EXCAVATIONS AT MAUMBURY RINGS. 97 



walling the platform was 16ft. long, including the trenches 

 (2ft. each). It is less easy to give its original width, the 

 solid margin on the E. being interfered AA'ith owing to the 

 position of Shafts VII. and VIII., but the maximum width 

 of the solid part remaining is lift. 



At, and just beyond, the N.E. corner of the platform, but 

 at a higher level, a group of eight stones was uncovered 

 (depth l"6ft. below the turf line under the terrace material). 

 They were contained in an area 4ft. by 2- 8ft. The most 

 easterly slab bore signs of fire, and the charred wood collected 

 proved to be hazel. Another scattered group of five stones 

 was revealed at the N.E. end of the cutting on the Roman 

 level. 



Along the E.S.E. margin of the cutting the solid arena- 

 floor was reached at a depth of 3"55ft. and at a level about 

 1ft. lower than the platform of the recess (Plates III. and V.). 

 This floor was bounded by the inner trench, was somewhat 

 complicated in design, and had the ledge, or step, on the 

 inner side more or less slightly recessed at irregular intervals 

 averaging 6ft., similar to features met with in Cutting XX. 



Near the margin of the inner trench a basin-shaped hole 

 was discovered in the arena-floor, 14|in. by 12|in., and 

 6Jins. deep ; round the sides there were about twenty well- 

 defined pick-marks. (A small white patch marks the spot 

 in Plate III.) Near the hole a narrow seam of flint projected 

 (sometimes 2in.) above the level of the floor. 



On the floor and close to the hole an uninscribed British 

 coin of bronze (No. 269) was found — of a degraded' type and 

 of a kind common in Dorset (Fig. 2). Some years ago these 

 coins were supposed to belong to about the end of the first 

 century B.C. ; in 1897 they were found at Rushmore (S. 

 Wilts) in association with coins of Claudius I., A.D. 41—54 ; * 

 but from recent discoveries at Hengistbury Head in Hants 

 it is now known that they were current till about A.D. 

 130. 



* Pitt-Rivers' "Excavations," IV., Plate 317. 



