ON FURTHBB EXCAVATIONS IN DINORBEN. 263 



found to be built upon an earthen surface marking a fresh floor between 

 Floors A and B. Upon this lay bones, pot-boilers, &c., but no pottery or coins, 

 differentiating it therefore from Floor A and caueing us to name it Floor A2. 

 The core of the rampart behind this wall consisted of rubble stones in its lower 

 half and of layers of clay above. This clay had been visibly laid on wet, and 

 had afterwards dried hard like cement, so as to give a foundation for any stone 

 structure, such as a parapet wall, which is indicated by surviving stones seen 

 here and there along the crest of the rampart. 



A further length of the back revetting wall of the rampart belonging to 

 the earlier Floor B was next uncovered. The rampart consisted of 

 rubble stones and was about 15 ft. thick, but its outer side and facing wall 

 wer« ruined and missing. It was built upon a similar layer of hardened clay 



4 ft. thick. Behind it Floor B, of dark soil 3 ft. thick and gradually shallowing, 

 etretohed towards the interior of the hill-fort. Upon this were found bones of 

 domestic animals, much charcoal, broken T)ot-boilers, a pounding stone, sawn 

 antlers, a deer-horn toggle, and an iron knife-blade. About 20 ft. from the wall 

 a mass of burnt limestones mixed with baked red ."soil and much charred wood 

 like burnt timbers was unearthed, also several stone-lined post-holes. Apparently 

 this was the ruin of a stone-and-timber building destroyed in some great con- 

 flagration, such as previouslv observed in and near the earliest S.E. entrance. 



Having removed Floor B, it was possible to investigate the wall -top found 

 below it in 1914. This was followed downwards till a ruined dry masonry facing 

 wall, still standing in one part 5 ft. high and backed with an 8 ft. thick core 

 of large stones and rubble, was revealed to view. This newly discovered rampart, 

 was erectod upon a floor surface of dark soil 6 in. thick, which we designated 

 Floor C. It would appear to be a portion of the earliest defence constructed 

 upon the site. Keen search was therefore made for relics here. The floor was 

 followed up as far ae practicable at the bottom of our deep cutting, revealing 

 charcoal, pot-boilers, broken bones of domestic animals, and sling stones, but 

 unfortunately nothing definitely da.teable. In front of the wall the ground 

 wa^ oiled high vnth the debris of the upper half of the thrown-down rampart, 

 which was once, apparently, about 10 ft. high. 



Search was next made for a ditch defending this ramnart. The hill slope 

 was followed beneath the fallen ruins and then beneath lavers of clay for a 

 horizontal distance of 23 ft. from the wall before one was found. But here a 

 spf'tion of a rock-cut ditch 6 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep wa/? dug out. It was filled 

 with rubble mixed with a few wall-facing stones, with a 1 ft. layer of dark 

 soil half-way down containing animal bones and a nortion of an antler probably 

 Tised as a pick. Tt was covered at the bottom with 6 in. of silting. 



As the second and third onl-<r of the three earth-cnt ditchep belon'rino' to 

 Floor A seen along the S. side of the hill-fort were visible, though nearly filled 

 with debris, along the S.W. side, our cuttin? was extended outwards to search 

 for the first. This wa« found buried deep under silting and fiUed with stony 

 debri<? from the partial demolition of the latest main rampart. Tt was rock- 

 cut. 15 ft, wide and 7 H. deep, and had but a thin layer of siltingr on the 

 bottom. The second and third ditohes were then fnlly excavated, the second 

 bein? filled with stony debris and the third with soil and a few fallen stonee. 

 No relicfi were found. 



Turning from the S.W cutting, renewed attention was raid to the defences 

 noon the S. side of the hill-fort. Here a cutting had alreadv been made across 

 the upper portion of the great main ramnart and the three outer earth-cut 

 ditches had been excavated. The first ditch had been found to be filled with 

 clean quarried rubble stones mixed with wall-facin? st^ines — the thrown-down 

 debris of a paraTJet which once stood unon the cre.'^t of the rampart and 

 which wap anT>roximat°ly contemporaneous -"'ith the fonrth-centur'- Floor A. 

 In order to excavate deeper down, this cutting also had to be widened, at a 

 cost of much expensive labour • but hv this wideninff. additi-^nal knowledge 

 of the periods of occupation of the hill-fort was obtained. Here, as in the 



5 W. cutting, a floor and construction, A2. were found intermediate between 

 "'''loors A and B. A further leng-th of the ba/-V revetting wall of the rampart 

 belonging to Floor B was also uncovered, built upon a similar foundation of 



