liv
Journal of Proceedings.
Barnes, H. A. Cole, W. D'Oyley (Hon. Surveyor), G. C. Harcourt,
A. Lister, General Pitt-Rivers, Messrs. G. Rees, N. F. Robarts, T. Fisher
Unwin, F. H. Varley, and Rev. W. Linton Wilson. At the York Meeting
of the British Association (1881), General Pitt-Rivers, Mr. Meldola, and
Mr. W. Cole were appointed a Committee to report upon the work, and at
the Southampton Meeting (1882), the Committee was reappointed, with
the addition of Mr. Worthington Smith, and a grant of £10 made towards
the expenses. As detailed in the Annual Report of the Council (Appendix
No. 2), a very liberal response was made to an appeal for subscriptions.
A contract was again entered into with Mr. Cuthbert, of Loughton, and
permission having been granted by the Epping Forest Committee of the
Corporation of London, the work was begun on May 29th, and was
continued day by day until June 14th, Mr. D'Oyley again acting as Hon.
Surveyor, and the works being under the direction of the Hon. Secretary.
Mr. W. H. Bird and Mr. C. Thomas very kindly lent levels and other
instruments, and Mr. R. L. Barnes placed at the service of the explorers a
very useful tent, which was a great comfort. Our member Mr. John
Spiller, F.C.S., again took photographs of some of the sections.
The mode of working was similar to that employed at Ambresbury
Banks (Trans. ii., 55, and Proc. ii., xxix.), and consisted in cutting
sections through the rampart and ditch in order to expose the " old
surf ace line." The soil being considerably more sandy than at Ambres-
bury Banks, the sieve could be freely used, and each spadeful of earth
was sifted on its removal, and carefully examined for relics, the position
of each object as it was found being entered on a working section
of the cutting. The first section was twelve feet in width, and its
cutting involved the removal of 150 cubic yards of earth. But few
objects were found in this cutting. On the old surface, nearly under the
centre of the rampart, two or three fragments of pottery, several flint
" flakes," and pieces of charcoal were turned up. The pottery is extremely
rude, and consists of badly burnt rough clay, containing quartz grains,
and showing no traces of lathe turning. The great amount of denudation
which this earthwork has experienced, owing to its exposed situation and
the light character of the soil, has caused the complete silting up of the
ditch in most parts, and it was found in this first section that the silting
was so very similar in appearance to the undisturbed earth, that the form
of the ditch could not be satisfactorily made out. This last circumstance,
combined with the paucity of the evidence obtained, determined the
extension of the investigation, and another cutting seven feet wide was
commenced on June 8th. In this second section no pottery was found, but
numbers of flint flakes, and a partially-finished flint celt, near the old
surface line, and buried well beneath the rampart. Further evidence
of human occupation in the way of charcoal and burnt clay, marking
the sites of fire-places, was also found on the original surface.
General Pitt-Rivers examined the ground and objects obtained, on June
11th, but the evidence did not appear to him or to the Committee