Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/72

44 and black ashes of the pyre, reduced by compression to a layer of about a couple of inches in thickness, generally cover a space of about four or five feet in diameter in the centre of the mound. In two instances, we have found that a large portion of the earth forming the mound has been subjected to the action of fire, whilst in the majority of cases the mound consisted of black or greyish-coloured earth, formed by the decay of the turf and humus pared off from the site of the barrow, and from the space occupied by the fosse that surrounded it. We can only approximate to a date for these barrows. Subsequent observations have, however, tended to confirm the conjecture at first hazarded, namely, that they are to be referred to a period anterior to Cæsar's landing, when bronze, though known, was scarce. It is safer not to attempt to fix any specific date, but to say, as we may with confidence, that they belong to a period which ends a century or two before the occupation of Britain by the Romans.