rounded by a circular wreath of horns of the red deer, within which, and amidst the ashes, were five stemmed and barbed flint arrow-heads and a small red pebble.
In a barrow at Upton Lovel,[1] near the legs of a skeleton, there lay, with a number of other objects, "a handful of small pebbles of different colours, several not to be found in the neighbourhood," and five hollow flints broken in two and forming a rude kind of cup.
In a barrow at Rudstone,[2] Canon Greenwell found with a skeleton a part of an ammonite which appeared to have been worn as a charm.
A beautiful pink pebble, supposed to have been placed with the body as a token of affection, was found in a sepulchral cist at Breedon,[3] Leicestershire. Some querns and an iron knife appear to have accompanied the interment, so that it may belong to a comparatively late period. Quartz pebbles are, however, very frequently found with ancient burials, and Mr. Bateman has recorded numerous instances of their occurrence. Three such, one red, the others of a light colour, together with a ball of pyrites, a flat piece of polished iron-ore, a flint celt, and various other instruments of flint, were found with a skeleton in a barrow on Elton Moor.[4] In opening Carder Low,[5] near Hartington, about eighty quartz pebbles and several instruments of flint, including a barbed arrow-head, were found; and with the body, a bronze dagger and an axe-hammer of basalt. Mr. Bateman has suggested that the pebbles were possibly cast into the mound during its construction, by mourners and friends of the deceased, as tokens of respect. Numerous quartz pebbles, supposed to be sling-stones, were found in a barrow near Middleton.[6] In the same barrow was a porphyry-slate pebble, highly polished, "the sides triangular and tapering towards the ends, which are rubbed flat." A stone from a barrow near Ashford-in-the-Water[7] is said to have been of the same character.
In a barrow near Avebury,[8] already mentioned, there were in a cist with a male skeleton, three studs and a ring of jet, a flint knife, and a beautifully veined ovoid implement of serpentine, 4 inches long and 2 broad, the apex at each end ground flat. Dr. Thurnam does not attempt to assign any purpose to this implement, if such it were.
Sometimes the pebble appears to have been actually placed in the hand of the deceased, as was the case in a barrow near Alsop,[9] where a round quartz pebble was found in the left hand of the skeleton; and in another barrow on Readon Hill,[10] near Ramshorn, where a small pebble was found at the right hand. A quartz pebble lay among a deposit of burnt bones, accompanied by a bronze pin, in another barrow near Throwley.[11] In another Derbyshire[12] barrow a quartz pebble, found near an urn, was regarded as a sling-stone.
In two barrows near Castleton,[13] opened by Mr. Rooke Pennington, a quartz pebble accompanied the remains of children or young persons. Pebbles have been found with interments in other parts of the- ↑ Hoare, "South Wilts," p. 75. Arch., vol. lii. p. 430.
- ↑ "Brit. Barrows," p. 249.
- ↑ Arch. Assoc. Journ., vol. xv. p. 337.
- ↑ "Vest. Ant. Derb.," p. 53.
- ↑ Op. cit., p. 63.
- ↑ Op. cit., p. 29. C. R. Smith, "Coll. Ant.," vol. i. p. 55
- ↑ Arch., xii. p. 327.
- ↑ "Cran. Brit.," vol. ii. pl. 58, 2.
- ↑ "Vest. Ant. Derb.," p. 67.
- ↑ "Ten Years' Dig.," p. 123.
- ↑ "Ten Years' Dig.," p. 130.
- ↑ Reliquary, vol. iii. p. 206.
- ↑ Reliquary, vol. xiv. p. 88.
