LONG BAKROWS. 545 



able appearance and condition of the buried bones of this class of 

 sepulchral mounds, do I think his argument is altogether without 

 weight. That Dr. Thurnam found signs of violent breakage upon 

 a few skulls he exhumed or examined, perhaps, may not be doubted, 

 but in the greater number of instances where he thought he saw 

 evidence of fracture inflicted before or at the time of death, I believe 

 the fractures are the result of pi-essure upon bones which have par- 

 tially undergone, whilst covered up, the action of fire ^. The sharp 

 edges and the porcellanous appearance which Dr. Thurnam thought 

 was the effect of a blow upon fresh bone, I am clearly of opinion, 

 after careful examination of numerous bones which have been im- 

 perfectly burnt, is the result of pressure upon them when in that 

 condition. Some of the bones upon which Dr. Thurnam based his 

 conclusion, and which he regarded as being quite free from any effect 

 of burning, have certainly undergone, though not to a great extent, 

 the action of fire. That the finding of a small number of skulls cleft, 

 or otherwise showing the effects of violence undergone during the 

 life of the persons so treated, is any proof that they had been killed 

 at the time of the funeral and for the purposes of a funeral feast, 

 no one, probably, would insist upon. People were slain in battle, 

 or in consequence of a private feud or quarrel, then as now, and 

 these infrequent fractured skulls may well be the result of such 

 accidents. Had the long barrows, as a rule, contained one or more 

 complete skeletons, surrounded by, or associated with, others which 

 showed evidence of having been those of persons killed by violence 

 and broken up as if for use at a feast, then we might have con- 

 cluded with some probability that it was the habit of these people 

 to immolate, for one purpose or another, certain persons at the 

 time of a funeral. But no such appearances present themselves. 

 In many cases, no doubt, the bodies seem to have been deposited 

 in the long barrows in an imperfect condition, and in some in- 

 stances all appear to be incomplete ; but though the bones do not 

 in these cases constitute an entire skeleton, yet there are no signs 

 upon them of any violent action, such as might have been looked 

 for if they had been killed at the funeral and for the purposes of 

 a feast. In other cases the bodies are complete, and, from the 

 due juxtaposition of the bones, appear to have been placed in 



^ I am indebted to Professor Eolleston for having first di-awn my attention to the 

 peculiar way in which bones partially charred under certain conditions become broken 

 by pressure; a circumstance which first led me to modify my views with regard 

 to the question of the violent breakage of bones from the long barrows. 



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