By Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Cunnington. 77 



Pit 2, Plate XIV. 



Oval in shape, measuring 17ft. by 15fb., general level of floor 

 6ft. deep, extreme depth to bottom of post hole 9^ft., sides nearly 

 perpendicular. 



This pit was very much larger than either of the other two, and 

 may well have been a dwelling place. As shown on plan there 

 was a smaller pit adjoining the larger one, forming a sort of annex. 



In the centre of the larger pit a hole had been dug below the 

 general level of the floor, and this was probably the post hole in 

 which the " roof-tree" for support of the roof stood. 



Below the surface soil to within a few inches of the bottom the 

 filling-in consisted of hard tenacious clay, with a number of natural 

 flints, very laborious and hard to dig. This material so closely 

 resembled a natural undisturbed deposit of " clay with flints " 

 that had it not been for an occasional flint flake of unmistakable 

 human make, and some scattered fragments of decayed wood or 

 charcoal, the effort to get through the clay would have been given 

 up, and the spot regarded as a natural " pot hole." 



In this pit there was no layer of ashes or black material on the 

 floor as in the two smaller ones, but for the last few inches above 

 the bottom the clay was mixed with a darkish mould, and more 

 earthy in character. 



The floor of the annex was of level undisturbed chalk, and lying 



I on it were found four human skeletons, three of adults and one of 



a child of about six years of age. They lay more or less in a circle, 



close to the sides of the pit, but the attitudes of the skeletons did 



not give the impression that they had been placed there with care 



for burial. Under the sternum of skeleton No. 2 the spiral spring 



i of an iron brooch was found, and under the foot of No. 1 (the child) 



a fragment of iron that may have been part of a ring, or the bow 



I of a brooch. 



The brooch was a fortunate find as it shows that these pit people 



I belonged to the Early Iron Age, for otherwise the poor hand-made 



; quality of the pottery and the finding in this pit of a flint axe and 



flint flakes, might have given rise to the supposition that the pits 



