96 Notes on Barrow-diggings. 
mains interred in these tombs, and consist of earthenware, not 
baked in a kiln but imperfectly hardened by a fire. These pot- 
sherds are found in sepulchres where there are no urns, and are 
almost always fragments of different vessels. Archzologists have 
considered them to be the relics of the Lyke-wake held at the 
funeral. Kleeman observes that it was customary to bring the 
corpse to the place of interment clad in festive garments, and show 
it to the friends; a banquet then commenced and a share was 
offered to the deceased.” The vessels used on these occasions are 
then supposed to have been destroyed, for some symbolical reason. 
and the fragments strewn about. 
On reaching the centre of the barrow we found one of the most 
interesting graves hitherto discovered in Wiltshire. It was a cist 
dug in the chalk three feet ten inches long north and south, fifteen 
inches wide and one foot deep, and at a depth of eight feet ten inches 
from the apex of the mound. The peculiarity of its construction 
was this. The grave was cylindrical and had been lined with a 
plaster of pounded chalk about one and a half inch in thickness. 
The plaster had received the impression of the bark of a tree, and 
indicated that the bones of the deceased had been placed in a 
hollowed trunk which was deposited in the grave while the plaster 
was still moist. A thin layer of decayed wood was distinctly 
traceable through the entire length of the cist. Another interest- 
ing fact was also observed. It was found that the coffin was only 
partially beneath the surface level, and that it had been covered over 
with a similar coating of pounded chalk, which when it dried re- 
tained an arched form over the grave after the wood had decayed. 
With the bones, which were calcined and were those of a young per- 
son, was a horn hammer head about four inches long and one and a 
half inch wide (plate iii. fig. 4). This implement or weapon, or 
whatever it was, is abraded at the smaller end, and shows no traces 
of having been placed on the funeral pyre with the body of its 
owner. I am not aware that an implement of this kind has been 
found in this country before. Sir R. Hoare discovered hammer 
heads made out of small pieces of stags horns, but they are of a 
totally different character. No pottery accompanied this interment. 
