EARLY MAN except in the relics associated with their interments, which have the im- press of a common age. It is impossible to separate these from the chambered barrows by any hard and fast line ; but, as a class, they are smaller and of less elabo- rate construction, while more marked is the difference in their internal arrangements. The chambered barrows suggest the idea that they were erected to receive the dead ; the Bronze-age barrows, that they were piled up over the dead. It is generally considered that the chamber was used for successive interments (hence the need for an access), whereas the grave or cist of the second class, having received its charge, was perma- nently closed. This only applies to the actual receptacle for the dead ; the mound once raised was used again and again for interments, even after intervals so long that the mode of burial had undergone great changes. So far as can be judged from the usually worn-down and mutilated condition of these mounds, the prevailing original form was that of a shallow dome or inverted bowl, but various transitions ending with the disc-shaped types of Dr. Thurnam, occur. The outline is circular, un- less rendered irregular from the addition of secondary mounds, or from the depredations of a later age. The size is not often stated, or is only expressed as ' large ' or ' small,' but when the dimensions are given the diameter varies between the extremes of 12 and 120 feet, and the existing height between those of i and 1 8 feet ; but in the majority of instances the diameter falls within the limits of 30 and 60 feet, and the height rarely exceeds 6 feet. With very few exceptions the mound is of stone, or of stone with an admixture of earth, but how far we should regard the latter as an original ingredient is doubtful, as it may be merely blown soil and vegetable mould ; broadly speaking, therefore, these Bronze-age bar- rows are cairns. In most instances the construction is extremely simple, consisting of stones, such as may be picked from the surrounding waste, thrown together anyhow. A slight advance is the introduction of a kerb of larger stones laid upon the ground to confine the proposed mound. In a further advance, the protective kerb is formed of one or more rings of large flag-stones set on end in the ground and leaning inwards. If, as often has happened, the summit of such a barrow be removed by natural or other means, the result will be a raised and more or less flat- topped platform with a well-marked shoulder. Carry the destructive process further, the kerb will stand out as a raised verge ; still further, it alone may remain as a ring of stones easily mistaken for a ' circle.' In a still further constructional advance, the whole mound is built up of con- centric rings of such inclined stones, starting from the central interment. Good examples of all these variations and stages have been met with in Derbyshire. Barrows may be further defined by certain external members, as a ditch, bank, or ring of stones, or by a combination of two or all of these. /' So far as is known, no Bronze-age barrow in Derbyshire is surrounded by a ditch, but such an appendage is likely to be silted up, and so not i 169 22
