PARISH OF WILLERBY, EAST RIDING. 489 



bottomed earthenware vessel (one a piece of the rim) and a bone 

 pin were enclosed in the calcined chalk together with the bones. 



The way in which the bones were disposed in the burnt chalk 

 and flint has been mentioned ; but the bones themselves present 

 some characteristic features which require to be noticed. In this, 

 as in all the long barrows, and where the bones have been sub- 

 jected to the action of fire whilst placed under an overlying mass, 

 there is a marked difference in their appearance from what is pre- 

 sented by those which have been burnt on a pile and where the air 

 had free access during the process, these latter being such as are 

 found in the deposits of burnt bones met with in the round barrows. 

 No description will convey a precise impression of the difference 

 between them, but it is one which cannot be mistaken by those 

 acquainted with the two kinds of calcined bones. 



At a distance of 38 ft. from the east end, and 2 ft. above the 

 natural surface, and amongst the material of which the mass of 

 the barrow was composed, was part of a red-deer's antler, together 

 with some human bones a femur, pelvic bones, and lumbar ver- 

 tebrae ; while, just above these, were some portions of animal bone 



tenant, and from what I learned from the workmen, precisely the same features 

 occurred there as in the barrow on Willerby Wold. There was a narrow deposit of 

 hard burnt chalk, running along the mesial line of the mound, from the east end for 

 some distance towards the west (the barrow lying east and west, the east end being 

 the broadest and highest), in which were seen numerous remains of burnt bones ; but 

 there was no appearance of an entire skeleton ; the bones seemed on the contrary to 

 be dislocated and broken. Some interments of unburnt bodies, probably secondary, 

 were found at various points near the surface of the barrow ; but, with the exception 

 of the scattered bones enclosed in the burnt chalk at the east end, there was no burial 

 found on the natural surface throughout the entire mound. Also, at the east end of 

 a long barrow, removed several years ago, near Helperthorpe, the same peculiar 

 deposit of calcined chalk was observed, having amongst it some broken bones. The 

 calcined matter was so novel in its appearance that the people of the neighbourhood 

 preserved specimens of it about their houses, thinking it was some petrified substance, 

 on account of the resemblance it bore to the concretions formed by springs highly 

 charged with carbonate of lime. 



Sir R. Colt Hoare found bones deposited much after this fashion in what was pro- 

 bably a long barrow, though not a very typical one. This barrow on Winterbourne 

 Stoke Down, near Amesbury, was 104 ft. long, 64 ft. wide at its larger end and 45 ft. 

 at the smaller, running nearly east and west, with the broader end to the east. In it 

 was ' a rude conical pile of large flints, embedded in a kind of mortar made of the 

 marly chalk dug near the spot. This rude pile was not more than 5 ft. in the base, 

 and about 2 ft high in the highest part, and was raised upon a floor on which had 



been an intense fire, so as to make it red like brick We very unexpectedly 



found the remains of the Briton below, and were much astonished at seeing several 

 pieces of burned bones intermixed with great masses of mortar, a circumstance 

 entirely curious, and so novel that we knew not how to decide upon the original intent 



of the barrow On exploring this barrow further to the east we found two 



deep cists containing an immense quantity of wood ashes, and large pieces of charred 

 wood, but no other signs of an interment.' Anc. Wilts, i. 117. 



