ON THE AGE OF STONE CIRCLES. 983 
Cutting III. 
Three teeth of horse; depth, 9°5 feet in Roman stratum. 
-Astragalus of ox; depth, 9°5 feet in Roman stratum. 
Digit of red-deer ;' depth, 11:5 feet in mixed silting. 
Scapula of sheep ;' depth, 18 feet in chalk rubble. 
Lower jaw of dog,’ smaller than a retriever; depth, 4°5 feet. 
VIT. Concluding Remarks. 
The season’s work, considering its short duration of three weeks 
for an undertaking of such magnitude, has in many respects been 
more interesting and eventful than the opening excavations of 1908. 
The main results of 1909 embody (1) proof of the existence and position 
of an ancient entrance into ‘the Temple’ from the south, 7.e. from 
the direction of the Kennet Avenue, and (2) a considerable strengthen- 
ing of the evidence obtained last year towards solving the difficult pro- 
blem of the date of construction of Avebury, or, at any rate, of the 
great fosse surrounding the circles. The finding of a worked flint knife 
with every appearance of great age and of typical Neolithic form on 
the bottom of the fosse, is, we think, almost sufficient in itself to 
assign Avebury to the Neolithic period, rather than to the early Bronze 
Age—to which period Stonehenge is referred on fairly strong evidence. 
It is also necessary in considering date to draw attention to the 
position of the pottery of Bronze Age type, most of which occurred 
about half-way down in the- accumulated silting, showing that it 
became deposited when the fosse had become filled to a considerable 
extent; and some of the early British pottery was found in the mixed 
silting immediately below the Roman stratum. 
In addition to the knife the bottom of this vast fosse has revealed 
several picks of antler and shovels of bone to the exclusion of other 
tools, and although there is no reason why such implements should 
not be used in later times, those found at Avebury are of precisely the 
same type as those of undoubted Neolithic age discovered in some 
quantity at Cissbury, the Grime’s Graves, and in the Neolithic pit at 
Maumbury Rings. We have now little or no hesitation in regarding 
the fosse of Avebury as being of Neolithic construction; but it would 
be highly desirable, if not advisable, to make one or two cuttings more 
into a fosse affording the variety of interest which the Avebury one 
does. It must have been a most imposing sight—never to be blotted 
out from one’s memory—to see that stupendous fosse open to the 
bottom all the way round. 
Now that we know the position of the southern entrance it would 
be highly interesting to excavate the rounded end on its eastern side. 
The beech-trees and the modern road would not be hindrances in this 
position, and it would be necessary only to remove some scrub and 
small bushes. The silting not being so high as in the parts already 
examined, and probably at no time under cultivation, the labour en- 
tailed in re-excavating this part would be proportionately less than in 
this year’s cuttings. 
It would also be desirable to prove whether an entrance-causeway 
exists at the north of Avebury; and there are other details to clear up 
in regard to the southern entrance. In the latter work this year we 
* Identified by Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S. 
