Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 9.djvu/297

EXCAVATIONS NEAR THE FLEAM DYKE, CAMBRIDGESHIRE. 227 allurcincnts to wlict their curiosit}', former antiquaries should liave suffered this barrow to remain undisturbed, although its having been covered with Scotch firs of many years, but stunted growth, must have in some measure protected it from the encroachments of the treasure seeker ; and, as the subjoined account will show, shafts have been driven horizontally on the eastern side, and sunk perpen- dicularly on the top, but to judge from the remaining contents, without any, or with Init partial success. As the trees on and around the hill are completely' worthless, and the strip of land on which it stands in conjunction with the dyke is waste, I received early this spring through the medium of Mr. John Teverson, in whose occupation the adjacent farm is, the kind permission of the owner of the site, Mr. Capel, to make whatever excavations I deemed advisable to ascertain its natui-e. Judging from m^' expe- rience in opening other barrows in tliis neighbourhood, and the uncertainty of its having been previously explored, that cutting to the centre would be unsatisfactory, I commenced on the 12tli of April with six labourers turning it over rcgularl}^ from end to end, advancing from the southei-n extremity. The tumulus we found to be composed principally of the soil of the vicinit}'" ; light, chalky, intersected with two or three bands of darker earth running across horizon- tally, which satisfied us at once that this part at least had never been disturbed since its original formation. The first object met with, at the depth of one foot, was a ver}^ small and rude illegible coin, similar to others obtained from tombs in the same neighbourhood, which have been pronounced to be imitations of the coins of the later emperors, struck by the tribes of Roman Britons, probably during the latter part of the occupation, or directly subsequent to the departure, of the Romans. Shortly afterwards, eight feet from the southern end, and three from the surface, la}' a small heap of burnt human bones, apparently but of one person, intensely white from cremation ; among them were several of the chipped flints so common in these interments, part of a bronze pin for fastening the cloth in which the bones had been probably wrapped, six long beads of pottery (Comp. Anc. Wilts., pi. ix.) each consisting of five smaller ones united, find a bone pin made from the leg bone of a fowl. Within a foot of these, but lower on the floor of the barrow, lav Urn