Round Barrows Research Articles

Windmill Hill, Avebury, and Grime's Graves

Mr. H. St. Geo. Gray's excavations at Avebury under the auspices of a Committee of the British Association, have shown that the famous vallum, fosse, and circle had their origin at the end of the Neolithic or beginning of the Bronze Age.One mile N.W. of Avebury stands Windmill Hill. It may well have been to Avebury what the civil town of Old Sarum and its fortifications were to the clergy and the cathedral. The summit is surrounded by the remains of a rampart, which, however, may not truly deserve that title. For along most of its length it has the appearance of a bank only, supporting the flat platform of the hill top. A trench, recently made in connection with a water supply, failed to disclose any trace of a ditch below the bank at that spot. This, it is true, was overlooking the steeper side of the hill. There were probably other defensive banks on the lower slopes of the hill. Many round barrows stand upon the hill, some within, but most without the camp. Not far from the hill, at Winterbourne Monkton, stood a long barrow, destroyed, alas, some years ago, by a farmer.

The Bronze-Age Invaders of Britain 1

SOMEWHERE about the year 2000 B.C., when the peoples of Western Europe were beginning to learn the uses of bronze and to alter the style of their pottery, a race of invaders began to reach our shores who were totally different from any race which had lived in Britain before that time. The ancient British, although of various strains, were all of them of the long-headed type; they had projecting occiputs; their heads appeared as if compressed from side to side. But those Bronze age invaders had rounded heads, with flat occiputs; their heads had the appearance of having been compressed from back to front. European anthropologists name this round-head type of man “Celtic”; they regard him as an offshoot from the racial type which now attains its greatest purity in the mountainous countries of Central Europe—the “Alpine” type of race. We may take the Bavarian or Savoyard as good modern representatives of the ancient Celtic or Alpine type. They are usually men of short stature, with dark hair and skins, with short and wide faces, regularly modelled features, and rounded heads. The men who invaded England early in the Bronze age and buried their dead in round barrows, were of a different build of body; they were strong, tall, and muscular; they had long faces, rugged features, prominent noses, over-hanging eyebrow ridges; we have reason to believe they were fair in hair and complexion. Although these early invaders of Britain had the “Alpine” form of head, it is nca among the modern inhabitants of Savoy or of Bavaria that we can hope to find their ancestral stock. We are all agreed that they were continental in origin. Those who have studied our Bronze-age invaders—who have investigated their physical characters, their methods of burial, their domestic animals, their pottery, their weapons and ornaments, are almost unanimously of opinion that we must seek their ancestral home somewhere in that part of Europe which now lies within the bounds of the German Empire. Every year our knowledge of Europe during pre-Roman times becomes more exact, and I propose, once again, in the light of more recent discoveries, and particularly from the point of view of one who is a student of the human body, to seek for the origin of our round-headed ancestry. We shall find that this early invasion of England was but a side eddy of a racial movement which affected almost the whole population of Europe.

Further Observations on the Howe Tumulus

I trust that a few additional remarks on the facts recorded in the former description of this barrow may be of some interest, and may help to further illustrate the history of this important barrow. Referring to Dr. Garson’s descriptions of the skeletons it will be observed, probably with some surprise, that he had met with no female bones, the eight adult specimens all belonging to males. The height of the tallest he calculated to have been about 6 feet 3 inches, and the shortest about 5 feet 1 1/4 inches. It will also be noticed that their average height and cranial measurements correspond very closely with those usually found in long barrow interments, and are very different in type from other round barrow specimens with which Dr. Garson has compared them. But according to the prevalent theory the round barrows were raised by a round skulled race, and the long barrows by men with long skulls. A theory which is decidedly negatived by the evidence obtained from this round barrow, and also from numerous other examples which have come under my observation. It is to be regretted Dr. Garson has omitted giving the approximate ages of the eight adults. From my own examination of the teeth at the time when I was engaged in repairing the crania, I was led to believe the ages of the adults varied from 18 to 70, or even more, whilst those of the children extended down to the period of infancy. From this ...

1. Pyramidal Structures in Egypt and elsewhere; and the Objects of their Erection

After considering the many proposed derivations of the word Pyramid, it was pointed out that the origin of the name suggested by the distinguished Egyptologist, Mr Birch, from two Coptic words, “pouro” “the king,” and “emahau” or “maha,” “tomb,”—the two in combination signifying “the king's tomb,”—was probably correct. “Men,” in Coptic, signifies “monument,” “memorial;” and “pouro-men” or “king's monument” may possibly also be the original form of the word. Various authors, as Pope, Pownall, Daniel Wilson, Burton, had long applied the term pyramid to the larger forms of conical and round sepulchral mounds, cairns, or barrows—such as are found in Ireland, Brittany, Orkney, &c., and in numerous districts of the New World as well as the Old; and which are all characterised by containing in their interior, chambers or cells, constructed usually of large stones, and with megalithic galleries leading into them.