Archaeological Intelligence.
PRIMEVAL PERIOD.
For the following description of a remarkable tumulus near Badbury camp, Dorset, we are indebted to Mr. John H. Austen, of Ensbury, Local Secretary of the Institute in that county.
"On Nov. 1, 1845, I accidentally ascertained that a barrow situated about five miles from Wimborne, Dorset, upon the road leading to Blandford, and in the immediate neighbourhood of Badbury camp, was in progress of being levelled. The circumstance which chiefly attracted my notice was the vast quantities of large sandstones and flints which had been taken from it. Unfortunately nearly two-thirds of the tumulus were already removed. From the remainder, however, I have obtained a tolerably accurate idea of its interior arrangement, which, with perhaps the exception of the 'Deverill barrow,' opened by W. Miles, Esq., in 1825, is more highly interesting than any yet examined. The labourer employed could give me but little information respecting the part already destroyed, further than that he had thrown up many pieces of pottery, and found one urn in a perfect state, but in removal he had broken it; sufficient however remained to enable me to ascertain its form and dimensions.
It measured 8 inches in height, 634inches at the mouth, and at the bottom 312 inches. The colour of the outer side was more red than is usual, and within it had a black hard ash adhering to the side. It was inverted, and contained only a few white ashes. It was ornamented with lines of from nine to fourteen fine pricked dots, as if made with a portion of a small tooth comb. Such an instrument was discovered a few years since by some workmen, whilst lowering a hill midway betwixt Badbury camp and the village of Shapwicke, having at one end a small circular hole, and at the other eight short teeth like those of a comb. It was four inches long and one inch wide, and was part of the rib of a deer[1]. The barrow was circular, measuring about eighty yards in circumference, the diameter sixty-two feet, and the height nine feet; it had however been considerably reduced by the plough. Upon
- ↑ Several combs of this description have been found in Great Britain, with remains of the primeval age. A representation of one may be seen in the Archæologia Scotica. Two, found at the Castle-hill, Thetford, were communicated by Dr. Stukeley to the Society of Antiquaries. They appeared to be formed of the bone of a horse. Another, found within the remarkable entrenchments at Stanwick, Yorkshire, has been deposited by Lord Prudhoe at the British Museum. The conjecture that these implements had served for the impression of ornaments on the rude fictile vessels of the earliest period does not appear to have been previously stated, and may deserve attention.
