304 The Discovery of a Chamber in the Long Barrow at Lanhill. 



jaw was imperfect, and lay some 3 inches in front of the facial 

 bones. The skull was upside-down, resting on its crown among 

 the rubble. 



Among the bones cleared out by the stone diggers when they 

 first broke into the chamber, and which, therefore must have been 

 just inside the entrance, are parts of three adult skulls, two well- 

 preserved femurs, four nearly perfect pelvic bones, the only two 

 sacra, and the only sternum found. It seems therefore probable 

 that two or three skeletons, or parts of skeletons, were placed just 

 inside the entrance at some time later than the disposal of the 

 majority of the remains, and it is possible that had these not been 

 disturbed by the workmen one or more fairly perfect skeletons 

 would have been found there. 



In that part of the chamber undisturbed by the workmen it 

 was impossible to trace out the position of any individual skeleton, 

 the bones being all scattered promiscuously on the floor, and rarely 

 even were two found in their natural relative positions. 



The limb bones, with only one or two exceptions, were broken, 

 sometimes into as many as five or six pieces, the hollows of the 

 bones being filled with red soil, showing that the breakages were 

 of no recent date. In more than one instance parts of the same 

 bone, fitting each other, were found in different parts of the 

 chamber. 



It is notable that in addition to the three skulls broken by the 

 stone diggers, the only one found in good condition, referred to 

 above, was also in the outer half of the chamber. Only fragments 

 of two other skulls were found, one of an adult, and one of a young 

 child, making a total of six, while there were nine lower jaws, 

 and from the number of limb bones it is evident that the remains 

 of not fewer than eleven individuals were represented in all. 



Unless the scattered condition of the bones be taken as such, 

 there is no reason to think that the chamber had ever been opened 

 since it was closed for the last time by its original owners, but it 

 is nevertheless possible that at some early date an entry had been 

 made through the roof. Even so, it is doubtful if such an in- 

 trusion would account altogether satisfactorily for the conditions 



