ABSTRACT
THE range o f hills now to be described runs from north-east to south west, roughly parallel with and commanding fine views o f the River Severn. Situated midway between the Highland Zone o f Mid-Wales and the Lowlands o f Wessex, the Cotswolds belong neither to the one nor to the other; but form an intermediate sphere o f their own, and to borrow Sir Cyril Fox’s phrases, cultures could have been equally well absorbed by them and imposed upon them. This peculiar char acteristic, combined with proximity to the Severn estuary and the Upper Thames, provides the key to the understanding o f Cotswold prehistory.
