162 DIFFICULTY OF DETERMINING THE PERIOD 



As regards the habit of burning the dead, the evidence is 

 less conclusive. Out of 100 cases, indeed, of graves charac- 

 terized by the presence of bronze, the corpse appears to have 

 been buried in a contracted posture 19 times only ; in an 

 extended position, only seven times. It would seem, there- 

 fore, that during the Bronze Age the dead were generally 

 burnt. It is also true that there are many cases in which 

 interments by cremation, if I may use such an expression, 

 contain no weapons or objects of bronze. We know, however, 

 that this metal must always have been expensive, and it is 

 not unreasonable to suppose that many, at any rate, of these 

 interments may belong to the Bronze Age, although no objects 

 of metal occurred in them. 



There can be no doubt that in the Neolithic Stone Age 

 it was usual to bury the corpse in a sitting or contracted 

 posture ; and, indeed, it appears probable, although far from 

 being satisfactorily established, that in Western Europe this 

 attitude generally indicates an interment of the Stone Age ; 

 while those cases in which the skeleton was extended may be 

 referred, with little hesitation, to the Age of Iron. At the 

 same time it must be admitted that the evidence is very far 

 from conclusive; and we must remember that in AuHo-Saxon 



' o 



times the dead were burned by some tribes, and buried by 

 others. 



But although the presence of a few flint flakes, or other 

 stone implements, is certainly no sufficient reason for refer- 

 ring any given tumulus to the Stone Age, the case is different 

 where a large number of objects have been found together; 

 for instance, I have in my collection a group of stone imple- 

 ments consisting of 14 beautifully made axes, wedges, chisels, 

 spear-heads, etc., and more than 60 capital flakes, which were 

 all found together in one of the large Danish sepulchral 

 chambers, on the island of Moen, and have been described 



