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DESCEIPTIONS OP OEANIA.
are pre-eminently British; there being little evidence of their use hy other Celtic tribes, and
none that is satisfactory of their employment by people of Teutonic race. They are relics of
great cui-iosity and interest: they fully confirm the eTidence, derived from coins, as to the small
size of the British chariot; and, so far as the remains go, they lend no countenance to the notion
that the axles of these vehicles, lilve those of some Eastern nations, were armed with scythes.
That the esseda was a two-wheeled vehicle, that it was drawn by two horses, and was in fact a
higa, is proved by the two bits foimd with each, and by the skeletons of the two horses which,
along with their owner, had been interred with the more highly decorated chariot. The instances
in which the remains of ancient chariots have been foimd in Britain are very rai-e; and there is
scarcely another unequivocal example of their discovery in barrows*. Chariot-wheels, however,
wore found within the extensive British camp at Hamden Hill, Somersetshire, with iron and
bronze weapons, ii'on horse-bits and objects of gilded bronze, ornaments probably of the harness
or yoke. Sir E-. C. Hoare gives the diameter of one of these chariot-wheels as two feet six inches ;
the dimensions being inferior to both the Yorkshire examples. The wheels had twelve spokes,
about five and a half inches apart t. At Stanwick in Yorkshire (N. R.), adjacent to the
spot where the curious enamelled horse-trappings were found, what were supposed to be the
u'on tires of chariot-wheels were exhumed, but they do not appear to have been examined
with the care which they deserved J.
The objects found in the barrow of the female,^—the rich necklace of glass beads,—the
ornaments of amber and ivory, call strongly to mind the passage where Strabo, alluding to the
imports into Britain from Gaul, says, " these consist of such smaU wares as bracelets of ivory
and necklaces, and articles of amber and glass§." The probable inference thus suggested, is
confirmed by the evidence as to the foreign and probably eastern place of manufacture of the
glass beads, as sho-mi in a preceding note.
The contracted postiu-e of the skeletons, with the head directed to the north, is in accordance
with what is usual in barrows indisputably British; whilst in Anglo-Saxon barrows the
skeletons are extended at length, and with the head generally towards the south. These tiunuli
are clearly, as we think, late British, and of the period which may be termed bronze and iron
Saxon invaders, they still must be referred to the same period."
(ArcliseologicalJournal, 1852, vol. ix. p. 10.) Br. D. Wilson
(Prehistorie Annals, &c., p. 460) thinks there is "no room to
question the native origin and workmanship" of these objects.
Mr. C. Roach Smith (Collectanea Antiqua, 1853, vol. iii. p. 69)
attributes them to the " Roman period," but adds, " it does not
follow that we can strictly and exclusively call them Roman.
Although they exhibit skilful workmanship, and the designs
are often not inelegant, there is a manifest departure from the
general purity of taste and characteristic features of undoubted
Roman works; they appear to combine in short some of the
elements of good Roman art with the unclassical decorations of
early Saxon and Frankish manufacture." There can be no
objection to the view that objects of this sort were used by the
auxiliaries of the Roman army, but there seem equally strong
reasons for attributing their employment to the Gauls and
Britons, at a period previous, and perhaps also subsequent to
the Roman conquest; to which latter people, indeed, when
found in connexion with the remains of chariots, it is much
more reasonable to attribute them.
6, 7.
* The only other probable instance of the discovery of the
tomb of a British chief, in which " the wild barbarian pomp "
of interment with his arms, chariot, and steed by his side,
was observed, was in 1829, near Ballindalloch in the remote
county of Moray. "Wilson, " Prehistoric Annals," &c.,p.456.
t Archasologia, 1826, vol. xxi. p. 39 ; Arehseological Journal,
1853, vol. X. p. 246; Proceedings of the Somerset
Archaeological Society for 1853, p. 86. A skull from this
last site, Hamden Hill, will probably be described in a succeeding
Decade of this work.
J Proceedings of the Archffiological Institute at York, 1846,
p. 10. For a description of the earth-works at Stanwick and
their apparent British character, as mamtamed by Whitakcr,
see Archeeological Journal, vol. vi. p. 337. Sir W. Lawson,
Bart., has obliged us with the information that the reference
to an ancient chariot stated to have been discovered in a
tumulus on his property, at Catterick, N. R. Yorkshire, must
have arisen from some misconception, no such remains having
been found. See Archaiological Journal, vol. viii. p. 162.
§ Strabo, lib. iv. c. 5. § 3.
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ANCIENT BRITISH—AIIB,AS, E. E. YORKSHIRE.
transition ; the date to which they may be most probably assigned ranging between that of the
Belgic immigration, and the completion of the Roman conquest of Britain, or from about
100 B.C. to 100 A.D. The reign of Tiberius, or of one of his immediate successors, is perhaps ad
probable a period as can be assumed. The use of war-chariots in South Britain much later than
the period of Agricola, seems hardly probable; and after this, it may be inferred that the
funeral customs of the Romans became almost universal in that part of the island. Burning the
dead, there is httle doubt, was the ordinary practice with the Romans as well as with the Celts
of Gaul and Britain, at the period thus indicated. We know, however, that this was not
universal; and the Parish may have retained the more ancient custom of simple inhumation, to
which we owe the preservation of the interesting relios here described.
In May 1850, a deputation of the Yorkshire Antiquarian Club examined two or three
barrows of the Arras group, but in one only with any result worth notice. In this tumulus,
which was of very slight elevation, and, like most of the others, much levelled by agricultural
operations, an undistm'bed interment was found. This consisted of a male skeleton, at a depth
of httle more than two feet, in an oval cist in the chalk, in the usual contracted position with
the head to the north, laid on the left side and somewhat on the face, which was directed
towards the east. Close to the upper part of the skeleton was part of the skull and two or three
bones of the fore-leg of a young pig or boar. No other objects were foimd. The presence of
bones of the swine seems to prove that this barrow belonged to the same period and people with
the rest of the group; in one of the richest of which, as has been shown, the skulls of two boars
were met with; in both cases, perhaps, these bones are indicative of sacrificial rites. The
skeleton was in a state of remarkable preservation, and the skull so perfect that hardly a bony
process, however delicate, was wanting. The two thigh-bones measured each 19 inches, the
tibia 15, the humerus 13, the ulna lOf inches in length.
The skull, in the possession of the ivriter, of which both profile and base views, of the full
size, are given, is that of a man about twenty-five or thirty years of age. As in many other
British examples, this cranium is of great thickness and density; in this respect approaching
a characteristic of many Negro skulls. The skuU and lower jaw together weigh 37 ozs.
Av.;—the weight of two Negro crania, remarkable for their thickness, obtained from the
dissecting-room, vrithin the present centm-y, and preserved in the Smith collection, in the
museum of the Bristol Infirmary, being in each instance 42 ozs.* The general form is that
distinctive of the ancient British skull; though, from an imusual degree of narrowness of the
calvarium and face, it less obviously belongs to the brachycephalic class than usual. The frontal
region is narrow, but neither receding nor low; the parietal region in the situation of the tubers
somewhat broad and full; the occipital region generally full, and with a strongly marked
protuberance and spine. The temporal region on both sides is large and imusuaUy flat; the
squamous processes of the temporal bone small; the mastoid frill, but not large : the auditory
foramina are nearly in the centre of the skull. The superciliary ridges are prominent, swelled
out by the frontal siimses, and considerably overhang the nose. The nasal bones, small and
narrow, are less abruptly prominent than is frequently the case in ancient British crania. The
» One of these skulls is that of Philip Bernard, whose parents were both slaves, brought to Cuba from the coast of
Africa. The skull (the pecuhar Negro formation of which is very strongly marked) is figured, in two views, in Dr. Prichard's
" Researches," &c., vol. i. pp. xvii, 290.
6, 7.
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