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
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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
Kits Cotty House, in Kent; the Chun cromlech, in Cornwall (figs. 39 and
40)--the covering stone of which is calculated to weigh twenty tons;
the Molfra cromlech, in the same county, which consists of a compact
cist closed on three sides and open on the fourth; the Zenor cromlech;
the Plas Newydd cromlech, and many others which it is not necessary to
enumerate, are all of the same class. The Plas Newydd (fig. 41) is a
double cromlech, the two chambers being close together, end to end. The
capstone of the largest, which is about twelve feet in length by ten
feet in breadth, originally rested on seven stones, two of which have
disappeared. The two erections undoubtedly were originally covered with
a single mound.
[Illustration: Fig. 41.]
At Minninglow, in Derbyshire, erections of this kind occur, but, not
being denuded of their mounds, are still partially buried. The mound
is of large size. Under the centre and in four places in the area of
the circle are large cists, which if cleared from the earth would be
fine cromlechs of precisely the same form as those just described.
They are formed of large slabs of the limestone of the district,
placed upright on the ground, and are covered with immense capstones
of the same material. All these chambers had contained interments.
The accompanying plan (fig. 42) of some of these cists gives the
situation of the stones forming the sides of the large chamber; of the
passage leading to it; of the slabs which closed its entrance; and of
the covers or capstones. The chamber is rather more than five feet in
height, and the largest capstone about seven feet square, and of great
thickness. A kind of wall similar to those which have been found to
encircle some of the Etruscan tumuli, forms the circle of this mound,
which rises to a height of more than fifteen feet from the surface of
the ground.[17]
[Illustration: Fig. 42.]
The general arrangement of this example will be seen to bear an analogy
to the Plas Newydd and others spoken of, and shows by what an easy
transition the building of galleries, or a series of chambers for
family tombs, in these large mounds, would be arrived at. Of this kind
some very large examples exist in Ireland, and in the Channel Islands,
as well as in various parts of England.
[Illustration: Fig. 43.]
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