Ilecent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, Artieles^ &c. 477 



Old Sarum. Excavations in 1911. A report of the work 



done up to date by Col. Hawley, F.S.A., is printed in Saliahury Journal, 

 Sept. 16tli, 1911, in which it is stated that Mr. A. li. Maiden has recently 

 discovered in the Cathedral Library a record dated ^Farch 13th, 13.o0 — 60, 

 in which the Sheriffs of Wilts are ordered to put the Castle of Old 

 Sarum into a state of defence, on account of a threatened French 

 invasion. When this command was received the castle appears to have 

 been already to a great extent pulled down. The dismantling of the 

 fortress had been begun in 1328, when Bishop Wyvil obtained the 

 royal permission to build the Close wall of materials procured from 

 Old Sarum. The second well, recently discovered on the south side of 

 the inner bailey, which only penetrates to a depth of 6ft. in the solid 

 chalk below the mound, the total depth Iwing about 40ft., was probably 

 dug hastily on this alarm of war in 1860, when the original well, in the 

 courtyard close to the wall of the chapel of the great tower, had been 

 already choked up with de1)ris of the demolished walls, ko,. 



Avebliry. A short report of the work of excavation done during Ai)ril 

 and May, 1911, was printed in the Times, Aug. 8tli, 1911. Another 

 large section of the ditch was cleared out. The mediaeval stratum ex- 

 tended to 3ft. in depth, the Roman, in which was found a brooch of 

 the AVCISSA type, and bearing that inscription, to 4^ft., and below 

 this depth a few fragments of pottery much resembling that found 

 in the long barrow at West Kennett and now in the Devizes and the 

 British Museums. This ware is now regarded as of the Stone Age. 

 Mr. Gray notes that another Avcissa brooch was found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Marlborough in 1910. 



Palaeolithic Periods at Knowle Farm Pit. A paper by 



the He v. H. G. O. Kendall is printed in P roccedings Soc. Antui.^Uxy Wth., 

 1911, 2nd Series, xxiii., i)p. 453 — 464, in which he argues that the im- 

 plements found at Knowle can be assigned to at least four i)eriods 

 corres])onding with those into which Prof. Commont divides the flints 

 of the well-known St. Acheul gravels. Mr. Kendall believes that he 

 can distinguish in the Knowle Pit stratified horizons corresjionding to 

 distinct periods of workmanshii) in the Hints. He adds a note on the 

 "({loss," which is such a remarkable feature both of workeil and un- 

 worked Hints in this pit, and on the striation found on many of the 

 flints. He is disposed to assign the "Gloss" to the action of sand im- 

 bedded in ice moving t»vtM- the surface of the Hints, assisted probably 

 by the quantity of iioii >>r manganese i)resent in that locality. The 

 striation he would account for by grains of (piartz in like manner Hxed 

 in ice. Mr. Reginald Smith, -N[r. Dale, and Dr. Ixeail joined in the 

 discussion whi.h toUnwrd the reatling of the i)ai)er and all expres.sed 

 tlieniselv.s as not i)rcpared iit j)resent to accept the cla>siii.Mti(>n of the 

 1 rnirh ai< hieologists as applying to British gravels. 



