BODIES BURIED IX THE DltESS. 31 



sider it in detail is quite beyond the limits of this Introduction, and 

 I must here be satisfied with simply alluding to it 1 . 



Owing to the perishable nature of the material, it is difficult 

 to come to any certain conclusion as to whether the corpse was 

 interred in the ordinary dress of the deceased person, in something 

 like a shroud, or without any covering. Upon the whole, it seems 

 most probable that the body was laid in the grave clothed. Several 

 facts bearing upon the question have been discovered. The im- 

 pression of various fabrics upon the oxidised surface of associated 

 implements of bronze has afforded some information as to the 

 nature of the clothing 2 . But the occurrence of bronze is so rare, 

 and even when found is so often in the shape of drills, awls, and 

 other articles too small to afford a surface sufficient to exhibit any 

 impression, that we possess but scanty evidence in this respect from 

 its presence in the grave. The finding of articles used in fastening 

 the dress affords, however, more satisfactory proof. At Butterwick 

 [No. xxxix], six buttons of jet and stone were found in their proper 

 position, supposing that they fastened a dress, in front of the chest. 

 In barrows on Ganton Wold [No. xxvii] and on Flixton Wold 

 [No. Ixxi], a button, in one case of jet, in the other of bone, was 

 lying in front of the neck of the skeleton. In these several 

 instances it would appear that the body had been buried in its every- 

 day clothing. The discovery of bone pins, which, however, is 

 uncommon 3 , is not a certain indication that the corpse had been 

 dressed, for they might have equally been used to fasten something 



1 In illustration of the occurrence of fire in connection with burials, a few notes 

 may be given. In some of the graves at Ob^rflacht, in Suabia, candlesticks were 

 found. See Graves of the Alemanni, by W. M. Wylie, Esq., Archaeol. xxxvi. 129. 

 The well-known and common practice of placing a lamp in Roman sepulchres may 

 also be referred to this use of fire. In a barrow at Mammen, near Viborg (c. A.D. 900), 

 a lighted wax-candle had been deposited with the body. La Sepulture de Mammen, 

 par J. J. A. Worsaae, Memoires de la Soc. Royale des Ant. du Nord. A Report of 

 the Church Missionary Society says of the Arriyans or Malai-arasar, a primitive com- 

 munity in the mountains of Travancore, ' They bury in Cromlechs, like those of 

 Coimbratore ... in this (the cromlech) is included a metal image or an oblong stone, in 

 which the spirit of the deceased is supposed to dwell. It is deposited with offerings 

 of milk, of ghee, &c., a torch is lighted and then extinguished, and the top-stone put 

 on, which is thenceforward undisturbed.' Journal of Ethnological Society, N. S., 

 i. 109. 



2 Mr. Bateman mentions the finding of the body of ' a man . . . who had been 

 interred enveloped in a skin of dark red colour, the hairy surface of which had left 

 many traces both upon the surrounding earth, and upon the patina coating a bronze 

 axe-shaped celt and dagger, deposited with the skeleton.' Ten Years' Diggings, 

 p. 34. 



3 I have found twelve unburnt bodies accompanied each by a pin, and amongst burnt 

 bones they have occurred in four cases. 



