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Minchinhampton Common there remain to be described numerous 

 low mounds, to which the attention of the Club was especially 

 directed on the occasion of its visit there in May, 1869. The 

 following is a brief summary of 40 of these mounds :— 



Five are circular, from 20 to 40 feet in diameter, and about 

 18 inches high; thirty-five are oblong, from 30 to 180 feet in 

 length, about 24 feet in breadth, and 24 inches in height. In 

 the construction of these oblong mounds great uniformity has 

 been observed in their width and height. Their directions are 

 very various— sixteen are nearly N. and S., and ten nearly E. 

 and W. The object for which these mounds were made is as 

 yet an unsolved enigma. The examinations made by the Club 

 in 1869 under the valued superintendence of Mr. Cunniugton, 

 and the many previous and subsequent openings made, have 

 failed to bring to light any evidence that they are places of 

 interment. The original surfaces of the soil beneath them are 

 not found to present any sign that cremation has there taken 

 place, and no human remains burned or unburned have as yet 

 been detected in the mounds. In some instances they have 

 been formed by first placing the mould in the centre, and then 

 heaping over it rubble ; in other cases the lines of the original 

 ttirf and mould remain in situ, covered directly with rubbly soil. 

 Scattered sparingly in the mounds are found pottery, charcoal, 

 iron slag, pebbles, and a few flint chips. In one small circular 

 mound near Amberley, numerotis small pieces of pottery were 

 observed to He on what had been the surface of the mound 

 before the formation of the present tui-f, whilst none were found 

 in the body of the mound. Having sent a description of these 

 earthworks to the Eev. Canon Greenwell, of Durham, he very 

 kindly repHed — " I have obsei-ved a large number of circular 

 mounds, evidently artificial, and Avhich in many cases were close 

 to larger mounds, in which burials have been found. These 

 smaller mounds occur in groups of sometimes fifty or sixty. I 

 never foimd the least trace of any burial in them, or the slightest 

 fragment of pottery or chipping of flint. My explanation is that 

 they covered unburnt bodies, interred without vase or implement, 

 and that from the slight covering over them, so allowing the air 



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