188 ON THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES OP WARWICKSHIRE. 



ing for limestone in a field close to the site of this ancient settle- 

 ment, a rude cist was discovered formed of the limestone, which 

 contained a skeleton, with the legs contracted or gathered up, the 

 scull of which had fallen between the knees. Many like discoveries 

 of ancient interments are often made without being noticed, and 

 very frequently articles of warfare, or ornaments, are found with 

 the body ; but in the cases I have instanced there were none. 



The practice of cremation, or burning the body prior to inter- 

 ment, was also very ancient, though of a later introduction to the 

 mode of burial by simple inhumation ; and after this system com- 

 menced, neither mode seems to have prevailed to the disuse of the 

 other. The funeral urn was not always used ; sometimes a mere 

 deposit of burnt bones and ashes are found ; and in a garden to the 

 south of Oldbury Camp, a few years ago, a simple interment by 

 cremation, without any urn or other accompaniment, was discovered. 

 Although several sepulchral urns have been dug up in different 

 parts of this county, all that have been hitherto noticed are, with a 

 solitary exception, of a period subsequent to the Roman conquest, 

 as may be evinced by their form and make ; those of the Roman 

 era approximating the globular, those of the ancient British era, 

 the cylindrical or cone-like form. 



A sepulchral urn, of the ancient British era, was taken from a 

 tumulus at Oldbury, near Atherstone, opened in the month of June 

 last, under the superintendence of Mr. Hawkes and myself; and as 

 this was, I believe, the first attempt that has been hitherto made to 

 explore the tumuli of this county, purposely with a view to an in- 

 vestigation of their contents, I shall venture to enter somewhat 

 into the mode of our proceeding. The position of this tumulus, 

 which is laid down in the Ordnance Survey, was on the brink of 

 some high ground on the Hartshill range of hills, in the northern 

 part of this county, and but a few hundred yards from the camp at 

 Oldbury. It formerly commanded a most extensive view, which is 

 now, however, obstructed by the wood which surrounds it, and in 

 the outskirts of which it lies. In the midst of this wood are some 

 earthworks, which are probably British, vestiges of a covered way 

 being perceptible ; but, from the thickness of the underwood and 

 foliage, we were unable to examine them with much accuracy, our 

 attention being chiefly devoted to the proposed excavation. 



The appearance of the tumulus before it was opened was that of 

 the common bowl-shape form, about seventy feet in diameter at 

 the base, rising to a perpendicular height, as near as could be 

 computed, of about fifteen feet ; the sides were covered with trees 



