484 LONG BARROWS. 



PARISH OF EBBERSTON, NORTH RIDING. Ord. Map. xcv. s.w. 



The first long- barrow I opened was situated in a district which 

 is very rich in various remains of early occupation. The Scamridge 

 Dykes, an extensive series of mounds and ditches, forming- part 

 of a great system of fortification, apparently intended to protect 

 an invading body advancing from the east, and presenting many 

 features in common with the wold entrenchments on the opposite 

 side of the river Derwent, are situated very near to the barrow. 

 The adjoining moorland is thickly sprinkled with round barrows, 

 all of which have at some time or other been opened, with what 

 results I know not ; while cultivation has, within the last few years, 

 destroyed a large number, the very sites of which can now, only 

 with great difficulty, be distinguished. On the surface of the ground 

 flint implements are most abundant, and there is probably no 

 place in England which has produced more arrow-points, scrapers, 

 rubbers, and other stone articles, than the country in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Scamridge Dykes. 



CCXXI. The barrow is placed nearly due east and west, and is 165 

 ft. long, with a breadth of 46 ft. at the west and 54 ft. at the east end, 

 whilst the height rises from 7 ft. at the west end to 9 ft. at the east. 

 It is formed with the exception presently to be specified of oolitic 

 rubble, with some mixture of clay and earth. It had also a thin layer 

 of mould over its surface, due probably to the decay of the vegetable 

 growth of many centuries. On account of the large size of the 

 mound, and from its having been one of the first barrows I opened 

 in Yorkshire, I did not make the same exhaustive examination I 

 have since judged it necessary to carry out in all my later investi- 

 gations of grave-mounds. In this case I proceeded by cutting a 

 series of wide trenches into the mound, a system I have long since 

 abandoned in favour of that of completely turning over every por- 

 tion of the barrow throughout its whole width, though not always 

 carrying the cutting entirely through to the further side. I have 

 no doubt, however, that in the present instance all the primary 

 interments were discovered, and that nothing of any material im- 

 portance, so far as the original purpose of the barrow is concerned, 

 was overlooked. 



The examination was commenced by making a cut, 12 ft. wide, 

 through the barrow, near to the west end. This, as I had antici- 

 pated, from a knowledge of what has occurred in many of the long 



