SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—H., 445 
3. Mugharet at-Tabon (Cave of the Oven).—This cave contains a very deep deposit, 
of which the upper part has yielded a Mousterian industry identical with that of the 
Mugharet as-School associated with a well-preserved fauna. The lower levels are 
still unexplored, but have been reached in a sounding. 
AFTERNOON. 
Mr. H. Sr. Guoren Gray.—Results of Excavations Conducted at Avebury. 
In 1899 a Committee of the British Association was formed to deal with the subject 
of the ‘ Age of Stone Circles,’ and in 1901 and 1902 excavations were conducted at 
Arbor Low, in Derbyshire. In 1905 the Stripple Stones Circle in Cornwall was exam- 
ined, and in that year and the following that circle and four others, forming a group 
of five on Bodmin Moors, were surveyed. In 1908 some changes were made in the 
Committee, and excavations began at Avebury, the work being continued in 1909, 
1911 and 1914, and resumed finally in 1922. Accounts, containing considerable 
detail, appeared in the Reports, Brit. Assoc., after each period of excavation, and 
_ Arbor Low and the Bodmin circles have been dealt with more fully in Archeologia, 
vols. LVIIT and LXI. It is hoped, also, to publish the Avebury work on a larger 
seale than is possible in the pages of the B.A. Reports. In 1915, a plan of Avebury 
was prepared at a scale of 40 feet to linch; also sectional diagrams of the great 
fosse during the periods of excavation. (These, together with a large number of 
lantern slides of photographs of the excavations and of the ‘ finds,’ were exhibited 
at the meeting.) 
In point of size and grandeur Avebury stands out pre-eminently among the pre- 
historic stone monuments of Great Britain ; at the same time it is decidedly difficult 
to realise fully what Avebury and its appendages were when in the height of their 
glory. The monument has been terribly mutilated, and vandalism must have reigned 
supreme for many years to effect the complete destruction of some 95 per cent. of the 
_ great sarsen monoliths. 
The Avebury of to-day consists of a few enormous standing-stones and similar 
prostrate stones, scattered over an area which is usually recorded as 284 acres, and 
is surrounded by a stupendous fosse ; this again is bounded by a vallum of imposing 
height. The destruction of parts of the bank and ditch was caused chiefly by the 
_ building of the village of Avebury and the construction of roads which approach the 
ancient monument from four directions. Walls and houses, obviously built of the 
venerable stones cracked up for the purpose, meet one’s gaze at every turn. 
Avebury has a circumference of about 4,442 feet, whereas the vallum and fosse 
at Stonehenge measure only 1,107 feet (about one-quarter of Avebury). The diameter 
of the area at Avebury within the encircling vallum measures 1,400 feet. Within the 
fosse are the remains of the great outer circle, and within that the northern and southern 
inner circles and other megalithic remains with which they are associated. 
_ The excavations were confined chiefiy to the fosse on the southern side of the 
_ monument, but one cutting was made into the vallum and one into the socket-hole 
_ of one of the prostrate stones. A total length of 134 feet of the fosse was re-excavated ; 
the average depth where there was only a normal accumulation of silting was about 
18 feet, but in one place against the S. entrance causeway (the position of which was 
_ proved) the depth was 30} feet. The average width of the fosse at the top was 30 
feet, at the bottom 15 feet. 
__ There can be little doubt that the Avebury fosse and vallum are referable to the 
late Neolithic period. The total absence of metals in the lower parts of the silting 
of the fosse and in the vallum cutting affords strong negative evidence. The per- 
sistence of tools of stone, antler and bone, including flint implements, antler picks, 
hammers and rakes, bone shovels and other worked bones, at least strongly suggests 
Neolithic date. The evidence, too, of this date is greatly strengthened by the dis- 
covery of fragments of pottery ; some of the types compare with similar prehistoric 
pottery found more recently in excavations in England. 
Mr. A. Lestiz Armstrone.—A late Upper Aurignacian Station in North 
Lincolnshire. 
Excavations at Mother Grundy’s Parlour, Creswell Crags, Derbyshire, carried 
out by the writer in 1924, revealed the gradual development of Upper Aurignacian 
