ON THE AGE OF STONE CIRCLES. 149 



silting,' nothing was obtained but unworked pieces of red-deer and 

 roe-deer antler. In the lowest deposit, the ' chalk rubble,' a small 

 fragment of prehistoric pottery was found at a depth of 14 feet, a 

 broken antler pick at a depth of 14*8 feet, another on the bottom, a 

 worked rib-bone also on the floor, and a complete red-deer antler and 

 the crown of another in the same position. This season we found no 

 traces of worn animals' scapula on the bottom of the fosse, but in 

 1909 we obtained convincing proof that these bones were, with slight 

 alteration, used as shovels for removing loose chalk. 



There are no special remarks to be made on the mediaeval or Eoman 

 pottery shards. The small cleat is an object of frequent occurrence in 

 Romano-British deposits, and its use as portion of the iron furniture 

 of sandals, or shoe leather, is proved by the discovery of specimens, 

 with a quantity of hobnails, at the feet of skeletons at Eotherley and 

 Bokerly Dyke. 7 A specimen was found on the old surface line under 

 the rampart of the Wansdyke, a few miles south of Avebury. 7 



The Roman brooch, or fibula, No. 162, already described as bearing 

 the maker's name, AVCISSA^ is a personal ornament of very definite 

 type and date (first half the first century, a.d.); and it adds one speci- 

 men more to the short list of brooches bearing this inscription found 

 in England. A similar fibula with the same lettering was found in the 

 parish of Marlborough last year, and is here placed on record for the 

 first time; it may be seen in the collection of Mr. J. W. Brooke of that 

 town. Recently the writer recorded and figured a similar brooch (with 

 the S's reversed) found on Ham Hill, South Somerset. 8 Two other 

 examples come from the same county and were found about 1875 

 in the Roman lead-workings at Charterhouse-on-Mendip (Bristol 

 Museum). 9 Two others were found at Cirencester (one is in the 

 Bathurst Museum, the other in the Cripps Museum). 10 A large col- 

 lection of Roman remains bought for Hull Museum in 1905 included 

 two ' Aucissa ' fibulae, found presumably in a Roman cemetery at South 

 Ferriby, Lincolnshire. 11 Professor P. Haverfield had up to 1905 re- 

 corded twenty-eight fibulse bearing this name, of which six were then 

 known from England; the Ham Hill, Marlborough, and Avebury 

 examples have now been added to the list. The type, without inscrip- 

 tion, is not rare, and has been found commonly in many parts of the 

 Roman Empire north of the Mediterranean, and outside it, including 

 the Caucasus and Tomsk in Siberia. 



6 It will be unnecessary to write at any length on the picks of 1911, as those found 

 in 1908 and 1909 were finer specimens, and were fully described in the former Reports. 

 The antler picks found in 1908-10 at Maumbury Rings have also been recorded 

 {Proc. Dor. Field Club, xxix., 256-272 ; xxx., 217-235 ; and xxxi., 230-266). For 

 general particulars on this subject see Mr. H. W. Sandars' recent paper ' On the Use 

 of the Deer-Horn Pick in the Mining Operations of the Ancients,' Archceologia, lxii., 

 101-124. 



7 ' Excavations in Cranborne Chase,' ii., 190 ; hi., 102, 106, 129, 270, &c. Last 

 year two cleats were found at Maumbury Rings. (Proc. Dor. Field Club, xxxi., 245.) 



8 Proc. Som. Arch. Soc, Ivi., ii., plate facing p. 55, fig. 10, A and B. Mentioned 

 also in Proc. Soc. Antiq. Lond., xxi., 131, with others. 



a Figured in Arckceol. Journ., lx., plate facing p. 240 ; and Vict. Co. Hist. Somerset, 

 i., 343. 10 Archceol. Journ., lxii., 265. » Ibid., lxii., 265-6. 



