22 



INTRODUCTION. 



fact that a single burnt body is frequently the sole occupant of a 

 barrow, and that the principal interment is sometimes that of a child. 

 The way in which the unburnt body was placed in the burial 

 mound has now to be considered. It is almost always found 

 to have been laid upon the side, in a contracted position [fig. 1], 



Fig. i. 



that is, with the knees drawn up towards the head, which is 

 generally more or less bent forward ; the back, however, is some- 

 times quite straight. So invariable is this rule, that out of 301 

 burials of unburnt bodies, which 1 have examined in the barrows of 

 the wolds, I have only met with four instances where the body 

 had been laid at full length \ 



This remarkable position of the body, which has nevertheless 

 prevailed iii many countries and at very different times, was 

 certainly not caused by the desire to compress the body within the 

 limits of a grave of small dimensions. In those barrows where a 

 grave of 9 feet or 10 feet in diameter has occurred, the single body, 

 which is all that in many instances has been buried there, is 



1 Mr. Bateman (referring to the Derbyshire barrows) says, and his experience was 

 very large, ' nor have we seen any skeleton, accompanied by relics of the earlier ages 

 (he is speaking of British burials), fully extended/ Ten Years' Diggings, p. 27. In 

 Dorsetshire, on the contrary, the extended position seems to be the prevalent one. 

 Warne, Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, passim. 



