 cattle and their own lives. Most of these Camps contain a 

 number of circular depressions indicating Pit dwellings. 

 Some of those on Eggardon Hill were explored by Dr. Colley 

 March and myself. We obtained leave to dig a trench right 

 across several of them, and everywhere found the same 

 general plan. There was originally a round hole fourteen 

 feet in diameter at the top and four feet and a half deep, 

 and beneath the floor was a quantity of rubble which served 

 for drainage and prevented the hole becoming a pond. A 

 full account of our explorations is given in Proceedings, Vol. 

 xxii., p. 28. Few objects of interest were found, and 

 nothing to show that the Camp was used for prolonged 

 residence. 



The Art of the Bronze Age was a development of that 

 of the Neolithic, and consists in geometrical patterns which 

 may be traced back to the patterns originally made by 

 twisted thongs, basket-making, weaving, building with 

 boughs or trunks of trees, and so on. This subject is a very 

 large one, and I must leave it here. 



