Note 50 — LECTURE II (20th October 1881.) NORTHERN BURIALS AND HOARDS.

In this remarkable sepulture the body was found in a pit 6 feet beneath the natural surface, under the centre of the mound, laid in a chest constructed of oaken planks, axe-dressed, and fastened together with large round-headed iron nails. The chest had somewhat of the form of a closed bedstead, for it was supported by six posts driven into the soil at the bottom of the pit. On the bottom planks of this rough bedstead the skeleton lay extended on cushions filled with feathers, with the head to the north-east. It had been clothed in garments worked with gold thread, of excessive richness and beauty. The fragments preserved include portions of a girdle of silk, ornamented with fretwork and gold tissue; a mantle of woollen cloth, with a band of foliageous scroll-work interwoven with figures of human heads and hands, and further ornamented with figures of animals, and patterns worked in gold thread; and portions of cuffs or bracelets, also of silk, ornamented with gold thread. In the interior of the chest or bedstead, along with the skeleton, there were found the fragments of a sword and scabbard, with its mountings, inlaid with silver, and two axes, of which the one was plain, the other inlaid with zoomorphic patterns in silver, as shown in Fig. 78. On the lid of the chest there stood at the one end a cauldron of thin brass, two buckets, constructed of oaken staves hooped with iron, and at the other end lay a wax candle, 22 inches in length, which had burned for some time, probably during the funeral ceremonies.—La sepulture de Mammen, par J. J. A. Worsaae, in the Memoires de la SociétéSociété Royale des Antiquaires du Nord: Copenhagen, 1870.