DAVIS: RELATIVE AGE OF THE REMAINS OF MAN IN YORKSHIRE. 211 
and ramifying over almost every hill on the "Wolds. A great number of 
these entrenchments, large and continuous mounds of earth, with a 
moat-like hollow on the inside, have been mapped and investigated 
superficially, and exhibit a marvellous series of defensive or offen- 
sive earthworks, indicating not only a large population, but persistent 
and united action on the part of its members. 
The new comers were possessed of a higher civilization than 
the people they supplanted. They were acquainted with the use of 
bronze, their pottery was of a higher character, and they decorated 
themselves with necklets of jet. Women have been disinterred whose 
bodies were buried witli rings on the fingers and beads round the 
neck. They cultivated the ground, and had domestic cattle, as their 
predecessors had. They were not possessed of wealth, and their inter- 
course, in the way of traffic with people at a distance, must have been 
very limited. The discovery of woollen and linen fabrics in the graves 
prove that they were acquainted with the manufacture of those goods, 
and spindle whorls have also been found. Altogether they were a 
people possessed of much more refinement than their predecessors, 
and may be regarded as the heralds of that greater advance which 
was to follow on the advent of the Romans some hundreds of years 
later. 
A large proportion of the graves contain bodies which were 
cremated before burial. In others the bodies are simply inhumed. 
The usual method in the latter case was to dig a hole to a greater or 
less depth beneath the surface, and place the body in it in a contracted 
position, with the knees drawn up towards the chin. If a male, the 
body is laid generally on the left side, and if a female, on the right. 
It was then covered with earth, and a mound raised above it. When 
the body was cremated, the ashes are sometimes placed in an urn 
which, with any other objects, was placed in the grave and covered up 
by a mound. Canon Greenwell is of opinion that the process of 
burning the body was part of the ceremony or ritual of the burial, 
because in many instances fire has been applied but the burning has 
only been partial, and the bodies are buried without urns. The 
number of burials in a mound, and the size of the mound, appears to 
have depended on the importance of the individual; and at the 
