BAR 
Thefe tumuli were in the nature of family vaults: in 
them have been found t,wo tiers of coffins. It is probable, 
that, on the death of any one of the family, the tumulus 
was opened, and the body interred near its kindred bones. 
Ancient Greece and Latium concurred in the fame prac¬ 
tice with the natives of this ifland. Patroclus among tiie 
Greeks, and Heitor among - the Trojans, received but the 
lame funeral honours; and the ‘aflies of Dercennus the 
Laurentine monarch had the fame fimple projection. The 
urnand pall of the Trojan warrior might perhaps be more 
fuperbthan thole of a Eritifh leader: the riling monument 
of each had the common materials from our mother earth: 
The fnowy bones his friends and brothers place, 
With tears collected, in a golden vafe. 
The golden vafe in purple palls they roll’d 
Of.fofreft texture and inwrought with gold. 
Laft o’er the urn the facred earth they fpread. 
And rais’d a tomb, memorial of the dead. Pope's Homer. 
Or, as if is more flrongly expreffed by the fame elegant 
tranflator, in the account of the funeral of Patroclus : 
High in the midfi they heap the fwelling bed 
Of riling earth, memorial of the dead. /i.xxiii. 319. 
The Grecian barrows, however, do not feem to have 
been all equally fimple. The barrow of Alyattes, father 
of Ccoefus king of Lydia, is deferibed by Herodotus as a 
molt fuperb monument, inferior only to the works of the 
Egyptians and Babylonians'. It was a vaft mound of earth 
heaped on a bafement of large hones by three dalles of the 
people ; one'of which were compofed of girls, who were 
prohitutes. Alyattes died, after a long reign, in the year 
5<5 z before the Chrihian era. Above a century intervened, 
but the hiftorian relates, that to his time five hones (yjoi 
termini o r Jlel’ce) on which letters were engraved, had re¬ 
mained on the top, recording what each clafs had perform¬ 
ed ; and from the meafurement it had appeared, that the 
greateh portion was done by the girls. Strabo likewile 
has mentioned it as a huge mound railed on a lofty bafe- 
ment by the multitude of the city. The circumference 
was fix hadia, or three quarters of a mile ; the height 
two plethra, or two hundred feet ; and tjie width thirteen 
plethra. It was cuhomary among the Greeks to place on 
barrows either the image of fome animal or Jlelce, com¬ 
monly round pillars with inferiptions. The famous bar- 
row of the Athenians in the plain of Marathon, deferibed 
by Paufanias, is an inlfance of the latter ufage. An an¬ 
cient monument in Italy by the Appian-way, called the 
Jepjikhre. of the Curiatii, has the fame number of termini as 
remained on the barrow of Alyattes ; the bafement, 
which is fquare, fupporting five round pyramids. Of the 
barrow of Alyattes the apparent magnitude is deferibed 
by travellers as now very much diminifhed, and the bot¬ 
tom rendered wider and lefs diflinil than before, by the 
gradual increafe of the foil below. It Hands in the midft 
of others by the lake Gygaeus ; where the burying-place 
of the Lydian princes was fituated. The barrows are of 
various lizes, the fmaller made perhaps for children of the 
younger branches of the royal family. Four or five are 
diftinguilhed by. their fnperior magnitude, and are vifible 
as hills at a great diftance. That of Alyattes is greatly 
fuper-eminent. 
Barrows, or fimilar tumuli, are alfo found in America. 
Thefe are of different fizes, according to Mr. Jefferfon’s 
account of Virginia, p. 156, fome of them conftrufted of 
earth, and fome of loofe Hones. That they were repofito- 
ries of the dead has been obvious to all; but on what par¬ 
ticular occafion conftrudted, was matter of doubt. Some 
have thought they covered the bones of thofe who have 
fallen in battles fought on the fpot of interment. Some 
aferibed them to the cuHom faid to prevail among the In¬ 
dians, of collecting at certain periods the bones of all their 
dead, wherefoever depofited at the time of death. Others 
again fuppofed them the general fepulchres for towns, 
conjeCtured to have been on or near thefe grounds; and 
R O W. 7?g 
this opinion was fupported by the quality oF the lands in 
which they are found (thofe conftrufted of earth being ge¬ 
nerally in the fofteH and mod fertile meadow-grounds on 
the river ikies), and by a tradition faid to.be handed down 
from the aboriginal Indians, that, when they fettled in a 
town, the firft perfon who died was placed ere£(, and earth 
put about him, fo as to cover and fupport him; that, when 
another died, a narrow palfage was dug to the firH, the fe- 
cond reclined again!! him, and the cover of eartli replaced, 
and fo on. “ There being one of thefe barrows in my 
neighbourhood (fays Mr. Jeffcrfon), I wifiied to fatisfy 
myfelf whether any, and which of thefe opinions were juH. 
For this purpofe, 1 determined to open and exairiine• it 
thoroughly. It was fituated on the low grounds of the 
Rivanna, about two miles above its principal fork, and 
oppofite to fome hills, on which had been an Indian town. 
It was of a fpheroldical form, of about forty feet in dia¬ 
meter at the bale, and had been of about twelve feet alti¬ 
tude, though now reduced by the plough to feven and a 
half, having been under cultivation about a dozen years. 
Before this, it was coveted with trees of twelve inches 
diameter, and round the bale was an excavation of five feet 
depth and width, from whence the earth had been taken. 
I firH dug fuperficially in feveral parts of it, and came to 
collections of human bones, at different depths, front fix 
inches to three feet belovv the furface. Thefe were lying 
in the utmofi contulion, fome vertical, fome oblique, fome 
horizontal, and directed to every point of the compafs, 
entangled, and held. together in cluflers by the earth. 
Bones of the moH diftant parts were found together; as, 
for infiance, the fmall bones of the foot in the hollow of a 
Ik nil, many (hulls would fometimes be in contaCf, lying 
on the face, on the fide, on the back, top or bottom, fo 
as on the whole to give the idea of bones emptied prornif- 
cnoufly from a bag or bafket, and covered over with earth, 
without any attention to their order. The bones of which 
the greatefi numbers remained, were Ikulls, jaw-bones, 
teeth, the bones of the arms, thighs, legs, feet, and hands. 
A few ribs remained, fome vertebrae of the neck and fpine, 
without their proceffes, and one inftance only of the bone 
which ferves as a bafe to the vertebral column. The Ikulls 
were fo tender, that they generally fell to pieces on being 
touched. The other bones were ftronger. There were 
fome teeth which were judged to be fmaller than thofe of 
an adult; a Ik it 11 which, on a flight view, appeared to be 
that of an infant, but it fell to pieces on being taken out, 
fo as to prevent fatisfaCIory examination; a rib, and a frag¬ 
ment of the under-jaw of a perfon about half-grown ; ano¬ 
ther rib of an infant; and part of the jaw of a child which 
had not yet cut its teeth. This laft furnilhing the- moft 
decifive proof of the burial of children here, I was parti¬ 
cular in my attention to it. It was part of the right half 
of the under-jaw. The proceffes by which it was articu¬ 
lated to the temporal bones were entire ; and the bone it- 
felf firm to where-it had been broken off, which, as nearly 
as 1 could judge, was about the place of the eye-tooth. 
Its upper edge, wherein would have been the Lockets of 
the teeth, was perfectly fmooth. Meafuring it with that 
of an adult, by placing their hinder proceffes together, its 
broken end extended ,to the penultimate grinder of the 
adult. This bone was white, all the others of a fand colour. 
The bones of infants being loft, they probably decay foon- 
er, which might be the caufe fo few were found here. I 
proceeded then to make a perpendicular cut through the 
body of the barrow,'that I might examine its internal 
ftrmfture. This palled about three feet from its centre, 
was opened to the former furface of the earth, and was 
wide enough for a man to walk through and examine its 
tides. At the bottom, that is, on the level of the circum¬ 
jacent plain, 1 found bones ; above thefe a few Hones, 
brought from a cliff a quarter of a mile off, and from the 
river orve-eighih of a mile off'; then a large interval of 
earth, then a ft rat tun of bones, and fo on. At one end of 
the fejftion were four ftrata of bones plainly diftinguifhahlc; 
at the other three ; the ftrata in one part not ranging with 
thofe 
