4 Nuten on the Opening of a Bronze Age Barrow at Manton. 



tangible now remains than the vague sense of interest and im- 

 portance that the name implies ? 



A slight natural swell or undulation appears to have been taken 

 advantage of on which to build the mound, and that, together with 

 the levelling and contortion to which it has been subjected, gives 

 it somewhat the appearance of a long barrow, and makes it im- 

 possible to say with any exactitude what the original size and 

 shape of the mound had been, except that it was of the " round " 

 barrow type, and of a very considerable size. 



This large, unshapely, and scattered mound was attacked by 

 means of a trencli 4ft. wide cut from the south-westerly extremity 

 towards the north-east, and designed to strike through its centre ; 

 subsequently other trenches were cut towards the east and south, 

 and the whole of the central part of the barrow was thrown over 

 in the hope, that proved futile, of finding secondary interments. 

 To lessen the risk of objects fi'om the ploughed surface becoming 

 confused with the undisturbed material of the barrow, the soil to 

 a depth of a foot was removed along this trench before the deeper 

 digging was done. At the liighest part of the barrow the depth 

 to the undisturbed chalk was only 3ft. 9in. Irregular layers of 

 yellowisli colour, that appeared to be the result of burning, were 

 noticed throughout the mound. It was suggested that these might 

 have been caused by bush fires that had swept over the ground at 

 times when it was covered with gorse and undergrowth, but some 

 of the layers were too deep and all too irregular to admit readily 

 of this explanation, unless we allow that the mound was added to 

 at many subsequent dates. The cutting through the barrow re- 

 vealed the fact that there had been an inner and an outer trench 

 cut into the chalk encircling, or partly encircling, the mound. It 

 would have entailed so much extra labour that the extent of these 

 trenches was not ascertained, but the cutting on the north-eastern 

 side showed that they were not continuous there. The trenches 

 were about 14in. in depth, and 2ft. 9in. wide at tlie top, narrowing 

 considerably towards the bottom. The inside edge of the outer 

 trench was less than 2ft. from the outer edge of the second trench. 

 Both the trenches or ditches are now actually just within the area 



