122 ON SOME DIGGINGS NEAR BRASSINGTON, DERBYSHIRE. 



pieces of an adult skull (Skulls D, i and 2). Immediately 

 afterwards two more were discovered, one in contact with each 

 side slab (Skulls D, 3 and 4) ; they were apparently intact, but 

 they collapsed when the attempt was made to remove them. That 

 on the east side was in contact with two immediately below, 

 lying on the floor of the recess, one being in a fair state of 

 preservation (Skulls D, 5 and 6). The intermediate space was 

 taken up with a confused mass of human limb and trunk bones, 

 mostly broken ; the pelvic bones, however, being associated with 

 the skulls. Apart from the narrow dimensions of the recess, the 

 position of the skulls and pelvic bones at the sides, indicate that 

 the skeletons lay in a contracted or " doubled up " attitude. 

 No implements of any kind, pottery, or recognisable animals' 

 bones were found in the recess. When cleared of its contents 

 the recess was found to be about 26 in. deep, trapeziform in plan, 

 being 47 in. across at the entrance, 26 in. at the back, and the 

 east and west sides respectively 22 and 31 in. long, the floor 

 rudely paved, and the side slabs inclining towards each other. 



Trench E. — This cutting was merely an extension oi Trench C. 

 south of the line of the stones d, d, d. From it many fragments of 

 human bones were obtained ; the noteworthy feature, however, 

 was that it furnished portions of Skulls D i and 2. 



The true nature of this recess was now obvious ; it was not a 

 cist, i.e., the usually small and completely enclosed receptacle 

 prepared for one burial only of an ordinary round barrow, but a 

 chamber, the usually much larger and more carefully and strongly 

 constructed receptacle of a long barrow. 



In order to make this and other details to follow, plain to the 

 reader to whom this branch of archaeology is new, a paragraph or 

 two will now be devoted to barrow-burial. 



The larger number of British barrows (98 per cent, at least in 

 Derbyshire and Staffordshire) are circular in plan, or, if not 

 actually so, the digression is due to additions to the parent 

 mound made at later burials. Their interments show that simple 

 inhumation and crematio 1 were practised throughout their era, 

 often side by side : when the former, the corpse was usually laid 



