ON THE AGE OF STONE CIRCLES. 



320 



An'nr.nl liniirx. — Animal Ixiiies were occasionally met witli. Imt nolhing of 

 any special interest. In the Roman layer a metacarpus of ox. gave a heiglit 

 at shoulder of 3 ft. 5^ in., and in the mould at a depth of 4.8 ft. another was 

 found which gave a height of 3 ft. 4^ in. The modern Kerry cow averages 

 3 ft. 5 in. at shoulder. A dog's jaw was also found in the Roman stratum, 

 and another of a smaller dog in the lower part of the chalk rubble; and near 

 the top of the chalk rubble in the middle of the fosse the greater part of a, 

 goat's skull (young). 



A radius of horse was found deep in the fosse ; also part of a rib of ox 

 or horse, smooth and scratched (but not cut), close to the bottom of the fosse. 



Bottom of the Fosse. — As mentioned in the previous report (1915), the 

 steepest part of the fosse-wall revealed during the excavations was at the west 

 end of this cutting where the wall represents the east face of the solid entrance- 

 causeway. The greatest steepness was in the lower 8 or 10 ft., not only at 

 the end but also at the north and south sides immediately adjacent to and 

 bounding the deepest part of the fosse. 



From the end-wall eastward it was found that the floor previously vincovered 

 in 1914 for a length of 4.25 ft. was practically level right across the fosse, the 

 width of wliich in this part was 14 ft. At 5.5 ft. from the end-wall there was 

 an abrupt rise of a foot; and, as the accompanying sectional diagram shows, 



AVEBURY. FOSSE. 



EAST 

 23-4' 25-y 



SECTION SHOWING A RISE OF J-SSFX IN THE FLOOR 

 OF THE FOSSE IN A LENGTH OF Z5-SF7. MrSf^4- 



taken along the middle of the fosse, the floor continued to rise up to the limit 

 of our digging eastward, and it would have been interesting, had time and 

 funds permitted, to continue the re-e.xcavation of the silting still further east- 

 ward, if only to ascertain what variation would take place in the relative depth 

 of the floor of the fosse. In the length we were able to expose, viz. 25.5 ft., 

 the floor rose from west to east to the extent of no less than 7.55 ft., and at 

 the east end the bottom had diminished to a width of 8 ft. Along the north 

 side of the floor, in the middle 9.5 ft., there was a decided concavity suggesting 

 a rough pathway. Towards the west it approached a rather deep recess in the 

 north-west corner of the fosse-wall, which extended practically to the top of 

 the fosse. This recess or ' shute ' might have been caused by wear in hauling up 

 baskets of loosened chalk by means of ropes in the original formation of the 

 fosse. A similar recess, but much less marked, was noticeable in the south-west 

 corner {B.A. Itrjinrt, 1915, p. 178). If a large amount of the chalk excavated 

 in the construction of the fosse was, in this part, brought to the north-west and 

 south-wost corners of the fosse, this would probably account to a large extent 

 for the worn depression or ' pathway ' mentioned above. At from 8 ft. to 

 13.5 ft. from the end-wall there was on the north side a natural vertical and 

 smooth face of solid chalk reaching to a maximum height of 3 ft. 



