CHAP. XXI.-Numismaticks..... 1. Ancient Era.-General Particulars relative to Coins, alphabetically arranged PAGE. ..879 881 .897 2. Modern Æra, so far as concerns England, general Particulars, alphabetically arranged 900 ..903 Historical Account of British, Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and English Coins... ....906 ...907 ADDITIONS and EMENDATIONS .918 *** PAGE. 489 *This Plate to be placed as a Frontispiece to the Title of Vol. II. 499 24. Twenty-five Specimens of Greek and Etruscan Furniture and Costume 26. Pilgrims and Palmers. 27. Ancient Sculpture, representing the Vernicle, or Face of Christ. 28. Thirty-one Specimens of Armour and Arms.. 29. Sixteen Monumental Effigies, representing Suits of Armour at different periods. 30. Military Engines and Fire Arms.. 31. Twenty-three Specimens of Egyptian, Grecian, and Roman Costume... 32. Twenty-one Specimens of British, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English Costume. 34. Six Specimens of Monastick Costume... 546 .602 .... A square Roman Camp, the CONSULAR Form, according to Lipsius. See p. 500. CHAPTER XI. EARTHWORKS-FORTRESSES-RUDE STONEWORKS. army, city, or other a helmet of earth. VOL. II. N that valuable and truly-national Work, "The Sepulchral Monuments of Great Britain," Mr. Gough observes, that BARROWS are the most ancient monuments in the world. They were both tombs and altars. For the latter, says Dr. Clarke (i. 412), in low, flat countries, they raised artificial ascents. Of the kinds in order. Barrows of the Cyclopean and Heroic Ages. The chief distinction of these Barrows seems to have been immense stones at the base in the Cyclopean style; the rest consisting of earth or stones in the manner of cairns, every person in the place, bringing one, as the Roman soldiers afterwards brought each Such are the Altyn Obo, called the tomb of Mithridates, the pre B sumed barrows of Ajax and Patroclus, and that of Alyattes, father of Croesus, described by Herodotus and Strabo1. According to the fashion of the latter, the stones formed a basement, which was at first visible, the mound of earth being put at top 2. Scythian, or Tartar Barrows. There are immense numbers in Kuban Tartary, all sepulchral, and at once in view. Rennel describes them as perfect tumuli, raised enormously high; some with a square wall around them of large quarry-stones, &c. In particular instances the earth is excavated several fathoms deep; in others only dug to a sufficient depth for covering the body. They contained gold and silver utensils; skeletons of horses; bones of men; many bodies deposited in the same grave; weapons and implements of war; domestick utensils, images, and idols; wood, canes, and fishbones, all burnt; grains of the millet kind; and small silver vessels, with handles in the form of a snake's head. No coin of any sort has been discovered in their tumuli 3. Greek Barrows. It was the custom of the Greeks, says Dr. Clarke, derived from their ancestors, to raise a mound of this kind upon every spot signalized for the theatre of any important events. Every memorable field of battle throughout Greece has a tumulus, or polyandrium, of this kind; but the same custom does not appear to have existed among the Romans in Italy, where there are no other tumuli than the barrows of the Celts, which are common to all Europe and Asia. Chandler says, it was customary among the Greeks to place in barrows either the image of some animal, or stele, commonly round pillars with inscriptions. The barrow called of Antiopè, on the road from Athens to Phalerus, contained only ashes, charcoal, and a vase of glazed white, which had some rude figures drawn in red outlines. The bad execution of the vase shows the antiquity of this barrow. The vase was to supply the thirst of the defunct, of which before4, p. 66. Roman Barrows. The Romans in general buried in mausolea. Barrows with them seem to have been extraordinary memorials of honour, sometimes mere cenotaphs, or tumuli honorarii. Such was the cenotaph of Hector, in Virgil, expressly said to have been a barrow, "viridi cespite inanem." In real interments the size denoted the eminence of the character. It should seem that among them barrow burial was wholly (or almost so) a military practice; unless the mound was merely the basement of a tomb 5. Annual games, or ceremonies, were celebrated at these barrows. Several barrows in England are mere cenotaphs 6. The observations of Mr. Gough concerning Roman barrows are entirely superseded by the subsequent discoveries of Sir Richard Colt Hoare. British Barrows. Mr. King's observation, that almost all the barrows in this kingdom They answer to the plan and description of Homer. Sir W. Gell's Troy, Pl. 21, p. 65; and Morrit's Vindication of Homer, pp. 102, 104. The capital of a column, somewhat like an Anglo-Saxon capital, was found in the hill Enneos (Gell's Troy, 106). As a similar one was found at Mycena (Gell's Argolis, pl. 7), no doubt can be entertained of the actual existence of Troy. 2 Herod. Clio. i. § 93, p. 40, ed. Gale. Morrit's Vindic. of Homer, 105. Clarke, ii. 112, seq. Hom. II. xxiii. Chandler's Asia Min. 253, 264. Archæolog. ii. 225. 4 Clarke, 5 Vopiscus says, "Quia 3 Rennel's Herodot. 110. Clarke, ii. 15. Montfauc. Suppl. V. p. 570. vii. 419. Chandl. As. Min. 253-264. Morrit's Vindic. of Homer, 107. fortissimum ac pertinacissimum virum viderat, sepulcro ingenti honoravit; quod adhuc exstat tumulo usque ad ducentos pedes terræ lato. Hist. Aug. ii. 291, in Probo. Postea tamen ingens ei sepulcrum elatis aggeribus, omnes pariter milites fecerunt. Id. 294. The passage of Catullus hereafter quoted seems to point to barrow burial for females. Girald. de Sepulchr. ap. Boissard, Pars vi. 19. Hoare's Anc. Wilts, 1.116. are British, is a very proper preface to the following matter 1. The Long Barrow (see Plate, figs, 1, 12), from its singular form and superior size, claims the first notice. These barrows differ considerably in their structure as well as dimensions. Some of them resemble half an egg, cut lengthwise, the: convex side uppermost; some are almost of a triangular form; whilst others are thrown up in a long ridge of a nearly equal breadth at each end; but we find more generally one end of these barrows broader than the other, and that broad end pointing towards the East. We also more frequently see them placed on elevated situations, and standing singly; though in some of the groups of barrows near Stonehenge we have one long barrow introduced amongst the others. They differ very materially from the circular barrows in their contents; for we have never discovered any brass weapons or trinkets interred with the dead, nor the primary interment deposited within the funeral urn. With a very few exceptions, we have always found skeletons on the floor of the barrow, and at the broad end, lying in a confused and irregular manner, and near one or more circular cists cut in the native chalk, and generally covered with a pile of stones or flints. In other parts of the tumulus we have discovered stags' horns, fragments of the rudest British pottery, and interments of burnt bones near the top. These indicia attest the high antiquity of the long barrows. Sir Richard farther adds, that the long barrows are generally ditched on the two long sides; that the interments are generally confined to the broad end of the tumulus; that the cist, near which the skeletons are mostly found, is ́another peculiarity which we cannot account for, and denotes some particular ceremony that was practised in these tumuli; that other barrows display variety in their external design and natural deposits, while the Long Barrows are uniform in their construction and uninteresting in their contents; that one Long Barrow, contrary to custom, was inclosed by a circular ditch, and another set round with stones; that a third with kistvaens, though it pointed North and South, had still the kistvaen placed towards the East; and, lastly, that it answered to a modern church-yard, or village burial-place 2. 2. Bowl Barrow. (See fig. 2.) The most common form, with or without a slight ditch. One, Sir Richard Hoare says, was a family mausoleum. These barrows are known by depressions on the top3. 3. Bell Barrow (see fig. 3), moulded with much accuracy, Sir Richard supposes a refinement on the Bowl Barrow. [Perhaps it is only a new top put upon a Bowl Barrow, for a fresh interment. Mr. Gough says, that campaniform barrows, and in clusters, are Anglo-Saxon; and those at Ashdon certainly are so 5.] 4. Druid Barrows (a strange misnomer of Dr. Stukeley), Sir Richard supposes to have been devoted to females. The outward vallum of the ditch within, in the class fig. 4, is most beautifully moulded. In the area we sometimes see one, two, or-three mounds, which in most instances have been found to contain diminutive articles, such as small cups, small lance-heads, amber, jet, and glass-beads, but very rarely sepulchral urns. The shape of this barrow, he adds, surpasses in elegance of workmanship any of the other barrows, and the construction differs very materially 6. The number within one area seem to denote a family burial-place. The remains, (the amber, jet, &c. being deemed amulets), and the small lance-heads, small cups, &c. 1 Munim. Antiq. I. 267, 286, 325, 338. Anc. Wilts, Introd. and i..78, 125. Wilts, i. Intr. p. 174; ii. 110. 2 Anc. Wilts, i. Introd. 20, p. 89, 93, 191. ii .43, 47, 110. 4 Id. Introd. 5 Sep. Mon. Intr. ii. 40. 6 Anc. seem rather to imply children than females, because the lance-heads do not appertain to that sex. According to Catullus, the Cone Barrow should rather appertain to females 1. 5. Druid Barrow, second Class (see fig. 5). Circumference in general not so large as the last tumulus, rising gradually from the edge to the vallum. 6. Pond Barrow (see fig. 6). Circular, formed with the greatest exactness; area level. "We have," says Sir Richard, "dug into several, but have never discovered any pottery, or sepulchral remains; though I have heard that an interment of burnt bones was found within the area of one of them on Lake Downs." [It may be doubted whether these are correctly called barrows; whether, in fact, they are not Druidical tribunals (see GORSEDDAU), or the ground-plots of sacred groves; or, as they occur in clusters of four or five together, whether they are not the foundations of roomy British houses.] 7. Twin Barrow (see fig. 7). Sir Richard says, "They are not very common; and by their being inclosed within the same circle seem to denote the interments of two people nearly connected by the endearing ties of friendship or consanguinity." [The circle was probably for the Deasuil, or walking three times round the barrow, a Druidical practice, retained by the Irish in regard to churches; and therefore religious rites were probably performed at these barrows.] 8. Cone Barrow (see fig. 8). Sir Richard says that it is the only one of the sort he has ever seen. The tumulus rises immediately from the ditch, and the apex is higher and more pointed." [Upon this an illustration has been offered (see Art. 4; and note below) far from conclusive, but a hint of moment, in case remains hereafter discovered should support it, but not without.] 9. Broad Barrow (see fig. 9), considerably flatter and broader at the top than Bowl Barrows. [From what Virgil says of games celebrated at the barrow of Anchises, the annual sports at Shipley Hill, and Capel Tump in Herefordshire, the motive for a flat top may have been adaptation to the purpose. 10. Druid Barrow (see fig. 10). Sir Richard says, that it is very singular, and differs materially from any tumulus he had yet seen; the outward vallum being much higher. 11. Is another barrow, adjoining the former, with an area perfectly flat, and rising beautifully from the vallum. (See fig. 11.) [The question is, was this not a place for celebrating the annual sports, or, if not, was it a barrow at all?] The following positions of Sir Richard are luminous and excellent: 1. That the most ancient form, "from Jacob's gathering up his feet into the bed" at his dissolution, was the deposit of the body within a cist, with the legs and knees drawn up, and the head placed towards the North. 2. The second mode was as to the entire body, prostration of it, the heads placed at random in various directions, and instruments of iron accompanying them. This mode was the latest adoption. 3. The custom of cremation was contemporary with the most ancient form. "Two modes,” says Sir Richard, "seem to have been adopted at first, the body was burnt, and the ashes and bones collected and deposited on the floor of the barrow, or in a cist excavated in the native chalk. This being the most simple was probably the primitive custom practised by the Ancient Britons. The funeral urn, in which the ashes of the 'Cum teres [some copies read terræ] excelso coacervatum aggere bustum.-Excipiet nivcos perculsæ virginis artus. Argonaut. p. 63. ed. Bas. 1592. |