316 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



and probably the remains of hare, had probably been carried there 

 by the badgers who had made their earth in the barrow. 



The size of this large excavation and the way in which it had 

 been made were both peculiar, and not easily to be accounted for on 

 the supposition that it was from the first merely intended for a 

 grave. It is possible that it had originally been a place of habita- 

 tion, and afterwards used for burial purposes. For the requirements 

 of habitation the gradual descent by a series of steps appears to 

 fit it to some extent ; and if this explanation of its first intention 

 is correct, then the trench may have been made with the object of 

 keeping it dry, by acting as a drain. Some of the chambered tombs 

 of Scandinavia are supposed to have been first constructed as living 

 places ; and this excavation may supply a similar instance of a 

 secondary use of a dwelling as a place for the disposal of the dead 

 in this country also. But it is not necessary to suppose that a pit- 

 dwelling actually in use as a habitation had been taken to make a 

 grave for its once owner ; it may have become disused as a place of 

 abode, and being found suitable for a grave may have been taken to 

 serve in that capacity. It certainly seems unlikely that so much 

 apparently unnecessary labour should have been expended to make 

 a grave, since one equally serviceable might have been excavated at 

 a very much less cost. This argument must not however be pressed 

 too far, for we find numerous instances where a much larger grave 

 than the burial of a single person required has nevertheless been 

 excavated for only one interment. When the size of the hollow 

 is taken into consideration in connection with other features, such as 

 the descending series of steps and the trench at the bottom, the view 

 which regards it as having been once a place of habitation is not 

 by any means an improbable one. 



CVI. A barrow closely adjoining to the last, 62 ft. in diameter, 

 2^ ft. high, and made of earth and chalk, was found on examination 

 to have been previously opened at the centre, when at least two 

 bodies had been discovered. One undisturbed body was however 

 met with 5|ft. west-south-west of the centre, and 14 in. above 

 the natural surface. It was that of a young woman about 22 years 

 of age, laid on the right side, the head being to E. by N., the right 

 hand up to the face, the left on the chest. Amongst the material 

 disturbed by the former opening were three pieces of pottery, not 

 however the remains of one vessel but apparently having been 

 mere sherds when deposited in the mound ; whilst in the undisturbed 



