188 Account of a Barrow on Roundway Down. 
length of the thigh bones in their barrows seldom exceed eighteen 
or nineteen inches, which gives a probable stature of about five 
feet eight or five feet nine inches. The skull possesses all the 
characteristics of that of a man of great physical power, who through 
a long career in a rude and barbarous state of society had maintained 
a successful struggle with, and supremacy over the wild animals 
from which he obtained food and clothing. The bones of this 
cranium and skeleton are unusually dense and firm, retaining 
probably more of their animal matter than is usual in bones from 
ancient British tumuli, This no doubt arises from the considerable 
depth in the dry chalk of the cist in which the body had been 
interred.” 
In addition to Dr. Thurnam’s remark that the skeleton gives 
evidence of a physical power which maintained supremacy over the 
wild animals, would not all the circumstances of the interment— 
the presence of the breast-plate, the dagger, and urn, together 
with the unusual size of the grave, lead us to the conclusion that 
this was the burial place of a person of considerable distinction 
amongst his rude cotemporaries? 
