158 BARROAVS BELONG TO VERY DIFFERENT PERIODS. 



In some few cases, again, small models of weapons have 

 been found, in lieu of the weapons themselves. In modern 

 Esquimaux graves, small models of kajaks, spears, etc., are 

 sometimes buried, and a similar fact has been observed in 

 Egyptian tombs. Mr. Franks informs me that much of 

 the jewellery found in Etruscan tombs is so thin that it can 

 scarcely have been intended for wear during life. In Japan 

 those who are entitled to wear swords during life have 

 wooden ones placed in their graves, as insignia of rank ; and 

 it has long been the custom in China to burn paper cuttings, 

 or drawings, of horses, money, etc., under the belief that 

 the objects so represented will be actually possessed by the 

 deceased.* 



We must always bear in mind that the ancient tumuli do 

 not all belong to one period, nor to one race of men. No 

 tumuli belonging to the Palaeolithic period have yet been 

 discovered, but this mode of burial appears to have existed in 

 Northern and Western Europe from the Neolithic, or second 

 Stone period, down to the introduction of Christianity. 

 Indeed it was the examination of the tumuli which first 

 induced Sir R Colt Hoare, and other archasologists, to adopt 

 for Northern Europe the division into three great periods. 



So far, however, as the barrows themselves are concerned, 

 (though the passage-graves and long barrows seem always 

 to belong to the Stone Age), we are not acquainted with any 

 external differences by which the tumuli of the Stone, Bronze, 

 and Iron Ages can, with certainty, be distinguished from 

 one another. The contents of the graves are more instructive, 

 though it would of course be unsafe to conclude that a given 

 tumulus belongs to the Stone Age, because it contained 

 one or two implements made of that material. We know 

 that stone was extensively used throughout the Bronze Age ; 

 and, indeed, out of 37 tumuli in which Mr. Bateman found 



* See, for instance, Marco Polo's Travels, Edin. 1846, pp. 248260. 



