PARISH OF LANGTON. 



139 



a piece of a dentalium 1 ; a portion of a belemnite rubbed down ; 

 one of the vertebrae of a fish ; and three cowries (Cyprcea Europtea] 2 . 

 Only one of the awls is perfect, the others having lost somewhat of 

 their substance by oxidation. The entire awl [fig. 95] is one inch 



Fig. 95. f 



long, the flat tang for insertion in the handle taking up f in. of the 

 entire length. 



About 6 ft. south of the remains last mentioned was a third body, 

 that of a very old person, probably a woman, with a markedly 

 brachy-cephalic head 3 . This was laid on the left side upon a rough 

 pavement of small stones -placed on the natural surface. The head, 

 on either side of which stood an upright stone, pointed a little 

 south of east, and the hands were up to the face. In front of the 

 knees was a vessel of pottery, lying on its side, and with the bottom 

 towards the body. It is of the type of the cinerary urn, in shape 

 like fig. 56, a vessel which is very rarely found with an unburnt 

 body, and is 7J in. high, 5J in. wide at the mouth, 6J in. at the 

 bottom of the overhanging rim, and Sin. at the bottom of the 

 vessel. The rim, If in. deep, is ornamented with parallel sloping 

 lines, over which are impressed two lines, parallel to each other, 

 about an inch apart, and encompassing the urn. Below the rim 

 another line goes round the urn, from which shallow loops depend, 

 2f in. long and not quite J in. deep. The impressions are those of 

 loosely-twisted thong. 



Between this interment and the body of the woman was the same 

 kind of wall as that found near to the first body. It ran in a 

 direction east and west for a distance of about six feet. Two feet west 

 of the third body there was a circular hole, 3 ft. in diameter and 



1 Sir R. Colt Hoare found, whether with a burnt or unburnt body is not stated, ' a 

 little dagger of brass/ several clay beads, and ' a great quantity of curious little shells, 

 in shape like the Hirlas horn used by the Britons.' Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 114. pi. xiii. 

 The shell he figures is evidently a dentalium. 



2 Amongst the burnt bones in an urn under a barrow three miles west of Dorchester, 

 was ' a small cowrie shell, which had been perforated, and worn probably as a bead/ 

 It had been 'subjected to the action of fire/ Warne, Celtic Tumuli of Dorset- 

 Tumuli Opened at Various Periods, p. 45 ; extracted from a paper, Archseol., vol. xxx. 

 p. 327, where the shell is figured, pi. xvii. fig. e. 



3 The skull shows all the signs of extreme age ; all the sutures are effaced. The 

 lower maxillary, all the teeth having been wanting for many years, had become 

 attenuated to a very extraordinary degree, from the complete absorption of the 

 alveolar process. 



