PARISH OF GILLING, NORTH RIDING. 551 



in them. In the absence of any associated articles, it is impossible 

 to assign with anything like confidence even an approximate date 

 to these burials ; but I should be inclined, on the whole, from the 

 slight indications available, to consider them as Anglian inter- 

 ments, and not perhaps earlier than the seventh or eighth century 

 of the present era. 



The barrow, which was examined very thoroughly, was out- 

 wardly a most characteristic specimen of the class of burial mounds 

 to which it may be supposed to belong, except as to its orientation ; 

 the direction of its longer diameter being very nearly due north 

 and south, the southern end having a greater width and higher 

 elevation than the opposite one. The total length was 140 ft., and 

 it was 60 ft. wide and 8 ft. high at the south end, and 40 ft. wide 

 and 5 ft. high at the north. It was made up entirely of very light 

 and pervious sand. The entire mound was surrounded by a line of 

 stones, in some parts four deep, which rested upon the natural 

 surface, and were concealed within the material of the barrow. 

 At the broadest part of the mound the distance between the two 

 sides of this enclosing belt of stones was 41 ft., and at the north 

 and narrower end it was 27ft. At a distance of 20ft. from the 

 south end of the barrow, and 6 ft. from the enclosing belt on the 

 west side, was a line of flat stones laid upon white-coloured fine 

 sand, just above the level of the natural surface, running for a 

 length of 10 ft. parallel to the enclosing belt. 



A very careful and extensive search failed to discover any trace 

 of an original interment, which, if any such had ever existed, had 

 probably been by inhumation, and therefore contrary to the usual 

 habit of the people who erected these long mounds in North and 

 East Yorkshire. For, had the bodies been interred in the way which 

 we have seen was followed at Scamridge, Willerby Wold, Westow, 

 Rudstone, Wass, and Market Weighton, abundant traces, in the 

 shape not only of burnt bones, but of burnt earth and stones, 

 would certainly have been found. It is possible, supposing this 

 to have been truly a long barrow, which there seems good reason 

 for believing it to have been, that the bones placed in the mound, 

 without any application of fire to them, had, in consequence of the 

 nature of the overlying mound, composed of light sand, gone en- 

 tirely to decay. As the total destruction of bones, under certain 

 conditions, is commented upon elsewhere, it is not necessary to 

 repeat the argument further than to state that in sandy soil it is 

 very rare to find any trace of buried bones, even when they have 



