On four leaf and lozenge-shaped flint javelin-heads, from an oval barrow near Stonehenge : and on the leaf-shaped type of flint arrow-head, and its connection with long barrows / by John Thurnam.

  • Thurnam, John, 1810-1873.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On four leaf and lozenge-shaped flint javelin-heads, from an oval barrow near Stonehenge : and on the leaf-shaped type of flint arrow-head, and its connection with long barrows / by John Thurnam. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    by simple inhumation being still often resorted to. The attribution of the oval barrow to the bronze period might thus be not ill-founded, even if objects of bronze had not as yet been discovered in them. But in a barrow of this description on Bound way Down, near Devizes, in the examination of which by Mr. W. Cunnington, F.G S., I had the opportunity of assisting, two blades of bronze were found, one with a deposit of burnt bones at the east, another with a similar deposit at the west end of the burial mound.1 In another oval tumulus, moreover, that called “ Kill-barrow ” near Tilshead, opened in 1865, I found many of the burnt bones strongly tinged with copper, clearly proving that objects of bronze had been burnt with the bodies. A third oval barrow, on Draycot Hill, near Huish, is described by Sir Bichard Hoare thus : “ This long barrow is of low elevation, and has three depressions at equal distances, indicating as many places of interment.” (Yol. ii. p. 11, pi. ii.) It was opened by me, August 20, 1863,2 when two simple deposits of burnt bones were found in cists in the chalk rock, corresponding to the eastern and second depressions. There were no other objects of an}r des- cription. If any interment corresponding to the western depression exist, it was not reached by our excavations. The oval barrow on Winterbourne Stoke Down, in which the flint objects now to be described were discovered, was opened May 5, 1864. Near the east end, at the depth of about a foot and a half, was the skeleton of a person of middle stature, closely doubled up, and with the head to the north. Close to the back of the skull was a small “drinking cup” of richly decorated red pottery, such as is found with skeletons in the later round barrows. Like the brachycephalic (.80) skeleton with which it was found, it was much decayed and broken. The centre of the mound was searched for a second interment; if any exists in this situation it was not reached by us, though, to the west of the centre, a small cup of coarse thick pottery was dug up. A third opening was successfully made 1 Wilts Arch. Mag. vol. vi., p. 162. Barrow No. 6, Cran. Brit. pi. xxxi., 43, p. (2). 2 On the occasion of the Meeting of the Wilts Archaeological and Natural History Society, at Devizes, 1863.