The antiquities of Bridgnorth : $b with some historical notices of the town and castleBellett, George
History
The antiquities of Bridgnorth : $b with some historical notices of the town and castle
Bellett, George
Bridgnorth (England) -- Antiquities
“In July, 1740, I observed upon Morfe the tumuli as above represented,
where the soil is a strong gravel. Mountfaucon tells us that the old
Cimbri, [the Danes,] were wont to throw up gravel on their graves, and
the more remarkable the persons were, the larger the tumuli over them.
I therefore imagined that this might possibly be the burying place of
the Danes. For satisfaction, I caused the middle and largest of these
tumuli to be dug from north to south, (a.a.) supposing that by that
method I might cross the site of the body that may have been laid
there. We dug about seven feet deep, even to the solid rock, without
meeting anything remarkable but an iron shell, in the shape of an
egg, with a round hole at one end; but so cankered and decayed, that
it easily broke into small pieces. This we judged to be the boss of a
sword. However, on viewing the trench that we had dug, we perceived on
the west side of it a hollow in the gravel, which upon trial extended
horizontally four or five feet; and under this hollow (b.b.) we found
one of the large vertebræ of the loins, with its processes pretty
perfect, but thoroughly petrified; and upon further search, several
portions of bones, all alike petrified, but so disguised that we could
not discover to what part of the body they belonged. We afterwards
opened one of the lesser tumuli, (c.c.) and found what is thought to
be the os sacrum, and many other small pieces of bone, in a petrified
state. It was great odds that we found nothing at all, but nature
favoured us by preserving some few tokens of antiquity.” Mr. Stackhouse
seems to have been disturbed in his archeological researches; for he
mentions that the people of Bridgnorth flocked in great numbers to the
spot, expecting to see great wonders, and to prevent further concourse,
he was glad to fill up the trenches, and to leave the other tumuli
unexamined.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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