Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/227

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PROTECTIVE WORKS
219

over the more elevated plateaus and valleys of Britain there is no end. They are generally in groups associated with cairns, cists, stone circles, standing stones and frequently protected by enclosures. Near the Loch of Kinnord, in Aberdeenshire, may be seen the ruins of the so-called Pictish town of Davan, which, from the extensive area covered by foundations of all sorts of buildings, must have been a strongly fortified centre of a large and busy population.

The Welsh antiquaries have recently explored the Fortress City of Treceiri, in Carnarvonshire, perhaps the finest of the kind in Britain. The space enclosed is an irregular oval—the walls following the contour of the hill-top—and measures 330 by 125 yards. On being excavated this area was found to be covered with the foundations of primitive dwellings—circular, oval and square—on the sites of which were found fireplaces, raised seats, flint implements, pottery and other evidences of human habitation.

The great prehistoric town of Worlebury, in Somersetshire, was situated on a protruding plateau, with steep sides and a flat top of considerable extent, overlooking the present fashionable town of Weston-super-Mare. Across the neck of this plateau there runs a massive dry-stone rampart 35 feet thick, the raison d'être of which was not understood till excavations revealed the existence of numerous cylindrical pits containing