Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 3.djvu/134

112 upper part being 13 inches wide where the lower part is only 6, and these sides are formed of the kale, except where it was not firm enough, and there they are made of rough thin stones, varying from 8 to 15 inches long, set edgewise at the general slope, and standing a little above the sides, small rough stones being laid flat along the top of those parts where the kale only is the side, in order to bring the whole to a level. Across the opening were laid five or six rough slabs of common stone to form a covering, some of which had broken in by the superincumbent weight.

Such is the general outline of the one preserved, but others were more correctly and beautifully accommodated to the shape of the body, and where the kale was firm, excavated clean and exact, without any upright stones, and having merely the large covering slabs. Some had no excavation in the kale, but were made of rough thin stones set edgewise, so much inclined as to touch at the bottom those which formed the other side, and correspondingly wide at top, each end being formed of a single transverse stone set edgewise. Some, and those such as were nearest the surface, had no covering slabs, but merely edging stones. The varying dip of the kale stratum would in some instances account for these differences, both as to depth and construction, but they evidently depended also on some other causes; and it was difficult not to believe that there existed something like a chronological series among the kistvaens, from the rudest form of rough stones, to the neatest and most finished excavation, and thence onwards to the time when the covering slabs were dispensed with, and the use of kistvaens was passing away. The cemetery had I think been very long in use.

In all the kistvaens the following points uniformly presented themselves to our notice. 1. The skeletons were lying east and west, or nearly so; the feet being to the east, as is usual in our own times. 2. They were lying on their right sides, the left shoulder and leg being considerably higher than the others; which explains why the coffins are so narrow, and especially at the bottom: the faces were thus looking at once towards the east and towards the south. 3. The arms were crossed in a peculiar way; the right arm across the breast, with its hand touching the left shoulder; and the left arm straight across, so that its hand touched the right elbow. 4. The legs were not crossed, but the feet merely touched each other.