NA TURE 



429 



THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, \\ 



BRITISH BARROWS 



British Barrows. A Record of the Exatnination of 

 Sepulchral Mounds in various Parts of Etigland. By 

 William Greenwell, M.A., F.S.A. Together with 

 Description of Figures of Skulls, General Remarks, 

 Pre-historic Crania, and ati Appettdix. By George 

 Rolleston, M.D., F.R.S. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 

 1877.) 

 ■T^HE pre-historic inhabitants of Europe are now ex- 

 citing an interest in the minds of thoughtful men 

 which, twenty years ago, would have seemed impossible, 

 and which can no longer be ignored by the historian. 

 The story of man in Great Britain is rapidly being un- 

 folded, principally by the careful and scientific explora- 

 tion of the various remains which are eloquent of the 

 condition of things that passed away before the art of 

 letters was known in the north ; and, among those 

 who have been mainly instrumental in bringing this 

 about, Mr. Greenwell will ever deserve a foremost 

 place. He has devoted years of patient labour to the 

 accumulation of facts ; and in the present work he 

 records the results of the examination of upwards of 

 230 burial mounds, the greater number being in the 

 wolds of eastern Yorkshire. He has also had the advan- 

 tage of the aid of Prof. RoUeston, by whom the human 

 remains — fortunately now safe from dispersal, in the 

 Oxford Museum — have been classified and described, in 

 the latter part of the book. 



The general results of the exploration are thrown into 

 an introduction of 130 pages, carefully written, and 

 highly suggestive of new lines of thought. The barrows 

 vary in size and shape very much as the graves and 

 tombs in our own graveyards, where the rich man's 

 memory is preserved by the large mausoleum, while the 

 poor man's resting-place is marked merely by the little 

 mound of earth, soon to be lost in the general surface. 

 Those in the Yorkshire wolds are either circular or 

 "long," the former being the more abundant, and are 

 frequently surrounded by a ramp or a ditch. In some 

 cases this was within the base of the barrow, and very 

 generally it was incomplete. " This very remarkable 

 feature," writes Mr. Greenwell, ** in connection with 

 the inclosing circles, is also found to occur in the 

 case of other remains which belong to the same period 

 and people as the barrow. The sculptured markings 

 engraved upon rocks, and also upon stones forming 

 the covers of urns or cists, consist in the main of two 

 types — cup-shaped hollows, and circles, more or less 

 in number, surrounding in most cases a central cup 

 In almost every instance the circle is imperfect, its 

 continuity being sometimes broken by a duct leading 

 out from the central cup ; at other times by the hol- 

 lowed line of the circle stopping short when about to 

 join at each end. The connection of the sculptured 

 stones, if so they may be termed, with places of sepulture 

 brings them at once into close relationship with the 

 inclosing circles of barrows, and it is scarcely possible to 

 imagine but that the same idea, whatever that may have 

 been, is signified by the incomplete circle in both cases. 

 Vol. xviii. — No. 463 



The rings of gold and bronze, of various shapes, some of 

 which in their construction show that the penannular 

 form is not caused by the requirements of their use, appear 

 to represent the same incomplete circle. In fact, if some 

 of the gold rings were figured upon stone, they would ap- 

 pear in the very similitude of the circular rock sculptures." 

 Our author suggests that it may have been intended to 

 prevent the exit of the spirits of those buried, though in 

 that case it is hard to see why the spirit should not have 

 found its way out through the opening. It seems more 

 probable that if the barrow represented the hut inhabited 

 by the living that the circle round it would represent the 

 trench, or the inclosure of the hut, and that this would 

 necessarily be incomplete, to allow of access to the 

 habitation. 



The dead were buried in the barrows of the wolds very 

 generally in the condition and clothing in which they 

 died, the proportion of cases of inhumation to those of 

 cremation being as 301 to 378, or about 80 per cent. In 

 all probability both customs were carried on simul- 

 taneously, as was the case in ancient Rome, where, how- 

 ever, inhumation was mainly confined to the lower 

 classes. Where inhumation had been practised the body 

 was buried in the crouching posture in which life had 

 departed, and which would be natural where the sleeping 

 place was not well protected against the cold, and the 

 covering was scanty. This interpretation, due to the 

 ingenuity of Mr. Evans, is most likely true. 



The burnt and broken bones of various animals used 

 for food in the barrows are probably the remains of 

 funeral feasts held at the time of the interment, or from 

 time to time afterwards, or they may be the remains of 

 food offered to the dead. Splinters and various manu- 

 factured implements of flint, and fragments of pottery, 

 also occur sometimes in great abundance, and probably 

 symbolise some religious idea. Fragments of flint were 

 used in interments at least as late as the fourth and fifth 

 centuries after Christ in this country; for they were- 

 found in considerable quantities inside the oaken coffins 

 in the Romano-British cemetery, referable to the above 

 date, explored at Hardham, Sussex, in 1866. 



Where cremation was practised the funeral pile was 

 sometimes kindled upon the spot, which was afterwards 

 occupied by the barrow, but at other times the ashes of 

 the dead were collected and deposited somewhere else. 

 In several barrows curious perforated vessels of pottery, 

 or "incense cups," were met with, which may have been 

 used to convey the sacred fire to the pile. The ashes of 

 the dead were placed in urns sometimes highly orna- 

 mented, and those things which delighted- the dead most 

 or were most useful to him, were deposited in the tomb. 

 Flint scrapers, flakes, arrow-heads, beads, hammer -axes, 

 celts, domestic pottery, and a few bronze articles. The 

 number of objects buried in each barrow varied according 

 to the wealth of the dead and the estimation in which he 

 was held by the survivors. 



The animal remains in these barrows prove that the 

 ancient inhabitants of the Wolds were no rude savages 

 living mainly on the chase. They possessed flocks and 

 herds, consisting of well-known domestic breeds — the 

 small Celtic shorthorn, now represented by the moun- 

 tain cattle of Wales and Scotland, the pig, the horned 

 sheep or goat, the horse and the dog, the two last being 



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