Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 11.djvu/388

 324 DESCRIPTION OF A CHAMBERED TUMULUS There can be little doubt that the Uley cairn is a monn- ment of the ancient British population during very early times. It appears to bear the same relation to a simple barrow of the same age, as the mausoleum of a noble of the present day does to the turf-grave of a village churchyard. Altogether a finer position can hardly be conceived for the burial-place of an early British chieftain or regulus : a cairn, " Immense, with Lliiul walls columnless, a tomb For eadiei* kings whose iiaiiies have passed away." Similar chambered tunudi, though of much larger propor- tions, still exist en the banks of the Bo3'ne, Mliich, from ancient Irish records, are believed to have formed the burial- places of man}-^ of the Pagan kings of Tara. That this was an ancient monument, during the Koman rule in Britain, seems to be proved by the secondary inter- ment near the summit, accompanied by coins of the Constantino series ; Avhilst the " vessel resembling a Roman lachrymatory," if indeed it should so have been described, may possibl)- indicate that the interior ^vas first rifled at this period — a circumstance which may have aiisen from the roof of the chamber having been discovered in making this very interment. The boar's tu.sks, the flint flakes, the stone axes, and the result of the examination of simijar sepulchral mounds, so far as this has been carried, all seem to point to a very remote period as the date of the Uley cairn. Whether it is in any degree to be connected, as a contem- porary ^vork, with the ancient camp of Uleybury hard by, seems doubtfuh Tlic age of hill-fortresses of this descrijition is very uncertain ; and though arguments perhaps pre})on- derate in favour of our assigning them to a period sub- sequent to the arrival of the Belgjo, two or three centuries Ijefore our era ; it is by no means certain that they Merc not in use by an earlier Britisli p|)ulation. As, however, a con- nection between these two ancient niomnnents cannot, in the present state of oui* knowledge, l)e sliown to be im])ossil)lo, a short notici; ol this remarkable carthwoi-k seems hero desiivible. The (amj) oi' L'leylmry is seate<l en a hold peninsula of tli<; hills, coniK.'cted by a very n.iiidw isUmnis with the tal)lo lan<l .I'ljoining, ."11111 niiisl, have been a ('i'y strong j)osition ill ;iiici('n(, tiinrs. It, is siirrotiiHlcd. 011 lour sides.