A HISTORY OF DEVONSHIRE 



SECTION OF BARROW 



PLAN 



SCALE 4. TT TO I W 



BARROW 



scale: 



Fig. 13. — Section and Plan of Barrow, Chagford Common 



Fernworthy stone circle is the important and predominant feature of a group of sepulchral 

 remains, and it is very probable that we can now see in this the crematorium or the site of the funeral 

 feasts, or both. 



Chagford Common. — This common is a continuation towards the east of Watern Down 

 (O. S. xcix, NE). In 1897 the writer found an unopened barrow lying close to the north side of 



the grassy trackway which 



*i.4i!* A leads from Willandhead 



and Hurston to King's 

 Oven, and about 400 yds. 

 NE of the Stone Row. 

 It was not very distin- 

 guishable, for it was not 

 surrounded by a circle 

 of stones. The barrow 

 was small, 15 ft. in dia- 

 meter, with a central 

 height of only 1 8 in. It 

 disclosed on exploration a 

 small kistvaen, which was 

 surrounded by an oblong 

 enclosure formed of a 

 series of stones lying in- 

 wards layer on layer. 

 The kistvaen measured 

 3^ ft. long and from 2 ft, 

 3 in. to 2^ ft. wide (see 

 fig. 12). It was full of 

 soil. The top was evi- 

 dently black peaty earth, 

 which had washed in ; 



but below this thin layer the kist was filled with compact ' calm or sub-soil, in which could be 

 seen here and there small fragments of wood charcoal. (For section and plan of Barrow see fig. 13.) 

 The filling was carefully removed and sifted, and as the work proceeded a small urn was found 

 lying on its side in the SE angle of the kist with its mouth pointing to the NW angle. It was lying 

 4 in. above the floor of the kist, which was 2 ft. deep, and had evidently been placed as found, for its 

 bottom was set close into the angle, and it was resting on a bed of ' calm ' or sub-soil. The urn is 

 hand-made, 10 in. high, with the following diameters: Mouth 7 in., neck 5^ in., body 7 in. The 

 wall of the vessel is f-in. thick. The paste, of a light chocolate-brown colour, is clay mixed 

 with a small proportion of apparently small fragments of partially decomposed granite. Very little 

 quartz is visible. The ornamentation consists of a series of impressions forming short U-shaped 

 dots arranged in parallel and diagonal lines, produced by some 

 instrument — the half of a split bird bone would do admirably. 



Nothing was found in the soil filling the kist except a little 

 wood charcoal. If it had ever contained bone ash as well as 

 charcoal, all traces of such had utterly disappeared. The dis- 

 appearance in this instance cannot be ascribed to vegetation, for 

 there was no appearance of the penetration of the joints of the 

 kist by the roots of the heather which covered the barrow. 



The urn itself contained from 3 to 4 lb. of light brown 

 soil flecked with a little black matter. The contents were 

 analysed, and it was found to be * calm ' or sub-soil with carbon- 

 aceous matter adhering to fragments of quartz. The amount of 

 phosphoric acid (PjOj) present, viz. O'lg per cent., and lime 

 (CaO) 0'I3 per cent,, is only suggestive of the decomposition 

 of the granitic matter or of food which may have been placed in 

 the urn. No bone ashes were ever placed within it, and it must 

 therefore be accepted either as a food vase or a beaker (see fig. 1 4) 

 Hurston Ridge. — A stump of a pillaged cairn 26 ft. in 

 diameter was observed on Hurston Ridge (O. S. xcix, NE), and 

 this on exploration by the writer in 1900 yielded a large portion 

 of a broken urn with a circumference of 4 ft. 5 in., resting 

 mouth downwards on a flat stone which covered a pit filled with 

 wood charcoal. The urn was partially protected by a leaning 



360 



Fig. 14. — Food Vase or Beaker 

 FROM Barrow, Chagford Common 



