180 Stonehenge and its Barrows. 



" The beads of glass found in the barrows of Wiltshire are of 

 coarse material, of a light blue or green colour, long, slender form, 

 and notched all round, so as to resemble several minute beads in one 

 piece. They vary in length from half-an-inch to an inch-and-a- 

 quarter, the notches varying from four or five to ten or twelve in 

 number. They were found in twelve of the tumuli described by 

 Hoare, and in every case with interments after cremation. With 

 one exception they were associated with beads of amber, and in more 

 than half the number with others of jet or shale. A necklace of 

 glass, amber, and jet seems to have been the favourite ornament of 

 the women of this part of Britain. In these mixed necklaces the 

 glass beads are more numerous than those of jet or shale, but less 

 so than those of amber. Glass beads are rarely found in the barrows 

 of North Wilts; but one is named by Dean Merewether, and one 

 was obtained by myself from a tumulus on Tan Hill. ... In 

 the barrows of Wiltshire the ornaments most frequently met with 

 are of amber, and thirty-three interments are recorded by Hoare, six 

 of unburnt and twenty-seven of burnt bodies, with which they were 

 found." Amber ornaments are of very rare occurence in the 

 barrows of other parts of England.' Those found in Wiltshire appear 

 to have been in most instances necklaces, but rings and studs have also 

 been found. The amber from these barrows is uniformly of the red 

 transparent sort, which as well as the pale sort, is found in England at 

 Cromer, Norfolk, and on the Yorkshire coast. It may however, have 

 been imported and manufactured in England. " Amber has not been 

 found in the ancient sepulchres of Egypt, Asia Minor, and Greece, 

 though of frequent occurrence in those of Etruria and Southern 

 Italy. A chain of amber beads, connected by strips of gold, has 

 been found in a sepulchre at Caere (Cervetri) , answering very exactly 

 to the Homeric description." ^ (Kenrick's "Phcenicia" p. 221). 



^ In one of the tumuli opened by the Rev. J. Skinner, at Priddy on the Mendip 

 range, within a cist, containing the primary interment of burnt bones were found 

 four amber beads, and a fifth in the form of a heart. They were of fine rich 

 red or ruby colour, highly polished and transparent when held up to the light, 

 only one of them had a hole made through it, the others were bored on one 

 side, probably for the admission of a pin. A. small blue opaque glass bead was 

 found with them, perforated. — A.rch. Journal, xvi., p. 148. 



2 Abeken, Mitt, und Unt. Ital. p. 271, 281. Horn. Od. 6, 460. 



