OBSERVATIONS ON DANISH TUMULI, AND ON THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLECTING CRANIA FOUND IN TUMULI.
Very little, we may perhaps more properly say nothing, has yet been ascertained as to the characteristics of the least ancient tumuli, or those erected by the Pagan Danes and Norsemen, during their occupation of so large a district of this island in the ninth and tenth centuries. In many parts of the kingdom, however, topographers inform us there exist tumuli which bear the names of "Danes' Graves," "Danes' Hills," &c.; some of which, at least, are in all probability rightly attributed to people of Scandinavian race. Several of a very large group of tumuli near Driffield, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, bearing the former of these names, have recently been examined by the Yorkshire Antiquarian Club; and in this instance it would appear probable that the tumuli are really what this name would imply. The contracted position of the skeletons in these barrows was very remarkable, and this is a point which will merit the close attention of subsequent observers. Other tumuli, called "The Danes' Hills," at Skipwith, near York, were subsequently examined; but these have been erected over the burnt remains of the dead, and though their external configuration is an unusual one, it would appear more probable that they are of British origin. The want of previous examples, examined in this country, of tumuli ascertained or even supposed to be Danish, with which to compare those alluded to, must for the present induce us to speak with less confidence as to their age and origin. With such grounds for doubt, it appears very desirable that the attention of archaeologists should be directed to such tumuli in their several neighbourhoods, as either from their popular designation, situation, or other circumstances, may, with more or less probability, be presumed to be of Danish or Norwegian origin. Tumuli, under the name of Danish, are described by Camden, or his editor Gough, as existing at Osburgh in Norfolk, at various situations in Devonshire and the western counties, and at other places. Through the zeal of some archaeologists interested in inquiries calculated to throw not a little light on history and ethnography, the hope, I trust, is not a vain one, that some of these tumuli may before long be examined and carefully described.
