On the Excavations at Rotherley, Woodcuts, and Bokerly Dyke. 285 
are, by this means, more clearly identified with the relics of the 
every-day life of the inhabitants than when they were interred in 
eemeteries, or tumuli, at a distance from the places where they lived, 
and, as a consequence, it is more easy to determine the exact period 
to which the skeletons belonged. They were buried in both crouched 
and extended positions, and without orientation, the bodies facing 
or extending in different directions. In other cases special graves 
were dug, but without orientation in either case. The people 
suffered from rheumatoid-arthritis. Three out of sixteen skeletons 
in Rotherley were found to have been afflicted with this disease, the 
cause of which appears to be a moot point in pathology, some 
surgeons attributing it to exposure, and others to hereditary disease. 
Their teeth were in some cases much decayed. Their horses, oxen, 
and sheep were of small size, the horse rarely exceeding the size of 
our Exmoor pony, viz., 11 hands 24 inches. The oxen resembled 
our Kerry cow in size, but our shorthorn in the form of its horns; 
and the sheep were of a long slender-legged breed, the like of which 
is only to be found at present in the Island of St. Kilda, in the 
Atlantic. The pig, as is always found to be the case in early breeds 
that were but slightly removed from the wild boar, was of large 
size, with long legs and large tusks. The dog varied from the size 
of a mastiff to that ofaterrier. They ate the horse, and lived chiefly 
on domesticated animals, but few remains of deer having been found 
in their refuse pits, from which, and from the absence of weapons 
generally, we may infer that they were not hunters, but that they 
lived a peaceful, agricultural life, surrounded by their flocks and 
herds. Their tools were iron axes, knives, and saws, only one or 
two small spear-heads having been found. They spun thread, and 
wove it on the spot, and sewed with iron needles. They grew wheat 
in small enclosures surrounding their villages, and ground it upon 
stone querns, and by measuring the number of grains to the cubic inch 
it was found that their wheat was little, if at all, inferior to ourg 
grown at the same levels. They shod their horses with iron, and 
produced fire with iron strike-lights and flint. They cut their corn 
oe Sas 
with small iron sickles, probably close to the ear, and stored it in 
small barns, raised upon four posts, to preserve it from vermin, 
x 2 
