IV. I commenced operations on a large series of barrows placed upon the edge of the chalk range and overlooking the valley of the Derwent, by opening one on West Heslerton Wold. It was 42 ft. in diameter, and still, though somewhat ploughed down, 3 ft. high, and was composed of chalk-rubble above and plain earth below. At the centre was an oval grave, having a direction north-west by south-east, 3 ft. 2 in. long by 2 ft. 4 in. wide, and sunk 1.5 ft. into the chalk rock. At the bottom of the grave was the body of a young child, about two and a half years old, laid on the right side, and with the head to N.W.

(It is not very uncommon to find that the primary interment in a barrow has been of a child, sometimes of very tender years. I have met with it myself at Ford, Northumberland [No. clxxxvii] and at Rudstone [No. lxvii], under a very large grave mound. Other explorers have met with the same occurrence. In a cist at the centre of the barrow, and no doubt the primary interment, was the skeleton of a child, apparently about ten years of age; above this was a drinking cup.' Bateman, Vestiges, p. 52. In a grave, 5 ft. deep, at the centre of a large barrow, was the skeleton of a child, apparently not more than two or three years old, accompanied by a drinking cup.' Hoare. Ancient Wilts, vol. 1. p. 210.)

In front of the knees was placed a large quantity of round dark objects, apparently the seed of some plant, bearing indeed a strong resemblance to the fruit of the juniper (Similar deposits have occurred elsewhere. In a cist at Terrachie, near Stonehaven, with a contracted body, were "not fewer than 150 small black balls, which, on examination, proved to be vegetable, and were most probably acorns." Proc. Soc. of Ant. of Scotland, vol. i. p.140.) Just above the grave two ox-teeth were met with. On the north side of the barrow were portions of two adult femurs, which may have belonged to a body that bad been disturbed when a partial opening, of which very evident signs were found, had been made many years before. In the barrow was a very well made long, flint scraper.

V. About 300 yards to the east of the last barrow was another, oval in shape, and having a direction north-north-east by south-south-west, 83 ft. long, 67 ft. wide, and 2.5 ft. high. It was formed principally of earth, but with some admixture of chalk, especially at the south end. The mound contained a single burial, deposited in a grave at the centre. This grave was oval, running east and west, 8 ft. by 4.5 ft., and 3 ft. deep. It was filled in with chalk. On the bottom at the east end was the body of a man in the middle period of life, laid upon the left side, with the head to E.S.E., the right hand across the chest, the left up to the chin. In front of the face was a ‘food vessel,' still containing some dark-coloured matter, the remains, there can be no doubt, of what had been placed in it at the time of burial. Below the body, and extending beyond it on either side for a short space, was a thin seam of a dark substance, having very much the appearance of decayed leather. This was probably all that was left of what had been the buried man's dress; who if not interred in his garment of skin, may have been first wrapped in a hide, of which this was the remains. (The occurrence of leather or hide with ancient interments is not unfrequent. Some instances will be found recorded in the Introduction, pp. 31, 32.)
 

The ‘food vessel' [fig. 70] is 4.75 in. high, 6 in. wide at the mouth, and 2.75 in. at the bottom, and has nine perforated ears at the shoulder. It is covered, for a space of 3.5 in. from the top, with short lines in bands encircling the vessel, and arranged herring-bone wise. The ears have similar lines upon them, but arranged vertically, and the inside of the rim is ornamented in the same way as the body of the vessel; at the bottom a row of short vertical lines encompasses it. The lines have been made by a sharp-pointed tool drawn on the moist clay towards the workman. Sixteen feet west of the centre, and 11 ft. above the natural surface, was found the bottom and some other portions of a vessel of pottery, but there was no appearance of a body having ever been buried at the place. Throughout the whole of the mound, and upon the natural surface also, were pieces of charcoal; and here and there, in the material of the barrow, were chippings of flint. There were also met with a few broken animal bones (the bones are of ox (bos longifrons), and of pig (sus scrofa domesticus)), some potsherds, about the half of a round jet bead, 0.875 in. in diameter, having the perforation drilled from each side, several flint scrapers, and two saws, one of them most regularly and delicately serrated, and showing in the glazing upon the teeth that it had been long in use.

VI. About a quarter of a mile east of the barrow just noticed was another, which on examination presented some singular features. It is at no great distance from a long barrow, which was partly removed prior to the year 1868, and entirely destroyed in that year, when several characteristics very similar to those of a long barrow which I examined on Willerby Wold were disclosed.

The round barrow was 70 ft. in diameter, 3.25 ft. high, and was made up of earth and broken flint. On the east side of the mound was a very remarkable trench sunk into the chalk rock. It commenced at a point 25 ft. east-by-south from the centre, and extended for 16 ft. in a north-east direction. At the south-west end (where it had a kind of offset or extension towards the south-west, 3 ft. long, 2 ft. wide, and 2 ft. deep) it was 5.75 ft. deep, 3 ft. wide at the top, and 1.75 ft. at the bottom. Towards the north-east end it became gradually shallower and narrower, diminishing to 2 ft. in depth and 1 ft. in width, widening again however and deepening at its extremity into a hole 2 ft. wide and 4 ft. deep. Midway along the line of this trench was a row of large blocks of flint, lying close together and 1 ft. above the bottom, having underneath them a considerable number of potsherds. The whole of the trench was filled with burnt earth, burnt chalk, and charcoal. The fire had been applied however to this material before it had been placed in the trench, for there was not the slightest trace of burning on the sides of the trench, although the heat to which the burnt chalk and earth had been subjected had evidently been very intense. Throughout the trench, but especially (as just noticed) beneath the flints, wore many broken pieces of pottery, principally of a dark-coloured ware, and certainly the fragments of domestic utensils. Amongst these were the broken portions of one vessel in particular, in sufficient number to allow of its being re-constructed; the several pieces were not lying together, but were dispersed throughout the greater part of the trench.

This vessel (fig. 91) is hand-made, with a rounded bottom, 5 in. high, and 10 in. wide at the mouth; the lip or rim turns over. It is of a palish-brown colour, and the paste is remarkably fine and without any admixture of broken stone:; and in point of density it is so light as to rival in that respect the best Greek pottery. 1 have never met with anything quite like it, in shape, colour, or paste.

Mr. Tindall, of Bridlington, who from his knowledge of clay, as a pipe-maker, is competent to speak on the subject, tells me that there is a clay at Speeton which produces a paste like this, and that he knows of no other clay in the district which would make such a ware. I should however be inclined to think that the clay had been obtained nearer to the barrow than Speeton. At the south-west end of the trench and on its west side, was a sort of extension of it, of an apsidal form towards the west, 6 ft. long, 6 ft. wide, and 8 in. deep; this was filled with burnt earth and charcoal, which indeed rose above the natural surface as high as the present surface of the barrow, and was coextensive with the hollow. There were no potsherds in it, and, as in the case of the trench, the burning did not appear to have taken place on the spot. On the south side of the hollow lay a log of partially burnt oak wood, 3 ft. long and 8 in. square. Another hole occurred 16 ft. east-by-south from the centre. It was oval, 2 ft. long from north to south by 1 ft. broad, and 1.75 ft. deep. The filling-in was burnt earth, having amongst it a very few burnt bones, apparently animal. At a point 12 ft. north-west of the centre, and 1.5 ft. above the surface, there was a large quantity of pieces of dark-coloured plain pottery, the remains of several vessels, all of them probably domestic. Fifteen feet west-by-north of the centre, and a little above the natural surface, lay a ‘drinking cup,' much broken by the pressure of the earth and badly decayed. There was nothing to suggest that a body had ever been buried at the spot; as from the nature of the soil it might have been expected that some at least of the bones would have been found if ever a body had been laid there. It is of course possible that the vase may have been placed in the mound in connection with the central and sole interment found in it, though the occurrence is very unusual. I have however met with other instances in which a vessel has been placed in the barrow apart from a body, as in one on Ganton Wold and in another at Cowlam. At the centre was the body of a young person laid on the left side, the head to W. by N. The bones were very much decayed. The body had been placed on the level of the natural surface, but the been removed below it to a depth of 1.5 ft., the hollow thus produced having been filled in with stiff clayey soil. In the barrow were several chippings, and a knife-shaped implement of flint with a curved edge, carefully chipped along both back and front.

The trench, with its filling-in of burnt earth and chalk, its potsherds and charcoal, presents a very interesting subject for speculation. It will be seen from the description of many of the barrows noticed in this volume, that enigmatical holes, usually filled with earth and stone that have not been burnt, are of frequent occurrence, but trenches or holes filled up with burnt matter are by no means so common, though occasionally met with. Deposits of burnt earth &c. upon the natural surface, together with fragments of domestic pottery and bones of animals, have been found in some of the Wold barrows; and these probably originated in the self-same funeral practice as gave rise to the trench in the barrow lately under notice. Were they connected with a feast held at the burial, or on later commemorative occasions? May the broken vessels and animal bones be regarded as favouring such a view?

End of extract

Please note that the text is a direct quote from Greenwell's book, apart from the decimal points in the measurements, which were entered by the Heslerton Parish Project team. This is because the original fractions of feet and inches were not recognised by the HTML converter. The footnotes have been placed in brackets and moved to the relevant places in the text for ease of reading. Also, the figures have been scanned and placed into the relevant places in the text, rather than occurring in Greenwell's description of vessels at the beginning of his book.