LONG BARROWS. 481 



inclining outwards at the ends and then being returned with a 

 curve inwards, making at the point in question a figure something 

 like the conventional representation of the broader end of the 

 human heart. This curve usually constitutes the mode of approach 

 into the burial chamber when it is placed at the end of the mound 1 . 

 The same remarkable feature is found in some of the long barrows 

 of the south-west of England, and two in Gloucestershire, which 

 certainly possessed it, are described in the sequel. In these two cases 

 however, as well as in others, the ' horned ' end had no opening, the 

 walling being carried completely unbroken round the end of the 

 barrow 2 . In some of the round or short cairns in Caithness the 

 same mode of construction, with enclosing walls and recurved 

 entrances leading into chambers, exists, indeed they are in all par- 

 ticulars, except in shape, like the ' horned ' long cairns. It seems 

 scarcely possible to attribute these long and short cairns, both 

 possessing this marked characteristic, to any widely differing or 

 distant times ; and when the nature of the interments which occur 

 in both kinds, and other circumstances attending them, are taken 

 into consideration, they must, I think, be regarded as belonging in 

 the main to the same period. A very close connection thus appears 

 to exist between the long barrows and certain of the short or round 

 barrows of Britain, not only in respect of the enclosing walls and 

 recurved entrances of the chambers, but also on account of their 

 both possessing chambers as opposed to other stone receptacles for 

 the dead, and from the absence of metal, and from other character- 

 istics, as for instance the scarcity of vessels of pottery, in association 

 with the interments. A like connection appears also to exist 

 between the British long barrows and the chambered burial mounds 

 of some other countries of Europe, and it may be desirable to 

 discuss this subject a little more fully. In the south of Sweden 

 and in Denmark barrows with chambers and passages or galleries, 

 resembling, ceteris paribus, those found in Britain, are abundant, 

 and many of them have been examined. These Scandinavian 

 chambered mounds, like the long barrows of Britain and those 

 round ones which probably belong to the same period, have pro- 



1 In the long barrows at Uley in Gloucestershire, and Stoney Littleton in Somer- 

 setshire, the recurved end formed the entrance into the chamber, or in these cases 

 rather chambers. 



2 Other two long barrows at Nether Swell, besides those referred to, appear to have 

 had the recurved ends without any opening into a chamber, and the same feature was 

 present in those at Ablington, Belas Knap near Charlton Abbots, and Rodmarton, 

 all in Gloucestershire, and at Littleton Drew in Wiltshire. 



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