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March 3, 1870] March

3,

NA TURE

1870]

The monuments to which we refer are mounds known as Long Barrows, and

The immense

size of the mounds of the South Wilts and Dorsetshire long barrows, and the imposing stone structures of those of North Wilts, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire, would alone be suf^ficient, notwithstanding the rude character of the implements contained in them, to lead one to conclude that we have here the graves of the chieftains of the primitive people of these districts. The situations chosen for the grave-mounds, and the evidence, hereafter to be alluded to, of the immolation of slaves, and perhaps wives and children, seem strongly to confirm this supposition. It will be convenient in the remainder of our notice to treat separately of the unchambered and chambered barrows; that arrangement having been followed in the memoir The following is Dr. Thurnam's in the " ArchiBologia." account of the external form of the simple or unchaurbered barrows " The long barrows are for the most part

the huge gravechiefly occurring

Wikshire and the adjoining counties. Only the first part of Dr. Thurnam's memoir has as yet been piiljlishcd that, namely, relating specially to the Long Barrows but this part is of sufficient importance in

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demand separate The chief result

notice at our hands. of the examination of the Ancient British barrows of the south-west of England is their (l) the Long Barrows, the division into two great classes primary interments of which have yielded implements of stone and bone only, and which are, therefore, confidently and (2) the Round Barrows, assigned to the Stone Age affording implements of bronze as well as of stone, and The round barrows occasionally, though rarely, of iron. ary considerably in form, and Dr. Thurnam thinks that these variations are not to be attributed to the individual to

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fig. 3,_Dri.n'King



Cup with Second.ky Interment.

He recognises three primary forms of round barrow the bowl-shaped, the bell-shaped, and each of these three having again its the disc-shaped three modifications. The long barrows are of two kinds the simple barrows of South Wilts and Dorset, consisting merely of earth, chalk, and flints and the barrows of North Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Somersetshire, containing chambers or cists built of large stones. Wiltshire is, ^itr excellence, the county of long barrows, one district consisting of about 150 square miles, containing, on an average, one of these huge mounds in every six miles. The distribution of these monuments is a Unlike the round barrows, which point of great interest. usually occur in clusters, they are almost without exception generally two or three miles apart and situated solitary in some prominent position, usually the highest points of the hills, commanding e.xtensive views over the downs. (ancy of the builders.

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461

1

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Figheldean,

Long Barrow

(scale

!

linear)

immense mounds, varying in size from one or two hundred to three and even nearly four hundred feet in length, from thirty to fifty feet in breadth or upwards, and from three



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—

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to ten or

even twelve

feet

in

elevation.

(See Fig.

i.)

Along each side of the whole length of the tumulus is a somewhat deep and wide trench or ditch, from which trenches no doubt a great part, or sometimes even the whole, of the material of the mound was dug, but which very remarkable are not continued round the ends of In by far the greater proportion of long barrows the mound is placed east and west, or nearly so, with the east end somewhat higher and broader than Lender this more prominent and elevated the other. extremity the sepulchral deposit is usually found at or near the natural level of the ground." The great infreit is

the barrow

quency of manufactured objects

in

these barrows and Some "delicate

their rude character is very remarkable.