68 OEIOINAL ARTICLES, 



others, had at no time beeu able to get iu. It may be supposed that 

 at each occasiou of a burial the slab was removed for the moment, 

 and replaced as soon as the ceremony Avas finished. The most 

 rational explanation that can be oflered of the presence of the remains 

 of animals within the sepulchre is, that they had been introduced as 

 part of the funeral rites, — a proceeding of which analogous instances 

 may be found in many of the sepulchres of primordial times.* 



As regards the posture of the skeletons, and the direction in 

 which they lay, I was imable to obtain any information from their 

 discoverer. It is evident that the floor of the grotto was not wide 

 enough to allow the bodies of seventeen indi\'iduals to be placed side 

 by side in the extended posture, and that its height was insufficient 

 to admit of their being heaped one upon another. But the semi- 

 circular configuration of the sepulchre aftbrds good ground for the 

 supposition that the attitude given to the bodies was that which is 

 well known to have been adopted in many of the sepulchres of primi- 

 tive times ; that is to say, with the body in a sitting or crouching 

 posture, and bent downwards upon itself. This practice would not 

 only economize the space occupied by each individual, but woidd 

 also, according to some archaeologists, realize the symbolic thought 

 of restoring to the earth, — our common mother, — the body of the 

 man who had ceased to live, in the same^postiire that it had before his 

 birth, in the bosom of his individual mother.f It is for this reason, 

 that in the figure of the cavern I have represented three skeletons iu 

 the crouching posture, warning the reader, at the same time, that the 

 representation is altogether hypothetical. 



Having noted these particulars respecting the circumstances con- 

 nected with the first discovery of the sepxdchre, I proceeded to the 

 examination of the disturbed layer of loose earth remaining in it. 

 The first strokes of the pickaxe disclosed a tooth and sevei-al human 

 bones, after which was tui*ned up an implement or weapon, made of 

 Stag's or Reindeer's horn, in the form of a slender tapering spike, 

 about 9 inches long, and carefully rounded. The lower extreun'ty 

 was about half-an-inch wide, and bevelled off on each side, as if in- 

 tended to be fitted uito a handle ; the point was broken off and could 

 not be recovered. Close to this were found half of a Horse's jaw- 

 bone, some teeth of the Aurochs, the lower jaw of a lieindeer, and 



* This kind of votive oflerinp; is rcniarkcil in the sepulchral monuments of the 

 so-temied Dniidical, or Celtic type, as well as in the more reccut tumuli of Gaul, 

 both before and after its subjugatitni by Kome. I have even been able to trace, in 

 a sepulchre evidently not more ancient than tlie 10th century of our era, a continu- 

 ation of this ancient custom of burying witli the defunct his horse, arms, objects of 

 att'cction, broken earthenware, trophies of the chase, and the bones of animals botli 

 wild and domesticated. 



t This attitude of the body bent upon itself, has been noticed in most of the 

 primordial sepultures of the north and centre of Europe, and it has been also 

 observed in the foundations of Babylon. Diodorus Sicnlus informs us that it was 

 ]iractised by the Troglodytes, a pastoral people of Ethiopia. In more recent times 

 it is seen iu use among various peoples iu America, and some of the youth Sea 

 Islauds. 



