PAlilSH OP BAMBOROUGH. 417 



sandstone, 9J in. long and 5 in. wide, similar to those found in the 

 other cairns, and which was quite smooth and even polished on one 

 surface by use. 



CXCVIII. Another cairn, 18 ft. in diameter and 3 ft. high, was 

 situated about a mile to the east of the last. At the centre and on 

 the natural surface a cinerary urn was discovered, standing upright 

 and covered with a small flat piece of sandstone. It contained the 

 burnt bones of a person of uncertain sex from 18 to 20 years of 

 age, and amongst them were portions of at least two, and possibly 

 of three, calcined bone pins. The urn, in shape like fig. 130, is 

 6^ in. high, 6 in. wide at the mouth, and 4 in. at the bottom. The 

 overhanging rim, 1|- in. deep, is ornamented with two encircling 

 lines on the inside of the lip, and on the outside by alternate series 

 of vertical and horizontal lines placed between two encircling lines 

 above and two below, like the pattern on fig. 54. Immediately 

 below the rim are two encircling lines. All the impressions are 

 those of twisted-thong. Two feet south-south-west of the centre, 

 and on the natural surface, was a piece of another urn very much 

 decayed ; there were no remains of bones near it, nor is it probable 

 that a whole vessel had been deposited at the place. 



CXCIX. A smaller cairn close to the last, 13 ft. in diameter and 

 2J ft. high, produced no remains of the body which had once, there 

 can be little doubt, been placed in it. At the centre the stones 

 were found to have been carefully arranged over and round a shallow 

 oval hollow, excavated in the surface-soil, 2J ft. long and 2 ft. wide, 

 and which was lined with a thin layer of charcoal. Upon this layer 

 it is probable the body had rested, but from the free admission of 

 air and wet, the bones had gone to decay without leaving any trace 

 of their former presence. It will be remembered that in the case of 

 the larger cairn just described, and where the body had been 

 protected by a cist, and was moreover covered by a much greater 

 quantity of overlying material than this in question, the bones had 

 gone very much to decay, in fact leaving little more than a soft 

 yellowish-coloured substance to represent them. 



I examined three other cairns, respectively 19 ft., 17 ft., and 

 14 ft. in diameter, and from l\ ft. to 2J ft. high. Though they 

 had never been disturbed before, there was no trace of a burial found 

 in them further than the presence of charcoal, which may itself be 



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