Description of a Barrow recently Opened on Overton Hill. 343 



|found, but this was destroyed by the workmen in removing the 

 stones. On visiting the place I found that this heap of stones was 

 the cairn of the barrow, and that it had been opened almost to the 

 natural level of the ground, so that I was too late to measure its 

 original height. The cairn was formed of sarsen stones roughly 

 piled up, and was about 24 feet in diameter. At a distance of 

 about 6 feet from the base of this was the very unusual peculiarity 

 of an outer circle, composed of very large specimens of similar stones 

 jin a double row; this circle was continuous. The whole was covered 

 in the usual manner with soil, but of a somewhat more clayey 

 nature than that surrounding the barrow. Owing to its flattened 

 jstate, however, it was impossible to ascertain the extreme diameter 

 of the barrow. 



[ The cist containing the primary interment was in the centre of 

 the cairn, excavated out of the chalk %\ feet below the level of the 

 natural surface of the ground. It was in the form of an irregular 

 circle — the average interior diameter being about 3\ feet — partially 

 walled with sarsen boulders, the hard chalk having been left in 

 places without a lining of stones ; and it was covered, at the ground- 

 level with one large and two smaller flat sarsens. The cist was 

 filled with soil, and the removal of it without destroying the shape 

 and position of the skeleton was a work of some difficulty, and 

 although the skeleton was very perfect, the smaller bones were so 

 much decayed that it was impossible to remove them whole. The 

 body had been placed in the cist lying on its back, with the head 

 fco the north in the direction of Abury, but the legs had been turned 

 over, and the lower part of the spine so twisted as to give it the ap- 

 pearance of lying on the left side. The knees were drawn up to 

 j within fourteen inches of the chin ; the left hand placed against 

 'the head, and the right across the abdomen. On the east side, and 

 in front of the knees, where the cist was slightly elongated, were 

 iportions of the skull, jaw and other bones of an animal of about the 

 jsize of a rabbit, and also a large number of very minute but distinct 

 ,bones under J of an inch in length. These last were in clusters of 

 Isome hundreds to each. 1 The soil in the cist contained a singular 

 | 1 A sample of these minute bones, most of them reduced fco fragments) and 



