06 



Nofes on Barrow-diggings. 



mains interred in these tombs, and consist of earthenware, not 

 baked in a kiln but imperfectly hardened by a fire. These pot- 

 sherds are found in sepulchres where there are no urns, and are 

 almost always fragments of different vessels. Archaeologists have 

 considered them to be the relics of the Lyke-wake held at the 

 funeral. Kleeman observes that it was customary to bring the 

 corpse to the place of interment clad in festive garments, and show 

 it to the friends ; a banquet then commenced and a share was 

 offered to the deceased." The vessels used on these occasions are 

 then supposed to have been destroyed, for some symbolical reason, 

 and the fragments strewn about. 



On reaching the centre of the barrow we found one of the most 

 interesting graves hitherto discovered in Wiltshire. It was a cist 

 dug in the chalk three feet ten inches long north and south, fifteen 

 inches wide and one foot deep, and at a depth of eight feet ten inches 

 from the apex of the mound. The peculiarity of its construction 

 was this. The grave was cylindrical and had been lined with a 

 plaster of pounded chalk about one and a half inch in thickness. 

 The plaster had received the impression of the bark of a tree, and 

 indicated that the bones of the deceased had been placed in a 

 hollowed trunk which was deposited in the grave while the plaster 

 was still moist. A thin layer of decayed wood was distinctly 

 traceable through the entire length of the cist. Another interest- 

 ing fact was also observed. It was found that the coffin was only 

 partially beneath the surface level, and that it had been covered over 

 with a similar coating of pounded chalk, which when it dried re- 

 tained an arched form over the grave after the wood had decayed. 

 With the bones, which were calcined and were those of a young per- 

 son, was a horn hammer head about four inches long and one and a 

 half inch wide (plate iii. fig. 4). This implement or weapon, or 

 whatever it was, is abraded at the smaller end, and shows no traces 

 of having been placed on the funeral pyre with the body of its 

 owner. I am not aware that an implement of this kind has been 

 found in this country before. Sir R. Hoare discovered hammer 

 heads made out of small pieces of stags horns, but they are of a 

 totally different character. No pottery accompanied this interment. 



