Barrow burial in Derbyshire, as elsewhere, was not confined to one sex or to any particular age. The remains of women and children are found in graves and cists as carefully constructed and associated with implements and ornaments as varied and elaborate as those which appertain to the men, indicating, surely, that the family tie was strong, and that the lot of the women was not servile. The frequency with which an infant is associated with an adult, usually a woman, and presumably the mother, probably points to infanticide upon the demise of the parent. Similarly, the occasional presence of a woman’s remains with those of a man points to suttee. More frequently a deposit of cremated bones is associated with a skeleton, and this may possibly represent the sacrifice of a slave. These in themselves, however, do not necessarily indicate a state of savagery, as the recent prevalence of suttee in India and of infanticide in China sufficiently prove.

In the unburnt interments, the body was laid in a more or less contracted posture, varying from a slight flexure of the knees to such a doubling up as to bring them close to the chest, and nearly always on the side, very rarely sitting. The contracted posture may be said to be the invariable Bronze Age rule in Derbyshire, for the only exception—a skeleton laid at full length at Crosslow[16]—may possibly have belonged to a later period. The side on which the body was laid, and its orientation, have in themselves no apparent signification, and are irrespective of sex or age. To judge from the recorded instances, about as many were laid on the left side as the right. Their orientation shows a slight predilection for the south, and a more marked aversion to the north-west. The Rev. Dr. Greenwell pointed out many years ago[17] that in the majority of instances in the north of England which came under his notice, the bodies had been so placed as to face the sun during some part of the day, nearly 60 per cent. having their gaze confined to southerly directions between the south-west and the south-east. If we analyse the forty-four Derbyshire cases in which both the orientation and the side are given, we obtain a similar result—the faces of over 60 per cent. looking in directions ranging from west to south-east. It seems clear that no importance was attached to the direction of the body or the side upon which it was laid, except so far as these enabled it to face the source of light and life; but it was not a rule invariably insisted upon.

These skeletal remains throw an interesting light upon the contemporary inhabitants of Derbyshire. Unfortunately, when Bateman was so actively engaged in opening barrows, anthropology was in its infancy. He and his colleagues rarely gave more than the cephalic index and femoral length, and even these not always. The terms used in describing the skulls, as “boat-shaped,” “oval and elevated,” “medium,” “rather short,” “platycephalic,” “evenly rounded,” etc., do not admit of precise interpretation, and probably no exact value was attached to them. From all sources sufficient particulars of about 85 Bronze Age skulls found in Derbyshire are available to allow of the following classification:

Dolichocephalic skulls, approximately16
Mesaticephalic””25
Brachycephalic””44
—
85

This intermixture of skull-forms has long been observed in the barrows of this age elsewhere in the country, and is generally recognized as indicating the intrusion of a round-head people upon the Neolithic long-heads, the intermediate form being the result of intermarriage between the two stocks. The proportion of these different forms in Derbyshire is of peculiar interest, because, as the Rev. Dr. Greenwell pointed out in his British Barrows, the dolichocephalic and brachycephalic skulls are found in about equal numbers in the barrows of the wolds, whereas in those of the south-west of the island the latter very greatly preponderate. Hence, in Derbyshire, the ratio, like its geographical position, is roughly intermediate, and thus naturally confirms his conclusion, “that the earlier long-headed people were more completely eradicated by the intrusive round-heads in Wiltshire than they were in East Yorkshire.” The general experience has been that the brachycephalic skeletons indicate a race of more powerful physique than the people with whom they intermingled. Assuming that the length of the femur or thigh-bone is 27.5 per cent. of the stature in life, the average stature of twenty-one men was 5 ft. 7⅓ ins., and of seven women 5 ft. 0½ ins. The difference between these statures, nearly 7 ins., considerably exceeds that which obtains in England to-day, and must probably be set down to the effects of early child-bearing and hard work on a poor and irregular diet upon the Bronze women.

Fig. 10.—Brachycephalic Skull from Grinlow. Side and Top Views. (Scale = ⅓.)

The various objects associated with the interments have, as already stated, the impress of a common age. The most remarkable are the earthen vessels. Besides the cinerary urns referred to above, there were vessels of other forms, which have received the names of “drinking-cups,” “food-vases,” and “incense-cups.” The first two are with little doubt rightly named, as both in Derbyshire and elsewhere traces indicating the former presence of liquids and of solid foods have been detected in them respectively. The use of the diminutive “incense-cups” is unknown, and the name is a fanciful one. All these vessels are of clay, with an admixture of sand or crushed stone to prevent them cracking in the process of firing, and are shaped by hand and imperfectly burnt. The ornamentation is essentially of the same character in all, but it varies greatly in elaboration, consisting of various combinations of straight lines, produced for the most part by the impression of twisted thongs or rushes or of notched stamps, or, less frequently, of grooves made with a pointed tool. These combinations are extremely varied, consisting of simple bands of parallel lines, parallel lines in alternate series, horizontal and vertical, saltires, zig-zags, “herring-bone” and latticed diapers, etc. Punched dots and impressions of the finger-nail or tip also occur, but sparingly. The forms of the drinking-cups, food-vases, and cinerary urns are tolerably constant in Derbyshire, but the little incense-cups vary very much; these, too, are usually the most carefully made, while the urns are, as a rule, the coarsest and the least decorated. In figs. 11 and 12 are shown Derbyshire examples of each kind, which will convey a better idea of them than any description.

Fig. 11.—Typical Examples of Bronze Age Burial Vessels, Derbyshire.
A—Drinking-Cups. B—Food-Vases. (Scale = 1/5 size of originals.)