Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/197

Rh modding, as well as the very small proportion of bones which show the action of fire, would lead to a doubt whether the flesh taken from the large mass of fractured bones that occurred, if indeed it has been cooked, has been cooked by roasting. In favour of the meat having been cooked is the abundant evidence of fire, more than in that rude condition of life could be supposed to be required merely for purposes of warmth. If the meat were cooked by roasting, it is not likely that so many of the bones would escape traces of fire. The presence of the pottery would imply that these camp- dwellers cooked their food by boiling; but it is difficult to understand how they could effect this with vessels formed of ware too ill-compacted and too imperfectly baked to stand the action of fire, unless we suppose them to have employed means still in use among the Esquimaux, who boil their food without putting the vessels in which it is cooked on the fire. This is effected by means of stones heated in the fire, and then thrown into the vessel filled with water, which is thus boiled from within.

In order to recover some clue to the character and history of this primitive community, and a knowledge of the arts and rites which they practised, let us institute a comparison between the contents of the barrows at Broad Down and the accumulated refuse obtained from the remains of their feasts at Peak Hill, when we are struck with the general similarity that distinguished them. In both cases we observed an absence of relics that are distinctive of Roman art and civilisation; in both cases we have the evidence of a people living in primitive rudeness, and employing only the products of native art; the sepulchral pottery of the one corresponds also in material, character, and ornamentation, with the simple domestic cooking vessels of the other; whilst also the conclusion naturally suggests itself that the stronghold or "Castle" originated in the same laborious contrivance and skill as that which gave birth to the colossal proportions of the tumulus, by which the honours of the dead were rendered in the olden times to which they pertain. And without endeavouring to deduce from the evidence before us more than it seems fairly to warrant, we may gather also from the glimpses that are