Abstract
II.
THE chambered long barrows of North Wilts, Somer-* set, and Gloucestershire differ, as a rule, but slightly in external form from the simple or unchambered long barrows of South Wilts and Dorset. They are, however, generally of somewhat smaller dimensions, being from about 120 to 200 feet in length and from 30 to 60 feet in breadth. The side ditches characteristic of the unchambered barrows are seldom to be met with, but the margin of the grave-mound is, or rather was, usually defined by a low wall, built of loose tile-shaped fragments of oolitic stone. In some cases, as at West Kennet (see fig. 1), there is good evidence that the mound was originally surrounded by a series of obelisks of sarsen stone, the intervals being filled up with the usual dry walling just described. Sometimes, too, large monoliths or triliths are found at the broad end of the tumulus. As regards orientation, or position in reference to the points of the compass, the direction of east and west commonly observed in the simple barrows prevails in four out of five cases with the chambered barrows; and as in the former class of monument the interments were at the eastern end, which is also the higher and broader, so likewise do we find that the stone chambers or cists occupy the same position in the chambered barrows.
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Ancient British Long Barrows . Nature 1, 583–586 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001583d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001583d0