LONG BARROWS. 549 



of sepulture which, as has already been remarked, appear to have 

 much in common with the long 1 barrows, has a very important 

 bearing on this question. Though weapons and implements of 

 stone are of very common occurrence in them, in which respect 

 they differ materially from the long barrows, no articles of metal 

 except gold have ever been found, and they may certainly be attri- 

 buted to a time when bronze and iron were unknown. Nor can 

 the absence of metal be accounted for from its decay, because when 

 bronze itself entirely disappears, which only happens when the im- 

 plements made of it are of a very small size, there is always left the 

 striking colour of the oxide of copper staining the material with 

 which the metal had once been in contact. Pottery again seems 

 to have been but little in use, at all events for burial purposes; 

 for it is of the rarest occurrence in the long barrows, and when it 

 is present, it is not, except very occasionally, in the shape of whole 

 vessels but of mere fragments. In the round barrows, on the con- 

 trary, it is extremely common, not only as sherds of pottery, but 

 as complete vases. The inferences derivable from the absence of 

 metal, and the rarity of pottery, are carried still further by the 

 character of the skulls found in the long barrows as contrasted 

 with those occurring in the round ones. In these latter the skulls 

 most frequently met with are brachy-cephalic : whilst, as regards the 

 true or original burials in the former, the brachy-cephalic head has 

 not been found at all. Certainly long-headed skulls have occurred 

 in round barrows in those of the Wolds, indeed, almost as com- 

 monly as round heads; but assuming the dolicho-cephalic to be 

 the type of skull belonging to the earlier people, this is pre- 

 cisely what might have been, nay, must have been, looked for ; 

 inasmuch as while it is reasonable to conclude that the earlier 

 class of sepulchral mounds is likely to produce but one type of 

 skull (the case of the long barrows), it is equally reasonable to 

 expect to find two or more types in the later class ; because it is 

 impossible to suppose the round-headed people either could, or 

 would, attempt to entirely extirpate their predecessors from the 

 moment of their own secured conquest or possession. Either as 

 slaves, or as co-occupants of the country, in virtue of compact 

 or of, at least, temporarily successful resistance, the long-heads 

 would continue to exist; and, therefore, by hereditary transmis- 

 sion through intermarriage of the two races, skulls with more or 

 less of the dolicho-cephalic character would for ages continue to 

 recur. So that, independently of the fact that many of the round 



