164 DANISH TUMULUS 



several objects of bronze, namely, a knife four inches in length, 

 part of a small symbolical sword, and two fragments of an 

 awl. It is evident that these three interments belonged to 

 the Bronze Age, and also that they were secondary, that is 

 to say, that they belonged to a later date than the original 

 sepulchral chamber, over which the tumulus had been made. 

 The sepulchral chamber itself (fig. 143) lay north and south, 

 was of an oval form, about eight and a half ells in length, 

 and twenty and a half in circumference, and about two and a 

 half in height. The walls consisted of twelve very large, 

 unhewn stones, which, however, did not in most cases touch 

 one another, but left intervals which were filled up by smaller 

 stones. The roof was formed by five great blocks, the spaces 

 between them, being filled up by smaller ones. The passage, 

 which was on the east side, was five ells long and one ell 

 broad, and was formed by eleven side stones and three roof 

 stones. At the place (a) was, on each side, a smaller stone, 

 which, in conjunction with another on the floor between them, 

 formed a sort of threshold, probably indicating the place where 

 the door stood. Similar traces of a doorway have been found 

 in other Danish tumuli, and may, perhaps, be taken as evidence 

 that the mounds had been used previously as houses ; at the 

 time of the interment the construction of a door would have 

 been simply purposeless, the passage leading to it being filled 

 up with rubbish. The chamber was filled up with mould to 

 within half an ell of the roof. About the middle, not far from 

 the bottom, a skeleton, perhaps of a sacrificed slave, was 

 extended (at 5), with the head towards the north. On the 

 south side (at c and cl) occurred two crania, each of which lay 

 on a quantity of bones, indicating that the corpses had been 

 buried in a sitting posture. At (e) was a similar skeleton, 

 close to which were three amber beads, a beautiful flint axe, 

 which did not seem to have been ever used, a small unfinished 

 chisel, and some fragments of pottery, ornamented with points 



