248 THE RELATION OF THE SHELL-MOUNDS TO THE TUMULI. 



altogether different from, and much ruder than, those from 

 the tumuli ; he considers the two classes as representing, not 

 two different degrees, but two different phases of one single 

 condition of civilization. The tumuli are the burial-places of 

 chiefs, the Kjb'kkenmb'ddings are the refuse heaps of fishermen. 

 The first contained all that skill could contrive, affection offer, 

 or wealth command ; the second, those things only which art 

 could not make available, which were thrown away as useless, 

 or accidentally lost. In order, therefore, to compare these 

 two classes of objects, we must take, not the ordinary rude 

 specimens which are so numerous in the shell-mounds, but 

 the few better-made implements which, fortunately for science 

 and for us, were lost among the oyster-shells, or which had 

 been broken, and therefore thrown away. These, though few 

 in number, are, in Professor Steenstrup's opinion, quite as 

 numerous as could have been expected under the circum- 

 stances. Moreover, the long flint flakes, which are so common 

 in the Kjokkenmoddings, are sufficient evidence that great 

 skill in the treatment of flint had already been attained. 

 Some of the flakes found in the Kjokkenmoddings are equal 

 to any from the tumuli ; several of those which we found at 

 Meilgaard were more than five, and one was more than six 

 inches in length ; while I have in my possession a giant flake 

 from Fannerup (figs. 82 84), given to me by Professor Steen- 

 strup, which has a length of eight inches and three quarters. 

 As regards the rude, more or less triangular "axes" (figs. 

 108 110) which are so characteristic of the Kjokkenmoddings 

 and coast-finds, Professor Steenstrup, as we have already seen 

 declines to compare them with the polished axes of the 

 tumuli, because in his opinion they were not intended for the 

 same purposes. In addition to the direct evidence derived 

 from the discovery of some few well-made flint axes of the 

 tumulus type, Professor Steenstrup relies much on the indirect 

 evidence derivable from the other contents of the shell-mounds. 



