EXCAVATIONS AT MAUMBURY RINGS. 259 



Aldborough, Leicester, Charterhouse-on-Mendip, Uffington 

 ("The Manger"), Woodcuts ("Church Barrow"), &c. Very 

 few of these have even been partly examined, a fact which the 

 late Mr. Thos. Morgan, F.S.A., bewailed when he wrote : " It 

 would be well if more attention were paid to the investigation of 

 traces of amphitheatres in Britain." It is indeed surprising that 

 Maumbury has for so long escaped the spade of the antiquary, 

 but the year in which the immense Stadium at the Franco-British 

 Exhibition sees its birth marks also the time in which the first 

 series of extensive excavations have been conducted in Britain 

 on the site of a so-called Roman amphitheatre. 



What is more likely than that the Rings should have been 

 regarded by most people as a Roman amphitheatre ? Here the 

 site is a quarter of a mile from the walls of a Roman town, and 

 close by the turnpike road to Weymouth, which is said to be 

 formed on the causeway of a Roman vicinal way given off by the 

 Via Iceniana, as it passed through Durnovaria, and is continued 

 straight over the Ridgeway Hill to the shore at Radipole. 



But Maumbury has also been regarded by a comparatively few 

 scientists as a solar temple of pre-historic origin. The authors of 

 " Neolithic Dew-Ponds," among others, regard this site as a sun 

 temple. They say that " the opening in the embankment allows 

 the rays of the rising sun to pass along the long axis of the 

 structure, and to strike upon the rising floor at the opposite end." 

 Careful observations recently taken prove this suggestion to be 

 incorrect ; but of course this fact does not invalidate the hypo- 

 thesis of the possible pre-historic origin of the great embankment. 



Formerly a large stone existed on the surface on the western 

 side of the entrance, and by some it has been regarded as a 

 sighting- stone in connection with the observation of sun, moon, 

 and stars. This stone, which appears to have been of consider- 

 able dimensions, is stated to have been buried quite near the 

 surface early in the nineteenth century. In 1 846, still being an 

 obstruction to agriculture, it is recorded that its position was 

 lowered to a depth of 3ft.; but digging carried out in 1879 to 

 recover it was not attended with success. 



