182 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



woman in middle life, laid on the left side, with the head to E.S.E. 

 by E., and having the hands up to the face. At the head was the 

 body of a child, about 6 years old, which had been disturbed and 

 afterwards replaced \ the pelvic bones being- laid close to the head, 

 and the right tibia reversed. At her feet was another child, about 

 3 or 4 years old, and behind her back a third, about 2 years old. 

 These two latter children seemed not to have been disturbed, but 

 the bones were very much decayed, so much so that their position 

 could not be very certainly made out, though it was clear they had 

 been interred in the customary contracted manner. Almost touch- 

 ing the feet of the female body were the knees of, possibly, a man, 

 who had been buried lying on the right side, with the head to 

 W.S.W. This body also had been disturbed and replaced in a sort 

 of rude order, the two femurs being in their proper places, but 

 reversed. Laid upon these last bones were those of yet a fourth 

 child, older apparently than any of the others ; but whether it too 

 had ever been disturbed it was impossible to decide, owing to the 

 very decayed condition of the bones. 



From the manner in which these several bodies were placed, it 

 would appear that the original occupants of the grave had been 

 the supposed man, and perhaps two of the children, and that it had 

 been re-opened to put in the woman and the remaining children ; 

 and further, that in order to do this the child whose body was found 

 at a higher level had also been subjected to removal. We may 

 conjecture that a near tie of relationship had bound together the 

 whole of the persons thus buried in one grave, possibly a man, his 

 wife and children ; but in this instance there is not anything to 

 lead us to the conclusion that a wife and her children had been 

 immolated at the funeral of the husband and father. 



But to resume the account. Next, it would seem, after the grave had 

 been finally filled inland most likely not very long after that operation 

 in point of time (for the shrinking of the grave, to be referred to 

 presently, was probably due, in some measure at least, to the decay 

 of the flesh of the bodies buried at its bottom), two other interments 



1 Several instances of a similar disturbance and replacement of skeletons will be 

 fonnd recorded in the sequel. The same feature occurred to Mr. Bateman in the 

 Derbyshire barrows ; in particular he mentions that in Rusden Lowe, ' it was evident 

 that the grave had been occupied by a previous tenant, whose bones, together with the 

 remains of another drinking cup beautifully decorated, and a bit of stag's -horn, had 

 been collected and placed under one of the large stones that covered the grave. This 

 had clearly been done at the time when the female was buried.' Ten Years' Diggings, 

 p. 44. See also pp. 58, 73. 



