EARLY MAN 



These fragments have generally been found scattered over the site of the 

 pile, but in a few instances they have occupied a shallow circular hole in 

 the natural surface, into which they had been swept after the fire was 

 extinguished. This may have been a common practice, for the presence 

 of a small depression of the kind might easily be overlooked by the 

 explorer. On the other hand, there is evidence that in some of these 

 barrows, the human ashes had been collected and placed near the summit 

 of the mound, the stones which are occasionally present in this position 

 probably being the relics of the receptacle which contained them. This, 

 again, may have been a common practice, for being near the summit it 

 is surprising that even the indications of these ' high-level ' interments 

 should have survived. 1 The placing of the burnt bones in depressions or 

 in these elevated positions may explain the general paucity of the human 

 remains on the sites of the funeral piles. 



The general trend of investigation has shown that some effort was 

 made to seal down, so to speak, the site of the pyre and its contents. 

 Usually this was accomplished by a layer of puddled clay or earth, 

 which was hardened by a great fire made upon it. Sometimes large 

 stones were used instead, occasionally being laid like a rude pavement. 

 Whatever the material, this first layer is readily distinguishable from 

 that of the mound above, but frequently the latter itself discloses the 

 curious constructional feature of two or more different materials in 

 alternate layers. A remarkable example to the point was a barrow 

 opened at Gorsey Close near Tissington, in 1845." Here, Mr. Bateman 

 found that the soil was interspersed with alternate layers of moss and 

 grass, both of which retained in a great measure their original colour 

 and texture, and upon the surface of the ground were many pieces of 

 wood, hazel-sticks, fungi, etc. A still larger barrow, Roylow near Sheen, 

 examined by Mr. Bateman in 1 849, and again by Mr. J. P. Sheldon in 

 1894," gave similar results. 



The articles associated with the interments, or rather found upon 

 the sites of the pyres, are meagre and poor. They are mostly pot- 

 sherds and rude implements and chippings of flint, both of which are 

 usually described as burnt. Unlike the occasional potsherds found in the 

 earlier barrows, which are derived from perfect vessels accidentally broken 

 and scattered through the introduction of secondary interments, these 

 appear in every case to have been introduced as potsherds. It is a pity 

 these potsherds have not been more fully described by their finders, but 

 it is tolerably certain that the vessels they related to had little in common 

 with the sepulchral ware of the earlier period. They appear to have 

 belonged to the ordinary domestic vessels of the time. The potsherds 

 and flints, also the pebbles which have occasionally been observed, were 

 evidently placed or thrown upon the funeral pile with some religious 

 intent ; and doubtless it is to this custom, reversed in its meaning under 

 the Christian regime, that a much-quoted passage in Hamlet, relative to 



1 Diggings, p. 130. * Vestiges, p. 80. 



3 Prof. Sue. Ant. 2, xv. p. 425. 

 I8 7 



