EXCAVATIONS IN LOUGHTON CAMP, EPPING FOREST. 125
(whatever the significance of it may be), and the position of the
charcoal at this spot served to emphasize the relation of the
"Relic-bed" to the ramparts. Although this charcoal was all
carefully collected, washed out and screened at home, nothing
whatever was found in it, neither flints, pottery, nor carbonized
cereals.
In extending upon either side of the old trench III., I was
astonished to notice how different the soil filling that old trench
of 1882 was from the undisturbed material of the rampart.
Here again the foundation-layer of the rampart was clean
bleached sand, very unlike the stony surface soil and superficial
drift that one would have expected to have been first thrown up
in beginning to dig the ditch. The one piece of pottery, that
fitted on to the other pieces found in 1882, occurred in the
bleached sand, which also yielded most of the few flint flakes
that were found.
Trench XXIV., which we cut as a trial on the opposite side
of the Camp, where the rampart and ditch are exceedingly well
preserved, also yielded little but one good flint scraper in the
bleached sand.
Fig. 2 shows the section revealed by trench XIX. across
the low inner bank. Area XXI. was intended for the ditch
outside, and to the south of, the inner bank, but has not yet
been extended far.
The previously-made trial hole IX. was very small, but its
number is left on the plan for a separate area. One may perhaps
here make the general explanation that the odd shape of our
excavations was due to the necessity of avoiding trees.
It is noteworthy that this very inconspicuous, low, inner
bank showed the same method of construction as the main
ramparts, with the foundation layer of bleached sand ("b.s.").
This yielded a good deal more flint work than area XVI. The
yellow loamy sand ("y.l.") yielded a little flint work, but not
much. The "Relic-bed" ("r.b."), butting against and just
passing over the low bank, again yielded more. The two broken
pieces of chipped axes (3 and 4) were both found at the bottom
of, or just under, the "Relic-bed," above the slope of the inner
bank, near the stars (see the fig.). They came one on either