ON EXCAVATIONS ON ROMAN SITES IN BRITAIN. 203 



type (so successfully used in Egyptian excavations), modified to suit 

 the present site. This only came to hand towards the close of our 

 time and did not work upon the steep slope, necessitating a return of 

 portions to the makers for alteration. 



Meanwhile a beginning was made upon this rampart from the back, 

 some 25 feet from the S.E. entrance. Here, in the interior area of the 

 hill-foi-t and up the slope to the present crest of the rampart, fragments 

 of black and red pottery were unearthed, at a depth of about a foot, 

 similar to that found on the same horizon elsewhere. Then burnt 

 lime began to appear, like that discovered in the earher entrance to the 

 E. ; and, finally, a mass of burnt stones and lime was cut through, some 

 5 feet thick against the rampart and tapering to nothing at a distance 

 of 15 feet towards the interior area of the fort. Near the bottom of this 

 mass and just above original ground level, a quantity of clay, burned 

 red and hard almost like brick, was revealed, and mixed with and 

 under this a great deal of charred wood ; some of the wood was as large 

 as if the remains of considerable timbers. Here again, therefore, there 

 would appear to be traces of some great conflagration, apparently 

 belonging to the same period as the lesser traces of fire found in the 

 early entrance. On following up these deposits of burnt lime towards 

 the E., they were found to run beneath the foundations of the guard- 

 houses on this side belonging to the entrances excavated in 1912 and 

 1913 ; again, therefore, marking an episode at some distinctly earlier 

 date. Further explorations beneath this great rampart by aid of the 

 rope carrier are looked fonvard to with interest. 



Turning again to the main rampart N.E. of the S.E. entrance, a 

 cutting was made through it at a point 105 feet distant from the 

 entrance. Its dry masonry outer facing wall, still standing 3 feet high, 

 was discovered beneath fallen dibris in 1912 ; its inner face was now 

 found to be marked by a line of big stones with some pitching above, 

 showing a rampart 23 feet thick. The core was of mixed construction 

 and material, and apparently contained an earlier rampart, 15 feet 

 thick, revetted also on its inner side with a stone wall 3 feet high. 



Before leaving the neighbourhood of the S.E. entrance excavated in 

 1912 and 1913, the gravel roads leading therefrom were further investi- 

 gated. It will be remembered that three superincumbent roads were 

 found in the entrance passage. The upper one, proved by relics to be in 

 use in the fourth century, ran down the slope towards the E.S.E. ; at a 

 distance of 45 feet from its outermost post-holes it crossed over the end 

 of ditch 1, the whole length of which had been filled and hidden from 

 sight by stony debris at some earlier date. The second road could not 

 be distinguished far beyond the entrance passage, and may have been a 

 local reparation only. The lowest of the three roads, however, was 

 found to run S.S.E. till it was crossed and covered by the end of 

 rampart 3. This lowest road was from 12 to 15 feet wide and was made 

 of small blue gravel laid, 6 inches thick at its centre, upon the original 

 ground surface. Neither of these roads outside the entrance had any 

 ' pitctiing ' below or any curbstones at their sides. "We thus obtain 

 relative ages for ditch 1 on the E. side and rampart 3 on the W. side of 

 the S.E. entrance. Noteworthy relics unearthed in these investigations 



