Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/57

Rh also discovered in the rubbish that was thrown out from the trench.

Some twenty yards to the east of this barrow lay another of smaller size, to which we next directed our attention. By our excavations it appeared that the spot to be occupied by the barrow had been marked out with large masses of chert, placed at equal distances apart, and arranged so as to form a circle about 50 ft. in diameter. From the appearance of the earth upon which the base of the barrow rested, it was judged that the process of cremation had taken place on the spot, the body having been reduced to ashes on the natural surface of the ground, and that the mound, consisting of surface-earth sparingly mixed with stones, was raised over the site of the funeral pyre as it remained when burnt out. The convexity of the heap was mainly preserved by a covering of stones, placed, with some regard to regularity, on the surface. We removed a considerable portion of the area of this barrow from the centre towards the south-east, and also displaced the larger masses of stone that we met with, and which have been spoken of as arranged so as to form a peristalith just within the circumference of the barrow. Beneath one of them occurred four shapeless fragments of bronze, which appeared to have originally formed portions of a cake of metal that had been smelted in the saucer-shaped cavity of a stone, and which were obviously intended for casting purposes. They weigh respectively, 10 oz., 8 oz., 5 oz., and 1 oz.

Attention has been called to the fact, as somewhat remarkable, that whilst the south-western counties of England present abundant evidence of extensive early occupation, in the numerous entrenchments that crown the hills in all parts, and in the traces also of ancient industry and primitive habitations that occur on Dartmoor and in many parts of Cornwall, so few examples should have been found of those objects of bronze most frequently obtained in almost every part of the British Islands—the celt and the palstave. This rarity of "finds" of bronze implements would appear the more unaccountable when it is remembered that tin and copper, which are the constituents of bronze, are found lying frequently side by side in Devon and Cornwall, and perhaps in no other known part of the globe. And yet, judging from our own experience gained at Broad Down, it would appear