216 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



right side, and having the head to W.S.W., the hands being up to 

 the face. Upon the surface of this grave, as well as immediately 

 beneath and about the two bodies first named, was a great deal of 

 charcoal, many broken human bones, and numerous fragments of 

 pottery. Two feet north-west of the two bodies first named, and a 

 little above their level, was a pavement of small thin slabs of chalk, 

 extending in a direction north-west by south-east for a length of 

 9^ ft., with a width of 3 \ ft. Upon this pavement several bodies were 

 laid. At its south-eastern extremity, and at a distance of about 2 ft. 

 from the two bodies first discovered, was the body of a person of 

 doubtful sex past middle age, deposited upon the left side, and 

 with the head to E. Close to the back of the head of this was the 

 head of a second body, much disturbed and decayed, and not other- 

 wise admitting of identification of position. Touching the knees 

 of the first was the back of the head of a third body, that of a man 

 past the middle period of life, laid upon the right side, and with 

 the head to S.W. ; while upon the hips of the same first body was the 

 upper part of a fourth, an adult, laid on the left side, and with the 

 head to E. The hips of a fifth skeleton were close to the hips of 

 the first ; no head in connection with it was however to be found ; 

 the body, so far as any portion of it had ever been laid there, 

 having been placed on the right side. These bodies occupied a 

 space extending to a distance of 27 ft. from the centre, in a north- 

 western direction, and from the displaced condition of the bones 

 they appeared (as has been already remarked) to have been dis- 

 turbed and then replaced, if not brought from some previous place 

 of burial. Some sort of order had been observed in the disposi- 

 tion or replacement, but many of the bones were not laid in their 

 proper positions, and some were altogether wanting. So far as 

 could be ascertained, the hands seemed to have been placed up to the 

 heads. It is not very easy to understand the cause of this extensive 

 disturbance ; for it was not called for in the process of excavating 

 the shallow grave disclosed. It is of course possible that the body 

 first mentioned was an introduced one, and that the displacement 

 recorded may have been due to that burial. The pavement too 

 may have been there from the first, and the original interments 

 deposited upon it. It is however possible, indeed probable, that 

 the fragmentary and disturbed condition of these bodies, as well 

 as of those presently to be described, may be due to quite another 

 cause than that just mentioned, the probability of which will be 

 discussed later on. 



