PARISH OF LANGTON. 137 



head to N.N.W. ^ and with the hands placed on the top of the 

 head. Behind the head there was a small flinty flake. The 

 skull, which is dolicho-eephalic and orthog-nathous, shows an 

 extensive wound on the right side of the frontal bone^ which 

 was probably made by a metal weapon, but also might have 

 been caused by some such implement as a stone axe. The present 

 appearance of the bone shows that he must have lived two or three 

 months after he received the blow, which was, therefore, possibly 

 not the cause of his death. Just behind the head was a circular 

 hole ^, 2 ft. deep and 3 ft. in diameter, filled in with sand ; and close 

 by the feet was a similar hole^ but six inches deeper, and filled in 

 with some broken pieces of stone in addition to the sand. Both 

 above and below the body was a considerable quantity of charcoal. 

 To the north-east of the body, and close in front of it, was a 

 rudely-constructed wall about 3 ft. high, made of flat stones set on 

 their edges, and five or six deep. This wall ran, for a distance of 

 more than nine feet, in a direction nearly east and west. Imme- 

 diately to the south-west of the body, the outer edge indeed 

 overlying it, was a kind of cairn ^, 10 ft. in diameter and 3 ft. high, 

 composed of oolitic rubble, \vith an external layer of yellow clayey 

 soil, by which last substance the skeleton was overlaid. Beneath 

 the cairn was a large quantity of burnt earth and charcoal, as if a 

 fire had been lighted on the spot. About 15 ft. south-east-by- 

 south from the first body a second was met with. This was that 

 of a woman *, of advanced age, which had been deposited about 9 in. 



* The compass direction (magnetic) is taken along the line of the vertebral column, 

 and it is the crown of the head which is spoken of as being to such and such a 

 point of the compass. The body must in aU cases, unless it is specified to the conti'ary, 

 be regarded as placed on the side in a contracted position, with the knees drawn up 

 more or less towards the face, the back being in general slightly bowed. 



^ It will be noticed in the account of the long bai-rows that circular and oval holes 

 were met with in some of them. The same has been fomid to be the case in the long 

 barrows of the south-west of England. In the sequel it will be seen that they are by 

 no means uncommon in the round ban-ows of the wolds, and the same feature was 

 remarked by Sir Richard Colt Hoare in at least one instance in Wiltshire. In a bar- 

 row near Amesbury, he says, ' on the floor lay a skeleton . . . and near it was a small 

 oblong cist (hole), without any deposit in it.' Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 123. 



^ Smaller mounds enclosed within the larger one have occurred in other barrows 

 on the wolds, as for instance on Duggleby Wold [No. iii] and at Rudstone [No. Ixiii]. 

 Mr. Bateman notices that, at Gib Low, ' the tumulus had been oi-iginally raised over 

 fom* smaller mounds.' Ten Years' Diggings, p. 18. They are not usually placed over 

 an interment. 



* The skull is dolicho-eephalic, and in a very slight degree prognathous. Allowing 

 for the difference of sex, there is a strong resemblance between this skull and that of 

 the man lately noticed, so great indeed as to suggest the probability of there having 

 been a near relationship between them. 



