942 APPENDIX. 



digging out the humus, which had collected in it, teeth of ox and deer and a good 

 deal of pottery were found, but throughout the field the humus is charged with similar 

 pottery. On the floor a portion of a bivalve shell was found.' 



Most of the skeletons and other objects collected at Wytham are pre- 

 served in the Oxford University Museum. 



NOTES ON ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES AT 

 YARNTON, OXFORDSHIRE. 



During the years 1875 to 1877, both inclusive, several human skeletons 

 were exposed in an ancient burial-place to the south-west of the church 

 of Yarnton, Oxfordshire, on the north side of the railway station. The 

 excavations leading to the discovery of the skeletons were made for the 

 purpose of getting gravel as ballast in connection with railway works 

 then going on in that district. 



Whilst removing the soil two ditches of a semicircular form were opened 

 into. These ditches were situated in close proximity to each other, and, 

 as appears from a plan constructed by Sir H. Dryden, had the con- 

 cavity of the semi-lune turned in opposite directions. The ditches were 

 filled with black earth, and in and near them the graves containing the 

 skeletons were found. One ditch is noted (May 13-15, 1876) as 'about 

 7' 10" wide, and about i' 6'" below the surface, with sloping sides, and 

 may consequently have been a little less wide when first dug out. Its 

 depth is from 5' to 5' 10''.' This ditch was exposed for a space of 

 about 60', running nearly north and south, but trending a little east- 

 wards. On May 13, 1876, Dr. Rolleston noted : — 



' We found a skeleton in a grave sunk through the side of the above ditch in such a 

 •way as to show that the ditch had been filled up, and the grave sunk into partly the 

 fiUing-up of the ditch and partly into the side or escarpment of it. Tlie skeleton was 

 lying so near the slope of the ditch that it would have been broken into pieces in the 

 digging out of the ditch. There can be no reasonable doubt that the ditch was the 

 earlier of the two. This is confirmed by the fact that in another of these ditches two 

 bodies were found, one on the top of the other, in 1875. The buriers struck upon a 

 ditch as a place to dig a grave in, and sank this grave as it happened within the limits 

 of the ditch on either side. I think the ditches may have been simply places for 

 living in. As a general rule we have found very little in them, and that very little, 

 animal bones— ox, dog, goat.' 



