The New Forest: Its History and Its SceneryWise, John R. (John Richard)
History
The New Forest: Its History and Its Scenery
Wise, John R. (John Richard)
New Forest (England : Forest)
There are, however, one or two points peculiarly noticeable about this
barrow—first, the enormous quantity of burnt earth, suggesting that the
funeral pyre was actually lit on the spot, which certainly was not the
case in most of the other barrows, where the charcoal is only sprinkled
here and there, or appears in the form of a small circular patch on the
floor. Secondly, the two bands of charcoal, so full of osseous matter,
would certainly go far to prove, what has been surmised by Bateman and
others, that the slaves or prisoners were immolated at the decease of
their master or conqueror.
Again, too, the different sizes and positions of the urns may, perhaps,
indicate either degrees of relationship or rank of the persons buried.
And this theory is somewhat corroborated by the contents. The central
urn was examined on the spot, and, like all the others, with the
exception of a round stone slightly indented, contained burnt earth,
limy matter, and at the bottom the larger bones, which were less
calcined, but which, owing to the want of proper means, we could not
preserve. The other two were opened at the British Museum. At the bottom
of the north-easternmost were also placed bones in a similar condition,
amongst which Professor Owen recognized the _femur_ and _radius_ of an
adult. The smallest urn also showed bones placed in the same manner at
the bottom, but in this case smaller, and amongst them Professor Owen
determined _processus dentatus_, and the body of the third cervical
vertebra, and was of opinion that they were those of a person of small
stature, or, perhaps, of a female. This is what might have been
expected. And the fact of their being put in the smallest vessel, which,
as we have noticed, was placed below the level of the others, certainly
indicates a distinction made in the mode of burial of persons of either
different ages or sexes.
The fact, too, that all the larger bones were placed by themselves at
the bottom is worth noticing, and shows that they must have been
carefully collected and separated from the burnt earth and charcoal of
the pyre.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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