Combe Hill is a causewayed enclosure, near Eastbourne in East Sussex, on the northern edge of the South Downs. It consists of an inner circuit of ditch and bank, incomplete where it meets a steep slope on its north side, and the remains of an outer circuit. Causewayed enclosures were built in England from shortly before 3700 BC until at least 3500 BC; their purpose is not known. The enclosure has been excavated twice: in 1949, by Reginald Musson; and in 1962, by Veronica Seton-Williams, who used it as a training opportunity for volunteers. Charcoal fragments from Musson's dig were later dated to between 3500 and 3300 BC. Musson also found a large quantity of Ebbsfleet ware pottery in one of the ditches. Seton-Williams found three polished stone axes deposited in another ditch, perhaps not long after it had been dug. The site is only 800 metres (870 yd) from Butts Brow, another Neolithic enclosure; both sites may have seen Neolithic activity at the same time.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combe_Hill,_East_Sussex

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1787:

German-born British astronomer William Herschel discovered two Uranian moons, later named Oberon and Titania by his son John. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titania_%28moon%29

1863:

American Civil War: The Battle of Arkansas Post concluded with the Union Army capturing a fort from Confederate forces near the mouth of the Arkansas River. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arkansas_Post_%281863%29

1923:

Troops from France and Belgium invaded the Ruhr to force the Weimar Republic to pay reparations in the aftermath of World War I. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_the_Ruhr

2013:

French special forces failed in an attempted rescue of a DGSE agent, who had been taken hostage in 2009 by al-Shabaab, in Bulo Marer, Somalia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulo_Marer_hostage_rescue_attempt

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

animalcule: 1. (physiology, historical) A sperm cell or spermatozoon; also, the embryo that was formerly thought to be contained inside a spermatozoon in a fully developed state. 2. (zoology, archaic) A microscopic aquatic animal, including protozoa and rotifers. 3. (obsolete) A small animal. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/animalcule

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

He whose soul is charged with awareness of God earns his inner livelihood by a passionate desire to pour his life into the eternal wells of love. … We do not live for our own sake. Life would be preposterous if not for the love it confers. Faith implies no denial of evil, no disregard of danger, no whitewashing of the abominable. He whose heart is given to faith is mindful of the obstructive and awry, of the sinister and pernicious. It is God's strange dominion over both good and evil on which he relies. … Faith is not a mechanical insurance but a dynamic, personal act, flowing between the heart of man and the love of God.   --Abraham Joshua Heschel https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Abraham_Joshua_Heschel