By William Long, Esq. 165 



having been erected at the same period.^ In both, the primary in- 

 terment was found at the base of the barrow, not less that fourteen 

 feet deep. In the first, the deposit consisted of burnt bones, inclosed 

 in a coffer of elm wood. In the second, the primary interment was 

 represented by an entire skeleton, lying in a rude coffin, likewise, as 

 believed, formed of the trunk of an elm. The contemporary char- 

 acter of the two tumuli was shown, not merely by their proximity 

 and external form, and the mode of burial in wooden coffers, but 

 also by the almost identical character of the accompanying relics, 

 which comprised unusually fine objects of bronze, the more remark- 

 able being blades of daggers, and perhaps spears.^ " 



Posture of Skeletons. 

 " The posture of the skeletons, the remains of primary interments 

 in circular barrows of the ancient British period, is very remarkable. 

 As regards Wiltshire, it may be stated that, without recorded ex- 

 ception, the skeleton has been found in a contracted posture, with 

 the knees drawn up towards the trunk, the legs bent on the thighs, 

 and the arms more or less drawn up towards the chest and face.'^ * 

 In thirty-five out of fifty-five cases in which the position of the skeleton 

 is recorded, the head was directed to the north, six to the north-east, 

 two to the north-west, five to the east, three to the west, three to 

 the south-east, and one to the south-west. 



CiNEEAHY Urns. 

 Dr. Thurnam, when analysing the results of Mr. Cunnington's 

 and Sir R. C. Hoare's excavations, recorded in '^'' Ancient Wiltshire,^' 

 found that in sixty-eight out of two hundred and seventy -two cases 

 in which the primary interment had been preceded by cremation, 

 the burnt bones were collected into cinerary m-ns. The urns were 

 sometimes placed upright, at others in an inverted position. Sir R. 



'Nos. 15 and 16 iu the Winterbourn Stoke group. 

 2 Ancient Wilts, i., 121, 2, 3, and plate xv. 

 ' " That the contracted posture of the skeleton is universal, or all but universal 

 in ancient British barrows, would likewise appear from the researches of the 

 Rev. W. Greenwell, whose table of fifty-eight unburnt interments in Yorkshire 

 and other northern counties shows no exception." Archseologia, xliii., 318, and 

 Lubbock, Preh. Times, 2nd edition, p. 138. 



