92 OBJECTS BURIED WITH THE DEAD 



with stone slabs, in which the body was placed in a perfect 

 state, or reduced to ashes by fire/'* 



The care with which the dead were interred, and the 

 objects buried with them, have been regarded as proving the 

 existence of a belief in the immortality of the soul, and in a 

 material existence after death. 



"That the ancient Briton," says Dr. Wilson, f" lived in 

 the belief of a future state, and of some doctrine of proba- 

 tion and of final retribution, is apparent from the constant 

 deposition beside the dead, not only of weapons, implements 

 and personal ornaments, but also of vessels which may be pre- 

 sumed to have contained food and drink. That his ideas of 

 a future state were rude and degraded, is abundantly mani- 

 fest from the same evidence." 



But it is very far from being " constantly " the case, that 

 the dead were so well supplied with what we call the neces- 

 saries of life ; indeed, it is quite the exception, and not the 

 rule. Thus, out of more than 250 interments described by Sir 

 R. Colt Hoare in the first volume of his great work on Ancient 

 Wiltshire, only 18 had any implements of stone, only 31 of 

 bone, 67 of bronze, and 11 of iron ; and while pottery was 

 present in 107, more than 60 of these contained only sepul- 

 chral urns, intended to receive the ashes of the dead, and 

 certainly never meant to hold food. So far, however, as 

 stone implements are concerned, I must confess that Sir R, 

 C. Hoare appears to have overlooked the ruder instruments 

 and weapons. I will, therefore, rely principally on the 

 evidence of Mr. Bateman, one of the most experienced and 

 careful of barrow-openers. 



Although a large number of the interments described by 

 him had been already examined, there were 297 which had 

 not been previously disturbed, and though he carefully men- 

 tions even the rudest bit of chipped flint, there are no less 

 * Bateman, Ten Years' Diggings, p. xi. f I.e. vol. i., p. 498. 



