Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 147 



when the skeleton was interred in the silting — as has been found so often 

 to be the case. The chipped celt he regards as being of the Bronze Age. 

 The General next describes the extensive excavations on Handley Hill and 

 Down, Dorset, begun by him in 1893. The entrenchment here was a small 

 rectangular earthwork, of very low relief, which could never have been a 

 work of any importance — resembling a number of similar square-shaped 

 earthworks on the downs to the north of the Wansdyke and elsewhere in 

 Wilts and Dorset. After a careful survey of the entrenchment as it existed, 

 the whole work, ditch, rampart, and interior space was trenched over down 

 to the original undisturbed chalk. The evidence as to its age was not 

 conclusive. A silver denarius of Trajan was found on the original surface 

 line under the bank— but the bank itself was of such very slight elevation, 

 less than 1 foot, that the coin might have worked down subsequently from 

 the surface. In the body of the rampart and silting of the ditch, again, a 

 considerable number of fragments of Romano-British ware were found, 

 whilst in the area of the camp the pottery was British, and not JRomano- 

 British. On the whole the evidence points, perhaps, to the construction of 

 the camp in late Celtic or early Roman days. 



A pit near the entrenchment was next excavated, and was found to be 

 4ft. deep and 8ft. in diameter, with a step cut in the chalk on one side. 

 The bones of a skeleton, which must either have been placed here as bones, 

 or the body must have been cut up before burial, were found in the pit. 

 The same fact was noticed in other interments described in this volume. 

 The General considers that these pits are commonly of late Celtic or early 

 Roman date. Five smaller pits on the down close by were also excavated. 



General Pitt Rivers calls attention to a fact worth knowing — that, even 

 when there is no trace on the grass-grown surface of the down of the 

 existence of a previous excavation, it may be discovered by hammering 

 the turf with a pick or other instrument — the sound given out by ground 

 once disturbed being much deeper than that of undisturbed chalk. In 

 this manner the "Angle Ditch" on Handley Down was found, and 

 excavated. The General regards this ditch, originally 6Mt. deep, as having 

 been dug to protect, or drain— perhaps both — the inhabited area inside it. 

 Bronze Age pottery, with a palstave, razor, and awl, proved the ditch to 

 be of that period. A considerable area in the neighbourhood of this 

 ditch was trenched carefully, and much pottery, both British and Romano- 

 British, was found. 



Close by is the great Wor Barrow — now proved to be a Long Barrow 

 of the Stone Age people — and two smaller Round Barrows, opened without 

 success by Sir R. C. Hoare. These Round Barrows were again opened 

 by General Pitt Rivers, who once more proved the very superficial character 

 of his predecessor's excavations — finding in one of them portions of two 

 crouched skeletons of the Bronze Age with a shale "slider" near the hip 

 of one of them, and a secondary interment of the Roman Age, with iron 

 coffin nails, in the ditch of the other barrow. This ditch, varying from 

 2ft. to 4ft. in depth, was very irregular and had evidently been dug merely 

 to obtain material for the heaping up of the barrow. 



The most important excavation, however, recorded in this volume is that 



VOL. XXX. WO. XC, 



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