By Mrs. M. E. Cunnington. 13 



on the tell-tale clay. A minute fragment or two of the actual 

 cloth, or rather casts of the cloth, formed by the deposit of 

 carbonate of lime, have been preserved.^ 



The impress of the cloth extended beyond the head, and whether 

 placed there singly or as forming part of a head-dress, the objects 

 described as found together by the head were also within the area 

 of the cloth. There were vestiges of wood round the head, and in 

 places the fibre of the wood could be seen resting on the impress 

 of the cloth. Of what extent this wood had been, and what its 

 purpose, it was not found possible to determine; it might have 

 have been a piece of wood placed over and about tlie head possibly 

 witli the idea of protection to it and to the accompanying relics. 

 It was interesting to notice that there had been two qualities of 

 cloth used, one considerably coarser than the other, and it is 

 mainly of the coarser one that fragments are preserved. 



On removing the bones it was noticed that the ground im- 

 mediately beneath the skeleton and about the head was stained a 

 reddish colour. Dr. C. W. Cunnington, of Hampstead, has kindly 

 analysed the incrustation and finds it to be the hydratio peroxide 

 of iron. Mr. T. H. Powell, of Denmark Hill, to whom also a 

 specimen was submitted, has kindly reported as follows :— " I have 

 examined the red stain under the microscope and can detect signs 

 of wood structure, and think, therefore, the rest has completely 

 decayed, except where the tissue has been replaced by iron rust; 

 it might be all that is left of a flaxen garment, but I managed to' 

 detach one or two small fragments which are rather too thick. 

 Iron oxide has the property of replacing, and thus coarsely pre- 

 serving wood and such like tissue (vegetable) and often forms a 

 sort of cement. The stain is iron oxide. I have tested it chemically. 

 If the barrow was on top of the chalk, the clay would certainly be 

 highly ferrugineous, and the stain might very probably have been 

 derived direct from the chalk." 



For hnen in Bronze Age barrows ^e^WilU Arch. Mag., xxi., p. 261 and 346 

 Stourhead Cat.,^o. 205 ; Ancient Wilts, pp. 168, 169, and 242 ; Proceedino's 

 of Societ.y of Antiquaries of Scotland, xxxix. (1904-5), p. 552 ; Burial Mounds 

 of East Yorkshire, pp. 234, 275; Archceologia, XXXIV p 255 



