EEPORT ON EXCAVATION AT SIGWELL. 441 



This exploration was undertaken at the suggestion of the Rev. 

 J. A. Bennett, the rector of the neighbouring parish of South 

 Cadbury; and to his other suggestions on many points, and to his 

 help throughout, we are greatly indebted. 



The British Association gave us a grant towards the defrayment 

 of the expenses, and the following report was read before the 

 Plymouth Meeting in August, 1877. 



' Sigwell i,' July 1 8, 1877, Tuesday.— The examination of the twin- 

 barrow was begun by opening the tumulus situated to the north by 

 a trench 9 feet 1 inch wide from the east side. The natural soil, 

 lias sand, was of a light yellow colour with concretions of a small 

 size and somewhat darker hue intermingled with it, and was readily 

 enough distinguishable from the made earth of the barrow, which 

 was darker in colour owing to finely divided carbonaceous matter, 

 and was also more loosely compacted. The natural soil was 5 feet 

 below the top of the barrow at its eastern edge, and 9 feet below it 

 at its centre. When the excavation had passed the centre west- 

 ward, it was opened out northwards to a length of 21 feet. 



July 19, "Wednesday. A great deal of charcoal was found about 

 4 feet above the natural surface at the centre ; and at a depth of 

 1 foot 6 inches from the natural bottom, and 7 feet 6 inches from 

 the surface under the centre picket, a well-formed flint 'scraper' or 

 'strike a light' was found. And in all about twenty fragments of 

 worked flint were found in this barrow, some of them with patina 

 upon them, and some with rose-coloured staining (from manganese?), 

 but most retaining the black surfaces of their original fractures 

 unchanged, and showing thereby that they were chipped during, or 

 only shortly before, the erection of the mound, for the purpose of 

 funeral ceremonial. But in this northern part of the twin-barrow 

 we found no pottery, no bronze, no interment ; and the flints, such 

 as they were, were much fewer in mere numbers than in either of 

 the two barrows to be hereafter described. Our failure to find any 

 interment may be explained by the fact that this mound was very 

 extensively burrowed into by badgers, foxes, and rabbits ; and if the 

 interment had been contained within as small a compass, and had 

 consisted of such easily scatterable materials as those contained and 

 discovered in the two other mounds, it is easy to see how it might 

 have been entirely dispersed and destroyed. 



'Sigwell ii,' July 20, Thursday. — We commenced upon the 



