By Mrs. M. E. Cunnington. 401 



with burnt flints, sarsen chips, &c, into what I have called an ossi- 

 ferous breccia, and many were stained of a beautifully vivid blue and 

 green colour. These burnt bones were unequally burnt, and many 

 merely charred were quite black. Above the bones the chalk rubble 

 of the barrow was curiously changed into a delicate friable cream- 

 coloured substance like burnt shells. I fancy this an imperfect lime, 

 formed probably from the burnt bones having been deposited whilst 

 hot. This substance was very abundant, and would probably have 

 filled a bushel. 1 ' Two secondary burials of skeletons were found also. 

 One was " one foot deep, — stretched at length, with head to the north 

 (or N".N".W.) " The other skeleton was "in the same position, nearer 

 the eastern end." It seems that the barrow was opened on two 

 separate occasions. The skull from the first-mentioned secondary 

 burial only, seems to have been sent to Cambridge. 



The barrow is unploughed and in good condition, but no distinguish- 

 able ditch. O.M. 46 SW. ; AAV. I. 89; Arch, xliii. 297, note; 

 Proc. Soc. Ant., 2 S., II. 427 ; W.A.M. xi. 42 ; xiv. 259 (name) ; MS. 

 Cat. 258. 



Tilshead. 2. "Old Ditch" Barrow. Length 377ft. (Hoare) ; 380ft. 

 (Thurnam) ; NE. and S.W. Opened, 1802, by Wm. Cunnington, who 

 made a section 85ft. long from the E. end, but failed to find the 

 primary burial ; he noticed the usual stratum of black sooty soil, 

 and found two secondary burnt burials near the surface of the 

 mound. He then cut a section at the VV. end and found three 

 skeletons lying on a pavement of flints about 18in. above the floor 

 of the barrow. In 1865 it was re-opened by Thurnam who made a 

 large excavation near the E. end ; and only a few feet beyond where 

 Cunnington had left off in 1802, he found the primary interment. 

 The following account of the discovery is from the MS. Cat. " No. 235. 

 Ancient British. From the great Long Barrow at Tilshead, near 

 Old Ditch, excavated by Thurnam, September 29th, 1865. This 

 (the primary interment) was found by us after great labour, and at a 

 depth of ten feet under the highest point of the tumulus close to its 

 eastern end. Here, at or below the base, was a pile of large flints 

 mixed with a stratum of black earth, and below these was a small 

 skeleton well preserved, in the contracted position and with head to 

 the north. The skull was smashed, as I thought at first by the 

 weight of the flints, but from the peculiar character of a contused 

 cleft near the coronal border of the left parietal, it would appear to 

 have been purposely cleaved before interment. Within a foot or 

 two of the skeleton to the east, under the pile of flints, and on a sort 

 of pavement of the same, were a heap of imperfectly burnt bones, in 

 larger pieces than is usual in round barrows. This very exceptional 

 deposit after cremation must have been made contemporaneously 

 with that of the body to which the entire skeleton belonged. The 

 burnt bones, which were unmixed with charcoal, were perhaps buried 

 whilst still hot, many of the flints around them being of a red or 



