Midland Naturalist/Volume 01/Review (British Barrows)

by Rooke Pennington

Reviews.

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British Barrows; a Record of the Examination of Sepulchral Mounds in various parts of England. By Wm. Greenwell, M.A. F.S.E. London: Macmillan and Co. Price £1 5s.

Canon Greenwell's "British Barrows" is not only the most important contribution to Archæology which 1877 produced; it is one of the most accurate and philosophic works which have yet appeared on the pre-historic branch of the science. We use the term "pre-historic" in that convenient, if rather loose sense, which applies it to the times after the Palæolithic age, and before the dawn of history. No single book has added so much to our knowledge of the Neolithic and Bronze periods. As a record of actual exploration it has few equals, as a comment on discoveries it has hardly a rival. The introduction is a compendious statement of what is known and what can be inferred respecting the unrecorded past. Many of the older books on Archæology are so obscured by fanciful or traditionary notions that the facets they contain lose much of their value. An antiquary who started on his explorations expecting to disentomb an Ophite temple, a Druidical altar, or a monument of King Arthur, unconsciously distorts his discoveries to fit in with his expectations, Other archæologists, avoiding the Scylla of fancy, have fallen into the Charybdis of bald fact. Messrs. Bateman and Carrington, for instance, aspired no higher than writing a journal of harrow-opening, and though "Ten Years' Diggings" and the "Vestiges of the Antiquities of Derbyshire" are most useful storehouses of information, it is manifest that many little matters of importance either escaped notice, or were unrecorded through their avowed disregard for any theory. Canon Greenwell's review of facts, and the deductions from them, written as it is with a knowledge of most that has been done by others, is both a key to his own work and a fairly complete epitome of the science.

The plan of the book is as follows:—First there is an "introduction" which contains the general review of fact and theory we have just referred to. Next is an account of the author's own work, the thorough examination of 234 tumuli or burial mounds. Nearly three-fourths of these (the actual number is 162) are or were in Yorkshire, the East Riding containing the great majority. The remainder belong to the counties of Cumberland, Westmoreland, Northumberland, Durham, and Gloucester. The concluding pages are occupied by Professor Rolleston's description of the skulls and his observations on them, with an appendix on the pre-historic fauna and flora.

The introduction and the appendix are not the least valuable parts of the book. We have already stated the high estimation in which the former must be held. But of course all the conclusions of the authors will not meet with general acceptance. Now and then an imperfect acquaintance with well-known facts is disclosed, "British Barrows" does not profess to be a fill account of pre-historic Archæology. The complete text-book of the science has yet to he written. As an instance of oversight, one case will suffice. Every practical barrow-digger knows that the ordinary "rat" of the tumuli is the Avicola amphibia, and will feel surprise that Prof. Rolleston seems to consider the fact a discovery. This little creature is so constant a member of the barrow-fauna that it has been said by one of our greatest practical archæologists to be the invariable comrade of the human tenants of the tumuli. Again, in the majority of cases, the water-rats' bones were certainly not carried into mounds by a pole-cat, as Prof. Rolleston supposes. Their calvariæ are usually intact, and there can be no doubt that the animals lived and died amidst the loose stones of the cam. Their abundant presence is a strong testimony to the humidity of the climate in ancient times. But such a shortcoming as this is after all insignificant, and the mention of it as a fault will show how few grave errors are to be found in the book.

Turning to weightier matters we cannot altogether concur in the doubt Canon Greenwell expresses as to whether any of the round barrows are of the Neolithic period. The long barrows have been almost universally attributed to this era, and the author's conclusion as to his own work, (including fourteen of these mounds.) and the work of others, is that these tumuli belong to a time antecedent to a knowledge of metal. The round harrows, however, be seems at the outset to class as all belonging to the Bronze period ; though he afterwards qualifies this view, and, indeed, almost commits himself to the opposite opinion. There can, we think, be but little doubt that a Neolithic period existed in Britain, just as it certainly did in Denmark and Switzerland. And we strongly incline to Canon Greenwell's maturer conclusion that many of the ordinary bowl-shaped mounds belong to it. Apart from all other indications. the comparatively brief endurance of the Bronze age and the great number of the round barrows lead one to conclude that these tumuli could not all have been piled up in so short a time. A period estimated as lasting for only 700 years could hardly have witnessed the accumulation of nineteen out of twenty of the pre-historic cairns.

Canon Greenwell confirms the opinion that no differences of custom can he traced between the people of the Bronze age and those of the Neolithic age. His Yorkshire evidence agrees with the result of the Derbyshire explorations, viz., that there is no reason for supposing that the practice of cremation was a funeral rite distinctive of the Bronze period. Inhumation was equally in vogue. All the evidence goes to show that the general adoption in any particular district of one custom or the other was either a tribal peculiarity, or a superstitious ceremony, oy (perhaps more probably) the result of circumstances. Inhumation was the rule on the Wolds, where a tree is now a rarity, and wood must have always been scarce. Cremation was generally practiced in Cleveland, where the different nature of the soil would admit of the growth of timber. It cannot be said of course that the adoption of cremation was wholly dependent on abundance of fuel, but it was probably one of the determining circumstances, Indeed, each addition to our knowledge seems to show that in very early times races and customs were mixed, and that social improvement took place amongst peacefully mingling races, rather than from conquering invaders. Not that there was peace in the land: tribe fought with tribe, and many a hill-fort now-a-days marks the scene of desperate conflicts of old, But modern research has destroyed the notion that such a momentous change as the introduction of metal was brought about by an exterminating swoop of a foreign and superior race.

Canon Greenwell makes it clearer than ever that natural conditions will account for many divergences of habit. In Derbyshire, where stone is abundant, nearly every interment is protected by a cist, a rude clamber constructed of rough stone slabs. On the Yorkshire Wolds, where such slabs must have been brought from a distance, cists are almost entirely wanting. The greater frequency of bronze in the southern counties is doubtless due to the opportunity of dealing with the Phoenician traders, though on the other land, and curiously enough, the Wold dwellers seem to have boon poorer in jet and amber decorations than many of the inland tribes.

The exact significance of depositing articles of value with the dead is not advanced towards certainty by Canon Greenwell's book. The difficulty is that the custom existed, but by no means to a sufficient extent to equip the deceased for the supposed requirements of the future life. The gift to the departed must be looked upon as symbolical, rather than as intended for actual use, and this view seems borne out by the practice of placing vessels, which doubtless contained food, with the ashes of those whose bodies had been burnt. Everything points to the observance having a superstitious origin, The traditional veneration for Stone, once the material of the most highly-prized weapons, long outlasted the uses of flint and quartzite. Flint flakes are found in Roman tombs. Even in the middle ages a person outside the Christian pale was buried with pagan rites, in observing which flints and pebbles were cast into the grave, Canon Greenwell quotes the priest's speech from "Hamlet," to which Mr. Carrington called attention in "Ten Years' Diggings," where, speaking of Ophelia's buried, he refers to this remnant of pre-historic customs.

We regret that space prevents our making our readers better acquainted with this interesting book. Its style is good, its descriptions vivacious. It is with regret we leave it, hoping that our observations on it may lead to its being carefully studied. The accuracy of general results, (which are all that can be discussed within the scope of a short review,) can only be tested by examining the accounts of actual work. These, which for in the bulk of Canon Greenwell's volume, will be found models of care, both in barrow opening and in note making. We may add that the book is illustrated by some capital woodcuts of the pottery and implements, &c., unearthed.

Rooke Pennington.

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