BARROWS, artificial mounds of earth generally believed to have been erected for sepulchral or monumental purposes. They are very numerous in Great Britain, and many of them are supposed to belong to a period long prior to the Boman. invasion. The counties of Wilts and Dorset are especially rich in these remains, and the B. of the former have been thoroughly explored, described, and classified by sir R. C. Hoare in his Ancient Wiltshire (2 vols. fol. 1810-21). In the sepulchral B., the human remains are buried either in a rude stone " cist" or chest, in which the body was doubled up, or are laid at full length in the earth, accoMPanied by arms and other utensils. Where the body was burned, the remains were laid on the floor of the barrow, in a cist exca vated on the spot. or at a later epoch, in a clay urn. Sir R. IHoare considers the Wilt shire B. as indicating three stages in the progress of society. The first class contains
spear and arrow heads of tlint and bone; the second of brass; and the third contains arms and instruments made of iron. One of the largest barrows in Europe is Silbury Mil. near Marlborough, in- Wiltshire, which covers 5 acres, 34 perches of land, and has a slope of 316 ft., with a perpendicular height of 170. According to sir It. Hoare, bar row-burial was practiced down to the 8th c., from a period of unknown antiquity. The practice of erecting sepulchral mounds prevailed among all the principal nations of antiquity both in Europe and Asia, and they are found in great numbers in Central America. Many barrows are only partly artificial; natural mounds having been shaped by human hands into the form, round or oblong,' which it was wished they should take.