340 



Barrow at Ogbourne St. Andrew's, Wilts. 



medieval date, reaching* back, perhaps, six or seven hundred years, 

 when it was common to bury the poorer classes without coffins. For 

 a long* time it was customary to carry the corpse to the grave in a 

 coffin, when it was taken out and interred in the grave-clothes only; 

 the coffin being reserved for future use. 



Near the centre, at a depth of 5ft., we found the skeleton of a man, 

 buried in a straight wooden chest, bound at the ends and at two equal 

 distances on the sides, with iron clamps of about 1 Jin. in width. V# 

 Those on the sides were split open at the top in this shape. I 

 The skeleton measured, as it lay before it was disturbed, 5ft. 9in. 

 The direction of the head was towards south-west-by-west. There 

 were no implements or ornaments of any kind found with it. Some 

 of the bones were dissolved away, especially the ribs and vertebrae. 

 The wood of the coffin had mostly disappeared, but some fragments 

 were so far preserved by the iron as to lead to its being recognised at 

 the British Museum as fir. 



The coffin was surrounded by a considerable quantity of wood 

 ashes, especially towards the head, to a depth of 3in. or 4in. They 

 are of oak wood, but the object for which they were used is un- 

 known. 



It is probable that this interment is of Saxon date. 



At a depth of 7ft. we found the burnt bones of an adult. These 

 were very much calcined, white, and clean ; had been very carefully 

 picked out from the ashes, wrapped up in a woven cloth, and then 

 placed on a plank of wood. This was apparently rounded on the 

 under side,, as the surface of the earth beneath was hollowed and 

 covered with a layer of decayed wood distinctly thicker in the 

 middle. The space thus occupied was 3ft. 9in. in length by 1ft. 6in. 

 wide, thus differing" from the usual mode of cremated interments, 

 which are generally smaller, round, and most frequently excavated in 

 the chalk. In the present case it would rather appear as if the bones 

 had been placed on a mound raised for the purpose. The fibre of 

 the cloth was, of course, decomposed, but the structure can be dis- 

 tinctly seen, the form being accurately preserved by the carbonate 

 of lime with which it is covered. In the middle of the heap was a 

 well-made knife of black flint, unburnt, and partially encrusted with 



