442 
COLE : THE DUGGLEBY " HOWE. 
construction of the mound, and that these had been disturbed by a 
previous opening. It appears that about the 3^ear 1798 the Rev. 
Christoplier Sykes, brotlier of the late Sir Tatton, made an attempt 
to open the "Howe," but abandoned the task after penetrating to a 
depth of about 8 feet from the present summit. It next became 
apparent that this previous excavation had partially destroyed a 
cross of clay, 2 feet in thickness, orientated, with arms about 10 feet 
long, somewhat similar to the buried crosses found at Fimber, 
AVetwang, Swinton and Helperthorpe, whose uses are unknown, 
though supposed by some to be Roman agri-niensorial marks. Bits 
of iron, animal bones, and numerous fragments of Anglo-Saxon 
pottery were found embedded in the arms of this cross, either from 
subsequent disturbance, or because the cross itself had been con- 
structed in the tumulus later tlian Roman times. 
The upper and outer portion of the mound, as will be seen from 
the section, consisted of rough pieces of quarried chalk, but at a 
depth of 9:^ feet in the centre of the flattened top, an unbroken bed 
of dark blue clay, 12 inches thick, w^as met with, which constituted 
the covering of an inner mound, whose centre did not (|uite coincide 
with that of the outer mound. The clay is that known as the 
Kimeridge, which, from the denudation of the chalk in the 
immediate neighbourhood, is exposed at the surface, and therefore 
easily procurable. 
We were now clearly entering on a region entirely unexplored 
before. The undisturbed bed of clay was succeeded by a concentric 
ring of small chalk grit, 4i feet in thickness. In this grit, at various 
levels, were found a great number of little discs of cremated bones, as 
shown in the ground plan, nine or ten inches in diameter, but with- 
out any urns, or indeed any relics, except, in three cases, remains of 
burnt bone pins. Cremation is said to be a sign of the introduction 
of the bronze age : but the cremated bones were generally placed in 
urns, whilst here there were no urns, nor was any trace of bronze 
found. Hence this tumulus must claim a very high antiquity. 
Below the grit a mass of clay, of a different kind from that 
noticed above, was met with, about 5^ feet thick, resting on the 
original surface soil. In this clay, as in the grit above, discs of 
