ng barrow form is all
but unknown, the round barrow or chambered cairn prevailed from the
earliest Pagan period till the introduction of Christianity. The Irish
barrows occur in groups in certain localities, some of which seem to have
been the royal cemeteries of the tribal confederacies, whereof eight are
enumerated in an ancient Irish manuscript, the _Leabhar na h-Uidhri_,
compiled c. A.D. 1100. The best-known of these is situated on the banks of
the Boyne above Drogheda, and consists of a group of the largest cairns in
Ireland. One, at New Grange, is a huge mound of stones and earth, over 300
ft. in diameter and 70 ft. in height. Around its base are the remains of a
circle of large standing stones. The chamber, which is 20 ft. high in the
centre, is reached by a passage about 70 ft. in length. In the Loughcrew
Hills, Co. Meath, there is a group of about thirty stone barrows or cairns,
mostly chambered, their bases measuring from 5 or 6 to 60 yds. in diameter.
They are unusually interesting from the fact that many of the exposed slabs
in the walls of the chambers are ornamented with spirals and other devices,
rudely incised. As in the case of the long barrows, the traditional form of
the circular, chambered barrow was retained through various changes in the
sepulchral customs of the people. It was the natural result of the practice
of cremation, however, that it should induce a modification of the barrow
structure. The chamber, no longer regarded as a habitation to be tenanted
by the deceased, became simply a cist for the reception of the urn which
held his ashes. The degradation of the chamber naturally produced a
corresponding degradation of the mound which covered it, and the barrows of
the Bronze Age, in which cremation was common, are smaller and less
imposing than those of the Stone Age, but often surprisingly rich in the
relics of the life and of the art workmanship of the time. In addition to
the varied and beautiful forms of implements and weapons--frequently
ornamented with a high degree of artistic taste--armlets and other personal
ornaments in gold, amber, jet and bronze are not uncommon. The barrows of
the bronze period, like some of those of the Stone Age, appear to have been
used as tribal or family cemeteries. In Denmark as many as seventy deposits
of burnt interments have been observed in a single mound, indicating its
use as a burying-place throughout a long succession of years.

In the Iron Age there