whose burial this chamber and tumulus were erected, and in honour of whom certain slaves and dependants were immolated.
No. 5. Between and behind the two last skeletons, close to the middle of the west wall of the chamber, were parts of the skeleton of a man of middle age, consisting of the occiput, temporal bones, lower jaw, cervical vertebræ, sternum, and bones of the arm. Close to these was a portion of a curious saucer of coarse pottery, perforated with a series of holes at the bottom, so as to form a kind of strainer (see woodcut, fig. 9.) and with a hole at each side by which it might have been suspended: another fragment of the same vessel was found at the opposite side of the chamber.
Fig. 8. Fragment of Black Pottery. (Actual size.) |
Fig. 9. Fragment of Perforated Vessel. (Two-thirds size.) |
No. 6. Very near the last, and between the sides of the two upright stones forming the west wall, was the chief part of the skull of an infant about a year old, with no other part of the skeleton, but which perhaps might have been found outside the chamber. With the skull-bones were three sharp flint flakes, and a large heap of fragments of pottery.
A third heap of pottery was found in the north-east angle of the chamber. A morsel of decayed wood was picked up near this part of the floor, which two skilled microscopic observers have ascertained to be oak, as Professor Queckett believes, of the now less common species, Quercus sessiliflora. In the south-west corner, between the two adjacent uprights, was a curious ovoid sarsen stone (hard silicious grit) weighing 434 lbs.; it was tinged of a red colour, from
on one side, and has some resemblance to the objects of flint found in Ireland and Denmark, which have been compared to spoons by Professor Worsaae (Afbildninger, 1854, p. 15, No. 60), and by Mr. Wilde (Catalogue of Antiquities, 1857, p. 16, fig. 8), who describes them as "of a very unusual shape, presenting the appearance of a circular disc, with a prolonged handle, not unlike a short spoon." Like other less perfect objects of a similar kind, (see wood-cut, p. 416, fig. 12,) they are probably knives, the prolonged thick ends of which were intended for handles, to be held between the finger and thumb, or possibly for attachment to a short wooden shaft.
