148 Recent Wiltshire Books, Pamphlets, and Articles. 



of the great Wor Barrow itself. The ditch of this was first of all completely 

 dug out to its original depth, about 13ft., and then the immense mound 

 itself was entirely removed down to the original surface level. It was 

 found that there were four causeways of undisturbed chalk across the ditch, 

 and in the silting of the ditch itself nine secondary interments were dis- 

 covered, seven of them immediately below the surface mould and associated 

 with relics and coins of the Roman age, and one at a depth of 8ft. in a 

 crouched position with a leaf-shaped flint arrow head lying beneath the two 

 lower ribs — the cause, it is conjectured, of the death of the individual. The 

 skull in this case was of hyperdolichocephalic type, and the General regards 

 it as a secondary interment of the time of the barrow itself, i.e., the Stone 

 Age. A remarkable flint, with pointed end, of distinctly Palaeolithic form, 

 was also found in the ditch. In the barrow itself ten secondary interments, 

 of which seven had evidently been decapitated before burial, were found 

 near the top of the mound, associated with Roman coins and pottery. When 

 the mound had been removed down to the old surface line a ditch cut in the 

 solid chalk 3ft. deep, enclosing an oblong space of 93ft. long by 34ft. wide, 

 with an opening at the south end, was discovered. The whole of this ditch 

 contained loose nodules of flint, and sticking up from this ditch at various 

 points were clearly seen the remains of wooden piles. " It is evident that 

 for some purpose an oblong enclosure of wooden piles was formed on the 

 surface of the ground before the ditch was dug, and the soil thrown over the 

 primary interments. This may, in all probability, be a wooden version of 

 the stone chambers so often found enclosing the interments in Long Barrows 

 in other districts where stone has been more easily obtained than wood." 



The primary interments, six in number, were lying close together on the 

 original surface line covered by a small heap of earth or turf. Of these, 

 the bones of three were lying, not in sequence, but in heaps by the side of 

 the other skeletons. The skulls of all these were dolichocephalic, and though 

 no relics were found with them it was plain that they were Long Barrow 

 people of the Stone Age. 



Two other Round Barrows on Handley Hill were also examined — and in 

 the account of their excavation General Pitt Rivers dwells on the importance 

 of a thorough exploration of the ditches of barrows, which in many cases 

 have so completely silted up as to leave no trace of their existence on the 

 surface. He also throws out the suggestion that the so-called " Druid's 

 Barrows," with a large circular ditch and a small mound in the centre of 

 the enclosed area, are really only unfinished Round Barrows, where the work 

 has been stopped for some reason after the site had been marked out and 

 the work begun. One of the barrows excavated contained a central primary 

 interment by cremation, and two secondary interments in urns, together 

 with a crouched skeleton, with which a bronze awl was found. In the other 

 barrow two empty graves were found, whilst on the west side of it, and 

 beyond the area of the barrow itself, no less than fifty-two secondary in- 

 terments by cremation — of which there was no sign whatever on the surface 

 of the turf — were discovered. Many of these were contained in urns, but 

 in many cases apparently the original deposit, in a small hole cut in the 

 chalk, had consisted of burnt bones and fragments of pottery only. Inside 



