Contents of the Urns. 203 



to the Roman invasion — how long a more minute criticism 

 and a greater accumulation of facts than is now possessed, can 

 alone determine. 



There are, however, one or two points peculiarly noticeable 

 about this barrow — first, the enormous quantity of burnt earth, 

 suggesting that the funeral pyre was actually lit on the spot, 

 which certainly was not the case in most of the other barrows, 

 where the charcoal is only sprinkled here and there, or appears 

 in the form of a small circular patch on the floor. Secondly, 

 the two bands of charcoal, so full of osseous matter, would 

 certainly go far to prove, what has been surmised by Bateman 

 and others, that the slaves or prisoners were immolated at the 

 decease of their master or conqueror. 



Again, too, the different sizes and positions of the urns 

 may, perhaps, indicate either degrees of relationship or rank of 

 the persons buried. And this theory is somewhat corroborated 

 by the contents. The central urn was examined on the spot, 

 and, like all the others, with the exception of a round stone 

 slightly indented, contained burnt earth, limy matter, and at 

 the bottom the larger bones, which were less calcined, but 

 which, owing to the want of proper means, we could not 

 preserve. The other two were opened at the British Museum. 

 At the bottom of the north-easternmost were also placed bones 

 in a similar condition, amongst which Professor Owen recog- 

 nized the femur and radius of an adult. The smallest urn also 

 showed bones placed in the same manner at the bottom, but in 

 this case smaller, and amongst them Professor Owen deter- 

 mined x>rocessus dentatus, and the body of the third cervical 

 vertebra, and was of opinion that they were those of a person 

 of small stature, or, perhaps, of a female. This is what might 

 have been expected. And the fact of their being put in the 



D D 2 203 



