CHAPTER 8

BARROWS'

Since this complex instrument, the "Lozenge," was found in a 'barrow', let's consider the barrows themselves. We've already seen some round barrows, but the long barrows were earlier construction. They were usually trapezoidal in shape and of massive proportions. In Brittany, in northwest France, one was 492 feet long and 39 feet high. In England there are a number in the Stonehenge area -- long mounds of chalk rubble quarried from a ditch on either side. There is one marking the eastern end of the Stonehenge cursus. There are also long barrows in the same relative positions at each end of the Dorset Cursus.

Another of the largest known is West Kennet Long Barrow in England, not far from Stonehenge. It's 350 feet long. There is a core of Sarsen stones inside. (In Canada Sarsen is called field stone.) The core of rock runs end to end at the base of the mound. The parallel ditches running down each side and the line of upright boulders beside them have long since disappeared.

Because many of these long barrows, or "passage graves" as they are sometimes called, often have a few or many skeletons in them, they are regarded as graves for chieftains and their followers. It is thought that bodies were added from time to time over long periods. But some long barrows don't have any skeletons in them. In a modern cemetery there would be a skeleton next to every head stone. The long barrows are enormous constructions for a few burials. My suggestion is that these "barrows" were residences. If they were not residences, where did all these people live whose skeletons have been found in them? People with such sophistication in stone work, construction principles, architecture, engineering, and astronomy must have lived somewhere in relative comfort. Then there's the question as to what they did for washing, drinking and toilet facilities.

The fact that there was a core of stones along the length of the West Kennet Long Barrow suggests to me it may have contained a tile bed, perhaps without a septic tank. No archaeologist that I can find seems to tell us whether there was a gradient on the core of stones. If there were, it would be good evidence for a tile bed used to drain away and cleanse waste fluids. The minimum tile bed area for a 3 bedroom house in Canada today is a 200 foot run, but this is done by branching rather than a straight run. Looking down from above here's the plan of West Kennet Long Barrow:

You can see the ditches along each side and the length of the barrow. The tiny black marking is the "residence" part of the barrow. Now here's the "residence" part enlarged and reconstructed to show what it probably looked like about 4,500 years ago:

As you can see, it has about 300 square feet with five rooms and an entrance foyer. The main entrance has an 8 foot ceiling, just the height we have today. The others are 5 feet 6 inches high. We're told by the archaeologist who excavated it:

"The disordered condition of the skeletons in chambered tombs has been a matter of comment on more than one occasion.... There are fewer skulls than the number of bodies (and) there is a discrepancy between the number of longer limb bones surviving and the number of individuals...."

There is no generally accepted solution to these problems.

I think there may be a solution but we have to go to Easter Island to find it. Let's begin with our general hypothesis, following ancient writers, that the Immortals, whoever they were, physically existed here on earth thousands of years ago. Let's also accept for the moment what these writers tell us about the Immortals mating with the fairest mortal human beings. We then have a half-Immortal elite whose members died after a more or less normal human life span. These were the owners, I suggest of the Long Barrows in England, and the early inhabitants of Easter Island.

The Easter Island tradition is that their early people were very tall and had long ears. These were, I think, the descendants of the Immortals. The Immortals themselves would originally have been the ones commemorated in the many statues on the island. The statues also have long ears. The Polynesians or "short ears" who arrived at the island later were for a long time content to be ruled by the "long ears" because the "short ears" were in awe of their statues, knowledge and way of life. But after many generations the "long ears" were only pale reflections later descended from the original half-Immortals. The "short ears" grew tired of being ordered about when they saw no reason for it. So the "short ears" attacked the "long ears", massacred them all and overturned many of the statues which had symbolized the remains of the "long ears" power.