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thumb-markings three inches beneath the first. The urn contained calcined bones at the bottom, the top part being occupied by fine earth. Upon examining the contents, mixed with the human bones towards the bottom of the vessel, but in the centre, was the skeleton of a mole, twenty-two lower jaw-bones of the

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Cinerary Urn found in a Barrow in the Parish of Colwinston, Glamorganshire. linear.

field-mouse, and eleven lower jaw-bones of the shrewmouse; also a quantity of small rib-bones. The question arises, How did these animal bones get into the urn? The urn was unbroken, the earth inside was convex on the top, and the covering-stone apparently

fitted tight, there being a perfect black circle upon it, the impression of the top of the vessel. It would appear from these facts that the bones were deposited at the time of the interment. Indeed, animals destitute of upper jaws could not have worked their way in. The calcined bones were submitted to Dr. Garson, of the Royal College of Surgeons, who pronounced them to be human and adult; mixed with them were a few fragments of bones of pig, also burnt, probably the remains of the funeral feast. This urn has been presented to the British Museum.

Interment No. 2 was found about two feet to the east of No. 1, upon the south side of the excavation. It consisted of a fine cinerary urn, more highly ornamented than No. 1, with the twisted thong in various patterns. Its dimensions are as follow: height 143 inches; diameter of mouth, 133 inches; and the greatest diameter, 14 inches. It was placed upon a stone slab, with protecting stones for the sides and top, and was filled with burnt bones, among which was a bone pin calcined, two inches in length, with a large eye, the end broken off. It is well made, and one-third of an inch in diameter, and no doubt served to fasten the garment on the body before the cremation took place. Such pins do not appear to be of common occurrence, as Canon Greenwell has only met with four of them associated with burnt bones, and twelve unburnt bodies, each accompanied by a pin (British Barrows, p. 31). One rather similar is figured in British Barrows, p. 352, fig. 141.

Mr. Priestley, having obtained permission to make a thorough examination of this barrow, invited me to join him, and, through the hospitality of Mrs. Prichard, we were entertained during the week. We commenced operations on the 25th April last, with the gamekeeper, David Mainwaring, and three labourers. The barrow is 58 feet in diameter, and between 4 and 5 feet high. We began on the east side, by making a trench north and south, cutting off the edge, throwing

back as we went, until we turned over the entire barrow, with the exception of a small portion at the north-west end, which, judging from former experience of diggers, rarely contains any remains of burials. Nothing whatever was found on the north or west sides.

During the process of throwing over the earth, Mr. Priestley discovered, in the body of the mound, a flint scraper or knife, with a trimmed edge, an inch and three-quarters in length. It is not quite perfect, as the end with the bulb of percussion is wanting; this, and other flints which were subsequently found in the body of the barrow, bears out the experience of Canon Greenwell, who says, "There is a fact connected with these implements, and of some interest in itself, which becomes of importance from the evidence it affords in relation to the cause of such articles being deposited with the dead. Those implements of flint which are found placed in immediate connection with the body appear, in most instances, to be perfectly new, and as if made for the burial; whilst those found in the material of the barrows, and not associated with an interment, have, as a rule, been evidently in use, some of them, indeed, showing abundant signs of having answered their purpose for a lengthened time."

Subsequently, another portion of a flint knife, very thin and finely trimmed, was found among the material thrown over; this piece is nearly one inch in length; as well as a small scraper, of rounded form, but thin, seven-eighths of an inch high by one inch wide.

At a distance of fifteen feet from the east end of the barrow, and at a depth of two feet from the surface, some large rough pieces of stone were met with, which we subsequently found extended from north to south for a length of eighteen feet, occupying the central portion of the barrow. These stones formed a sort of rough wall or enclosure, and they rested upon large flat slabs of mountain limestone; these slabs

1 British Barrows, p. 50.

were afterwards discovered to extend over the whole central area, the dimensions of this flooring being 25 north and south, and 18 feet east and west.

The flooring was found to rest upon fine earth of about one foot in thickness, below which was the natural undisturbed rock. Above the large flat stones was a layer of small rubbly stones. Upon the east, south, and west sides of this floor was a sort of rough wall, composed of large slabs and stones about two feet in width, some set up on end. This wall was also met with for a few feet at the north-east corner, but could not be traced further on the north side. It was, perhaps, destroyed when the first trench was cut into the barrow, or, possibly, may never have been erected. The urns were mostly found at a uniform depth of two feet from the surface of the mound, covered over with loose earth and clay, over which a large quantity of irregular-shaped stones had been thrown as a capping to the barrow.

It is a very rare circumstance, if not unique, to find a barrow paved with stone. I have failed to find a parallel case, even amongst the large number opened by Canon Greenwell; it is also rare to meet with enclosing walls within barrows. Something of the nature of a wall was, however, found by Canon Greenwell in the parish of Langton,' in the East Riding of Yorkshire; and at Etton, also in the East Riding of Yorkshire, he found what appeared to be a circular wall of flints and chalk, irregularly formed, enclosing the place of burning; it was eleven feet in diameter. Walls have been found within long barrows in several places, but it is a remarkable circumstance to have met with this one in a round barrow.

It should also be noted that, in all cases where an enclosing wall has been met with, the circle or enclosure has been incomplete, and that was the case in the barrow now under consideration. It is quite certain that all the thirteen interments discovered within 2 Ibid., p. 284.

1 British Barrows, p. 137.

this enclosure were primary, and that those on the outside were secondary.

Canon Greenwell, on page 8 of British Barrows, thinks that if the idea of a fence be entertained, it was intended to prevent the exit of the spirits of those buried within rather than to guard against disturbance from without.

In some parts of the barrow, for instance, on the south side and north-east side, at from fifteen to twenty feet from the outside, several black streaks and patches mixed with reddened clay and fragments of charcoal were met with, which gave the idea that after the cremation some of the débris had been thrown into the barrow, together with the earth, to form the mound. Amongst the stones thrown out from among the material of the barrow was one with a large oval hollow in the centre; it had been broken in two, and only one half was found; it measured 11 inches in length by 9 inches, and 6 inches in thickness; the hollow or cup is. 4 inches deep, and 5 inches in diameter. It looked as though it might have been part of a quern or hand-millstone. It is a remarkable fact that no perfect quern has ever been discovered in a barrow. If this stone has formed part of a quern, it may be in consequence of its having been broken, and therefore of no further use, that it was thrown into the barrow to help to fill it up.

A precisely similar one was discovered by Mr. J. T. Blight, F.S.A., in a ring-barrow at Boscawen-Un, in Cornwall, and is figured in Nania Cornubia by Mr. Borlase.

Four other flints were found in throwing back the earth; one a scraper, 1 inch in length by 1 inch wide; another 1 inch in length by 14 inch wide; and two smaller pieces, all incomplete; also a fragment of cherty flint, 1 inch by 14 inch.

In another portion of the barrow an angular piece of soft stone, about 6 inches wide by 4 inches high, having deep marks scored in it with some blunt instrument, was met with.

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