754 REPORT— 1902. 



The souterrain at Muckamore is a solitary example of a two-storey building- 

 entered from the field-level to the upper floor and from that to the lower one. 



It is impossible to assign a date to these rough rude structures, but the 

 diminutive one at Connor, County Antrim, has two Ogham stones inserted, 

 so that at least some of them must have been erected much later by a race who 

 used an alphabet. It shows a distinct advance in building construction in the use 

 of a series of lintel stones — including the Ogham ones — to support the roof, but 

 even in this case it seems to have been simply a place of refuge. 



8. On some Ancient Subterranean Chambers recently discovered at Waddoti, 

 near Croydon. By George Clinch, F.G.S. 



Excavations for a sewer at Waddon House, near Croydon, iu June 1902, 

 revealed three subterranean chambers cut in a bed of Thanet sand, and partly 

 occupied by sand which had fallen or been washed into them. In each chamber, 

 however, a compact floor was found at about 15 feet below ground. The 

 chambers were of beehive shape, about 7 feet high and 12 feet or less in diameter. 

 Each had its independent entrance opening on the south-south-east side, but no 

 other means of access till the domed roofs were cut open by the sewer trench. 



Below the sand which covered the floors of the chambers several cores and 

 chips of green-coated flints were found, with small fragments of imperfectly baked 

 pottery, and larger fragments of Romano-British pottery. These green-coated 

 flints occur at the base of the Thanet beds, whereas the chambers were excavated 

 10 to 15 feet above the base ; the flints must therefore have been procured lower 

 down, near Waddon Station (where there is an outcrop of the bed in which they 

 occur), and brought up the hill to the chambers. This could not have been done 

 by rain wash or similar agencies. 



The small dimensions and the form and plan of the Waddon chambers, the 

 absence of a perpendicular shaft, and their occurrence in sand, differentiate them 

 entirely from the so-called ' dene-holes' ; nor have they any feature in common with 

 the ' flint-mines ' of Grime's Graves and Cissbury, nor with the beehive-shaped 

 cavities found in the Isle of Purbeck in 1883.^ 



On the continent of Europe the most similar chambers are those at Palmella 

 in Portugal, which M. Cartailhac ascribes to sepulchral purposes in the latter end 

 of the Polished Stone Age." In particular, the flat floors and hemispherical vault- 

 like sides and roofs are common to both ; and the thickening of the walls near 

 the doorway — a provision, as M. Cartailhac notes at Palmella, against the special 

 wear and rubbing to which these parts are subject — recurs in two at least of the 

 Waddon chambers. Similar chambers have been noted in Brittany and else- 

 where. The subterranean ' beehive tombs ' at Mycenae, also, are identical in plan, 

 though difierent in dimensions and material. 



Bones of Bos taurus (? longifrons), horse, dog, or wolf, &c., were found in the 

 loose sand in the Waddon chambers, but no human bones; nevertheless, the 

 evidence seems to show that the chambers were primarily sepulchral. Subsequent 

 disturbance, however, is indicated by the later objects found in the loose sand, 

 and by certain rude scratches — possibly mediijeval — on the curved roof, variously 

 interpreted by diflerent observers as a bird, an animal, or a boat. 



South-east and east of Waddon there are many hut circles which have been 

 attributed to the Neolithic Age. They are circular in form, with marks of 

 entrances on the east and south-east side, and exhibit general resemblance in 

 dimensions and plan with the Waddon chambers. On the steep side of Croham 

 Hurst (about three miles south-east of Waddon) traces of similar dwellings are 

 recorded, and may very likely have influenced the design of the sepulchral 

 chambers, as so often happens. 



The Waddon discovery is therefore of some importance as evidence for the 



» Proc. Geol. Assoc, viii. 7 (July 1884) pp. 404-410. 



2 Materiaux, 3 Ser. II. (1885) pp. 1-18; reprinted in Cartailhac's it« j4(/es^rf- 

 Jdstoriques de VEsjyagne et du Portugal. 



