TO WHICH A TUMULUS BELONGS. 



161 



Bronze Age. No less than 270 cluster round Stonehenge, 

 and it seems most probable that the dead were brought from 

 a distance to lie near the great temple. In this case the great 

 majority of the tumuli belong, therefore, to one period, that, 

 namely, at which the temple was held sacred. Some few, 

 indeed, may be referable to earlier or later times, but as out 

 of 152 of these interments which were examined by Sir E. C. 

 Hoare, no less than 39 contained objects of bronze, I am 

 disposed to regard the whole group as belonging to the Bronze 

 period. Now in these 152 cases the corpse was contracted 

 in four only, and extended in three. In 16 the disposition of 

 the corpse was not ascertained, and in no less than 129 it 

 had been burnt. 



If we combine the observations of Sir E. C. Hoare and 

 Mr. Bateman, we shall obtain the following table : 



Some few of these interments were no doubt Anglo-Saxon ; 

 if these had been eliminated the argument would have 

 appeared still stronger ; but taking them as they are, out of 

 37 graves containing iron weapons or implements, the corpse 

 was certainly extended in 21 cases, and probably so in several 

 others ; while, out of no less than 527 cases in which iron 

 was not present, the corpse was extended only in 16, the 

 proportion being at least ^ths in one case, and only ^rd in 

 the other. On the whole we may certainly conclude that this 

 mode of burial was introduced at about the same period as 

 the use of iron. 



M 



