On the Excavations at Rotherley, Woodcuts, and Bokerly Dyke. 285 



are, by this means, more clearly identified with the relics of the 

 every-day life of the inhabitants than when they were interred in 

 cemeteries, or tumuli, at a distance from the places where they lived, 

 and, as a consequence, it is more easy to determine the exact period 

 to which the skeletons belonged. They were buried in both crouched 

 and extended positions, and without orientation, the bodies facing 

 or extending in different directions. In other cases special graves 

 were dug, but without orientation in either case. The people 

 suffered from rheumatoid-arthritis. Three out of sixteen skeletons 

 in Rotherley were found to have been afflicted with this disease, the 

 cause of which appears to be a moot point in pathology, some 

 surgeons attributing it to exposure, and others to hereditary disease. 

 Their teeth were in some cases much decayed. Their horses, oxen, 

 and sheep were of small size, the horse rarely exceeding the size of 

 our Exmoor pony, viz., 11 hands 2^ inches. The oxen resembled 

 our Kerry cow in size., but our shorthorn in the form of its horns; 

 and the sheep were of a long slender-legged breed, the like of which 

 is only to be found at present in the Island of St. Kilda, in the 

 Atlantic. The pig, as is always found to be the case in early breeds 

 that were but slightly removed from the wild boar, was of large 

 size, with long legs and large tusks. The dog varied from the size 

 of a mastiff to that of a terrier. They ate the horse, and lived chiefly 

 on domesticated animals, but few remains of deer having been found 

 in their refuse pits, from which, and from the absence of weapons 

 generally, we may infer that they were not hunters, but that they 

 lived a peaceful, agricultural life, surrounded by their flocks and 

 herds. Their tools were iron axes, knives, and saws, only one or 

 two small spear-heads having been found. They spun thread, and 

 wove it on the spot, and sewed with iron needles. They grew wheat 

 in small enclosures surrounding their villages, and ground it upon 

 stone querns, and by measuring the number of grains to the cubic inch 

 it was found that their wheat was little, if at all, inferior to ours 

 grown at the same levels. They shod their horses with iron, and 

 produced fire with iron strike- lights and flint. They cut their corn 

 with small iron sickles, probably close to the ear, and stored it in 

 small barns, raised upon four posts, to preserve it from vermin. 



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