flakes and knives of flints, and fragments of British pottery, of various patterns, were picked up. There were also part of a rude bone pin, and a single bead of Kimmeridge shale, roughly made by hand. At the depth of five feet in the chamber, and extending slightly into the gallery, was a layer, three to nine inches in thickness, of a blackish, sooty, and greasy-looking matter, mixed with the rubble, and most marked on the south side of the chamber. This blackish stratum, the nature and origin of which are by no means clear, was so defined that it could never have been disturbed since its original formation or deposit.[1] At this level the flint flakes and implements and bones of animals were much more numerous than above. The bones were nearly all those of animals likely to have been used for food, the sheep or goat, ox of a large size, roebuck (of which there was part of a horn), swine of various ages, including boars with tusks of large size. There were also some of the bones of a badger[2], an animal still sometimes eaten by the peasantry.
Beneath the black stratum, the chalk rubble, of a dirty white colour, extended to a depth of two feet ; and in this were found four human skeletons, and parts of two others, all resting on the floor of the chamber. The exact position in which the bodies had been deposited was by no means evident; the bones, without being scattered, were further apart than usual, as if the chalk rubble had fallen down gradually on the decaying bodies and separated the bones.
No. 1. In the south-east angle of the chamber, to the left of the entrance, was the skeleton of a youth of about seventeen years of age, apparently in a sitting posture. The skull was extensively fractured at the summit by what appeared to have been the death-blow. The thigh-bones measured about sixteen and a half inches. The crowns of the large teeth were slightly eroded. The wisdom teeth
- ↑ A layer of black earth was very commonly found at or near the bottom of the long barrows without chambers which were examined by Sir R. C. Hoare, and gave rise to various conjectures. Some of the black earth was analysed by Mr. Hatchett and Dr. Gibbes, eminent chemists of that day. Dr. Gibbes was of opinion that "it arose from the decomposition of vegetable matter; if," it was said, "it had undergone the process of fire, the colour would have been converted into red, and not black." Sir Richard conjectured that it consisted of the decayed turf on which these mounds had been raised; though, if this were the case, it would be difficult to explain the absence of such a stratum in the circular barrows. Ancient Wilta, vol. i. p. 92. Mr. Cunnington appears to have regarded it as consisting of "charred wood and ashes," with which, he says, the floor of the long barrow which he opened at Sherrington was covered. Archæologia, vol. xv. p. 344. Ancient Wilts, vol. i. p. 100.
- ↑ Bones of the badger have been previously found in barrows. See Archæologia, vol. xxxii. pp. 358, 361. As, however, the badger is a burrowing animal, it is not always easy to determine whether its remains, so found, formed part of the original deposit. They, perhaps, rarely if ever do so.
