SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— H. 367 



Of eight caves in this country undertaken by the Society, six have been excavated 

 fully and two are in their last stages. They have yielded an almost complete 

 .sequence of fauna and culture from true Upper Aurignacian to the present day. 



Survey work in the field has been continued. Some of the results will be presented 

 in another paper. The river terraces of the Bristol Avon- have been shown to contain 

 Acheullean and Mousterian implements. 



Afternoon. 



Sir Flinders Petrie, F.R.S. — Excavations at Beth-pelet, Palestine. 



For three seasons excavations have been made by the British School of Egyptian 

 Archeology at Beth-pelet, now Tell Fara, near the Egyptian border, 18 miles from 

 Gaza. It is the most important frontier fortress south of Palestine, as it was strongly 

 fortified by the Hyksos, dominated the onl}^ pasture and free water near the frontier, 

 was again fortified by Egyptians in the XIX and XXII dynasties, and lastly by 

 Vespasian. Historically, it has yielded the only continuous view of the Hyksos period, 

 XV and XVI dynasties, 2375-1590 B.C. It gives the mode of fortification, abundance 

 of scarabs for dating, bronze daggers of Crete and Cyprus, steel dagger before 1300 B.C., 

 and a great quantity of pottery. The series of Philistine tombs is dated by scarabs 

 to 1300-1050 B.C. The city was the home of the Jewish royal guards of Pelethites, 

 Shishak was the greatest builder in Palestine, which he entirely occupied. The 

 scarabs result in placing the Hyksos XV and XVI dynasties immediately after the 

 XII, and parallel with the XIII, XIV and XVII in Egypt. This is compatible with 

 the Egyptian records and the Cretan archaeology. The supposed date from the 

 Kahun papyrus was therefore probably reckoned on the seasonal calendar. 



Mr. H. St. George Gray. — Exploratiofi of Somerset Earthworks. 



Like the neighbouring counties of Wilts and Dorset, Somerset is rich in earthworks, 

 but verj' few of them have yet received the attention of the archseological excavator. 

 Ham (or Hamdon) Hill, 5 miles W. of Yeovil and near the Fo-sse Way, has not been 

 by any means neglected, and Worlebury Camp, Weston-super-Mare, was considerabh' 

 dug over in the middle of last century. Trial excavations have also been made on a 

 more or less extensive scale (during the time of my residence at Taunton) as follows : 

 Castle Neroche, 7 miles S.S.E. of Taunton (1903), Small Down Camp, near Evercreech 

 (1904), Norton Fitzwarren Camp, 2i miles W. of Taunton (1908), Old Burrow Camp, 

 * Exmoor — just over the Somerset border (1912), Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury 

 (1913) and Cadbury Camp, Tickenham (1922). Owing to its small size it was found 

 possible to examine Kingsdown Camp, between Radstock and Frome, during 1927-29 

 in some detail, and the work proved very productive ; it is partly of pre-Roman and 

 partly of Roman construction. Ham Hill, with its immense size (210 acres, ramparts 

 about 3 miles), has for years been of absorbing interest, and the greater part of one 

 room is devoted to the finds from this camp in the Somerset County Museum. Other 

 great camps in the county of which little is kno-nn, except superficially, are Dolebury, 

 Maesbury and Banwell on Mendip, Douseborough on Quantock, and Elworthy Barrows 

 (probably a Neolithic camp) on Brendon. With boundary earthworks, such as 

 Wansdyke, we do not propose to deal. 



Mr. C. W. Phillips. — The Circle, Avenue and other Earthworks on Walton 

 Doivn, near Clevedon. 

 On the summit of Walton Down, overlooking the Bristol Channel on the north 

 and the Gordano Valley on the south, there is a large circular work with an avenue 

 going from it north-eastwards to another earthwork roughly semi-circular in plan. 

 All these works are far too weak ever to have had any defensive value, and they 

 seldom exceed 1 ft. 6 ins. in height. Actually they are constructed of stone, but this 

 has become overlaid with earth and turf. The circle, which has an original entrance 

 on the south-west side nearly opposite the exit point of the avenue, is not a true circle, 

 but might be more accurately described as a polygon ; the sides are very numerous. 

 The avenue presents an unusual feature in that it suddenly increases its width about 

 half-way between the circle and the semi-circular work. At this point there has 

 clearly been some sort of gate, and here also a slight stone causeway begins to run 

 down the middle of the avenue, but is soon lost when it passes through the semi- 



