Barfrestone Grave 27

Large tumulus. The bones were almost gone; no appearance of a coffin. Here were found a small ivory pin [M 6605]; a small brass buckle and shank [M 6606];the blades of two knives, a greater and a smaller; the greater, which was six inches long in the blade, had some thin brass rusted on to it, and several pieces of the same metal were found near it, so that it seems as if the knife had a brass sheath, or scabbard; perhaps it was a kind of short sword, or dagger; the smaller was of an uncommon shape, being broadest at the point, and two-edged. On the right side of the skull lay the head of an arrow, or small pilum; at the feet were some sherds of a large coarse, black, open-mouthed urn, which, from several pieces of burnt bones which we found scattered here and there, I imagine to have been an ossuary, or bone urn, destroyed no doubt when the grave was dug for the person here last deposited; at the feet were also found three or four oyster-shells. The grave was full six feet deep.