54 HUT-URNS. 



crouching position, and in a small chamber formed by large 

 stones, but that the most usual practice was to burn the dead, 

 and collect the ashes and fragments of bones in or under an 

 urn. 



The ancient funeral customs, however, will be more fully 

 considered in a subsequent chapter. 



We know as yet very little about the architecture of the 

 Bronze Age. Bougemont* considers that the Eound towers 

 belong to that period, but I know no sufficient reason for 

 this opinion. In the next chapter I shall give my reasons 

 for referring some at least of our so-called Druidical remains 

 to that period, and many of the Swiss lake -villages cer- 

 tainly belong to it. These remains, indeed, give us little 

 information as to the kind of houses then in use. Certain 

 " hut-urns," however, or urns in the form of huts, which 

 have been discovered in Italy and Germany, appear to be- 

 long to the close of the Bronze Age. The Italian " hut- 



urns" were discovered in ISl?")* at Albano, near Borne, 

 under an undisturbed layer of peperino or consolidated 

 volcanic ash, and belong, therefore, to a time when the 

 volcanoes near Kome were still in a state of activity. The 

 volume of the Archseologia for 1869 contains a full account 

 by Prof. Pigorini and myself of the numerous vases and 

 other objects found with these hut -urns. The pottery is 

 peculiarly dark and compact, and with it were found several 

 bronze knives. The presence of some fragments of iron, 

 however, appears to show that the huts belong quite to the 

 close of the Bronze Age, or rather to the commencement of 

 that of Iron. The following figure will give an idea of the 

 urns themselves, as well as of the houses they were intended 

 to represent. 



* L'Age du Bronze, pp. 12, 380. chrali rinvenuti nelle vincinanze 

 t See Lettera del Signer D. A. della antica Alba-Longa. Roma, 

 Visconti sopra alcimi vasi sepol- 1867. 



