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
At most places, in fact, where Roman interments have taken place, coins
have been found, and these range from an early to a late period in
Roman history.
When interment was by inhumation, in many instances the body was simply
laid in the earth without any further covering than the usual dress. In
other instances there are abundant appearances of the body having been
enclosed in a wooden coffin or chest. In others, again, the body had
been enclosed in a stone sarcophagus or chest, which was occasionally
elaborately carved. Sometimes, again, coffins of lead were used. Mounds
or barrows over sepulchral chambers and other modes of interment were
frequently raised, to which I shall have to draw further attention.
Examples of the first and most simple of these modes of burial have
been discovered in different parts of the country, those at Bartlow
Hills and at Little Chester being, perhaps, among the most notable.
At the latter place a skeleton of a man found some years ago lay full
length on its back, the arms straight down by the sides. Iron rivets,
which were found much corroded, lay near various parts of the body, and
a thin stratum of ferruginous matter encased the skeleton at a little
distance from the body and limbs. From these circumstances it is to be
inferred that the deceased was interred in his armour. Other interments
by inhumation have been recently discovered in the same neighbourhood,
but without, in some instances, the ferruginous appearances. The
remains of horses were found along with them. Interments by inhumation
have also been found at Brough and at other stations in the same
county, and, as later deposits, in Celtic barrows. Those where the
bones have been found _in situ_ appear, like the one I have spoken of
at Little Chester, at Bartlow, and at other places, to have been laid
at full length on the back, the arms straight down by the sides. They
appear in most instances to have been simply laid in a very shallow
grave, but little below the surface of the already formed mound, and to
have been then covered to no great thickness with earth. Those found at
Bartlow lay parallel to, but a short distance apart from, each other,
their heads to the west and feet to the east. They were laid flat on
their backs, their limbs straight out, their arms by their sides, and
hands on the thighs. Some coins of Constantine and Tetricus, and other
little matters, were found with them.[35] Traces of wooden chests or
coffins were discernible around these skeletons, and this feature is
not uncommon in burials of this description.
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