On tJie Excavations at Rotherley? Woodcuts, and Bokerly Dylce, 297 



discovered a small fragment of Samian pottery on the top of the 

 rampart, near the same spot. So I applied at once to Sir Edward 

 Hulse, the owner of the property, who readily gave me permission 

 to dig a section through the rampart at this spot. Section 1, 30ft. 

 wide, the position of which is marked on the accompanying map, 

 was the result of this excavation. Thirty-two coins, extending from 

 Gallienus to Constans, were found in the top and rear portion of 

 the bank and in the silting of the ditch. Although these were, 

 with little doubt, of the period of the entrenchment, it is my 

 custom, in cutting sections through ramparts, to distinguish objects 

 found in those positions into which they might by any possibility 

 have been introduced after the construction of the work, from those 

 found in the body of the rampart, which must certainly have been 

 placed there during the time or before it was thrown up, and which 

 could not by any possibility have got into it afterwards. In this 

 latter position one coin of Claudius Gothicus was found 3* 1ft. beneath 

 the crest. Some fragments of British and Romano-British pottery 

 and a piece of red Samian ware were also found in the same position, 

 and on the old surface line, beneath the rampart. It may save time 

 to state here that in all sections of ramparts in a chalk soil the old 

 surface line, representing the old turf before the rampart was thrown 

 over it, can be seen in a distinct line of dark mould beneath the 

 rampart. Beneath the silting which had accumulated over tha 

 ditch, in the course of ages, to the extent of 6ft., or thereabouts, 

 two ditches were found one behind the other with a ridge of un- 

 disturbed chalk between them. This gave rise to some speculation, 

 and other instances, as, for example, at the Roman camp at the 

 Saalburg, near Homburg, where two ditches occur outside the 

 rampart, were called in evidence to explain the occurrence. But all 

 such conjectures were futile. The excavations which I shall describe 

 hereafter, subsequently revealed the true cause of this peculiar 

 construction, and serve to show how careful it is necessary to be, 

 even after excavations have been made, before conclusions are put 

 forward. In the counterscarp of the outer ditch the remains of pits 

 were found, which appeared to be connected with habitations of 

 some kind, but no trace of which could be seen on the surface, and 



