Knap Hill GamiJ. 43 



Sir Eichard Colt Hoare mentions two barrows in the camp on 

 Knap Hill; the more easterly of the two has since l)een destroyed 

 by flint diggers, and nothing is known of its contents.^ The other 

 one to the west is still in existence, and was opened by Dr. Thurnani 

 between 1853 and 1857. He found in the centre a circular cist 

 in the chalk rock, 2ft. in diameter and l^ft. deep, nearly full of 

 burnt bones and ashes, but without any other relic."-^ 



Outside the camp to the soutli-west,on the steep side of the hill, i& 

 a low artificial mound, described by Sir 11. Colt Hoare as a " very 

 low bowl-shaped barrow, with ditch, diameter about 16 yards." 

 Dr. Thurnam examined it and found no sign of any interment, and 

 only a few bones of animals near the top.'^ The position of this 

 mound on such a very steep hillside seems rather an unusual one 

 for a barrow, and perhaps it was not one at all, but a mound in 

 some way connected with the defences of the camp on this side. 



The nearest spring of water is now about a mile distant from 

 the camp, at Alton, but as the water-level seems to have been 

 higher in prehistoric times, the water may then have come to the 

 surface nearer to the foot of the hill. 



The excavations were originally undertaken for the purpose of 

 ascertaining, if possible, the period to which the entrenchment on 

 Knap Hill belongs, but in the course of the work a second and 

 later enclosure was found adjoining the old hill camp, and this 

 made the undertaking more difficult and complicated than it would 

 otherwise have been.-^ 



The Old, ok Hill Camp. 



The main defence of the old camp on Knap Hill consists of a 

 single rampart and ditch drawn round the weak side of the position 

 where the hill abuts on to the open downs. On the eastern side, 



' Ancient Wilts, North, pj). 11, 12. 

 '^ Wilts Arch. Jf'i(/., vol. vi., ]). 327. 



* Sir 11. Colt lloarc remarks that jiid^^iui,^ troui tlit^ worn state of its 

 'ami)ai'ts he would concliuU^ Knap Hill to be of high anticpiity (/l/uvr//^ 

 Wilts, N(jrfh). Ntuther he nor anyone else seems to have suspected the 



&xist<.'iUT of the adjniiiinij; plateau cnclosurf. 



