Discoveries at Waddon, Surrey. 45 
the chambers which seem to approach these most closely in 
shape, size, and particularly in plan, are certain underground 
excavations at Palmella in Portugal, which, as M. Cartailhac * 
has shown, were chiefly devoted to sepulchral purposes, and 
belong to the latter end of the period of polished stone. 
M. Cartailhac draws attention to a feature which occurs both 
in the Palmella and the Waddon chambers, viz. the incurved 
_ walls on each side of the entrance. He points out that this 
arrangement was probably made as a provision against the 
_ special wear and rubbing to. which that part of the chamber 
_ would be subject. It would seem, therefore, that these chambers 
were frequently entered, and the natural inference is that they 
_ were occasionally used as shelters or dwellings; but if, as will 
_ presently be shown, the tomb-chamber was modelled on the plan 
of the dwelling-house, it is conceivable that this feature may 
have been reproduced, either as a meaningless point and un- 
consciously, or as an intentionally realistic detail. 
Tn the Palmella chambers, as well as those at Waddon, we find 
the same flat floors, hemispherical, vault-like sides and roof, and 
a Single lateral avenue leading to each. 
In France there are some subterranean chambers which present 
certain features in common with the Waddon chambers. Ex- 
_ amples containing an interment are recorded from La Tourelle, 
_ near Quimper,t Brittany, &c., but they seem to belong to a later 
_ period than those at Waddon, as objects of metal were found 
buried below their floors. 
It may be noted here that the subterranean chambers of 
_Mycene, called by Tsountas ‘‘chamber tombs,” offer some points 
of resemblance to the Waddon chambers. Both have been ex- 
cavated in a hill side, both are beehive-like in form, and both 
are approached by a horizontal avenue. There are, of course, 
some important differences, particularly in the matter of dimen- 
sions and materials, but the plan is practically the same. 
_ Returning to the Waddon chambers, it may be added that, 
whilst careful searches on the floors and in the lateral passages 
have revealed the presence of mammalian bones and no human 
remains have been identified, it is impossible to avoid the con- 
clusion, after a most careful sifting of the evidence, that these 
chambers were primarily intended to serve as sepulchral places 
during the latter part of the neolithic age. That they were sub- 
Sequently disturbed seems pretty clear from the later objects 
found in the filling-in sand, and from certain rude, possibly 
Medieval scratches on the curved roof, which have been variously 
; * Matériaux pour Vhistoire primitive et naturelle de Vhomme, 3™e série, 
. li. 1885, pp. 1-18. 
+ Archeologia Cambrensis, 3rd series, vol. xiv. pp. 293-311. 
