EXCAVATIONS AT MAUMBURY RINGS. 269 



a piece of red Roman tegula was found on the rammed chalk 

 floor. 



Pre-historic Pit. Having removed the Roman deposits, we were 

 confronted with some deep digging, which at once disclosed 

 indications of a period long anterior to the Roman age. Firstly, 

 we met with a marly soil or rainwash, derived from the subaerial 

 detrition of the Chalk. In it a quantity of flint flakes and 

 chippings were found, the remains apparently of a flint workshop 

 of Neolithic times. Flint flakes ranging in size from fin. to 4m. 

 long, were very plentiful ; nodules of flint, cores, hammerstones 

 bearing evidence of much use, and balls of flint probably selected 

 for hammers, were collected ; also specimens of Belemnitella 

 mucronata and Echinocorys scutatus, fossils common in the Upper 

 Chalk. With the flints at depths down to nft., were found a few 

 quartz and hornstone pebbles, which Mr. Jukes-Browne says were 

 originally derived from the Eocene gravels ; also pieces of a 

 reddish-grey sandstone, which Mr. H. B. Woodward, F.G.S., 

 believes to have come from the Wealden beds of South 

 Dorset. Only six of the flakes bear any signs of secondary 

 chipping. 



On the embankment side the gradual slope of the solid chalk 

 face at the top of the shaft was at an inclination of 37, after 

 which it became suddenly steeper (inclination 74). At a depth 

 of i7'sft., a narrow ledge on the N.N.W. side was met with, and 

 it was at this level we found the solid chalk on the N.E. and 

 S.W. sides also. On the N.E. face the chalk revealed itself in 

 the form of a wide ledge. At about 12* 5ft. deep, the filling was 

 not so fine, but began to assume the general character of chalk 

 rubble, and it varied but slightly from here to the bottom. 



From a depth of i7'sft. to 23'5ft., the size of the shaft 

 lessened from a maximum diameter of 6' 5ft. to 3 '8ft. It was 

 then thought that the bottom could not be far off; but the N. 

 face began to fall back, and at a depth of 25-5^;., the diameter 

 increased to 4'ift. From here to the bottom at 3oft., the N. face 

 proved to be almost vertical, while the S. face sloped in more 

 considerably than elsewhere, The bottom was basin- shaped, 



