66 Mr. G. Tate on Cist-vaens and Sepulchral Urns. 



Cist-vaens. This was taken out unbroken ; the height is 5 

 inches, the circumference at the top 19 inches, and at the bottom 

 8 inches. As the surface is uneven, it has probably been fashioned 

 with the hand. The impressions are only simple lines, which 

 could have been made by any pointed object, when the clay was 

 soft ; each series of lines is inclined to the other, forming that 

 kind of ornament which resembles the " herring-bone." 



In neither of the urns were bones observed. They were 

 filled partly with water and partly with earthy matter, which, 

 when dry, formed a brown powder ; other portions were black 

 and apparently charred. Both urns were standing on their base, 

 and not, as urns have been frequently observed in other places, 

 with their mouths downward. 



That these Cist-vaens are ancient graves, and that the urns 

 contained the ashes of the dead, is, I think, unquestionable. In 

 the smaller Cists, where bones were found, the entire body may 

 have been entombed, with the knees and legs drawn up, this 

 being one of the most ancient modes of interment among Scan- 

 dinavian nations. The larger Cists are probably the graves of 

 distinguished persons ; their bodies had been burnt and the 

 ashes deposited in the urns. Two different modes of sepulture 

 are here indicated to have been in use at the same period. 



The different directions in which these graves lie, prove that 

 they are the remains of a people inhabiting Britain previously 

 to the introduction of Christianity. To the Romans they have 

 sometimes been attributed ; but that people did not raise barrows 

 or tumuli over their dead after the conquest of Britain ; their 

 tombs displayed the architectural taste of a polished nation, and 

 were entirely different from rude Cist-vaens ; their sepulchral 

 urns were also more ornate and artistic than those found in 

 Cist-vaens, and were generally either sculptured, or had inscrip- 

 tions or epitaphs, or were painted and varnished. 



To raise tumuli over the dead was a very ancient practice, 

 and prevailed in several nations in the early stages of their his- 

 tory. In the Book of Joshua, in Homer, Virgil, Tacitus, and 

 other ancient writers, reference is made to this mode of sepul- 

 ture; it was, however, most general, and continued longest, 

 amongst the Teutonic and Celtic races, and to one or other of 

 them must we refer the remains. In the early chronicles and 

 annals of English history there is no record of the Saxons having 

 adopted this mode of interment in England ; their coffins were 

 generally made of wood. Nor is there evidence to show that the 

 Danes constructed Cist-vaens and barrows in this country. 

 Indeed they were not settled here so long, as to warrant us to 

 suppose that they could have left memorials of their existence 

 in so many parts of the island as those wherein barrows and 



