SECONDARY INTERMENTS. 17 



reference to their proper order and position as an imperfect know- 

 ledge of the anatomy of the human body admitted, or have been 

 collected together and laid in a heap, the skull in some cases being 

 placed on the top ; but at other times they seem to have been 

 recklessly cut through and carelessly thrown back into the ground. 

 If these imperfectly arranged skeletons are those of disturbed 

 bodies, and are not to be accounted for by an explanation of their 

 condition which will be mentioned presently, then they may be 

 supposed to be those of ancestors or relations, which were therefore 

 treated with respect when the barrow was opened for a subsequent 

 burial. Many of the secondary interments must have taken place 

 either at no great interval after the erection of the mound, or, at all 

 events, before any change had taken place in burial customs or 

 in the manufacture of pottery, implements, and ornaments; for such 

 as are associated with the introduced bodies differ in no respect 

 from those which are found to accompany the primary occupant of the 

 barrow. There can be no doubt that the barrows have been 

 extensively used for secondary interments, during which process 

 bodies have been disturbed, and the bones, burnt or unburnt, have 

 been scattered. But some of these cases of apparent disturbance 

 suggest the idea, that a practice, which has been the custom 

 amongst many peoples, may have prevailed in Britain. Some of 

 the North-American tribes, for instance, collect the bones of the 

 dead, after the flesh has decayed, and bury them in ossuaries, where 

 very large collections of them are found. Amongst the Patagonians 

 the habit prevailed of keeping the bones of the body, from which 

 the flesh had been removed, and afterwards, on certain occasions, 

 taking them to the burial-place of the tribe, where they were laid 

 in the grave in order, together with the arms &c. of the deceased. 

 Even in Brittany, at the present day, some portions of the skeleton 

 are put away in a dead-house in the churchyard, and there kept, 

 each labelled with the name of the dead person, until they are 

 finally buried. Similar practices have been found to exist amongst 

 other peoples, which it is not necessary to particularise. The 

 custom of burying in what may strictly be called ossuaries does not 

 appear to have been in use in Britain, though in some barrows, as 

 for instance in one at Cowlam [No. Ivii], the disturbed bodies, 

 which were numerous, presented somewhat of the appearance of 

 such a collection of bones, though on a small scale. In many 

 barrows the bones have been discovered, laid in that rude kind of 

 order, already spoken of, and with a care bestowed upon them 



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