(iUl. REroRT— 1898. 



The Tjake VUlai'jc at Gladonbitry. — TJiird Report of the Committee^ cov- 

 sisting ofDr. E. MuNUO (C//fl(/-7)?«9)), Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, 

 Sir John Evans, General Pitt-Eivers, Mr. A. J. Evans, and 

 Mr. A. BuLLEiD (Sccretari/). {T)rav:n iq-> l/ij the Secretary?) 



Since presenting the last E,eport much progress has been made with the 

 exploration of the Lake or Marsh Village near Glastonbury. Twelve more 

 dwelling mounds have been examined, as well as the ground between and 

 around them. The southern end of the settlement has been completely 

 explored, and the investigations have yielded much of importance. The 

 timber substructure in this locality was in a better state of preservation 

 and more massively made than in any part of the viUage hitherto examined, 

 the arrangement of the logs being exceptionally clear. Some of the 

 dwelling mounds were of more than ordinary interest in their con.struction, 

 and from the various objects found on and around the floors, and the 

 foUov/ing observations in connection with them may be specially noticed. 

 Mounds A, B, C, and D formed an interesting group, showing the gradual 

 growth of the village and the construction of dwellings from time to time 

 as they were required ; this was easily recognised in these mounds by the 

 floor of one mound overlapping the floor of tlie mound immediately con- 

 tiguous to it. The clay of mound A overlapped that of C, B and C that 

 of D. Mound A was the latest construction, D the earliest, B and C were 

 of intermediate date, and the dwellings may have been of contemporary 

 erection. Mounds A, B, and C were of medium size ; the foundation of 

 wood was strong and well arranged, especially under mound C. Mound 

 I) was remarkable for its series of baked clay hearths, and for a cii'cular 

 basin-shaped depression in tlie floor of the dwelling within a foot or two of 

 one of the uppermost hearths. The sides and base were hard-baked, and it 

 appeared to have had a semicircular moulded rim raised two or three inches 

 above the level of the floor ; it measured two feet across the rim, was 

 nine inches deep, and the sides were nearly straight, sloping downwards 

 and inwards towards the base, which was about twenty-one inches in 

 diameter. It contained fragments of the fallen sides and a little fire ash 

 and charcoal. A somewhat similar depi'ession was discovered in mound J 

 and was described in the last Report. Dwelling mound D was also note- 

 worthy for the number of bone needles, broken and complete, found with 

 numerous splinters and sharp fragments of bone near them. Mound E 

 was of large size, oval in shape, and composed of Ave layers of clay ; it 

 contained two hearths of stone and several of baked clay. In this dwelling 

 mound there were found the remains of what may have formed a small 

 furnace of baked clay, fragments of several three-cornered crucibles, and 

 .some small pieces of bronze. Mound F was small and had not the appear- 

 ance of a dwelling mound. It contained three remarkable groups of clay 

 hearths, each group consisting of three superimposed hearths. Associated 

 with this mound were quantities of pottery and fire ash. 



Mound A A : the chief feature in this dwelling movmd was the thick- 

 ness of its clay floor, the vertical measurement of its thickest part being 

 10 feet ; the mound was fairly symmetrical in outline and was about 

 30 feet in diameter. Beneath the lowest part of the clay, and lying in a 

 ]a3'er of brushwood and rushes, part of the framework ostensibly of a loom 

 was discovered ; judging from its position, and from the worm-eaten 

 condition of the wood, it had evidently been discarded and thrown away 



