The excavations carried on in the small tunnel-cave of Plas-Heaton, by Mr. Heaton and Professor Hughes, have shown that it was inhabited at two different ages. In the upper or prehistoric stratum were broken bones of the dog, badger, goat, Bos longifrons, and stag; while in the lower, or pleistocene, were the remains of the hyæna, reindeer, cave-bear, and the lower jaw of the glutton.
The Chambered Tomb near Cefn, St. Asaph.
While the caves at Perthi-Chwareu were being explored, the accidental discovery of human remains in the cairn of Tyddyn Bleiddyn, near Cefn, St. Asaph, in 1869, led to a systematic examination of its contents by Mrs. Williams Wynn, under the superintendence of the Rev. D. R. Thomas, myself, and the Rev. H. H. Winwood, which has resulted in the proof, that the people who buried their dead in caves used stone-chambered tombs for the same purpose.
The cairn of loose fragments of limestone had been removed for road-mending before the cap-stones of the stone chamber were exposed, and these were broken before any scientific observation was made. The Rev. D. R. Thomas, however, rescued many of the human remains from destruction, and began the exploration which defined the extent of the chamber A ([Fig. 39]).
Fig. 39.—Plain of Chambered Tomb at Cefn.
Subsequently it was resumed in my presence, and the chamber A ([Fig. 39]) fully cleared out. At the point c it was partially shut off from the passage B by a slab of stone 18 inches high. The passage led from the chamber in a northern direction, and was 6 feet long by 2 wide. The chamber gradually narrowed towards the passage, being 5 feet wide at its broad end, and 9 feet long. In the passage, as well as in the chamber, there were human bones belonging to individuals who had been buried in a crouching posture. Unfortunately, as the remains have been scattered, it is impossible to ascertain the exact number of the burials. I have, however, restored one skull and examined seven frontal bones, and other remains, which indicate that there were at least twelve persons, varying in age from infancy to full prime, buried in this tomb. In addition to these, there is a large box of bones in the possession of the Rev. D. R. Thomas, as well as other remains in other hands. But although the exact number of bodies interred cannot be made out, there is full proof that there were too many to have been deposited at one time in so small a cubic area; and therefore they must have been deposited at different times, as in the caves at Perthi-Chwareu. There were no remains of either wild or domestic animals; and the only foreign object was a small slightly chipped flint pebble. From the remarkable conformation of the nasal bones of some of the skulls, it would seem likely that the burial-place belonged to one family; but, for a reason (see Notes on Human Remains, [p. 183]) stated by Professor Busk, this is by no means a certain inference.
The plan of the chamber and passage corresponds with that of the long barrow of West Kennet, figured in the “Crania Britannica,” and with that of the cromlech of Le Creux des Fées, Guernsey, described by Lieutenant Oliver.[100] In the former of these the corpses were buried in a contracted posture, along with flint scrapers and fragments of rude pottery. In the latter the original contents have disappeared. To speak in general terms, the chamber and passage belong to the class of tombs which Dr. Thurnam names “Long Barrows,” and Professor Nilsson “Ganggräben,” and which are found in Scandinavia and France, as well as in Britain. And it is worthy of note that the partial insulation of the chamber A ([Fig. 39]) from the passage B by a slab (c), which does not reach up to the height of the walls, is to be seen in similar tombs both in Guernsey and in Brittany.
A second and larger chamber, composed of cave slabs of limestone, was discovered in the same cairn in 1871 by the Rev. D. R. Thomas, and completely excavated by him along with myself and the Rev. H. H. Winwood. It was of a rudely triangular form, 10 feet long by 6 wide, traversed by a partition of slabs, and provided with a narrow passage 10 feet long by 2 feet 6 in width, opening to the north, and fenced off completely from the chamber by a slab, as in the preceding case. Both the chamber and the passage were full of human remains of all ages, buried in a contracted posture; the number of interments being far too great to have allowed the bodies to have been deposited at one time. From the former I identified the broken jaw of a roebuck and remains of goat, a broken flint, and round pebbles of quartz, while in the latter there were the teeth and bones of the dog and the pig.
Some of the tibiæ from both the chambers were platycnemic, but that character was only to be recognized in the older bones. The skulls, from the second of the two chambers, agree so exactly with those from the caves, that it is not necessary to add to the table of measurements which Professor Busk has drawn up ([p. 171]).