A HISTORY OF CORNWALL 



case the barrow contained a kist, the urns were found outside it. Sometimes 

 it is recorded that the kist was empty, 1 but this may be an error from want 

 of careful examination, because in several instances * where there was no urn 

 discovered there were burnt bones and evidence of cremation. 



Kists have occasionally been discovered,* and sometimes* containing 

 urns, where there was no barrow at all, but it is most likely that in all these 

 cases the barrow had been removed, while the kist having been originally 

 placed in a sunk pit escaped the destruction. This inference is borne out by 

 the observations made at Ladock and Manaccan, 1 where the surface showed 

 evident traces of having been levelled. 



In 1886 two kiln-dried urns, both broken, but one containing bones, 

 were found at some depth below the surface in ground which had been 

 previously broken in Penzance Cemetery. 6 In 1899 another part of this 

 same ground yielded two copper coins of Vespasian. 



In eight cases in Cornwall and one at Scilly the body seems to have been 

 buried in a kist or sunk grave under a barrow without having been burnt, and 

 of these three " are apparently cases of contracted burial ; at Bosavern 7 the 

 body is stated to have lain at full length ; at Trevalga, 6 the Gugh at Scilly, 8 

 and Cardinham, 9 the evidence is slight or the record imperfect. The 

 discovery at Maen in Sennen in 1716 recorded by Dr. Borlase 10 is quoted by 

 the author of Naenia Cornubiae as an instance of contracted burial, but 

 admittedly ' a very doubtful ' one. The extreme scarcity of this form of 

 burial in the barrows is particularly interesting in comparison with the 

 discoveries at Harlyn Bay and Sheviock. 11 



Objects of metal are but rarely found in the Cornish barrows. The 

 Rillaton cup, found in 1837 in a barrow near the Cheesewring, is the only 

 article of gold 12 of which there is definite record, and iron is unknown. 



At Trelan in St. Keverne in a kist vaen, one of a group of ' several,' 

 were discovered, about 1833, a bronze mirror, two brass rings, gilded, two 

 fragments of bronze fibulae, and some fragments of brass rings and bronze 

 ornaments. 18 The mirror is now in the British Museum. 



Some thin bits of brass (?) which may have been parts of a broken sword 

 were found in a barrow at Trelowarren ; 14 a bronze palstave in one near 



1 Ladock, Journ. Roy. Imt. Cornw. viii (1884), 211; Ballowall, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. vi (1879), 194 ; 

 Bodinnar, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. i, 235 ; Manaccan, Drew, Hist. ofCormv. i, 378. 



* Pelynt, Journ. Roy. Imt. Corntv. (1846), 43 ; Durvall Downs, Borlase, Naen. Com. 171 ; Veryan Beacon, 

 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cormo. (1855), 23 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 204 ; Trewortha, Journ. Roy. Inst. Corntv. xi, 290. 



3 Ladock, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. viii (1884), 211; Gwithian, Borlase, Antiq. 236 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 

 170 ; Trelan in St. Keverne, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. iv (1873), 266. 



4 Gerrans, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1844), 19 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 204 ; Gwithian, Borlase, Antiq. 

 236; Fowey, Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. (1840), 65; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 202 ; Sennen, Borlase, Antiq. 

 237; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 79; Calartha, Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1883-4), 2 49 ! Brance 

 Common, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 212, now in Penzance Museum. 



5 Trans. Penz. Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. (1886-7), 2 93- 



6 Camelford, Journ. Roy. Inst. Corntv. ii (1867), 279; Trevalga, Borlase, Naen. Corn. 80 ; Lesnewth, 

 Borlase, Naen. Com. 79 ; Maclean, Parochial Hist, ii, 400. 



7 Borlase, Antiq. 235. 



8 Mr. G. Bonsor found part of a human skeleton in a chambered barrow here ; from the relative position 

 of some of the bones he inferred a contracted position. 



9 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. iv (1875), 2I 4- 



10 Borlase, Antiq. 237 ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 79. 



11 See p. 366 infra. 



"Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. iii (1868), 34 and pi. ; Borlase, Naen. Corn. 37; Evans, Stone Imp. 448; 

 Bronze Imp. 408. 



13 Journ. Roy. Inst. Cornw. iv (1873), 266. " Borlase, Antiq. 214, 237, 290. 



362 



