EARLY MAN These fragments have generally been found scattered over the site of the pile, but in a few instances they have occupied a shallow circular hole in the natural surface, into which they had been swept after the fire was extinguished. This may have been a common practice, for the presence of a small depression of the kind might easily be overlooked by the explorer. On the other hand, there is evidence that in some of these barrows, the human ashes had been collected and placed near the summit of the mound, the stones which are occasionally present in this position probably being the relics of the receptacle which contained them. This, again, may have been a common practice, for being near the summit it is surprising that even the indications of these ' high-level ' interments should have survived. 1 The placing of the burnt bones in depressions or in these elevated positions may explain the general paucity of the human remains on the sites of the funeral piles. The general trend of investigation has shown that some effort was made to seal down, so to speak, the site of the pyre and its contents. Usually this was accomplished by a layer of puddled clay or earth, which was hardened by a great fire made upon it. Sometimes large stones were used instead, occasionally being laid like a rude pavement. Whatever the material, this first layer is readily distinguishable from that of the mound above, but frequently the latter itself discloses the curious constructional feature of two or more different materials in alternate layers. A remarkable example to the point was a barrow opened at Gorsey Close near Tissington, in 1845." Here, Mr. Bateman found that the soil was interspersed with alternate layers of moss and grass, both of which retained in a great measure their original colour and texture, and upon the surface of the ground were many pieces of wood, hazel-sticks, fungi, etc. A still larger barrow, Roylow near Sheen, examined by Mr. Bateman in 1 849, and again by Mr. J. P. Sheldon in 1894," gave similar results. The articles associated with the interments, or rather found upon the sites of the pyres, are meagre and poor. They are mostly pot- sherds and rude implements and chippings of flint, both of which are usually described as burnt. Unlike the occasional potsherds found in the earlier barrows, which are derived from perfect vessels accidentally broken and scattered through the introduction of secondary interments, these appear in every case to have been introduced as potsherds. It is a pity these potsherds have not been more fully described by their finders, but it is tolerably certain that the vessels they related to had little in common with the sepulchral ware of the earlier period. They appear to have belonged to the ordinary domestic vessels of the time. The potsherds and flints, also the pebbles which have occasionally been observed, were evidently placed or thrown upon the funeral pile with some religious intent ; and doubtless it is to this custom, reversed in its meaning under the Christian regime, that a much-quoted passage in Hamlet, relative to 1 Diggings, p. 130. * Vestiges, p. 80. 3 Prof. Sue. Ant. 2, xv. p. 425. I8 7
