AN EXPLORATION OF TREGAEK ROUNDS. 81 



FragmenU of perforated nhillet. — These abounded all over 

 the site — some on the surface, some deep in the tvenelios, and 

 some in tlie ranipavt. The greater number of these perforations 

 were, no doubt, accidentally produced. 



In digging out the loose shillet from the trendies tlie 

 workmen repeatedly pi'oduced semi-circular notches on the slabs 

 and occasionally punched a hole clean through with WuAv picks, 

 and these were blunt from use. 



With a sharp j)ick clean tapering holes werc^ produced, 

 broader where the pick entered and narrowing to point of exit. 



These objects existed in such profusion that the conclusion 

 was forced home that many of tln^ semi-circular notches and 

 holes were produced by the builders of the camp in winning the 

 shillet from the moat, and subsequently piling up the debris to 

 form the ramparts. 



Some of the fragments of shillet appear to have been 

 perforated for a useful purjiose — the holes having been 

 deliberately made by punching and then improved by some small 

 pointed instrument, for the tool marks are distinctly visible. It 

 has been suggested that some of these perforated slabs of shillet 

 may have been used as weights for keeping down the thatching 

 of huts. 



No remains of hut walls were found in the camp with the 

 jiossible exception of the faint indication found in trench No. 1, 

 This need not, however, destroy the the thatch-weight theory, 

 for good building stone is very scarce near Tregaer, and the 

 dwellings or shelters of the guard or caretakers of the camj) 

 may have been of wood with thatched roofs. Timber was not 

 scarce, for there is a legend of a great and probably ancient 

 forest extending from Tregaer to Lanowe (St. Kew) in which 

 ranged a great black bear or boar, which was slain by St. Kew 

 who, as a thanksgiving, removed the church from Lanowe to 

 where it now stands in the village of St. Kew. 



The large pehhJes found in the trenches had been used as 

 rubbers and pounders. Local information indicates that they 

 were obtained from the neighbouring sea-beaches. 



The sphidle-ichorh are of soft shillet, rubbed down to shape, 

 with holes drilled from each side. 



