By William Long, Esq. 201 



like fossil wood. (See plate xvii., " Ancient "Wilts," vol. i.) No. 

 40 " may be called ' the monarch of the plain/ being the largest 

 barrow upon it." On the floor were perceived symptoms of cre- 

 mation, in charred wood, etc., yet ''we could not discover the primary 

 interment." No. 41. An interment of burnt bones. No. 42, sixty- 

 six feet in diameter, and 6 feet high, was opened in 1803, and pro- 

 duced, within a circular cist, an interment of burnt bones, and a 

 bronze pin with part of its handle, deposited in a neat and perfect 

 urn. (Plate xvi.) Nos. 43 and 44 are included within the bound- 

 aries of the Cursus, and very near the western end of it. In the first 

 of these, at the depth of 3 feet, was the skeleton of an adult, with 

 a drinking cup, and on the floor of the barrow, another of a child. 

 We afterwards, in a shallow cist, found the third skeleton, of a man, 

 with a curious pebble of a sea-green colour when dipped in water, 

 and under the left hand a dagger of bronze. No. 44 contained only 

 a simple interment of burnt bones. Nos. 45 and 47 yielded simple 

 interments of burnt bones; No. 46, a rude urn with cremation. No, 

 48 an interment of burnt bones with a bronze pin. No. 49 is a long 

 barrow.' No. 50. Under a regular stratum of flints, intermixed 



' No. 49 is 7iot a long barrow. It is an oval barrow, coeval with the round 

 barrows of the bronze period, and differing from the long barrow in having the 

 ditch all round it and being much smaller. These oval barrows cover inter- 

 meuts sometimes by simple inhumation, but more generally after cremation. 

 Dr. Thurnam opened this barrow on May 5th, 1864. Near to the east end, at 

 the depth of about I5 feet, was the skeleton of a person of middle stature, 

 closely doubled up, and with the head to the north. Close to the back of the 

 skull was a small drinking cup of richly decorated red pottery, such as is found 

 with skeletons in the later round barrows. Like the brachy cephalic skeleton 

 with which it was found, it was much decayed and broken. The centre of the 

 mound was searched for a second interment, but unsuccessfully, although a 

 small cup of coarse thick pottery was found. A third opening was made near 

 the west end of the barrow, and at' a depth of from 1 to 2 feet, was the skeleton 

 of a tall man, of a stature of 6 feet. This was likewise doubled up, but the 

 head was directed to the west. Close to the remains of the skull were lour 

 very beautiful Jofce/tn heads of flint. They were close together, and had probably 

 been deposited with their shafts entire. These are the only objects of this 

 description which have been found in the Wiltshire barrows, but four of the 

 same kind, but smaller, were found in an oval barrow on Pistle Down, Dorset, 

 near the junction of the three counties of Wilts, Dorset and Hants. — See 

 engravings of them in " Archaeologia," 1873; " Proceedings of Soc. A.nt.," 



