J. Phillips. Illustrations of the Geology of the Yorkshire Coast, 3rd edition. Edited by R. Etheridge, 1875. W. H. Hudleston. The Yorkshire Oolites. Proc. Geol. Assoc. 1874. J. F. Blake and W. H. Hudleston. The Corallian Rocks of Eng- C. Fox-Strangways. The Geology of the country between Whitby and Scarborough. Mem. Geol. Survey and Map, 95 N.W., 1882. W. H. Hudleston. Contributions to the Paleontology of the Yorkshire Oolite. Geol. Mag., dec. iii., vol. i., 1884, and vol. ii., 1885. E. M. Cole. On the Physical Geography and Geology of the East Riding of Yorkshire. Proc. Yorksh. Geol. and Polyt. Soc. n.s., vol. ix., pp. 113-123, 1886. ** The Author desires to express his indebtedness to the following gentlemen who have kindly allowed clichés to be taken from blocks which have been previously used in illustration of their works-To Professor J. F. Blake, F.G.S., for figures 1, 4, 5 and 10; to W. H. Hudleston, F.R S., Pres. G.S., for figures 6 and 8; to C. Fox-Strangways, F.G.S,, for figures 2, 7 and 9; and to G. Barrow, F.G.S., for figure 3. AN ACCOUNT OF THE OPENING OF THE TUMULUS HOWE HILL," DUGGLEBY. BY J. R. MORTIMER. This large flat-topped circular barrow (pl. vii.) was opened by the present Sir Tatton Sykes, Bart., of Sledmere, during July and August, 1890. It stands on the sloping hillside, about 13 chains length S.S.E. of the village of Duggleby, in and near which rise the springs which form the Gypsey Stream. It resembled in size and circular form two other large barrows on the neighbouring chalk wolds; one, Mickle Head, about nine miles S. W. of Duggleby, at the foot of Garrowby Hill;* and the other near Wold Newton, named "Willy Howe," eleven miles distant, in an easterly direction. The latter has been similar in size (about 125 feet in diameter) to the Duggleby barrow, and it also stands on the foot of the southern side of the same midwold valley, and about the same distance south of the Gypsey stream. In short the two barrows are in every respect so much alike that their resemblance would seem to be more than accidental. They may be the monuments of two neighbouring and kindred chiefs held in equal honour, and over whose remains similar monuments were raised. Of the three barrows the Garrowby one is far the largest, having a diameter of 250 feet at the base, and an elevation of about 50 feet. This mound does not appear to have been opened, but "Willy Howe" has been twice examined; once by the late Lord Londesborough in 1857,† and again by Canon Greenwell in 1887. The latter search was made within the limits of the former opening, with a view to discover the primary interments which might have been passed over by the previous explorers. On neither occasion was there observed any indication of a body. * This mound is not marked as a tumulus on the ordnance maps; the writer, however, believes it to be artificially formed. This opening, which was east and west through the centre, was not more than 18 feet wide at the bottom, and probably not more than 16 feet. Therefore the experience gained in opening "Howe Hill," Duggleby, renders it possible that the primary burial in " Willy Howe" yet remains undiscovered, probably near to the north side of the opening made by the late Lord Londesborough. Had the excavation in "Howe Hill," Duggleby, been no wider than that made in "Willy Howe," the two graves containing the primary interments would not have been discovered, Owing to the sloping nature of the ground on which Duggleby Howe had been raised, its elevation appeared much greater viewed from the north side than it did from the south. Its diameter at the base was about 125 feet, and its flat top was 47 feet in diameter. By drawing a line east and west across the centre of the barrow its elevation was found to be 22 feet on the east side, and 19 feet on the west. In all probability this mound was originally 8 to 10 feet higher, measured along the same line. It is said that the Duggleby barrow was opened by the late Rev. Christopher Sykes, brother to the late Sir Tatton Sykes, of Sledmere, not more recently than the year 1798 or 1799, as he left Sledmere in 1800. I believe there is no written record of this opening, and there is no tradition of any thing having been found. On July 21st, 1890, a commencement was made by the writer and a number of experienced workmen. An area of 40 feet square over the centre of the barrow, and a portion of the east side of the mound, were removed. From the central area and mainly from the filled in excavation (which was small for so large a mound, and did not reach within 12 feet of the base of the mound), made by the previous explorers, the following articles of iron were found, namely, a few nails and flat bits much corroded, and one side of a pair of small shears, probably Anglo-Saxon; there was also the pointed end of a bone pin, and a piece of bone apparently from the side of an Anglo-Saxon comb. Twenty-five flint flakes were found, some of which were variously shaped by secondary chipping; a punch-shaped tool 2 inches long; a portion of a toothed double-edged flake saw; and a sharply-pointed triangular knife 2 inches in length, and 1 inch broad at the base, made of a very thin flake of light-coloured native * Mr. Sykes explored other barrows in the neighbourhood; and it is recorded, in the preface to the eighth edition of the hand-book of the Antiquities in the York Museum, that the Rev. Christopher Sykes was the first donor to the Museum. The gift was a small number of Anglo-Saxon cinerary urns from a cemetery on the Wolds. A short paper, by Mr. Sykes, on the finding of a bracelet on the wrist of a skeleton found by the road side in Wetwang field, was read May 15th, 1794, at a meeting of the society of Antiquaries of London. It is therefore to be hoped that some account of Mr. Sykes' explorations of the Duggleby and other barrows may yet exist. flint. One side of this knife shows a portion of the rough drabcoloured skin of the block from which it has been struck; four large flakes most skilfully removed from the side of the knife leave, without the usual finer chipping, an edge almost as sharp as a razor ; whilst its back has been formed by removing numerous small chips, mainly from the same side of the knife, leaving the back only about one-eighth of an inch in thickness. The other side of this knife has been left flat as struck from the core, with the exception of a short distance along the back where it is slightly chipped. There was also a large rejected core (pl. ix. fig. 1) of black flint, from which four large flakes had been struck from opposite sides, probably used as a hammer. About 250 pot-sherds were found, among which was one small bit of British ware; a few fragments of Roman and AngloSaxon vessels; and many portions of vessels of a more recent period, some glazed and some unglazed. There were also several pieces of gritstone, a few inches in diameter, all more or less reddened by the action of fire. In addition, the remains of the following animals were collected, viz.:-Bones and fifteen teeth of the horse; bones and five teeth of the ox; part of the under-jaw with teeth of the goat or sheep; two under-jaws with teeth of a small dog or fox ; teeth and portions of the antler of the red deer. There was also three quarters of a human under-jaw, probably of a female; several other pieces of human bone, most notably a portion of a very large femur, and another portion of a rather small femur, both of which had been deeply cut with a sharp instrument, probably belonging to some of the workmen engaged in the previous opening. These human bones indicate the removal of at least two adult bodies, most likely secondary Anglo-Saxon interments, which had been buried in the upper part of the mound. The great quantity of various kinds of pottery found in the upper and disturbed part of the mound ist interesting and very unusual. It corresponds, in quantity and variety, with the pottery which the writer has obtained from three other mounds, one at Fimber, one at Wetwang, and one at Cowlam. But in each of these cases it was found either in, or connected with, * The teeth of this animal were found only in disturbed ground, at the summit of the mound, caused by secondary interments, and by the digging of the cross-formed trench in, most probably, Anglo-Saxon times. large cross-formed trenches which had been cut north and south, east and west, through the centre of the mounds, and into the rocks below, to a depth of from 8 to 9 feet. Probably these sherds are the remains of pottery used and broken at the opening and other ceremonies connected with these excavated crosses. From the finding of so large an amount of pottery in this instance, we were led to believe that an excavated cross, similar to the three named above, and serving a similar purpose (probably as a sacred Moot-hill symbol) had once existed on the summit of the Duggleby Howe, and that, when the present Sir Tatton Sykes, in 1870, placed a wooden cross on the summit of this mound he was unconsciously replacing an old symbol, of a similar import, which had been removed by the excavations made by the late Mr. C. Sykes three quarters of a century before. The symbol of an excavated cross dates back, probably, from the 5th to the 7th century, when the top of the mound was made flat, and in other ways fitted for a Folk Moot, for which purpose it most likely served for many centuries. Whether or not " Willy Howe" had a flat top at the time it was first opened seems somewhat uncertain ; but the mound "Mickle Head," at the foot of Garrowby Hill, has a flat top 60 feet in diameter, and several other large mounds in other parts of Yorkshire possess this feature. As the excavation proceeded, and the central opening had reached a depth of 9 feet, it was observed that portions of the old opening made by the late Rev. C. Sykes, as well as the bottoms of the southern and eastern arms of the excavated cross, extended nearly to this depth. The undisturbed portions of the two arms of the cross contained about 18 inches of pure clay at the bottom, as well as a block of grey limestone, worked into the form and about the size of an ordinary building brick; and a piece of grit-stone which seems to have had a circular hollow cut into the middle of it, which may be a portion of the bottom stone of a primitive handmill. In addition to those found in the upper portion of the mound we took from the material filling the old opening, and in the disturbed portion of the arms of the cross, a few more pieces of the two disturbed human bodies; portions of the heads and other bones of two large dogs; the right side of a hoof, and other bones of an ox; four teeth of the horse and two pieces of |