SOMERSET IN BRONZE AGE

Evening Star, Issue 18332, 20 July 1923, Page 9

SOMERSET IN BRONZE AGE

EXCAVATIONS at ham hill. PREHISTORIC " FINDS.” With tho consent of tho Council of tho Prince of Wales, excavations on certain parts of Ham Hill, South Somerset, are being carried out hy tho Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, supported by voluntary subscriptions (w’rites a correspondent of ‘The Times’). An excavation committee has been formed, and Mr H. St. George, Gray is directing tho work in the field and recording results. The work may continue for rather more than a fortnight, with a possible short renewal in July; and next year further investigations will probably bo made.

Ham, or Hamdon, Hill, whoso highest point is 426 ft above sea level, is an immense camp, tho area enclosed by tho ramparts being about 210 acres. It dominates the broad valleys of the Parrot and Yeo, and is situated in three parishes— Montacule, Siokc-snb-Hamdon, and Nor-ton-sub-Hamdon. Tho earthworks in places follow tho 400 ft contour lino, and are about three miles in length. It is, therefore, one of the largest ancient camps in tho kingdom. Much of the enclosed area has been quarried for tho famous Ham stone, which is formed of a mass of comminuted shells held together by an irony solution, which gives it its delicate shade.

Very little in the way of systematic archaeological excavation has been done on Ham Hiil. Most of the antiquities hitherto revealed have been found by quarrymen in removing tho “ heading ” of the quarries when extensions have been in ■progress. Much of tins archaeological material has been collected and eared for ■ by -successive members of the Walter family of Stokc-under-Hain and its im--I‘mediiite neighborhood, and they have ungrudgingly passed on their collections to the Somersetshire Ati’ciueological and Natural History Society for permanent exhibition in tho comity museum at Taunton Castle.

This sito has already produced a large number of antiquities covering the prehistoric, Roman, and later periods, and some of the remains of tho Prehistoric Iron Ago and of the Roman period are of tho highest interest. A few implements of tho Bronze Ago have also been olu tinned from this site. Tho relics of the early Iron Ago-found on the hill compare very closely with some of tho objects discovered in the Somerset lake villages, and include an ox’s bead of bronze, currency bars, uninseribed coins, an iron dagger in bronze sheath of La Tene 11. period, circa 200 u. 0., another perfect iron dagger, tho largest La Tene I. brooch found in Britain, several other fibula* of the period, a wheel-shaped disc, perhaps connected with sun worship, and a largo number of iron tools of the period.

The hill was probably only temporarily occupied during early historic times, and its purely military Homan occupation—by the Second Augustan Legion—is regarded as being of short duration—just before the middle of the first century, a.m, though there is' evidence of Homano-British occupation until the end ot the Roman dominion of Britain. One finds coins of all dates from the time of Augustus mid Marcus Agrippa down (o Aroadius. (In various sites on the hill fragments of scale armor have been found—perhaps to a greater extent than on any other It-■•man site in Britain. Part of one, “ lorica ” consists of over 300 scales of bronze alternately tinned. The “ lorica squanmla ” dates probably early in the Homan occupation, when troops were pacifying Southern Britain and constructing tho Fossewny to Exeter, which, by-tho-by, passes within a very short distance of tho northern spur of Ham Hill. Although the western portion ot tho hill lias produced the greater number of antiquities, tire south-east comer, near Bed-

more Barn, in the parish of Montacuto, has yielded remains of considerable interest, including a hoard of some 2,000 “ first brass ” coins found just within the camp in 1882, in three good-sized earthenware “ crocks,” which probably bad been buried in the middle of the third century, a.d. Other hoards of Roman coins have been found in tho vicinity of the hill; in fact, the neighborhood has proved rich in antiquities, including the gold tore found at Yeovil in 1909 and the mosaic pavement, depicting two hunters returning from the chase carrying a doer slung on a pole, found at East (Inker in 1818. On tho east side of Ham Hill, near the three crocks, a RomanoBritisli building was examined a Jew years ago. It could hardly be styled a “ villa,” and was, perhaps, a farm of tho period.