202 Rev. W. Greenwell on Ancient British Tumuli. 



before, and I can scarcely think that it could have been ex- 

 amined without leaving some signs of disturbance. I there- 

 fore suppose that it had once contained an unburnt body, of 

 which, as is so frequently the case, all trace had disappeared. 

 The presence of charcoal may seem to indicate that the body 

 had been burnt, but apart from the absence of any remains 

 of burnt bones, this occvn-rence of charcoal, in itself, is no 

 proof of an interment after cremation, for charcoal is found 

 very frequently with burials where inhumation has evidently 

 been practiced ; it may, very possibly, be the remains of the 

 fire at the funeral feast, an usual accompaniment of a burial. 



Many tumuli still remain, more or less destroyed, on the 

 moors near Bewick, and it may be well to notice one of them 

 which presents a very remarkable, and, I believe, unique 

 feature. The tumulus is one of ten or twelve cairns, which 

 stand upon the top of the hill near the boundary stones 

 between Bewick and Hebburn Moors. It contains two cists, 

 one quite small, the other of the ordinary size, about 3 feet 

 by 2 feet, and which once contained an unburnt body, and a 

 " drinking cup," of which I possess a small portion. The 

 peculiar feature connected with this cist is its cover, which 

 shews evident marks of the tool, a pointed instrument. This 

 sandstone flag is narrower at one end than at the other, and 

 in order to facilitate the dragging it up the hill to the cairn, 

 it has had two hollows cut into it, one on each side at the 

 narrow end, thus forming a neck, round which a rope might 

 be passed. With the exception of the circular markings 

 upon the cover stones of places of interment, this is the only 

 instance out of a great number that I have met with, where 

 any of the stones composing a cist have shewn signs of having 

 been tooled. 



Besides the tumuli mentioned above, I opened two or three 

 smaller mounds, of a kind of which I have before examined 

 several, and always without any discovery of bones, pottery, 

 metal,'pr flint. They are generally found in groups, and are 

 small in size and of slight elevation, and have frequently 

 associated with them, one or more of a larger size, which I 

 have, hitherto* invariably found to have been previously 

 opened. They are certainly artificial, and are sometimes 

 very regularly constructed with stones overlapping from the 

 centre. I believe them to have covered unburnt bodies, 

 placed on the ground, without cist or any other protection, 

 and where, in consequence of exposure to air and wet, all 

 trace of the body has_[long ago disappeared ; they are 



