Two such Long Barrows are within a short distance of Stonehenge. No
metal objects have been found in these Long Barrows, though
leaf-shaped flint arrow-heads, most delicately chipped, are almost
invariably met with, and occasionally rough, hand-made, undecorated
pottery. Most Long Barrows have been used for "secondary interments,"
_i.e._ other bodies at a later date have been buried in them. These
secondary interments are sometimes associated with bronze or even
iron. Interesting as the Long Barrows are, however, they are only
mentioned as being, so far as present information goes, the earliest
form of regular sepulture in this country. It is highly improbable
that they have any connection with Stonehenge, which must have been
erected at an age when the Long Barrow with its inhumed body was
passing away, and the plain was being peopled with a new race, the
"round-headed" people, whose method of burial was considerably
different.
THE ROUND BARROWS
The visitor to Stonehenge has only to turn his back to the "Friar's
Heel," as he stands on the Altar Stone, and he will see a typical
"group" of Round Barrows, seven in number. Let him remember, then,
that Wiltshire boasts of two thousand similar sepulchral mounds; and
that he can, within an easy distance of Stonehenge, find three hundred
of them, while in the same radius he will only encounter two Long
Barrows.
The proportion, therefore, of round to long is considerable, viz.
1:150. The figures of round and long for the entire county are
eighty-six Long to two thousand Round Barrows, or 1:24. In other words
there are five times more Round Barrows in the Stonehenge District,
than there are anywhere else in Wiltshire, taking Long and Round
Barrows together. This disproportion in distribution cannot altogether
be the result of accident; it must bespeak a special attraction for
the spot by the builders of the Barrows, and from the very fact that
Stonehenge was erected at a time when these people were first arriving
on Salisbury Plain, it does not seem extravagant to claim that they
had some reason for wishing their remains finally to rest within easy
distance of what must have been to them a sacred spot.
As already noted, these Round Barrows can be divided into three
classes: 1. The simple Bowl-shaped Barrow, that most frequently
encountered, having a diameter of from twenty to sixty feet, and a
height of from three to five feet. 2. The Bell-shaped Barrow which
reaches its highest development on the plain round Stonehenge, and is
more common and more beautiful in Wiltshire than in any other part of
England.
[Illustration: Plans and Sections of Bowl Bell & Disc barrows.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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