68 ANCIENT SETTLEMENT ON TEE"WOE.THA MARSH. 



peat that covered them were found fragments of pottery similar 

 in kind to that strewn in the kitchen middens of the settlement. 



Numerous barrows or cairns spot the surface of the hill- 

 shoulders all round Trewortha. We have explored but one 

 systematically. It contained a kistvaen, which was empty. 

 Beneath the kistvaen was a slab of stone embedded under a layer 

 of clay. Under the slab was the virgin soil, locally called " the 

 country," in which a hollow had been scooped, and there some 

 ashes were laid. No pottery, no flint, nor bronze were found. 



If we come now to the question as to the date of this settle- 

 ment, the question remains unsolved. The presence of hones 

 shews that iron was in use. The pottery is wheel-turned. The 

 discovery of flint proves nothing. A small fragment of iron, 

 apparently of an iron pot, has a much more recent look than 

 pre-historic times. 



It would be rash to speculate as to the date of these re- 

 mains till some further evidence has turned up for fixing it. So far 

 not a particle of glass, not a coin, not a scrap of anything but 

 the coarsest local pottery have been found, the latter wheel- 

 turned indeed, but badly burnt; and composed of clay with 

 granite-sand in it. Of ornament there is very little. If we may 

 judge from the fragments of the mouths of the vessels, they 

 had very wide mouths, some 14 inches in diameter, and all 

 were of bulging shape. No glazing exists on any of them. 

 What we do learn from the remains is that they were inhabited 

 by people who lived very much the lives of Eskimo. Here is 

 Dr. Nansen's account of an Eskimo house : — "In winter they 

 live in regular houses built of stone and turf, and with the floor 

 generally below the surface of the ground. These houses or huts 

 contain but one room, which serves as the abode of the whole 

 family, or generally of an aggregation of families, men and 

 women, young and old, being more or less promiscuously mixed 

 up together. The room is of an oblong shape, and is commonly 

 so low that it is all but impossible to stand upright in it. Along 

 the whole back wall goes the principal bench, which was 5-ft. to 

 6-ft. deep. On this sleep the whole family, or rather the married 

 members and the unmarried daughters, lying side by side, with 

 their feet towards the back, and their heads pointing into the room 



