r
m
l i f i if
ANCIENT BRITISH SKULL.
FROM CAEDEGAI BAREOW, PLA8 HEATON, DENBIGHSHIRE.
(EEGION OF THE OHDOVICBS, TEMP. PTOLEMIEI, A.D. 120.)
Cranium from Caedegai Barrow.—Quarter-size.
IN the month of September 1851, Mr. W. Wyrnie Efoiilies explored a large mound situated in a
field called « Caedegai," forming part of the domam of Plas Heaton, near Denbigh. It measured
53 feet in diameter, was about V feet above the level of the surrounding surface, and had some
large aged tx-ees growing upon it. " I t was placed upon a node of limestone rock, which cropped
up to the siu'face, and was itself almost wholly composed of stone cut from the rock." During
the examination of this great cah-n or barrow, hy means of a trench cut across it in a dii-ection
nearly north and south, many interments were brought to light. In the centre of the trench,
and about 2 feet below the apex of the harrow, the bones of a large ruminant were met with'
which Prof. Quekett has referred to the Bos longifron^. At the southern extremity and on the
eastern side of the trench, within a foot of the sui-face, a deposit of burnt bones occurred, and
the fragments of an urn, in which, no doubt, they had been contained. This cinerary ui-n, which
has its Hp beveled outwards, and two rows of dots on the inner surface of the bevel, is ornamented
with rows of dots at intervals, made hy the end of a stick or some similar tool, and lines
m chevron made in a like manner, not with a twisted thong. It has been an urn of large size,
and, although belongmg to a secondary interment, is unmistakeably of the primeval period. On
excavating lower, immediately beneath the apex of the mound, two skeletons were met with
arranged back to back, somewhat in the form of a cross, with their limbs contracted, and resting
(I)
i I
1
Hi;
I
r
iitii •