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A N C I E N T BRITISH SKULL.
PROM BARROW NEAR BINCOMBE, DORSETSHIRE.
(KEGION OP THE DUBOTBIGES, TEMP, PTOLEM^I, A.D. 120.)
Cranium from Barrow on Btncombc Down.—Quarter-size.
AT a distance of between three and foui- miles from Weymoutli there is a ridge of cliallc Mils,
rising from the downs and running east and west through a considerable district of country.
The summit of the ridge, the line of a well-known British trackway, caUed the " Ridge way," is
marked with elevations scattered over it the sepulchral barrows of the aboriginal inhabitants. A
few miles to the north of this ridge, near Dorchester, is the great British camp called Maiden
Castle, one of the finest of the primeval earthworks of England.
In the year 18(1.2, the Rev. J. J. Smith undertook to explore a portion of these barrows.
In the s^jring he opened four, when " traces of burning were found, small fragments of charcoal,
and a few flints showing marks of having been exposed to the action of fire; and two very
perfect skeletons at about two feet below the surface, lying with their faces to the east, and
placed side by side " *. Regret must be expressed at the imperfect manner in which the whole
of the excavations were conducted and their results recorded. In the month of September these
researches were renewed. The most important of the discoveries then made consisted of a
number of urns, which from their peculiarities possessed great interest; but unfortunately, from
want of care and pains in getting them out, and in preserving and restoring them afterwards,
only imperfect records of them remain t- One, with a contracted neck and decorated with wavy
lines round the belly, was about 5 inches high and was placed mouth downwards. Another, a jilain
cup, standing upright, was only 2'5 inches deep. A third, an urn of very singular form, appears
• Communications mnde to the Cambridge Antiq. See., ISo.'i, p. 142. t Ibid. PI. 3.
57. (1)
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