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A MEDIAEVAL EAHTHWOEK NEAR MORGAN'S HILL. 

 ■ By Mrs. M. E. Ounnington. 1 



Slight earthworks, more or less rectangular in plan, seem to 

 occur with varying frequency in most parts of the country. Some 

 of these have rightfully been ascribed to the Bronze Age, others 

 more doubtfully so, but it is scarcely likely that this large and 

 rather indefinite class of earthworks all belong to the same period, 

 or were made for the same purpose. 2 



The evidence for each site must be considered independently 

 after excavation, and a superficial resemblance in situation and 

 plan cannot be relied on as a criterion of identity of origin. 



A rather large example of these simple enclosures, which not 

 inappropriately have been distinguished under the term of "valley 

 entrenchments," is to be found in one of the chalk combes under the 

 north side of the Wansdyke, and north of Old Shepherd's Shore, in 

 the parish of Bishops Cannings. 3 The Wansdyke at this point takes 

 a sharp turn as if to avoid descending into the combe, and is carried 

 along the southern and steeper side of the combe. The dyke is 



1 Under the title " A Mediaeval Earthwork in Wiltshire," this paper was ' 

 printed in Man, January, 1910, pp. 7 — 13. It is here reproduced, together 

 with the sections and plan accompanying it, by kind permission of the 

 Eoyal Anthropological Institute, to whom our Society is indebted for the 

 loan of the blocks. 



2 See General Pitt-Rivers' Excavations, Vol. IV., Martin Down, South 

 Lodge, Angle Ditch, and Handley Hill Camps ; Mr. H. S. Toms, in Anti- 

 quary, Nov., 1907, and Feb., 1909, p. 47 ; Earthwork of England, by Hadrian 

 Allcroft, pp. 143—152. 



3 See Wilts Arch. Mag., Vol. XL, p. 246 ; An. Wilts, North, p. 97 ; Dr. 

 Stukeley's Abury Described, pp. 27 — 48 ; Eev. A. C. Smith's Antiquities 

 of iV. Wilts, Section IV., C. VIM., p. 65 ; and 6-inch Ordnance Map, 

 Wiltshire Sheet, XXVIL, S.E. The earthwork is on crown land, and per- 

 mission to make certain excavations in it was granted to Mr. B. H. 

 Cmmington, F.S.A., Scot., with the approval of the tenant, Mr. A. J. 

 ( '( unites, of Bishops Cannings. The work was carried out during the sum- 

 mer of 1909. 



