PAKISH OF WEAVEllTHORPE. 



197 



size, and for the various depths at which the several bodies were found. 

 It was in all probability a family burial-place, and it must have 

 been in use as such for a period extending- at least over the life-times 

 of three generations. With so large a number of interments it 

 would have been reasonable to look for the occurrence of some 

 article of bronze ; and the more so as several of the bodies were 

 accompanied by implements. I should not however, from the entire 

 absence of bronze, be inclined to attribute the formation of this 

 barrow to a time at which that metal was at yet unknown, on 

 grounds which I have stated in the Introduction. We may not be 

 wrong however in placing the epoch during which the mound was 

 in process of use for a burial-place as one early in the bronze 

 period, notwithstanding the fact that all the objects found in it are 

 of such a nature as were commonly manufactured quite down to the 

 end of that time. 



The proportion of children is large. But without any assumption 

 that their death was by violence on the burial of their mother, we 

 may remind ourselves how in the then comparatively rude state of 

 life, and with occasional scarcity of food, the number of children who 

 arrived at maturity must have been very much smaller than it is at 

 present. Moreover, we do not find in this barrow any instance of 

 a child laid by the side of its parent, a circumstance we meet with 

 in others, and in which case it seems not unlikely that death was 

 inflicted at the time of the funeral of the father or mother. 



XLIV. The next barrow was about a quarter of a mile to the east 

 of the last, and, like it, not on the crown of the hill. It was 42 ft. 

 in diameter, 1| ft. high, and composed of earth and chalk-rubble. 

 Twelve feet east-north-east of the centre, and laid on the left side, 

 upon the natural surface, was the body of an adult with the head to 

 N.N.E., the right hand at the back of the head and the left up to 

 the face. Touching the knees were two flints ; one of them may 

 best be classed under the head of scraper, though it is not of the 

 usual form, being made out of a broad flake and having a 

 straight edge ' ; the other is one of those enigmatical tools to 

 which it is diSicult to assign any certain use, it may have been 

 intended as a borer, or to tip the end of a dart, being carefully 

 chipped along both edges to a fine point, one face is left in the same 

 condition in w^hich it was when struck off from the core ; they are 



1 The implement, fig. 225, Evans, Ancient Stone Implements, is almost a counter- 

 part of this. 



