41 



PREHISTORIC AND ROMAN SWINDON. 

 By A. D. Passmoee. 



The peculiar situation of Swindon Hill, half way between the 

 high downs and the low lands, its dry soil, which soaks up the 

 heaviest storms a few minutes after they have fallen, and the 

 commanding outlook over an enormous tract of country, would 

 make it exceedingly attractive to early man, who, living almost 

 wholly in the open, could here find his two greatest needs, a plentiful 

 food supply and a dry situation for his huts. As a defensive 

 position it was also desirable because in prehistoric, and probably 

 much later times, it was surrounded on three sides by swamps 

 and water, leaving a narrow ridge of dry land towards Coate, which 

 would be the only means of access to the hill for any considerable 

 body of an enemy, or in a lesser degree of wild animals. 



With these facts in mind, investigations were commenced some 

 years ago, and although by no means completed, it seems desirable 

 to place on record what facts have as yet been ascertained. 



Although traces of Palaeolithic man on Swindon Hill are hardly 

 to be expected, a small pointed ovate implement, finely shaped, of 

 that period has been picked up in the immediate neighbourhood, as 

 well as several flakes of similar age. At various sites on the hill 

 flint flakes of doubtful age may be found, but any definite implement 

 in that material is rare, the beautifully-worked axe, 1 from the 

 Sands, and the finely-serrated saw, 2 from behind Wood Street 

 (south), being the only two implements which may be referred with 

 certainty to Neolithic or Bronze Age times. 



To this period the earliest remains of man as yet found belong. 



Since Roman times the ground on the west end of the hill has 

 been quarried for lime and building stone, and in the Okus district 

 the modern workings for this purpose have resulted in a huge 

 excavation, bounded on the south side by a high wall of rock. 



1 Wilts Arch. Mag., xxxiv., 311. 2 Ibid. 



