Grave-mounds and Their Contents: A Manual of Archæology, as Exemplified in the Burials of the Celtic, the Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxon PeriodsJewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
History
Grave-mounds and Their Contents: A Manual of Archæology, as Exemplified in the Burials of the Celtic, the Romano-British, and the Anglo-Saxon Periods
Jewitt, Llewellynn Frederick William
Great Britain -- Antiquities; Megalithic monuments -- Great Britain; Mounds -- Great Britain
The next engraving (fig. 20) again shows, within a cist, in a barrow
on Baslow Moor called “Hob Hurst’s House,”[11] two heaps of bones, the
one simply collected together in a small heap, and the other guarded by
a row of small sandstone “boulders” all of which had been subjected to
fire. The next illustration (fig. 21) gives a section of the Flax Dale
barrow at Middleton by Youlgreave, which shows the inverted position of
the sepulchral urn. This barrow was formed on a plan commonly adopted
by the ancient Britons, and will therefore serve as an example of mode
of construction as well as of the inverted position of the urn. A
circle of large rough stones was laid on the surface of the ground,
marking the extent of the proposed mound. Within this the interments,
whether in an urn or not, were placed, and the mound was then raised of
stones to the required height, and afterwards covered to some thickness
with earth, and thus the outer circle of the barrow was considerably
extended, as will be seen by the engraving.
[Illustration: Fig. 20.]
[Illustration: Fig. 21.]
Another excellent example of the inverted position of the sepulchral
urns is here given (fig. 22) from one of the cists in Rolly-Low, near
Wardlow. I have chosen it because, when found by Mr. Bateman, it had
received a considerable fracture on one side, and thus showed the
burnt bones which it contained, through the aperture. The urn was
about sixteen inches in height and twelve inches in diameter, and was
ornamented in the usual manner with indentations produced by a twisted
thong. It was inverted over a deposit of calcined human bones, among
which was a large red deer’s horn, also calcined. The urn was so
fragile as to be broken to pieces on removal.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.]
In some urns discovered in Cambridgeshire, at Muttilow Hill, the Hon.
R. C. Neville found that the calcined bones had been collected and
wrapped in cloth before being placed in the urns. The contents of one
of the urns he describes as “burnt human bones enveloped in a cloth,
which, on looking into the vessel, gave them the appearance of being
viewed through a yellow gauze veil, but which upon being touched
dissolved into fine powder.”[12] The urns were all inverted.
A somewhat peculiar feature of urn burial was discovered at Broughton,
in Lincolnshire, where the urn containing the burnt bones was placed
upright on the surface of the ground, and another urn, made to fit the
mouth, inverted into it to form a cover.
In instances where the ashes of the dead have been collected from the
funeral pyre, and laid in a skin or cloth before interment, the bone
or bronze pins with which the “bundle” was fastened still remain,
although, of course, the cloth itself has long since perished.
In other instances small stones have been placed around, and upon, the
heap of burnt bones before raising the mound over the remains.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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