PARISH OF GOODMAN HAM. 87 



There is a remarkable fact connected with the pre-historic 

 occupation of this district of the wolds, and one which it is not 

 easy to explain, and that is the great scarcity of implements of 

 flint or other stone throughout the whole of this portion of the 

 chalk range. Whereas, in other parts of the same tract of high 

 land, implements are found abundantly, in this part they are of 

 very rare occurrence ; and this is shown most clearly not only 

 by their infrequency upon the surface of the land, but also by the 

 small number that an extensive examination of the barrows has 

 brought to light. It is impossible to account for this scarcity of 

 implements on the supposition that the country was not so thickly 

 peopled here as elsewhere on the wolds, for other and equally 

 convincing evidences of occupation are as abundant, if indeed they 

 are not even more so ; nor is it easy to understand what more 

 perishable material could have been used in the place of stone, and 

 which it might be supposed had gone to decay. Were the absence 

 of implements noticeable merely in the barrows, that would not 

 have created much difficulty, for the custom of placing such 

 articles in association with the dead is so capricious, that it is 

 impossible to draw any safe conclusion from the contents of the 

 sepulchral mounds as to the general diffusion of any especial 

 instruments of warlike, domestic, or agricultural use in any 

 particular locality. But that does not hold good with regard to 

 the casual finding of the implements in question during the course 

 of the ordinary operations of the farm ; for had they been in 

 common use at any time, it is certain that they must have been 

 found, here as well as elsewhere, when the land was turned over, and 

 when they would naturally become exposed upon the surface of the 

 ground. I can offer no solution of this difficulty, and I must leave 

 it to the more ingenious speculation of others, as an interesting, 

 though by no means an easy, subject of enquiry. 



The first five barrows which I examined were those lying the 

 furthest to the east of the whole series, and contained, as has 

 already been noticed, burials after cremation. 



LXXXIII. The first was 48ft, in diameter, 3J ft. high, and 

 made of earth with some flints amongst it. Thirteen feet east of 

 the centre, and about 6 in. above the natural surface, was a small 

 vessel of pottery, standing upright and surrounded with burnt 

 earth and charcoal. The vessel is in shape like fig. 130 ; the 

 overhanging rim, to which the ornamentation is confined, being 2 in. 



