154 YORKSHIRE. EAST RIDING. 



south-west end, was the body of a young man, from 20 to 

 25 years of age, laid on the left side, and with the head to 

 S.S.W., the right hand in front of the knees, the left just below 

 the chest. Upon the right hand was placed a ' food vessel,' shaped 

 somewhat like fig. 69, but having two raised ribs instead of one. 

 It is very thick, and is roughly ornamented over the upper two inches 

 with short and irregularly-placed impressions of loosely-twisted and 

 very thick thong; below these is a zigzag line, li in. deep, 

 encompassing the vessel, irregularly dra^Ti with some sharp-pointed 

 instrument. The vessel is 6i in. high, 7 in. w^ide at the mouth, and 

 3i in. at the bottom. There was a good deal of charcoal in both 

 the graves. In the substance of the barrow, here and there, were 

 found animal bones \ potsherds, a small flake struck off from a 

 ground stone axe, several flint chippings, and seven flint saws, 

 some of them showing by their smoothed and polished teething 

 that they had seen much service. There were also amongst the 

 material of the barrow a small oval flint scraper, and two much 

 larger of the same shape, one of which had been so much used 

 at the end that the edge is quite rounded and blunt. 



If it may be allowed to hazard a conjecture, — and it is scarcely 

 possible to withhold the imagination from all play in a case such 

 as is presented by the contents of this barrow, — we may without 

 extravagance suppose that in these two adjoining graves were 

 deposited the bodies of a man and his wife. They w^ere both young, 

 and it is by no means impossible that the wife may have sacrificed 

 herself at the funeral of her husband, in order to accompany him 

 into the unknown land on his journey to which he had but now 

 entered ; while in the burnt bones we may have the remains of a 

 slave, killed at the same time, and under the influence of like 



1854, p. 3. In a central cist in a barrow was a ' large and strong human skeleton . . . 

 ■with a coarse urn; at the foot of the skeleton lay a large heap of calcined human 

 bones, which, on examination, proved to be the remains of two children. Near them 

 ... an urn was deposited.' Bateman, Vestiges, p. 49. In a cist was a * skeleton of a 

 young person, . . . and a deposit of burnt human bones. Between the two was a small 

 vase of coarse clay.' Bateman, Ten Years' Diggings, p. 37. In a grave was a 

 ' skeleton of a full-sized person ... a few inches above this skeleton was a deposit of 

 calcined human bones, apparently interred at the same time as it.' I. c. p. 56. In a 

 baiTOw ' was a skeleton . . . and near the skull a deposit of calcined human bones. . . . 

 We have here a double interment, by inhumation and cremation, suggesting a bar- 

 barous rite.' I. c. p. 175. In a barrow on Ai'bor Hill was ' a skeleton accompanied by 

 a deposit of calcined bones.' I. c. p. 187. Mr. Warne mentions in a note that 

 Mr. Medhurst discovered, in a barrow on the Ridgeway, a skeleton ' with the remains 

 of an infant by its side, an urn containing burnt bones placed between the legs.' 

 Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, p. 33. 



* The bones are those of several oxen {bos longifrons), and of one goat or sheep. 



