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A N C I E N T BRITISH SKULL.
FROM BAEEOW AT MORGAN' S HILL, NEAR WANSDYKE, WILTS.
(REGION OF THE BELGIE, TEMP. PT0LE1O3I, A.D. 120.)
Cranium from Barrow at Morgaños Jlill.—Quarter-size.
THERE are nmuerous barrows of every size and form on the unenclosed downs about Shepherd's
Shore and Morgan's Hül, over which stretches the remarkable barrier of the Wansdyke, wliich
extends through nearly the entire breadth of Wiltshire, seioarating, as may be concluded, the
ancient territory of the conquering Belgse on the south, from that of the aboriginal Dobuni on
the north *. The barrows are by far more numerous to the north of this great barrier, and in
the Beckhampton fields just beyond, they may be regarded as forming a sort of necropolis of the
Dobuni, which may have been purposely placed near the Belgic frontier. Many of these barrows
were opened by the late Mr. Cunnington and Sir B. C. Hoare, yielding interments of entire
skeletons or calcined bones, with the usual accompaniments of coarse pottery, bone and flint
implements, and occasional articles of bronze, and beads of jet or glass. Though it is impossible
in any given case to say that the barrows, on the south side of Wansdyke, are not of a date
anterior to that of the barrier, and to the presence of the Belgse in these parts, they may at
least, with much probability, be regarded as belonging to this immigrant tribe. One of these
barrows, situate on the bold projection of the downs called Morgan's HOI, about four miles north
of Devizes, and just above Old Shepherd's Shore, where the old Bath road intersects Wansdyke,
* The best description of Wansdyke is by Sir R. C. Hoave, "Ancient Wilts," vol. ii. p. 16. pi. 5, and Maps; the best
disquisition on its pnrpose is by Dr. Guest, " Archteological Journal," vol. viii. p. 143.
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