the Peruvians over their dead, whose dried bodies or mummies have been found in considerable numbers, sometimes erect, but more often in the sitting posture common to the Indian tribes of both continents.1 Lastly, even in New South Wales, we find tumuli of earth and of very considerable dimensions, though these are of comparatively recent construction: and in the island of Otaheite large sepulchral cairns of stone are to be seen, called "Morai," the largest of which is a huge pile, said to measure 50 feet in height, 270 in length, and 94 in width.3 : And now to sum up the evidence of all these witnesses of various nations and languages before us, what is the verdict to which they seem to lead us? We have seen that barrows of a very large size, as well as of inferior proportions, exist in almost every country, from North and South America to the Steppes of Tartary, in the country of the Hottentots, and in the interior of New South Wales and that while the intention of the smaller ones was undoubtedly to commemorate the dead interred beneath, many of the larger ones which have been thoroughly explored have been proved to have had the same object. We have seen that the simple earthwork, (such as Silbury) was the most primitive method of commemorating their deceased chieftains among the earliest races in most countries, but as they advanced in civilization they sometimes supported their earthworks with brick (as in the case of the tombs, etc. of Babylon and Nineveh, the teocallis of Central America, and the Dagobahs of Ceylon), or they substituted stone, as in the Pyramids of Egypt. We have seen moreover that these earthworks (whose object, as monuments of the dead interred beneath, has been proved beyond dispute by excavation) have in many cases assumed proportions, not only as large as, but very much more gigantic than those of Silbury. And we have seen that the method of interment, and the position of the remains within the mound 1 Prescott's Conquest of Peru, vol. i., chap. 3., p. 86. 2 British Critic, vol. xvii., New Series, p. 493, A.D., 1818. See Oxley's Journal of two expeditions into the interior of New South Wales, in 1817, 1818. (Murray) 1820. 3 Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered, ii., 233. 1 were as varied as the races who have adopted this simple mode of commemoration; the sepulchral chamber having been found at the side of the tumulus, and towards every point of the compass, almost as frequently as in the centre of the mound. With so many proofs, facts, and examples before us, and arguing from analogy, I confess that I entertain a very decided opinion that Silbury too was a place of sepulture; for what external features had many of these sepulchral tumuli which Silbury has not? and why may not our mound contain a goodly cromlech, perhaps several, not placed indeed in the centre, but at the side, where they were easily accessible to those who had the clue to their exact position; but for want of which we might long hunt in vain. I own that I can discover no satisfactory argument against such a supposition. But if it be still contended that the sepulchral theory is "not proven," I ask what more probable solution to the difficulty can be given? we shall then be either driven to the astronomical or stellar theory, which I for one must look upon as fanciful and cannot at all accept or we must consider it as a mount of worship and sacrifice, which for the reasons given above I do not think probable: or as a post of observation, or beacon,3 1 See "Druidical Temples of Wilts," by the Rev. E. Duke, whose theory of a stationary orrery on our downs on a meridional line, extending North by South sixteen miles, with the planets, seven in number, supposed to revolve round Silbury, deserves credit for its ingenuity, however little it may convince our judgment. [Salisbury Journal, p. 6.] 2 The author of the "Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered" suggests the possibility of the sacrifices of human victims made by the Druids on the platform of Silbury, similar to those related by the Spaniards to have been made on the platform of the teocallis when Cortez arrived in Mexico, reminding us that the Druids were much addicted to human sacrifices, and that we have it on Cæsar's authority that Britain was the stronghold of Druidism, but I trust that this conjecture (though I feel bound to record it) will find no favour amongst our Wiltshire Antiquaries, (ii., 165). 3 In his very interesting description of the antient tumular cemetery at Lamel-Hill near York, printed in the Journal of the Archæological Institute for 1849, Dr. Thurnam well observes, that not only were mounds raised in early times as exploratory posts or beacons, but that tumuli, really of a sepulchral origin, were also thus applied, (vol. vi., p. 28). And Sir R. C. Hoare in his Ancient Wilts has the following passage :—“ A little to the West of Alfred's Tower is a large mound of earth, vulgarly called Jack's Castle, and generally considered whence to keep watch, to guard against surprize, and to signal to similar eminences, which the nature of the surrounding hills entirely forbids us to suppose: or as a place of assembly for judicial and legislative purposes,1 for which we have no authority whatever; though I am quite aware that these large tumuli having been found convenient, were sometimes made use of in this way: but I have yet to learn that we have any direct evidence of their being erected for such objects, against which the labour and necessary expense would strongly militate, when any natural eminence would answer the purpose equally well. And surely, however inconclusive and unsatisfactory arguments from analogy may be, I submit that they are not without their force, especially if considered in connexion with other arguments such as I have used above: therefore I take leave to regard Silbury as nothing else than a sepulchral tumulus of colossal dimensions, in short a gigantic barrow, and containing the bones or ashes of some renowned Briton, but whether the tomb of the illustrious founder of Avebury 2 (as Stukeley asserts), or the as one of these beacons, where in former times fires were lighted to alarm the neighbourhood on the approach of an enemy: 'And flaming beacons cast their beams afar, The dreadful signal of invasive war.' Its elevated situation over the great forest of Selwood, commanding a distant view of the Severn, was well adapted to such a purpose, and might have been so used, but I always had considered its original destination to have been sepulchral, and so, on opening, it proved to be," i., 39. 1 The famous Tynwald, or Judicial Hill, in the Isle of Man, celebrated as the place whence the laws of the island have been promulgated from an unknown period of antiquity, and where the kings were crowned, is no exception to this, as in the first place its primary object and date are unknown, and again its form and comparatively small size suggest no comparison with our own Silbury; for it is described as a round hill of earth, 300 feet in circumference, cut into terraces, and ascended by steps of earth, like a staircase. ["Train's History of the Isle of Man," "Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered" ii., 20. Mr. Long's "Abury" illustrated, in Wilts Magazine, iv., 340.] 2 Stukeley records the custom of the country people meeting on the top of Silbury every Palm Sunday, when they make merry with cakes, figs, sugar, and water fetched from the Swallow-head, or spring of the Kennet near the foot of the mound (Abury, p. 44); and Sir R. C. Hoare remarks that the habit of ascending to the summits of hills on Palm Sunday is not confined to Silbury, for it prevails on another conspicuous eminence, in South Wilts, viz. Clea Hill, monument of some mighty warrior, is not so easy to determine. Mr. W. Long in his admirable article on Abury (the most comprehensive, lucid, and accurate account which I have ever seen on the subject), records the tradition, which Stukeley too hastily seized, of an iron bit being discovered, supposed to belong to the horse buried with its master:1 and there is at this day a local tradition that a horse and rider, the size of life, and of solid gold, yet remain below; and though this of course bears on its face evidence of the vulgar notion that the precious metals alone must be the object of so much search and expense in opening tumuli, yet it is a curious circumstance that the tradition embodies a fact, that it was the custom of barbarians to bury horses with deceased chieftains, as is not only distinctly stated by Herodotus of the ancient Scythians, near Warminster (Ancient Wilts, ii, 80). To which I may add that the custom still prevails, not only with regard to Silbury, which is to this day thronged every Palm Sunday afternoon by hundreds from Avebury, Kennet, Overton and the adjoining villages, but that the same thing occurs at Martinsall and several other eminences in North Wilts. 1 Wiltshire Magazine, vol. iv, p. 339. Stukeley's Abury, p. 41. Sir. R. C. Hoare's Ancient Wilts, ii, 81. 2 Until Matlow or Mattilow Hill, the large and well known tumulus of Cambridgeshire was examined in 1852, under the superintendence of the Hon. R. C. Neville, afterwards Lord Braybrooke, the popular tradition, implicitly believed among the labouring classes thereabouts for many years was, that it contained a gold coach. I may also here remark in passing, that though, with such unusual allurements to whet their curiosity, that tumulus had been more than once explored, (shafts having been driven horizontally on the Eastern side, and sunk perpendicularly from the top,) it was not till Lord Braybrooke turned it over regularly from end to end, advancing from the Southern extremity that human bones, and urns, (which he describes as resembling those so frequently taken from the large Wiltshire tumuli) were discovered near the Eastern, Western, Southern, and South-Western extremities. [Archæological Journal, ix., 226.] 3 Melpomene, cap. 71. Compare with this description of the burial of a Scythian King by Herodotus, the following account of the burial of Harald the Dane. 66 King Ring searched for the corpse, when he had proclaimed a truce: a great mound was then raised, and the horse which had drawn Harald during the battle was harnessed to the car, and so the Royal corpse was drawn into the mound. There the horse was killed, and the mound carefully closed and preserved, and King Ring remained sole governor over the whole kingdoms of Norway and Sweden." [Anders Pryxeli's Sweden. Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered, ii., 252. Archæologia, vol. xxx., art. xxi. Rawlinson's Herodotus, iii., 62.] by Cæsar1 of the Gauls, and by Tacitus of the Germanic races: but Mr. Kemble, with his usual accurate research, has collected abundant evidence that the same custom prevailed in different ages among the Tschudi of the Altai2; the Tartars of the Crim; 3 the Celtic tribes in Gaul and Britain; the Franks, as evidenced in Childeric's grave; the Saxons, as proved by constant excavation; and the Northmen, as we read in all the Norse Sagas, and find in innumerable Norse graves. It was common also to the Sclavonic tribes of the Russ in the 10th century; to the Lithuanians; Letts; Wands; and the Ugrian population of the Finns.5 Nor is it a practice in vogue amongst uncivilized nations only in days gone by, for we are told that the people of Assam in India beyond the Ganges are still accustomed to bury horses, elephants, camels and hounds with their Kings; and the Abipones of South America, when a chief or warrior dies, kill his horses on the grave: 6 and Washington Irving mentions the burial of a child, among the American Indians, with whom were buried all her playthings, and a favourite little horse that she might ride it in the land of spirits. So that after all, if Silbury was reared over the ashes of some mighty chieftain, it is most probable that his horse was buried there too." I come now to the most perplexing part of my subject, the probable date of the erection of Silbury; and here, (I fear) we are and for the present must be contented to remain very much in the dark still we have (I think) certain threads of more or less consist 1 Comment., lib. vi., c. 19. "Funera sunt, pro cultu Gallorum magnifica et sumptuosa; omniaque, quæ vivis cordi fuisse arbitrantur, in ignem inferunt, etiam animalia." 2 Ledebour Reise, i., 231. 3 Lindner, p. 92. 4 See Frahn's edition of Ibn Foylan's Travels, p. 104. 6 Lost Solar System of the Ancients discovered, ii., 252. 7 An interesting discovery of horse shoes near the foot of Silbury, apparently Roman, and recorded in the Archæological Journal, (vol. xi., 65), has misled some with the false report of these relics having been disinterred from the interior of the mound: whereas one was found on Beckhampton Down, two miles from Silbury; another at the foot of the hill; and another a short distance to the N.W. of it: their obvious connexion with the locality being only with the Roman road which ran at the base of the hill. |