112 Notes. 



The Marlborough Castle Mound. It may or may not be 



generally known among archaeologists that, since this historic monu- 

 ment, second only in interest among its kind to Silbury Hill, passed 

 just seventy years ago into the possession of the Council of Marl- 

 borough College, it has been made to serve the purpose of a water- 

 tower. In the course of alterations made during the summer of 1912, 

 it was found necessary to remove a portion of the base of the mound 

 on the west side and excavate an inclined channel, some six or seven 

 feet deep, from the base to the summit. It would serve no purpose 

 to comment here upon these and similar acts of vandalism. 

 Corporations, we are frequently reminded, have no consciences, and the 

 mound has endured other indignities in its day. We must confine 

 ourselves to a very brief statement of the archaeological results of these 

 operations so far as untrained observers could note them. 



The digging at the base revealed the original ground level. The 

 slope of this dipped gently from the north to south in accordance with 

 the general slope of the Kennet Valley at this spot- An area, extend- 

 ing at its widest some fourteen feet into the mound, was cleared, and 

 a thin layer of black substance, proved by subsequent analysis to be 

 charcoal, was found to cover the alluvial surface. This in turn was 

 covered by another layer of reddish clay, containing a few broken 

 flints, showing surface exposure, and some tertiary flint gravel pebbles. 

 Each of these two deposits averaged half an inch in thickness, with a 

 tendency, most clearly marked in the charcoal, to deepen towards the 

 interior of the mound. It seems probable, though further excavation 

 would be necessary to test the assumption, that these strata of 

 charcoal and clay cover the whole area of the mound, intervening 

 between the old ground level and the chalk of which the pile consists. 

 The interpretation, however, seems by no means clear. 



Nothing else of moment turned up at this level, but the further 

 operations disclosed something equally, if not more, interesting. Some 

 six fragments of red-deer antler were found together, about half-way 

 up the mound and several feet below the present surface mould. 

 Three of these fragments consist of the burr and broken brow-tine, 

 and two others seem to be consecutive portions of the beam of the 

 antler to which one of the brow-tines belonged. The largest fragment 

 measured 246 millimetres (about 9^ inches) in circumference just above 

 the burr. It seemed to the last degree unlikely that the fragments, 

 which were thoroughly impregnated with chalk, could have been buried 

 in that position at any date subsequent to the erection of the mound, 

 and it is thought that their discovery may possibly throw some light 

 on the question of the date of that work. 



The various finds, including some of less importance which need not 

 be detailed here, are now in the College Museum. A fuller account, 

 with a tentative discussion of their value, will be found in the Report 

 of the Marlborough College Natural History Society for the year 1912. 



H. C. Brentnall. 



