62-4 Notes on Barrows in South Wilts. 



deep, the former level of the surface being plainly visible. It was 

 filled with loose chalk containing no object, but at the bottom 

 rested a skeleton, the position and mode of interment being very 

 similar to that in No. 1 Barrow. The individual, however, in this 

 case was an old man, the teeth having been abraded down to their 

 crowns, but not decayed. The skull was brachycephalic, but not 

 quite so round and broad topped as that in No. 1, and the eye 

 orbits were not massive in the same way. At the foot of the cist 

 was a pot of badly-baked coarse brown ware, containing light brown 

 dusty matter, about 7 inches high, ornamented with a thumb-nail 

 marking and a few rough diagonal lines. 1 



Under the head of the skeleton was a flint knife about 2\ inches 

 long, the rounded cutting end finely chipped and rather polished 

 by use, but not ground. As this barrow resembled No. 1 in many 

 of its details I consider it may have belonged to the same period, 

 i.e., Period I. 



Barrow 12. 2 Figheldean. 



Next I come to a barrow shown on the map as "Gallows 

 Barrow." It stands close to a cottage near where the north road 

 from Figheldean joins the main road. This was in a completely 

 ruinous state, and it is possible that those who were responsible 

 for its state may have come upon human remains and attributed 

 them to malefactors having been executed and buried there, but 

 nothing, so far as I could ever make out, warranted this assertion, 

 nor is there reason to suppose that a gallows ever existed there. 



Amongst the earth a few fragments of Bronze Age pottery were 

 met with, and I was fortunate enough to detect a flint barbed and 

 tanged arrow head 3 of a broad type with coarse chipping and the 

 barbs perfect. 



This barrow had no cist, and nothing was observable upon the 

 solid chalk at the bottom. 



1 The flint knife and the pot are preserved at Stockton House. 



2 Just east of the river, in the parish of Figheldean. 



3 Now in the British Museum. 



