Rev. W. Greenwell on Ancient British Tumuli. 199 



sunk below the surface of the ground, and which had a 

 rough covering of stones over it to protect them. Immedi- 

 ately east of this hollow was a cist, about 1^ feet square, 

 made of four stones set on edge, with a cover ; this cist Avas 

 filled with sand, amongst which were scattered burnt bones 

 and charcoal, the remains of the body. A single chipping of 

 unburnt flint was found amongst the materials of the tumu- 

 lus, together with a kidney-shaped stone, which appears to 

 have been used for rubbing down grain or for some similar 

 purpose. 



The contents of this tumulus present, as far as I know, 

 the greatest assemblage of burnt bodies in one tumulus which 

 has been discovered in Northumberland ; and we shall not, 

 perhaps, be wrong in regarding it as the burial place of a 

 family, where we may suppose the upper plain urn, the cist, 

 and the " drinking cup," to represent interments subsequent 

 to those which were deposited in the central hollow. A 

 question is suggested by the presence of a piece of bronze in 

 the largest urn, which requires a few words in its examin- 

 ation. The absence of bronze has been usually supposed to 

 mark interments of a date prior to the introduction of that 

 metal, and this view has obtained greater acceptance, because 

 in most cases, implements of flint are so common in barrow 

 burials. I cannot, however, regard the absence of bronze 

 and the presence of flint as giving much countenance to the 

 idea that the people who raised the round barroAvs, were, at 

 any time during their occupation of Britain, ignorant of the 

 use of bronze. On the contrary, I believe that they were 

 acquainted with that metal when they first occupied this 

 country, and that the absence of bronze in their places of 

 sepulture, is due, not to their ignorance of it, but to other 

 causes. In this tumulus, in which certainly five, and most 

 probably six bodies had been interred, only one very small 

 fragment of bronze was found, of which a fcAV years more 

 exposure might have destroyed all trace ; indeed, had this 

 fragment been nearer the surface and more subject to atmo- 

 spheric influences, it would have disappeared long before the 

 tumulus was opened, when it might have been supposed that 

 no metal had ever accompanied the interments. This com- 

 plete decay of bronze has happened, I have no doubt, in 

 many instances, and thus, at their opening, tumuli have 

 shewn no trace of metal where it had once existed. But the 

 absence of bronze is to be accounted for on other grounds 

 than that of its decay. Those implements and weapons 



2c 



