154 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



of the circular barrows of Wiltshire, the exploration of which is 

 recorded in the " Ancient Wiltshire," of Sir R. C. Hoare, and which 

 he reckoned as three hundred and fifty-four in number, cremation 

 had been practised in not fewer than two hundred and seventy-two 

 instances, or in the proportion of rather more than three to one. 



In no case whatever has any object of metal been found in the 

 simple long barrows with the primary interment. The rarity of 

 objects of flint and other stone, and those of bone, as well as pottery, 

 is also very remarkable ; and leads to the inference that those which 

 have been met with have seldom been deposited intentionally, or as 

 a necessary part of the funeral rites. Mr. Cunnington makes no 

 mention of having found any flint implements or weapons in the 

 long barrows opened by him and Sir R. C. Hoare, but Dr. Thurnam 

 found in the Winterbourne long barrow, close to the right arm of 

 the single skeleton which formed the primary interment a naturally 

 " bludgeon-shaped flint about eight inches long, and well adapted 

 for being grasped in the hand. From one end numerous flakes had 

 been knocked off, and it had evidently constituted an object of 

 considerable importance to its owner.^^ In the Norton Bavant long 

 bari'ow in which he found the remains of eighteen skeletons, 

 there was a globular ball or nodule of flint, much battered, 

 and weighing three pounds and three-quai'ters. " It lay close to one 

 of the skulls, and had obviously been appropriated to some special 

 purpose. It was possibly the instrument by which so many of the 

 skulls hatl been fractured." From Fyfield, Walker's Hill, and 

 Rodmarton long barrows. Dr. Thurnam and Mr. Lysons procured 

 some very delicate and beautifully-chipped leaf-shaped arrow-heads, 

 of which there are notices in " Proceedings of Society of Antiquaries 

 second series,^' iii., 168. Similar leaf-shaped arrow-heads of flint 

 were found by Mr. Bateman in the long barrows of Derbyshire. 

 Neither Sir R. C. Hoare nor Mr. Cunnington appear in any instance 

 to have found earthen vases of any sort, or even fragments of such, 

 with the primary interments. Dr. Thurnam found in the long 

 barrow at Tinhead a fragment or two of rude black pottery of 

 a peculiar character, thin, smooth on the outside, and having the 

 clay of which it is formed mixed with pounded shells, apparently fossil 



