Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric PeoplesNadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
History
Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples
Nadaillac, Jean-François-Albert du Pouget, marquis de
Archaeology; Prehistoric peoples
The most celebrated of these camps is that of Cissbury, three miles
north of Worthing. We may also mention that of Hod-Hill in Dorsetshire,
which greatly resembles the one at Cissbury, but we will describe the
latter in some detail.17 It is situated on a somewhat lofty plateau of
irregular form, its site having been chosen with great skill as one
offering great facilities for defence. The earthen ramparts and the
fosses protecting them cover an area of sixty acres, and their
importance varies according to the relief of the ground; thus the
thickness of the walls is very much greater on the eastern side where
an attack would have been most fraught with danger; four doors give
access to the interior, and on each side of these doors are ruins of
rectangular structures strengthening their defence. Archæologists,
however, are of opinion that these redoubts, though their construction
is exactly similar to the rest of the fortifications, are of more
recent date. In fact Roman tiles have been found amongst the ruins, but
these really prove nothing, as every one is agreed that Cissbury was
occupied by the Romans after the subjugation of England by them; and
the only point at issue is really whether the walls of which the ruins
still remain date from the Roman period, or from times prior to their
arrival. We ourselves lean to the latter opinion, as drinking-water is
absolutely wanting; a very important point, as the Roman generals
always made it their first care to pitch their camps near a good
water-supply. On the western slope at Cissbury on each side of the
ramparts are fifty funnel-shaped depressions, some of which are as much
as seventy feet in diameter and twelve feet deep. These holes may have
served as refuges, and the larger ones were certainly lived in, as is
proved by the charred stones of the hearths and the pieces of charcoal
found near them; moreover, Tacitus18 tells us that the Germans lived in
similar habitations. Whatever, however, may have been their ultimate
use, these hollows were in the first place dug out with a view to
obtaining flints in the marly chalk forming the bill; and recent
excavations have revealed the existence of galleries connecting the
depressions. When they became later human habitations some of the
inside openings were blocked up with lumps of chalk, carefully piled up
so as to make entrance extremely difficult, greatly adding to the
security of the inmates.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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