398 



NA TUKE 



[August 2<\. 1905 



MORE LIGHT ON ANCIENT BRITAIN.^ 

 T T is gratifying, and at the same time puzzling, to 

 ^ find that the antiquities discovered in part of 

 a single county can provide material for two such 

 voluminous works as Canon Greenwell's " British 

 Barrows " of 1877 and the record of Mr. Mortimer's 

 researches, now issued with the assistance of Mr. 

 Sheppard, the energetic curator of the Hull 

 Municipal Museum. The district investigated lies 

 between York and Bridlington, and teems with relics 

 of the past, most of the barrows, or burial mounds, 

 dating from the Bronze Age, but two or three 

 cemeteries containing Anglo-Saxon graves at least a 

 thousand years later. The e.xcavations in which the 

 author has been concerned for so many years are 

 well described ; but those without special knowledge 

 of the period will turn with most satisfaction to the 

 introduction, where, with the aid of copious extracts 

 from the earlier work already mentioned, some in- 

 teresting generalisations are made from the data fur- 

 nished bv the spade. Evidence is brought forward 

 in favour of cannibalism among the ancient Britons, 

 a practice that has been suspected for some time ; 

 and human .sacrifice, perhaps also suttee, seems to 

 have been indulged in at the burial of an important 

 personage. In some barrows there were signs that 

 a circular hut or a pit-dwelling had been used as a 

 sepulchre, the walls and roof being thrown down 

 over the body; and the author's suggestion as to the 



Fig. I.— Section of Round Barrow, Aldro, E.R. Yorks. 



origin of the incomplete ring formed by stones or 

 a trench round many burials of the period is cer- 

 tainly plausible. In his own words, " these rings are 

 probably marks of taboo or enclosures which were 

 made at the beginning of the ceremony to mark off 

 and protect the sacred spot in which the ceremony 

 and interment were afterwards to be conducted, and 

 the break in the circle had no other significance than 

 to serve as a place of ingress and egress during the 

 performance of the obsequies." 



It is interesting to have existing evidence as to 

 the sepulchral pottery confirmed by further dis- 

 coveries. With a few very doubtful exceptions the 

 so-called " drinking-cup " is never found with cal- 

 cined human bones, and generally accompanies the 

 primary, or at least one of the earliest burials, in 

 the mound or the grave beneath it. Of the " food- 

 vessels," 43 were found with cremations and 119 with 

 unburnt skeletons ; and these figures agree with 

 Canon Greenwell's, giving a proportion of about 

 one to three. Though occasionally found on the top 

 of calcined bones, the cinerary urns, as their name 

 implies, were generally used to contain the ashes of 

 the dead, and " incense-cups " are invariably asso- 

 ciated with the rite of cremation, though we must 

 contest the statement that the latter vessels are also 



1 " Forty Years* Researche 

 Yorkshire." By J. R. Morti 

 l.vsjcvi-H452. (Hull: A. Brov 



NO. 1869, VOL. 72] 



British and Saxon Burial Mounds of East 

 . Illustrated by Agnes Mortimer. Pp. 

 nd Sons, Ltd., rQo5.) 



found in Scandinavia, Germany, France, and even 

 the Troad. 



The intricacies of the text are considerably simpli- 

 fied by numerous diagrams, giving the plan and 

 vertical section of the barrow under examination, 

 and a specimen is here reproduced to show how it is 

 possible to read the history of a burial mound. One 

 in the Aldro group measuring 84 feet in diameter 

 and 5 feet in height was excavated in 1866. Ttie 

 clav and soil forming the 



upper part is marked .\. - ^ 



while B is a boat-shaped , \ 



mass of clay and soil below "\ ti 



it, c being the chalk filling ij l| j 



of the inner mound and jl I: 



grave below the original f^ " f*^ 



surface-level E\v. Nos. 1-8 

 are interments of children 

 and adults in a pit cut rather 

 deeper than usual in the 

 chalk rock ; but thev were 

 not all complete skeletons. 

 No. 7, for instance, being .1 

 heap containing a " drink- 

 ing-cup " in 48 pieces, frag- 

 ments of six human lower- 

 jaws, and a number of small 

 bones packed in an adult 

 calvarium. Whether con- 

 temporary or not, these 

 burials had been surmounted 

 by a dome of chalk which 

 was cut into for another 

 burial at some later date 

 and subsequently covered 

 with the outer mound. 



Of the succeeding Early 

 Age of iron remains are few 

 in this particular district, 

 though abundant a few 

 miles further north ; but one 

 burial of importance must be 

 noted. The swords here 

 illustrated were found with 

 a skeleton, and belong to 

 two distinct types ; the 

 longer is of usual dimen- 

 sions and has the character- 

 istic curved scabbard-mouth 

 and the chape of the middle 

 period of La Tene, while the 

 shorter sword is the onlv 

 one of the kind known to 

 have been found in this 

 country, and with similar 

 examples from France and 

 Sw'itzerland may date from 

 about 100 B.C. The human 

 head between the branches 

 of the pommel is evolved 

 from the knob that appears 

 in that position on certain 

 short swords from the Hall- 

 statt cemetery. 



The Anglo-Saxon ceme- Vorks. 



teries contain unburnt 



bodies of which the orientation is instructive, while 

 many excellent brooches and other relics have been 

 recovered. These and the vast Bronze Age series 

 have been amply and creditablv illustrated, but, un- 

 gallant as it may appear, a protest must be lodged 

 against the frontispiece, which gives a totallv false 

 impression of the Grimthorpe sword. In a' work 

 containing so many references misprints are excus- 

 able, but some are irritating; thus, Inverary (p. 361) 



