56 THE CELTIC TUMULI OF DORSET. 



The Tumuli described in Mr. Warne's Work amount in the whole 

 to 190, but some of them have been rejected viz. (1) All such as 

 were found to be devoid of distinct evidence, although several of 

 these might be thought to present traces of combustion ; (2) Such 

 as wherein the nature of the interment is not distinctly specified ; 

 the object in view being the collection of all the data available 

 from researches in the Tumuli of the Bronze Age, free from doubt, 

 and stated with sufficient clearness for calculating the particulars. 



This sifting process reduced the number of Tumuli from 190 to 

 160, which thus become the residuum strictly referrible to the 

 Bronze Age. 



I have purposely omitted any notice of the " Sepulchralia " of 

 Launceston (N), and the " Necropolis " of Bimsbury (S), as Mr. 

 Warne does not include them with the Tumuli. They were simply 

 Keltic Cemeteries ; the former being a large collection of cists 

 containing calcined bones ; the latter combining a very large number 

 of urns, skeletons, and cists. The relative numbers of these are 

 not distinctly specified ; had it been otherwise the proportion which 

 cremation bears to inhumation in Table ii. would have been largely 

 augmented. 



I have summarized the results of this analysis in two tables 

 which do not require further explanation. (See Page 57). 



It will be observed that the Tumuli which contain interments 

 by cremation and inhumation alone respectively exceed the number 

 of those whose contents are of a mixed kind ; and that the Tumuli 

 which contain cinerary urns are more numerous than others. The 

 whole of this series amounts to 84, which is equal to 52'5 per cent., 

 or, rather more than half the whole number of Tumuli.* The 

 general inference is, that the practice of burning the body and 

 depositing the calcined bones, whether in earthenware vases, or, 



* This percentage had been much increased if it were possible to include 

 the urns which have been found at Rimsbury. Messrs. Warne and Hall 

 exhumed nearly one hundred in a state of disintegration, and many more 

 had been turned up in ploughing the ground, which were wantonly 

 destroyed by the labourers. Celtic Tumuli, pp. 58-63. 



