Report of excavation of a twin-barrow, and a single round barrow at Sigwell (Six Wells), parish of Compton, Somerset / by Prof. Rolleston and A. Lane Fox ; with an appendix on the topography of Sigwell.

  • Rolleston, George, 1829-1881.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of excavation of a twin-barrow, and a single round barrow at Sigwell (Six Wells), parish of Compton, Somerset / by Prof. Rolleston and A. Lane Fox ; with an appendix on the topography of Sigwell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [Reprinted from the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, November, 1878.] Beport of Excavation of a Twin-Barrow, and a Single Bound Barrow at Sigwell (Six Wells), Parish of Comp- ton, Somerset. By Professor Bolleston, M.D., F.B.S., and Major-General A. Lane Pox, F.B.S. With an Appendix on the Topography of Sigwell. By Major- General A. Lane Pox. The following account of the examination of three round bar- rows at Sigwell, in the parish of Compton, Somersetshire, two of which were in juxtaposition and may be spoken of as a twin- barrow, whilst the other stood apart from any other barrow, but overlooked what we hold to have been a camp of an earlier period than these barrows, throws light upon the following questions. Firstly, it shows that in the Bronze Age, and amongst men who were practising cremation, considerable variety existed as to the mode of their disposing of the dead. In the two burials discovered no urn had been employed, and the bones had been picked out of the pyre and placed apart, one set in a bark coffin, the other simply in a separate place in the soil of the barrow. Yet in one of the barrows pottery was found of a kind which showed with some probability that urn burial was not unknown to the original constructors of the barrow. Secondly, the measurements of the entire mass of each barrow, as compared with those of the very small spaces in which the burned bones were contained, in one case within a circle of six inches radius, will show how exceedingly easy it must be to over- look the existence of such a burial, and how cautious we should be in asserting that nothing can be found in such mounds to serve as their raison d'etre. Thirdly, the relative position and elevation and other pecu- liarities of one of these barrows, that to be hereinafter spoken of as “ Sigwell iii,” and of a small British camp which we believe the area labelled B on the plans to have been, show, as we believe very unmistakably, that the camp was earlier in point of date than the barrow, and the work of stone-using, not of bronze-using, men. This exploration was undertaken at the suggestion of the Bev. J. A. Bennett, the rector of the neighbouring parish of South Cadbury; and to his other suggestions on many points, and to his help throughout, we are greatly indebted. The British Association gave us a grant towards the defray- ment of the expenses, and the following report was read before the Plymouth Meeting in August, 1877. “Sigwell i.” July 18,1877, Tuesday.—The examination of the twin- barrow was begun by opening the tumulus situated to the north (“ Sig-