Page:Nature - Volume 1.pdf/598

584 NA TURE

584

opens into a central passage or covered way (2) those chambers opening externally (3) those containing The essential distinction cists instead of chambers. between a chamber and a cist is, that the former is entered by a lateral aperture, whilst a cist can only be opened by removing the covering stone from above. The views and plan in figs. 4 and 5 of the chamber and gallery of the great tumulus at West Kennet already alluded to will show the reader at a glance the nature of the simpler specimens of the first and most characteristic type of structure. It is only necessary to add that the West Kennet chamber was covered by three -very large blocks of sarsen stone, and that its dimensions were as follows length 8 feet, breadth 9 feet, height 8 feet. Some of the barrows of the first type as, for example, those of Stoney Littleton and Uley are of much more complicated internal structure than that of West Kennet but they all possess in some form or other the central gallery or avenue,

•with





—

—



JrV-ljl

i^i

A A

FIG.

I.

r>

— LONG

r^

f-^

,

BAKUOU- AT WEST

n n

KENNET

ingeniously supposed by Nilsson to be the homologue of the passages to the caverns which probably served as the first dwelling-places of man. It must not be supposed that chambered barrows are confined to North Wilts, Somerset, and Gloucestershire but those in distant counties appear to differ from

_Apn'l'j,

1870

Every one familiar with the surface geology of the two however, at once admit the validity of Sir Richard Hoare's statement, that the absence of the stone structures in the South Wiltshire long barrows is simply due to the want of the necessary material. Referring in connection with this subject to the South Wiltshire districts will,

Downs,

Dr.

Thurnam

— " Scattered

blocks of indeed found here and there on the surface, but they are neither numerous nor large enough for this purpose. In North Wiltshire and the adjacent part of Berkshire the case is different, and sarsen stones of large dimensions and in great numbers are found in the hollows of the higher chalk downs. From these were derived the immense stones of the circles and avenues of Avebury and as most geologists and antiquaries believe, those out of which the great trilithons, and mortised uprights and imposts of Stonehenge itself, in South Wilts, were formed." writes



silicious grit or sarsen stone are



Pi

A I

r^'"ii"Ks-iSIkM

(I'ERISTAT.ITHS

AND WAI.LING RESTORED)

The implements and pottery of the chambered barrows agree very closely with the specimens derived from the simple earthen tumuli. The infrequency and rude character of these objects, especially when compared with the comparatively abundant and highly-finished weapons and tools yielded by the chambered tumuli of Scandinavia

"^-'-i^

^^;«^

FIG. 2.

—PLAN

OF CHAMBER AND G.LLERV

those of the districts above referred to in certain respects, and especially in being usually circular in form. The sepulchral stone chamber, universally known under the naine of " Wayland's Smithy," though situated in Berkshire, is close to the confines of North Wilts, and was originally covered by a true long barrow. Dr. Thurnam surmises that the barrow was removed, or at least the chamber disclosed, at an early date, as he finds that the name " Welandes Smiththan " was applied to it so long ago as the middle of the tentli century, a name very unlilcely to have been used so long as the barrow was intact. It might seem at first sight that the presence of megalithic chambers in the tumuli of North Wilts, Somerset, and Gloucestershire is a characteristic which entirely differentiates them from the simple earth mounds of South Wilts, and that we should be warranted in assigning the two classes of monuments to different peoples, or at all events to different stages in the history of the same people.

FIG.

3.

— FROM

FVFIELD LONG BARROW

and Brittany, are sufficiently reinarkable. Perhaps the our chambered barrows have been so generally searched by treasure-hunters in various ages may serve fact that

to soine extent to explain the almost entire absence of polished stone implements. Such objects would probably have attracted the attention of persons of that class the ruder objects, having no value in their eyes, would be left in the tombs. The delicate leaf-shaped arrowheads alluded to in our former article as found in unchambered tumuli also occur, though rarely, in the chaml^ered barrows. Fig. 3 will show that the manufacturers (whoever they may have been) of these weapons were possessed of no mean skill in the fashioning of flint and it may perhaps be allowable to infer from the rarity and perfection of these objects, as contrasted with others obtained from long barrows, that they were obtained from tribes in a somewhat more advanced stage of civilisation. It is a singular circumstance that all the leaf-shaped arrowheads have