136 CHAMBERED TUMULI. 



this one great merit, that they never disturbed the resting- 

 places of the dead. 



Coffins do not appear to have been used during the Stone 

 Age, though Mr. Greenwell has sometimes found traces of 



O ' O 



decayed wood, and in one case the side of a grave showed 

 the impression of a rough board. Such burials, I believe, 

 generally belong to the Bronze Age. A good example is that 

 of Gristhorpe, near Scarborough, described by Prof. Williamson, 

 which, among other relics, contained a small bronze dagger. 

 The majority of tumuli are mere heaps of earth, or of stones, 

 covering the bones or ashes of the dead ; in many cases, how- 

 ever, the mound contains a cist of stones, evidently intended 

 to protect the remains of the deceased, while in other cases 

 the dead man was buried in a dolmen, more or less resembling 

 those represented in figs. 135 137, and the whole was then 

 covered over. Such dolmens, either covered or uncovered, 

 occur, as already mentioned, in Northern Africa and in India. 

 Some archaeologists have considered that all dolmens were 

 originally covered with earth or stones, but I think the evidence 

 shows that some at least were intentionally left exposed. 



Some of the oldest tumuli of Scandinavia are of a different 

 character. They contain a passage, formed by great blocks 

 of stone, almost always opening (as do those of Brittany) 

 towards the south or east never to the north and leading 

 into a large central chamber, round which the dead sit. At 

 Goldhavn, for instance, in the year 1830, a grave (if so it can 

 be called) of this kind was opened, and numerous skeletons 

 were found, sitting on a low seat round the walls, each with 

 his weapons and ornaments by his side. Now the dwellings 

 used by Arctic nations the "winter-houses" of the Esquimaux 

 and Greenlanders, the "Yourts" of the Siberians correspond 

 closely with these " G an ggraben" or "Passage graves." The 

 Siberian Yurt, for instance, as described by Erman, consists 

 of a central chamber, sunk a little in the ground, and, in the 



