of an urn placed not in the centre, but near the extreme western edge. The remains here were in a still worse state of decomposition, and we could obtain no measurements, but only one or two pieces of ware, which, in their general coarseness and grittiness of texture, corresponded with the others, and not only showed their Keltic manufacture, but their extreme early date.[1]
This last mound, I may add, was composed of gravel, whilst the other was made simply of mould: and two depressions on the heath showed where the material had been obtained.
About two miles to the north-east, close to Ocknell Pond, lies a single barrow of much the same size as these two, though a great deal higher, being raised in the centre to three feet and a half. We began the excavation on the east side, proceeding to the centre, but found nothing except some charcoal, and peculiarly-shaped rolled flints, placed on the level of the ground.
We then made another trench from the north side, and close to some charcoal, about a foot and a half below the raised surface, came upon the neck of a Roman wine vessel (ampulla). Although we opened the whole of the east side, we could not find the remaining portion. The barrow bore no traces of having been previously explored, nor did the soil appear to have been moved. The fracture was certainly not recent, and it is very possible that some disappointed treasure-seekers in the
- ↑ I am inclined to think that here, as in the similar instance on Fritham Plain, the urns were put in the mound entire, and not, as is sometimes the case, in fragments. The pieces had no appearance of being burnt after the fractures had taken place, which were here simply the result of decay. See on this point Bateman's Ten Years' Diggings, pp. 191, 192, where Mr. Keller's letter to Sir Henry Ellis on the subject is given.
