EARLY MAN of some of these the unusual shape is assumed to be original does not militate against this explanation, for if the added material was similar to that of the parent mound the difference of age might well be overlooked. We have however several interesting examples which admit of no doubt. The smaller Mininglow barrow was originally a circular cairn enclosing a central chamber ; but at some later date, a mound of earth was ' cast up against the side of the original mound.' This new mound was raised over the spot where a man was cremated, and with his remains (which still remained on the natural surface near the foot of the old cairn) were a bronze dagger, part of a bone implement, and some ' good flints,' all of which had passed through the fire with their owner. 1 At Five- Wells, Mr. Salt found a secondary interment of Bronze-age type placed against the chambered cairn there. It consisted of a contracted skeleton associ- ated with a piece of flint, in a small cist built against the podium, and covered with earth and stones. Another barrow at Mininglow and one at Galley-low have extensions which proved upon excavation to be due to additions. 2 The remarkable differences in the Bronze-age burials have been variously explained. The common view is that the different modes were practised simultaneously by different tribes, and even simultaneously by the same people. The double interments, consisting of cremated remains associated with an unburnt skeleton in the same grave, may seem to countenance this view ; but a careful study of the Derbyshire Bronze- age interments shows that it is not tenable. In these graves, the one de- posit must certainly be regarded as subordinate to the other, and if it represents, as is supposed, a human sacrifice, we cannot imagine that the ceremonies attaching to the immolation and burial of the victim would also apply to the principal interment ; in other words, we must regard the one deposit as an ' accompaniment ' of the other. If inhumation and cremation were practised simultaneously, we should expect to find the two classes of interments regularly intermixed ; whereas the contrary is the rule. For instance, on and round Stanton Moor, and throughout the country between Eyam, Castleton and Sheffield, cremated interments greatly predominate ; while in many districts of the western parts of the county the interments are as exclusively unburnt. The ' multiple ' barrows also show a marked partiality for like rather than unlike inter- ments, more than two-thirds of them having been found to contain burials of the same sort, whether by inhumation or after cremation. So far, the trend of evidence may seem to indicate that these differences are local or tribal differences ; but as we push the inquiry further it will appear that some variations at least were consecutive. The distribution of the vessels among the interments is particularly instructive, as the following table 3 will show : 1 Diggings, p. 57. * restiges, pp. 37, 41. Messrs. Bateman and Carrington's Staffordshire Bronze-age diggings yielded 10 drinking cups (whole or in fragments), all associated with unburnt interments ; 14 food vases, of which 10 were as- sociated with unburnt and 4 with burnt interments ; and I incense cup, associated with a burnt interment. I 177 23
